Jennie Hunter considered cutting her engagement ring off
Jennie Hunter considered cutting her engagement ring off
A mum has shared her incredible weight loss journey after being horrified to find she couldn’t remove her engagement ring. Jennie Hunter, from Wakefield, was so determined to avoid having her ring cut off that she took drastic measures to lose weight, managing to shed an impressive three stone.
The 48-year-old pharmacy worker realised the seriousness of her situation during a getaway with her husband Neil when her size 20 figure meant her ring became painfully tight. Fearing she would have to have it cut from her finger, Jennie faced up to the challenge head-on when she returned home.
The mum then slimmed down to a comfortable size 14 within just ten months. Jennie said: “The options were to get it cut off or to try and get it off. I couldn’t face having it cut off because it was like breaking the symbol of marriage.
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“I sat with a friend we iced my finger for a while and eventually got it off, my husband said we could get the ring made bigger but I said I wanted to be smaller.
“I panicked when it wouldn’t come off, it had to come off. I was then really upset because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it back on again.”
The lifestyle overhaul came not a moment too soon, revealed Jennie, who had been battling with convenience food and takeaways while balancing work and taking her five-year-old son to after-school clubs. Her decision to embark on a journey to better health was also spurred by her observation of photographs, where she noticed her gradual weight gain.
Jennie, who is also a stepmum to a 17-year-old boy, decided to swap her diet of fatty fried foods for healthier alternatives. With the guidance of her weight coach at her local Slimming World group, she has mastered the art of planning nutritious meals in advance.
She said: “I knew the weight was creeping on but I couldn’t see how big I was getting. I knew I was getting bigger but because I saw myself every day, I didn’t really notice it.
“It was only when I started looking at photographs as I would think ‘gosh, I look really big on that photo.’ But my friends and family would say it was a bad angle and that I wasn’t that big.
“But then I saw another photo of myself and thought I really needed to do something about it.” After her successful weight loss journey, Jennie now feels more self-assured and enjoys having her picture taken, having gone from a size 20 to a size 14.
She added: “I feel a lot more confident and I’m a lot happier having photos taken. I’ve not got lots of photos from before but now I don’t feel embarrassed or try to hide.
“Now when I look at photos, I smile when I see myself rather than hate what I’m looking at. It’s the confidence of going out, I can actually think that I look all right now.
“I’ll take the stairs at work now instead of the lift, because my knees won’t hurt when I’m walking up the stairs. I also feel happy going swimming, but before I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing a swimming costume.”
Jennie has hailed the planning aspect of her new dietary regime for drastically improving her stamina. She said: “I feel a lot better in myself, like I’ve got more stamina which is great really.”
On how her routine looked before and after the change, she explained that being busy with work made meal planning challenging, often resulting in opting for quick convenience foods.
“The biggest thing for me was planning”, she admitted, “I’m a working mum and don’t finish until work until late and then I had to think about what to have for tea while trying to sort out my son.”
The cycle resulted in a diet filled with convenience food, which she’s now transformed thanks to Slimming World. She said: “We ended up just eating convenience food like breaded chicken and oven fries because I hadn’t prepped anything.”
Now, it’s a different story as she describes her improved eating habits post-diet change. Jennie added: “Now with Slimming World, I’ve planned my meals so I’m not coming home trying to figure out what I’m having to eat.” She provided a contrasting look at her ‘DIET BEFORE’ versus her ‘DIET NOW’.
DIET BEFORE included two slices of toast for breakfast, biscuits for mid-morning snack, a sandwich and packet of crisps for lunch, an after-work packet of crisps or biscuits, and tea consisting of either convenience food or takeaway.
The ‘DIET NOW’, however, features porridge with fruit for breakfast, home-made lasagne using a Slimming World recipe or a jacket potato for lunch, and a slow cooker casserole or a Slimming World ready meal for tea, with an allowance for the occasional snack on fruit or a Slimming World Hi-fi bar.