Children can change our lives in more ways than one, and NHS manager Sue Thompson from Chester-le-Street, Durham, knows it better than anybody – she dropped 150 lbs in over a year because her daughter was approaching an age when she might care about her mother’s looks.
Jess Thompson was turning 14 when her 38-year-old mother grew acutely aware of her 27-stone weight and her 32-size clothes. Jess never voiced her displeasure, but Sue was burning with shame notwithstanding. Besides, she was having problems known to every obese person – she couldn’t walk upstairs without getting winded so badly that she was sure she wouldn’t make it to an old age.
But most of all the NHS manager was afraid that her slim daughter might pick up her eating habits. Mrs. Thompson went for Chinese takeaways heavily, used to put down some crisp sandwiches while she was waiting for dinner and could easily empty a family size bag of chocolates as a dessert treat for the evening.
Her obesity had made her extremely self-conscious; “in my head everyone was staring at me and judging me for being so fat,” Mrs. Thompson confessed. Picking up her daughter after school became a torture, because she kept thinking that other parents pitied Jess for having such an outsized mom who was certain to be bad to her.
She had stopped going out for entertainment long ago – “I would have never dared go anywhere” – though she used to love places with music and horse-riding. She admitted she wouldn’t have taken a fairground ride for fear of being unable to squeeze her bulk onto a seat.
Finally, making up her mind not to be an embarrassment for her daughter and husband Shaun, a 42-year-old engineer for EDF, any longer, she took a plunge and joined the Slimming World in March 2010 without telling anybody.
Now, 16 months later, Mrs. Thompson is 150 lbs and 7 dress sizes less, and her family is immensely proud of her! “I’ve never seen her so happy,” said her daughter when they were photographed both standing in her mother’s old trousers that once had been a tight fit.
The happy mother, who had been overweight since her school days, is often out and about the town with her family and thinks of going abroad for her vacation. She enjoys the fun time with her daughter with whom she has grown much closer than before.
Her other plans include opening a Slimming World group of her own to help other people see just how much they can change their lives by losing excessive weight.
Source of the image: Dailymail.
