Sarah Elliston

Sarah Elliston, 47, was unhappy that her size 14 clothes were getting tight but she struggled to lose weight even after 15 years of dieting. Sarah would use any excuse to take the car rather than walk and after dinner she’d always have a dessert like chocolate mousse.

Then she found out about Slimpod and started listening every night right away, discovering it made an amazing difference. In nine months she was down to a size 10 in some clothes and because she’d transformed her eating habits she lost 12 inches* from her waist, hips and thighs.

“My family say they’ve noticed an incredible difference in my size and my husband tells me it’s nice to see me being able to eat without worrying,” says Sarah. “For the first time in years I have felt confident enough to wear shorts or shorter skirts in summer.

“It’s hard to believe the transformation in me since I discovered Slimpod. My new lifestyle means my shape has changed dramatically and we’re all eating so much healthier. Now dessert is fruit or yoghourt.

“I’m enjoying life incredibly now especially as I don’t have to count any points, sins, calories, units or whatever. I just eat what I want when I want – and I find I want to eat less food and I also make healthier choices.”

Sarah, who works for a charity and lives in Sussex, says: “I was a large 14 to 16, having been on a diet pretty much for the last 15 years. Now I’ve gone down to a size 10 in some clothes – I walk to and from the station every day, I’ve done a 45-mile charity bike ride and exercise has become an integral part of my life.

“And yet I was a typical couch potato. I joined a gym but was always looking for reasons not to go so when I broke my ankle two years ago it was the perfect excuse for doing nothing.

“I have no idea exactly how much weight I’ve lost, because I don’t weigh myself any more. Only diet heads obsess about whether they’re a pound lighter or a pound heavier each day.

“However, my clothes are so much looser and I can tell by looking in the mirror that I’ve lost at least two stone and probably more. The last time I measured myself I’d lost 9 inches, most of which is from my waist, hips and thighs. I am 12 inches smaller than nine months ago.

“It’s hard to believe the transformation in me since I discovered Slimpod. Now I walk to and from the station every day, I’ve done the Palace2Palace 45-mile charity bike ride and the 100K Women v Cancer Ride The Night event.

“My new lifestyle means my shape has changed dramatically. I used to be in very tight size 14s but today most of my clothes are 12s and I can fit into size 10s. I did WeightWatchers for years but it never made a lasting difference. With Slimpod it’s so nice not to have to count calories or stress over everything I eat.

“It’s great looking back at my list of positives I’ve been keeping. It reminds me of things like the day I didn’t want to eat all of my potatoes or the day I forgot to eat breakfast.

“Now I find that making healthy choices just comes naturally. For example, I find chocolate tastes much too sweet now. I find I’m cooking much less food than I used to because my portion sizes have got so much smaller, and that means we don’t need to cook so much.

“If I do have a dessert it tends to be fruit and yoghourt rather than rice pudding or something heavy and stodgy like I used to eat before.

“Before I started Slimpod we’d always have to have a dessert of some sort, be it chocolate mousse or whatever. Dinner was always a two-course meal for us, but now it’s a smaller meal and fruit or yoghourt to follow.

“The other thing we’ve started doing is getting a vegetable box delivered, and that’s been really good because it encourages us to try lots of different vegetables. That makes me a bit more adventurous with my cooking and we try meals we wouldn’t normally have even considered.

“This much better way of eating has just become a natural part of everyday life now and when I look back and see the things we used to have before I can see how our shopping has completely changed.

“I’m eating an awful lot less now. Breakfast is much smaller and if ever we got out for a meal I leave things on my plate. That actually gives me quite a buzz because I know it’s food I don’t need to eat and I can take it home in a doggy bag and enjoy the meal all over again a day or so later without that full, stuffed feeling that you have when you eat too much.

“Before I listened to Slimpod I would have eaten the lot! It’s good to eat less – and it saves money on the regular weekly shopping because we’re just not buying so much.

“I’ve become a real fitness fan now. I’ve started walking a lot more and do at least two miles a day to and from the station. During my working day I’m up and down the stairs constantly now and I never use the lift at all.

“My colleagues have noticed that if ever I pop into town for something I’m there and back so quickly because I walk so much quicker now.

“In the summer I enjoy cycling so I try to build that into my everyday life, going out on the bike a couple of days a week. If I cycle to the station I always come back the long way to turn it into a five-mile ride.

“I also enjoy trying different things at the gym, so the last year or so I have done body combat, body pump, a step class and spinning – lots and lots of different things because I love the variety that I can enjoy now I’ve got so much more energy.

“As well as the Slimpod I have also been doing the Fitpod and this enjoyment of cycling seems to have crept up gradually. In the past I have completed a 5K run and done some walking as part of a healthy walk scheme through work, but with the pods I have noticed that exercise has become an integral part of my life to the extent that I miss my daily mile long walk to the station if I ever have to drive to work.

“I completed a 10-mile charity bike ride before I discovered the pods and moaned for most of the way round the course that I wasn’t enjoying it, so I was really surprised when I agreed to join in the P2P, a 45-mile ride from central London to Windsor.

“I really enjoyed the training and one of the pleasant benefits was the loss of inches. For the first time in years I have felt confident enough to wear shorts or shorter skirts in summer.”