Mother loses nearly six stone after ditching her £8,000-a-year Chinese takeaway habit

Sarah Pattison, 26, used to fill up on Chinese takeaways most nights, as well as McDonald’s takeaways and other junk food - spending up to £150 a week.

Her addiction to greasy fast food left her topping the scales at 17st and struggling to squeeze into a size 20.

The mother-of-two would regularly fall asleep in front of the TV munching on a chocolate Swiss roll and chocolate.

But after Sarah was offered a Covid jab early due to her obesity - she knew something had to change.

After swapping takeaway food for the Cambridge Meal plan and healthy home-cooked meals, Sarah has dropped to 11st 4lbs and is now a slender size 10.

Sarah, a stay-at-home mum, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, said: “I’ve always wanted to lose weight and when I got offered the COVID vaccine early due to being overweight I knew I needed to do something.

“I felt really sluggish and just couldn’t be bothered to cook so I’d have a takeaway or shove in a ready meal. I would eat a huge Swiss roll before bed and fall asleep with it in my hand. Now I feel amazing and it’s great how quickly the weight has come off me.”

Sarah made the decision to lose weight in April 2021, after getting being in the vulnerable category for the vaccine due to her weight.

She joined the Cambridge 1:1 diet and just ate meal replacements for the first four months to start shedding the weight.

Before making a change she had been starting her mornings with McDonalds breakfasts and having a takeaway most nights as well as filling up on two litres of coke a day.

“The first four days were really tough,” she said. “I was used to have so much food so it was really difficult only having about 600 calories a day.”

But the diet worked and the weight quickly fell off and Sarah transitioned off the Cambridge meal plan after four months.

Now Sarah has lost 5st 9lbs and has reached her target weight of 11st 4lbs in just five months.

She now has healthy home cooked meals such as salads, steamed vegetables and Quorn - and will walk four to six miles a day to keep fit.

“I just want to maintain my weight now,” she said. “I feel so much better after losing the weight- I finally have energy again. I used to always make up an excuse as to why I couldn’t go somewhere and I never wanted photos of myself taken.

“Now I am happy to pose for a photo and all my friends who hadn’t seen me over lockdown barely recognised me. They didn’t believe I had lost weight so quickly and all thought I had had surgery.”

Now Sarah is very happy and confident in her body and just wants to maintain her new figure.

She will have the occasional takeaway but has more money set aside to put into the kids and day out with them.

She has the confidence to take them to theme park and not worry about getting turned away from the ride.

“My mental and physical health is so much better,” she said. “I have so much more energy to get up and go.”

Diet before

Breakfast: McDonald’s egg and cheese McMuffin, egg and bacon bagel and hash browns

Lunch: Chips, oven pizza, garlic bread

Dinner: Chinese takeaway- noodles, rice, spring rolls, prawn toast, satay sauce and seaweed

Snacks: Full fat coke, chocolate Swiss roll

Diet now

Breakfast: Fruit, porridge, water

Lunch: Boiled egg and salad or low carb noodles

Dinner: veg, sweet potato, Quorn product

Snacks: Fruit