Laura Jarvis lost nearly half her body weight following health scare. Here's how she did it...
At the age of 28, Laura Jarvis had never had a long-term relationship.
And, according to her, it was largely down to the fact that at 18 stone and a size 22, she was clinically obese.
But as Laura neared her 30th birthday, she began experiencing stomach pains. She was suffering from gall stones and urgently needed them removing, but doctors couldn't do it unless she lost three stone.
After losing a whopping five stone and dropping seven dress sizes in the space of just a few months, Laura was deemed healthy enough for the operation. But she didn't stop there.
Crediting Slimming World with her massive weight loss, the health care assistant said: "That really gave me the kick I needed and so in January 2015 I joined Slimming World and began exercising at home using workout DVDs."
Joining the group on the recommendation of her mother, Berdi, Laura said: "A few months later I had lost just over five stone and was finally able to have the operation to remove my gall stones. I stopped eating rubbish and have stuck to my diet plan ever since."
Speaking to The Belfast Telegraph last November, Laura said: "When I went along to Slimming World everything just clicked into place - it made complete sense to me. The changes I made were so easy I hardly noticed them - like switching white bread for wholemeal and low-calorie spray instead of cooking oil.
"In my first week at Slimming World I lost 4.5lb - that gave me the encouragement to stick at it."
Thanks to entirely cutting junk food from her diet and sticking to the exercise DVDs, Laura, now 31, ended up losing a massive eight stone in total.
The Belfast native, who also suffers from Tourette's syndrome, said: "I couldn't believe how big I had let myself get, I was turning 30 and I didn't have much going on in my life. I had been single for quite a while, I had been on dates before but nothing was ever serious.
"When I was younger I would hide away in my room and would scoff my face with sweets whilst watching TV.
"Soon it turned to comfort eating, I was depressed about my size but was stuck in a vicious cycle."
Laura spoke to The Belfast Telegraph about her Tourette's: "It manifests itself in the form of a tick and twitching, it's not the verbal one where people shout out. But, nonetheless, I was always very conscious of it and didn't want people to see me the way I was.
The more I hid from the world, the more depressed I would get and the more I would eat. I went to the doctors and they put me on anti-depressants, but I didn't like taking them so I came off the medication by myself."
After reaching her goal weight in Summer 2016 and getting to the semi-finals of Slimming World's Woman of the Year 2016 competition, Laura joined a dating site. She said: "I had just turned 30 and realised I didn't have anything to lose, I didn't want to be alone forever.
"From the moment I met Matthew, I knew he was just perfect and nearly a year later we are still together. At the moment we are living separately, but we are always talking about and planning our future together."
Laura also describes how Matthew constantly tells her how proud he is of her huge weight loss. He said: "I think Laura looks great now, but I would love her no matter how big she was, she will always be perfect to me."
She's also shared her typical diet - both before and after.
Laura's diet before:
Laura's diet after:
Have you or a loved one ever gone through a massive weight loss? We'd love to hear from you! Email us here, or get in touch on Facebook and Twitter.
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