When it comes to couple goals, Claire and John Weatheritt are off the scale.
Feeling fed up and unfit, the couple from Insch made a joint New Year’s resolution to lose weight.
Twelve months on and Claire, who works as an engineering manager, and John, a software developer, have lost an incredible amount of weight between them after signing up for Slimming World.
“This year’s New Year’s resolution is to keep the weight off,” laughs Claire.
“Today, we feel happier and healthier than ever.”
Join us as we find out the secrets to Claire and John’s weight loss success, and just how many stones they’ve shed each…
What Clair and John were like 12 months and several waist sizes ago…
Rewind to this time last year, and the couple knew they had to make a drastic lifestyle change for their health and wellbeing as they both felt fed-up feeling overweight.
It was while being a stay-at-home dad for the couple’s two boys, Alex, 12, and Euan, 14, when John found his weight creeping up until he tipped the scales at 124 kilograms (around 19 and a half stone).
“I took seven years off work to look after the boys and that was when the damage was done, that’s when all the weight went on,” says John.
“I think being at home with easy access to food like biscuits and crisps was the reason.
“I’m a keen cyclist with Insch Cycling Club but I still couldn’t shift the weight.”
Meanwhile Claire also noticed her weight increasing.
“I think back to when I was a student and I was quite slim at that time,” says Claire.
“But when I moved up to Aberdeen to work offshore, I got into the habit of eating puddings every night so I started to gain weight.
“My weight stabilised until I had kids which is when I gained about 10 kilos.
“I never lost that weight so I was about 90 kilos (around 14 stone) and I just started to think that was how it is, I just thought I was heavy.”
A post-Christmas pact to lose weight as a couple…and what a difference it made!
After overindulging during Christmas last year, Claire, 44, and John, 49, decided that enough was enough and they made a pact to shed the pounds together.
“John was getting really fed up so last Christmas I thought about getting him a personal trainer but then someone suggested Slimming World,” says Claire.
“By coincidence, someone at John’s cycling club had also suggested Slimming World so we jumped at it.”
Within just a month of signing up for the local Slimming World group in Insch, the couple noticed a difference in their weight.
“In the first two weeks I lost three and a half kilos and by the following month I’d lost my first stone,” says Claire.
“It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.”
How home cooking made a key difference in weight loss journey
John was also surprised at how quickly he saw results.
“I thought it was going to take a couple of years to lose the weight but as it turns out it only took a year,” says John.
“I think the support from the group really helped.”
One of the small changes that made a huge difference to John and Claire’s lifestyle is cooking from scratch.
“We do more home cooking now and we don’t eat as many snacks,” says Claire.
“You don’t need to weigh out your rice and pasta, you can have as much as you want so that makes it doable for the whole family.”
Goodbye ready meals and pizza, hello sushi and muesli
The couple have also cut out ready meals and pizza.
“Before we went on Slimming World we would’ve had sandwiches for lunch and for dinner we would’ve had ready meals maybe twice a week and pizza every Friday, while for snacks we would have crisps and chocolate,” says Claire.
“Now for breakfast I’ll have porridge while John will measure out some muesli, while for lunch I’ll have sushi or noodles and John will have soup.
“For dinner, we’ll have things like pasta bolognaise, chilli, noodles or paella, which I’ll batch cook at the weekends.
“We do have crisps and biscuits but we don’t keep them in the house, so if anyone in the house wants to have that they have to walk to the shops to get it.”
So, how much weight did they lose altogether?
In the space of just 12 months, John has lost six stone and has gone from a 42 inch waist to a 34 inch waist while Claire has lost three and a half stone.
“I was squeezing into size 18 clothes and now I’m a 12,” says Claire.
“I’ve lost 23 kilos which is the same weight as the baggage allowance for a large suitcase.”
For John, who is still a member of Insch Cycling Club, he has noticed that he is faster than ever on the bike.
“When we cycle we record our rides on Strava so I’ve got records from 10 years ago on the hills round Insch,” says John.
“After losing the weight, I’m beating those records which is really satisfying.”
The couple hope their story will inspire other people to follow in their footsteps.
“I did feel a bit more uncomfortable at the start when I joined the group as there were more women than men but it’s well worth it,” says John.
“It’s a very friendly group.”
Claire adds: “I think it really helped that we did it together.”
You can find out more about Insch Slimming World here.
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