Shropshire dieter Wendy sheds the pounds

A mother-of-five from Shropshire has shed three stone by swopping binge eating sessions for a set of headphones and a Slimpod.

Wendy McDonald started her dramatic weight-loss journey after eating three of her children's selection boxes.

The 42-year-old turned to the Thinking Slimmer weight loss programme and the Slimpod which saw her listening to the Slimpod instead of piling on the pounds.

After dropping from a size 18 to a size 12, Mrs McDonald said: "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.

"I had no stop button. I would keep stuffing my face without ever feeling full or sick. I used to overeat even though I wasn't hungry.

"Then I found out about Harley Street weight loss experts' Thinking Slimmer and their Slimpod.

"I was hugely sceptical and couldn't believe that anything like that could possibly work. But I tried it and to my amazement I quickly noticed real differences in what I was eating."

Mrs McDonald said she hit her first target of a stone using the Drop Two Dress Sizes Slimpod and then she started using a new Slimpod called Drop Two Jean Sizes alongside the programme's Chocoholic Cure and she lost 11lbs in two weeks.

"That damaging binge eating I'd suffered with for years just went.

"No more three packets of biscuits for elevensies, no more pigging out on chocolate. My body breathed a sigh of relief that I had stopped abusing it at last.

"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," Mrs McDonald added:

"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 Thinking Slimmer advised me to stop weighing myself and just concentrate on how good I feel."

She said she has enjoyed a relaxing summer with her husband Ian and her five children and is enjoying having more energy with her new figure and wardrobe to match.

But the best thing is the role model she has become for her children: "Best of all, I know I'm showing my 15-year-old 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," she said.

By Judith Sanders