A couple, who say sharing the same healthy foods enabled them to lose a combined weight of six stone without ever feeling hungry, helped launch a month-long food festival in Derry.
The Beechwood Slimming World group celebrated Free Food February, which was named after the healthy ‘Free Foods’ its member can enjoy without weighing, counting or measuring when losing weight on Slimming World’s Food Optimising eating plan.
The launch party saw Tanya O’Doherty and Sean McCafferty (pictured) named the group’s Couple of the Year 2016 as well.
The couple are getting married later this year.
Free Food February is being held in Slimming World groups throughout Britain and aimed to show how the organisation’s members lose weight without hunger and often discover (or rediscover) a love of cooking. It coincides with the publication of Slimming World’s latest recipe book Free Food Feasts*.
Members of the group, which is held every Monday at Beechwood Court, created a delicious feast for the event.
The slimmers each brought along a dish made entirely from ‘Free Foods’, which include fruit and veg, pasta, rice, potatoes, lean meat, fish, eggs and more, showing that Slimming World members never need to suffer the hunger pangs that usually see people throwing in the towel on other weight-loss plans.
Now the slimmers have challenged one another to share their new love of healthy food with the local community, including cooking for their families, hosting dinner parties for their friends and making nibbles for their colleagues.
Sean and Tanya believe preparing, cooking and eating the same meals and supporting one another on their weight loss journeys has been key to their success.
Sean, who has lost two stone since joining Slimming World 12 weeks ago, said: “When I first joined Slimming World I couldn’t believe how much food we could eat and still lose weight.
“Making small changes to the way we cooked our meals meant we could still enjoy all of our favourite meals like Chow Mien, pasta and curries.
“We enjoy spending time in the kitchen together and love sharing our new recipes with family and friends – they taste so good and people can never believe we can eat all the food we do and lose weight.”
Tanya, who is four stone lighter, said: “We’re lucky because as well as the support we had from each other, the rest of the group have also been there for us.
Every week in our group we swap recipes and if we’ve ever struggled there has always been someone ready to suggest a new idea or remind us why we shouldn’t give up. I don’t think we could have achieved all we have without the support of our consultant Jacqui and the rest of the Beechwood group.”
In fact, it was the couple’s fellow slimmers who voted for them as their Couple of the Year 2016.
Jacqui Doherty, who runs the Beechwood MondaySlimming World group, said: “Tanya and Sean are living proof that slimmers are more successful when they lose weight together and get support and motivation from others along their journey.
“Seeing Tanya's and Sean’s weight come down week after week has been a joy.”
To find out more about losing weight without hunger at Slimming World, pop along to the Beechwood Slimming World group, which is held at Beechwood Court every Monday at 5.30pm and 7.30pm, or call Jacqui on 07400613449. You can also visit www.slimmingworld.co.uk.
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