A SUFFOLK slimmer has become a shadow of her former self after shedding nearly half her body weight and dropping six dress sizes.

Rachel Cook is to feature on the pages of a national slimming magazine following her dramatic weight loss, which took her little more than a year to achieve.

But amazingly, the 37-year-old, from Melton near Woodbridge, said she accomplished her slimming feat without any inspiration.

“I was quite happy with myself,” said the teaching assistant.

“I had no weight loss targets but something just clicked – maybe that was the key.

“Now I can barely recognise myself in old photos.”

Mrs Cook had been overweight since her early teens, when she was bullied about her size.

Until deciding to slim down, she was a size 20, weighing in at 17st 4lb.

But after off-loading more than seven stone, she can now fit in a size eight dress and is featured in the December/January issue of Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine.

The mother-of-two said: “I love cooking and we always ate big meals. I had my own meal and then finished whatever the children left.

“Our portions were huge, really ridiculous. I got bigger and bigger.”

In August 2008, fed up with feeling tired, hot and exhausted, something clicked and Rachel decided it was time to make changes in her life.

She joined a Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club in Ipswich and 14 months later had lost 7st 2lb. Her only regret is that she did not do it sooner.

Mrs Cook now has a passion for exercise and her nickname has become “Tigger” because of her boundless energy, going jogging every day.

She added: “Now I have confidence and I love the way I look and the way it makes me feel. I’m like a new person.”