04 April 2023 , 10:31
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A woman has lost more than half her body weight after being spurred into action by an unflattering photo of herself that friends said made it look like she was in a care home.
Lisa Childs, 61, has gone from 19st 8lbs to 9st 8lb, a whopping 10st loss, since seeing the snap taken by her brother.
The picture was taken as the mum of one from Elland, West Yorkshire, sat in an armchair while visiting her own mother.
But Lisa said that when she looked back at the image, she was embarrassed to see she filled the whole chair.
A friend then told her it looked like she was in a care home.
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This is the image that spurred Lisa Childs into action (Lisa Childs / SWNS)
Lisa has lost ten stone and is now a slimline size 12 (Lisa Childs / SWNS)Do you have a weightloss story to share? Let us know in the comments...
Now Lisa has dropped eight dress sizes from 24 to a 12 and regularly poses in the same chair to see how much her shape has changed.
Lisa said: "I was astounded that I had got to that size to be honest but I didn't realise how big I was.
"My friend has nicknamed a photo of me the 'care home picture' because she said I looked like I was in a care home. But I wasn't, I was just visiting my mum.
"My brother had taken the picture and sent it me and said that he didn't want to send it me because he knew I would have killed him.
"But now I don't fill the chair and I've got room beside me, but in the 'care home picture' I didn't have any room in the chair at all."
The image, she said, gave her the drive to embark on her life-changing weight loss journey.
"It definitely inspired me to keep going," she added. "I had started to lose weight but when he sent me that picture, it was like 'oh my God, I've got to keep going because I can't go back to looking like that."
Lisa used to get her exercise by walking son Max, now, 27, to school every morning and and picking him up every afternoon.
Now Lisa sits in the chair with pride (Lisa Childs / SWNS)
Lisa had to change her diet dramatically (Lisa Childs / SWNS)But when Max got older and wanted to walk to school with his friends, Lisa noticed that the 'weight just piled on'.
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As the years went by, Lisa would often become breathless when walking up the stairs and needed to 'stop half a dozen times' when walking back from the bus stop.
And her knees started to hurt so much that it would sometimes become painful just to walk.
But now, she has been able to walk a whopping 13 miles at once to raise money for a local hospice.
Lisa, married to Stephen, 62, said: "The weight just piled on then because I wasn't taking him to school.
"I would walk him there and back which was a good half-an-hour and I would do that in the morning and in the afternoon.
"So I went from doing that to doing nothing. I just couldn't walk up the stairs at home.
"The bus stop is five minutes away but when I came home from work, I would have to stop half a dozen times.
"It was because my breathing was affected because I was carrying so much weight basically."
Before, Lisa, a sales assistant, would eat convenience food such as a Chinese takeaway or a frozen pizza two or three times a week.
But after joining Slimming World in 2017, she made a number of simple swaps such as wholemeal bread instead of a thick-sliced white, and snacking on fruit rather than chocolate bars.
She now cooks almost all her meals from scratch and follows low-calorie recipe versions of her favourite foods, such as spaghetti bolognese.
And she says the difference it has made to her life has been amazing as she now takes her pet Poochon for daily walks without getting breathless or feeling pain.
She added: "When I first started, I couldn't do any exercise at first and I started losing weight just through Slimming World.
"But we got a dog so I had to walk her for around five minutes and then built it up and built it up.
"I'm quite proud of it because I never walked before anyway unless I had to.
"Now I go out with my friend and walk from Elland to Brighouse and then have a coffee and walk back and not have to stop.
"When I think about it, I never would have dreamed of walking that distance or any distance really."