Weight before: 18st 2 lbs, dress size 26
Weight after: 9st 9lbs, dress size 10 – 12.
Height: 5ft 3ins
Singer and comedian Jodie had been big all her life. ‘I’ve never, ever been thin. It’s the one thing I’ve always wished for,’ she says. ‘In fact I’ve no idea what my New Year’s Resolution is going to be this year now! ‘When I was nine, I thought it was puppy fat I’d grow out of, but I never did. At 10, I weighed 10st. At 11, 11st and so on. ‘
'I wake up every day feeling genuinely happy. In the past I always pretended to be happy and pasting on a smile but inside I hated my size'
Jodie, 27, from Blackpool, dealt with her feelings by making a joke of her size.
‘People thought I was so sorted about my weight. My whole stage routine was based around me being so huge – I’d prance around, do the splits and crack jokes about my weight. Once, a comedian said ‘The stage shook!’ when I came on and I laughed – but inside I wanted to curl up and cry.’
Jodie admits she was eating too much of the wrong things at the wrong times. She’d wake up in the morning and crave a bacon butty or baked beans on toast smothered in butter.
‘Then because I worked at night, I'd sit around in the day and make a sandwich for something to do. I couldn’t cook, so I’d eat in restaurants all the time and then after gigs I’d have a KFC or a cheese sandwich. I knew it was wrong, but it fed my hunger.’
Biggest Loser
Jodie answered an ad to be a contestant in the second series of Living TV’s hit show, ‘The Biggest Loser.’ For the 6-month competition, 12 clinically obese people dieted and exercised their way back to health with the help of nutritionists and fitness experts.
‘I hoped desperately it would work – I thought I’d be so happy if I could get to a size 16. I had no idea how great it would really be,’ she says.
10 weeks living in the Biggest Loser House with a strict exercise regime and nutritionally balanced slimming diet, followed by three more months of carrying on the regimes at home simply worked miracles for Jodie. The weight fell off – to the delight both of Jodie and of the TV viewers.
Tough ‘Biggest Loser’ trainer Angie Dowd was key in Jodie’s lifechange. ‘I love that woman!’ says Jodie. ‘She really made me believe in myself, something I never had before. Now I go on a 5-mile jog every day.’
Luckily for Jodie, as she dropped the weight, the tough exercise regime toned and tightened her skin.
‘I was lucky – I never got left with folds of skin. I moisturised daily, and I think the fact that the whole body was exercised helped.’
Biggest Loser is shown in 30 countries and in the USA is on series 3 – yet Jodie was the first female to win any of the programmes.
Dream Dress
‘Winning was fabulous - I won £25,000 but at the end of the day, money can’t buy you health and happiness. The rewards of losing weight have been greater.
‘I never would have believed I’d be this size. A few years ago on a trip to New York with my mother, I bought a size 14 Valentino dress as my ‘thin’ dress, as an inspiration to get into one day. Now it’s too big for me.
'I bought a size 14 Valentino dress as my 'thin' dress, as an inspiration to get into one day. Now it's too big for me'
In spite of her sexy new look, Jodie is single at the moment. ‘I’d had relationships before, but I think I always stayed even when I knew they were over, because I felt no one else would want me,’ she says. ‘I’ve been on a few dates since I slimmed, nothing serious, but I have so much more confidence. I am a much happier person.
In Training
‘When I see people who are the size I used to be I want to go up and give them a hug. I know exactly what it feels like, and I want to do something to help them change things. So I’ve started doing a course to be a personal trainer and dietitian therapist.
‘I’ve already got my family on healthier food and I’ve got loads of my friends exercising. I want to make a business of it and invest my winnings in a hotel where you go to lose weight.
‘I still sing – I did a couple of charity gigs recently. And yes, I seem to still be able to make people laugh without being big!
‘My life has changed so much – I feel like doing a Tom Cruise and jumping up and down on the sofa shouting about how happy I am!!’
'My life has changed so much'
Typical Diet
Jodie’s typical diet before: Bacon butties, loads of sandwiches, a huge restaurant meal and a late-night McDonalds or KFC.
Jodie’s typical diet now: Cereal and grapefruit for breakfast, salad or omelette for lunch and salmon fillet or chicken cooked with spices for dinner, with lots of vegetables and fruit for snacks avoiding carbs late at night.
Words: Lucy Bulmer