"Before my slimming success I would run away if camera was produced! I hated having my photo taken. Today, it actually felt good to pose for a picture. I was eighteen and a half stone when I realised that something had to change, and soon. With two young children I was a busy mother but I didn't have the energy I needed to do simple things like playing with the kids. I was lethargic, I never exercised, and my diet was a random mix of foods, many of which had little nutritional value. Unislim worked for me from day one. I liked that I didn't have to give up any single food, but needed to make sensible changes instead. Before,…

"Before I joined Unislim I drank two litres of Coke a day. Now, it doesn't bother me at all to pass it in the supermarket aisle! Small changes like this made my weight loss quite easy to achieve. My commitment was there from the start. I always made sure to attend classes, whether it was morning, afternoon or evening – whenever I could get the chance. I can understand that making the time seems difficult, but I promise that when you begin to see the results you won't turn back. I found the units system worked very well for me, especially the freedom of it. If I had a good day at weigh-in, for example, I would give myself a…

Ever since I can remember I was always the biggest child that wanted to play sports but I wouldn’t in case I could not run or someone would say something. My friends were always smaller. I know now that I was not as big as I had convinced myself I was. As a teenager I was 9 ½ stone but still bigger than my group of friends. I think that’s where it all started. I’d eat the same “rubbish” as them but I also started eating extra. At home it was always good home cooked dinners. I was a young mum, happy with my partner and would have eaten all of my meals during the day only to be followed…

Linda has had a problem with her weight since she was 13. Always the 'big one' she had any number of 'tricks' she thought made her look slimmer, but in retrospect, she was kidding no one... not even herself. “My lasting memory is of the apron I would always wear. I used to think if I had that on, nobody could see my actual size,” she remembers.A mother of two young boys, Linda's weight rose with each pregnancy and with the added complication of high blood pressure and a realisation that she was the “mummy who didn't 'do' things”, she decided it was time for change. When Linda's dad had a stroke, it was the final straw. “I joined Unislim…

I always used to be slim but I realised over last Christmas that the weight had crept up on me. I hated being overweight, I found it really depressing going into shops and not being able to wear the clothes I wanted to. For a while, I had been trying to shift the weight myself, going out walking, but I couldn’t seem to shift any of the weight at all. My mother-in-law had joined Unislim in February of this year, so after Easter I finally decided to go along with her and really start to focus on losing the weight. The great thing about Unislim is that it put manners on me! Now I know just what I should and…

“I assumed Unislim would be very female-dominated, but I soon discovered that everyone in the class had the same goal: to lose weight and feel better about themselves. From the first week I realised that I needed to be very strict with myself in order to achieve lasting results. That meant cutting out alcohol completely for a certain period, as not only is beer fattening it can be held accountable for late night junk food trips at the weekend! I cut right down on my sugar intake also, and removed refined carbohydrates from my diet. Processed foods were swapped for fruit and vegetables and I drank as much water as I possibly could. The difference between Unislim and any other…

I decided to join Unislim after rocketing to a colossal 18st 3lbs. I was fat, horrible and depressed and just felt like life was a vicious cycle. I started out with a 46" waist and couldn't shop at that many shops. So in January 2005 I joined my nearest Unislim class in Ballymoney, Co.Antrim and with the help and support of my former class leader, Megan Timms, and my fellow slimmers, I have managed to lose 3 and a half stone. Now I am 14st 10lbs and am now a 38" waist and I feel amazing but I couldn't have done this alone. My family, friends and work colleagues have all supported me and now many people who I have…

IT WAS SEEING A PHOTO OF MYSELF on holidays last year that made up my mind to join Unislim. I knew a lot about the classes, of course, because my mum Nicola is a class leader. I would help mum out at her weekly classes, but I was Reluctant to try them myself – my little bit of rebellion maybe! I joined up last November, and I haven’t looked back. Before, I loved food, but all too often I was choosing the wrong types. I loved getting myself some chips or a nice bun on my school lunch break, and I rarely took any exercise. Now, I’ll bring a packed lunch with me, and I can’t get enough exercise! On…