By Rebecca SheppardA SLIMMER is celebrating after losing seven stone in less than a year and winning the first round of a competition for a champion dieter.

By Rebecca Sheppard

A SLIMMER is celebrating after losing seven stone in less than a year and winning the first round of a competition for a champion dieter.

Charlotte Turnbull, 25, was 19st 3lb and eating four rounds of toast with peanut butter, two bags of crisps, eight rounds of cheese sandwiches, a chocolate bar, a packet of biscuits, deep-fat-fried chips and a greasy burger on an average day before she started dieting.

After joining a Slimming World class in October, she is now 12st 1lb and has scooped the class's title of Woman of the Year.

The mother-of-three, from Ipswich, said: “I'm no longer embarrassed about my size and can now look at myself on videos with pride.

“My husband is proud of me and very pleased with my new look. I now enjoy doing all the normal things like shopping for clothes and playing with the kids.”

Mrs Turnbull said she had turned to the St Thomas slimming class after having to undergo an emergency operation to have her daughter.

“I realised when four men could not lift me on to the operating table that I had a problem,” she added.

But Mrs Turnbull said she had never managed to keep to a diet before because “calorie counting is too much like hard work and I was still hungry”.

Her diet works by labelling each day a different colour - for example, a red day means she can eat as much meat as she wants, whereas a green day means she can eat lots of vegetables.

Mrs Turnbull still has a cooked breakfast in the morning, but it is grilled rather than fried, and she is allowed one day off a week for a takeaway.

“I don't buy junk food anymore as if you've got it, that makes you want it. When I used to work, I would just pick all day at anything,” she said.

Although she has lost more than seven stone in 11 months, Mrs Turnbull said she still was not at her ideal weight. “I've got to lose another stone as I want to be 11st ideally,” she added.

Charlotte's slimming consultant, Tilly Chittock, said: “At Slimming World we have one simple aim - to inspire every overweight person in Britain to shed the misery and pain of being overweight.

“With commitment and determination, Charlotte has proved it can be done. She is an inspiration to everyone and we are all very proud of her.”

Mrs Turnbull now goes forward for the Woman of the Year district final in Newmarket on September 28 and, should she win, on to the national semi-finals and then the final to be held at the Birmingham International Conference Centre on November 8.

rebecca.sheppard@eadt.co.uk