A former 'couch potato' who lost 112lbs in weight has celebrated her achievement by being crowned Miss Great Britain. After constant binge eating and takeaways, Jen Atkin saw her weight rise to 247lbs.
The 27-year-old, from Grimsby, felt like she was in a vicious circle. Jen told Truly: “I just didn't have the willpower or commitment to stick to anything. I'd start a diet on the Monday and I'd be finished by the Tuesday.”
When Jen saw the scales read 247lbs, she was shocked into action. She decided to ditch the takeaways, start cooking for herself and fell in love with exercising and working out at the gym. She lost an amazing 112lbs in two years.
Jen said: “I managed to do it at my own pace and I managed to enjoy it. And although it was really hard, it was worth it and I'm really, really proud of myself.” Jen was scouted to compete in the Miss Grimsby pageant in 2017 where she came first runner up and earlier this year, entered another pageant where she was crowned Miss Great Britain.
Jen said: “Winning Miss Great Britain was the best moment of my life.” Jen is over the moon with both her transformation and achievements through the pageants. She hopes that during the course of her reign she can inspire others as well.
Jen said: “My advice for anyone wanting to start their weight loss journey is just take every day at a time, just have in mind what goal you want to go for and just really believe in yourself because if I can do it, anyone can do it.”
Our takeaway here is Jen's commitment to finding an exercise she enjoyed to start it all off. She said: " I started going to my local gym, and I actually started to enjoy it. And the fitter I got, the more I wanted to sort my eating habits out. Before I knew it, I was living a completely different lifestyle."
Enjoying exercise is the key to sticking with your health and fitness regime. A study published in the journal Frontiers suggests workouts should be based on enjoyment and other psychological factors instead of physiological ones, as that's what's going to get people to stick to their regimes.
If you don't enjoy exercise or struggle to stick to a plan, try as many different forms of exercise as you can to see what sticks. If you like boxercise, walking, yoga or weightlifting instead of activities like running, you're more likely to stick at the exercise you enjoy than forcing yourself to go for jogs.
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