“MY problem was shameful,” says Wendy McDonald. “I was a glutton, a binge-eater. I had no stop button. I would keep stuffing my face without ever feeling full or sick and I used to overeat even though I wasn’t hungry. Once I ate 10 chocolate bars I’d bought the kids for Christmas and I could eat three packets of biscuits for elevensies.”
Wendy, 42, put on five stone after her first child and even at almost 6ft tall, she says 16 stone was a lot of weight to carry. Then Wendy found out about Slimpod and the solution was simple: she began listening to Slimpod for 9 minutes every night to create a new relationship with food.
“I can hardly believe it worked so well because I used to wear a baggy top to hide my tummy. However, I quickly noticed real differences in what I was eating. I lost a stone pretty quickly and then tried the Chocoholic Cure pod as an extra.
“It was amazing. I couldn’t believe the difference in my life. In the first two weeks I lost 11 lbs*. That damaging binge eating I’d suffered with for years just went and my body breathed a sigh of relief that I had stopped abusing it at last.”
Today Wendy, from Shropshire, has gone from a size 16/18 to a neat size 12 thanks to Slimpod. “The spiral of destruction I was on has been broken,” she says. “I’ve been able to take control of my body again, beating something that had blighted all my life.
Wendy and husband Ian
“I can live my life without feeling that I can’t go out anywhere because I’m afraid of temptation. This door has finally opened up to me…I am at last free.
“This is my programme for life now. I’m achieving my dream of looking nice and I no longer have to hide behind baggy tops. Today, I felt confident enough to brave the clothes shops again and have bought myself new skinny jeans, some tops, underwear and a dress.
“It was empowering to be able to do so without thinking that there wasn’t any point to me having new clothes. Now I’m going to bag up all my size 16 clothes and give them to a charity shop, so there is no going back.
“The way I used to eat was shameful. I could eat a 200g bar of Cadbury’s Wholenut in one sitting – now I have nothing. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner. I even have a little bowl of ice cream or a lolly for pudding, so I’m not being deprived of goodies. I simply don’t want to eat more than that. Result!
“When I was a girl I was a skinny teenager, so much so that I used to starve myself. But it all changed after my first child, when I put on five stone. Since then I have been a yo-yo dieter and a binge eater.
“Then I started Slimpod. I have experienced massive changes in my eating habits. I don’t eat between meals and my portions have halved. The strangest thing is that I have gone off chocolate bars, which is unheard of. I don’t even spare them a thought any more.
“When I was a yo-yo dieter I used to lose a stone, put on a stone, lose a stone over and over again. Now I can feel that I am subtly changing from within. I just don’t feel the need to eat unless I want to, not because my mouth is bored.
“At my heaviest I was 16 stone, but at almost 6ft tall I used to kid myself that I could carry weight well. Today I must be under 13 stone – I don’t know exactly because I stopped weighing myself and just concentrate on how good I feel.
“I’m no longer obsessed with my weight. I don’t even know where the scales are now – if I want to confirm my Slimpod’s a success I just look at the size 12 clothes hanging in my wardrobe.
“I’ve had a really relaxing summer with the children and haven’t had to even think about what to eat or what not to eat. Despite that I can still get into my size 12 jeans – pretty good for someone who struggled to squeeze into size 16 a few months back.
“I feel much healthier and happier and I have a lot more energy. That sluggish bloated feeling caused by the sugar rushes has gone for ever. Best of all, I know I’m showing my teenage daughter a positive body image for the first time.
“She’s a really slim girl and it must have been awful for her to have a Mum who was always moaning about how fat she was and did nothing about it but stuff her face.
“I would have hated it if my daughter had copied me and become a glutton. Thank goodness I’m putting better things into my mouth now and setting her a good example.
“I want to be able to eat something delicious from time to me, having factored in the calorie content. I want to enjoy it, relishing the indulgence, but confident in the fact that one will be enough.’