283: I Was A Prisoner In My Own Home

Introduction

0:00how to begin this podcast well um i don't know anna this is this is one that caught my eyes when i read the features and the headlines about this lady i said to you didn't i we've got to

0:32speak to fiona and you said to me i know vicky her consultant i was so excited like you know when it comes up you're like oh my god and vicky sent me a message do you know and i was like do i know what vicky we were like talking in code it's so exciting and so inspiring so i cannot wait to get this conversation started yeah however you're listening today whether you're out popping your headphones on your trainers on going for a walk around the block maybe perhaps you're just about to jump on the treadmill or you're driving to work i think this is going to be one you want to listen to

Guest Introduction

1:08all the way through to the end but let us welcome our guests um fiona and vicky welcome to the world podcast thank you so much it's lovely to be here hey hello everybody great and so can you guys tell us where are you from and how do you how do you know each other maybe i'll throw that to you vicky where where are you are a consultant i suppose we should share first where are you and and how do you know each other so i run the groups in bexley heath which kind of borders kent and southeast london

1:44um and fiona is my member and she has been since 2018 um yeah and she's my member but we are great friends now after all this time as well wow and it sounds like vicky has been a big part of i guess

Fiona's Transformation

2:03witnessing and holding your hand in what's been a crazy few years of a transformation fiona as a member yeah absolutely um vicky's been there through it all um the good times the bad times she's seen me cry a lot but she's always been there just supporting me and raising my spirits and she's just always believed in me when i just didn't even believe in myself so she's been fantastic i couldn't have done it without her

2:35and as you said we have become very good friends yeah and it's now me the one that's crying watching fiona with all of her achievements i'm just the one that's now crying and she's just so calm and cool like a cucumber honestly i'm just making it all in my stride at the moment i mean for those who don't know the headline you are the greatest loser 2026 and have lost a staggering 20 stone and how many pounds 11 and a half 11 and a half there you go yes

3:09so you've got what we we've we've actually in the last year anna we've spoken to a few people who've either been on the cusp or have just got this mythical club 50 certificate which means that you've lost more than 50 of your body weight or oh certificate i've got that right certificate no sticker yes we're not going to enter into that controversy again we launched potentially a little bit of a fire going on there fiona what did you do with that certificate when you got it that certificate is in a frame in my

3:43front room on the shelf so that everyone that comes around can see it and i'm just really proud of it yeah very proud and great getting greater greatest loser of the year what how how do you feel about that i mean does it does it you know i guess is it the icing on the cake of of the last few years

Greatest Loser Award

4:06yeah absolutely i mean i have won it a few times just in my group itself um but then when i was told that i had won it nationally oh it's just mind-blowing it's mind-blowing i mean there's so many amazing people out there losing weight and having amazing weight losses but to know that i'm the greatest loser for slimming world it's just it's a dream come true it's something i've always strived for and vicky knows i've always wanted to you know be able to get to a point where i get into

4:39one of these competitions and win it and but when you actually do it yeah it's surreal proper surreal i mean the courage it takes you know claire and i have lost like four or five stone which is an awful lot of weight and we know the effort and the courage and the determination that that's taken but to do that like four times over almost i mean how do you keep going because there's got to be days when you think oh god do this today like take us through this how have we got to here to be

5:15greatest loser 2026 yeah like it hasn't always been straightforward um i've had times where you know the scales don't go the way you want it to or life just gets in the way and you just think oh i just i just don't think i can do this anymore i think i've gone as far as i can go and and yeah and then i just and then i sort of think to myself but you know what i've come this far i'm not going to stop now i know what i want i know who i want to be and the one thing that sort

5:49really resonates with me is that i never ever want to go back to the life that i was living before i lost all this weight so many good things have happened to me for me since losing weight and things just keep getting better and better new opportunities new adventures and yeah it's that that just gives me the motivation to want to keep going all the time oh i mean i that is amazing isn't it and i think

6:21the thing that really stood out to me was like you say this transformation of where you came from and where you are now i mean that when we saw the feature when um it first talked about your story

Past Life

6:34it said that phrase of i was a prisoner in my own home you were a recluse you know you were really lonely i mean can you take us back to what that was like in those days yeah um that's exactly how it was i i just didn't want to go out i didn't want anyone to see me um and sometimes when i had been out i'd have just like random members of the public they would call me names or i'd see people pointing

7:06or you know and it just i i didn't want to be put in that situation it made me feel awful so i would just it was just easier and better for me to just stay at home um but now you can't really keep me and i'm just always out and about and yeah i don't know i've got a good social life and i like yeah i just i just like being around people now i i'm a real people's person um i was obviously

7:36always there but just didn't have the confidence to do it gosh i guess vicky you must have seen that that confidence grow in fiona as her consultant can you remember when fiona first came through your doors and when you guys first met i can i really can um and when i first met fiona she was so so shy so quiet um and she didn't didn't really say much at all um and she only trusted me to weigh her on scales for a short time when she first started and she slowly learned that she could trust me and

8:11the social team and the whole group um and she slowly come out of her shell and she started to gain more and more confidence in group and would be joining in and talking and she was racking up the awards quite quickly and everyone wanted to talk and hear from her and it just naturally happened and she'd become part of my social team and fiona's the way lady and everyone loves fiona in group and to to see her transformation over the years just just grow i i just think it's like a flower just opening up almost and she's just like the brightest flower now in the bars she's just

8:46done amazing and yeah she's she just loves life now don't you just always going out and and say living life now and a very present parent and and just done amazing yeah absolutely it's like i did say that i felt like i just existed before whereas now i am actually living and that's just amazing and like since um doing all this i've um found a lot of pictures from when i was at my

9:18biggest pictures that i completely forgot about and i show people now and they are like that's not you it doesn't even look like you but even me myself i don't recognize myself i was like oh my god was that really me that's it's just unbelievable it's just yeah completely unbelievable just such a different person completely changed my life i've printed all the photos off of fiona um to take them to group tomorrow and put them all on boards um and i was looking at them and reflecting earlier

9:51and she literally looks 20 years younger honestly like like it's just a different it is a different person i would say it looks like an older relative of yours like in the photo you can see the resemblance but he's a completely different person yeah oh thank you you know i was just sat here thinking you know if you're like a new member or you're someone struggling in group having someone like fiona on the scales who totally gets it who's done it i'm just thinking that is just so much

10:23inspiration like do you know what i can deal with anything because if fiona sat there and she's been through it i can almost like see myself getting through it i bet your group are like tapping you up for the recipes for the activity ideas like has group been a real foundation and a real kind of i guess armory for you in this journey have they helped you a lot yeah absolutely like how can i put this when i walk into group i feel like a celebrity everyone is just so happy to see me

10:56and then we have the older members that maybe have left and then come back and and they're like i didn't even know it was you like you know but um yeah like everybody all the time is um asking for help and advice and how do you do it fiona we can't even lose half a pound like how do you do it you know and they're looking for advice and inspiration and yeah recipes yeah when we talk in group about you know what you know have you cooked anything different this week and

11:28then i try and share a few bits and pieces a few pointers you know what do you do fiona what's your go-to what what free food do you have that you can you know eat and and then i just give them pointers and let them know a big love of mine is boiled eggs love a boiled egg love a bit of chicken just you love a bought boiled egg though because i have this thing you know like if you go to a shop and they're there with the spinach they're not the same as the ones you've done at home are you a girl that buys a pre-done boiled i don't buy pre anymore i'm sorry i can't do it they don't taste like eggs

12:01you've heard it here guys to lose 20 stone boil your own eggs that is the secret yeah listen this is you could i can just see a wave now on social media of everybody being like boil your eggs this is what the greatest loser's done absolutely do you have do you feel like your eating habits i mean undoubtedly they have changed but claire and i often talk about how we've learned to cook we've learned about nutrition is that something that

12:33happened for you in this journey yeah absolutely so before slimming world i couldn't cook i couldn't even cook a boiled egg to be perfectly honest i couldn't um yeah like my freezer was just full of convenience foods it was you know i'd do an online shop for my students and get all the frozen food and you know just bung it in the oven and that was dinner or i relied a lot on takeaways i love to take away um you know all these things that were no good for me and obviously led to the weight creeping

13:03up and creeping up but um once i joined slimming world and i went through the books and slowly slowly by recipe it was good because obviously you had the magazines and they gave you recipes and they told you how to cook it and i literally slimming world taught me how to cook yeah i just couldn't do it beforehand yeah my favorite book is take five because it's got pictures and only five ingredients and i'm like that is my fail safe because it shows me how to do it

13:36like but it is understanding like if you come into a weight loss journey for so many of us we didn't learn that in school we may not have come from families that cooked and actually what you learn in great what you learn from your consultants and online is those tricks is how to cook how to make food for your family and friends so it's more than just like a a weight loss club isn't it it's actually like a learning hub too that's what i like to think absolutely yeah that's a really good way of putting it yeah yeah definitely and it's just it also taught me you know you don't you know i used to

14:09think that i would need a big takeaway or i would need um you know 10 bags of crisps to feel full up and satisfied but obviously it completely slimming world completely changed my mindset on that i know now that there's so many free foods they're actually nutritious that i can fill up on um that are good for me and you know are on plan wow i mean isn't that so different because i know at the beginning

Gastric Bypass Decision

14:38of your journey you were faced with a choice weren't you your gp um in an appointment said that they would uh recommend you go for a gastric bypass and you were on a waiting list for that um what was that process like you know because we we hear about whether people go down that route of surgery or perhaps even weight loss medication but you decided not to do that and you found slimming world and that was the thing that worked for you what was that like in terms of your the choices that you had

15:11at that that time yeah so how that actually happened was it was actually me that approached the gp um i tried lots of other diets um and i was at a stage where i just i just wanted to change i couldn't deal anymore with being so overweight and being so such a recluse and i like i said i just wanted to get a life basically so after trying so many different things i thought to myself gastric bypass to me seems like my only option now um so i approached the gp and asked them if i could be referred um which

15:48i was and then i was seen by a consultant they accepted me they said yes okay we will do a gastric bypass however you need to lose freestone before we will do it um because we need to show that you are committed to losing weight so i remember coming out there actually feeling really deflated because all i was thinking was is i've tried every diet i've tried everything how how am i going to lose

16:19freestone um but anyway i went home and got straight on the internet was having a flick through like is there something i've missed is there something i haven't tried and that's when i came across and i was reading other people's stories i was reading a bit about how the plan worked and all i was thinking was i haven't tried it let's give it a go so that's when i contacted um that's

16:50when i found vicky's group and worked up the guts to go there and yeah it just all went from there really and oh i just remember standing outside and just being so scared i was petrified i mean i know it's a slimming group but in my head all i was thinking is what if i'm the biggest person there like and i know that i'm there to lose weight and i know everyone else is there for that reason but still in my head i just couldn't i just couldn't work up the courage to walk through them doors

17:23but i did i took my mum along with me um she she came with me um to support me she helped me take that first step through and i did and i've never looked back since um as soon as i got in there everyone was just so lovely so welcoming put me at ease um and obviously then sat down had a chat with the consultant um went through the plan and more or less straight away i i don't know what

17:55it was something just ticked and i just thought actually this might actually work and i literally went home i did a first shop and i just got straight into it and it was i don't want to say it's easy because it wasn't it was a big massive change for me um but it just seemed to all fall into place i just can't put my i just can't put it into words i don't know how to explain it but

18:27yeah like i slowly started following i you know i started following the recipes i started learning how to cook um paid more attention to being aware of what i was putting in my mouth following the plan filling up on free foods and week by week i think the first sort of weight came off quite quickly um and i just couldn't believe it because i tried a lot of different diets and nothing else had worked

18:57so for this weight to be coming off this easy and still eating um and enjoying lovely meals that i would normally buy convenience meals microwave meals like spaghetti bolognese and i was able to make a hurry that i didn't feel guilty for eating um and then yeah and then i got to the free stone mark and then it was more or less around that time actually the consultant called me to say um yeah no yeah sorry the consultant called me um and told me that as i'd lost the free stone they was able to

19:30offer me a date and at that point i decided i had to make a decision do i go for the gastric bypass or do i just stick with what i'm doing and i i decided to stick with slimming world i felt that i finally found something that was working for me i didn't want to have medical intervention if i really didn't need it and i had quite a lot of self-belief in myself at that point so i thought you know what you've got this you can do this and 21 stone almost lighter yeah here now like i did this

20:08in your wildest dreams though did you walk in that night and think 21 stone here i come or was it like you took it one mountain at a time yeah no obviously in my head i always thought okay right i've got like 21 stone to lose um but i couldn't think of the bigger picture i never think of the bigger picture i always break it down always because if you do i just get i don't know about anybody else but i just get really overwhelmed and then that's when it could all potentially go wrong and i think oh i'm

20:38never gonna get that i'm never gonna get that like who can get 21 stone who you know i know yeah i know yeah i can absolutely but at the time yeah so no i i literally half stone at a time i've i think that's what's the good thing about having the half a stone certificates um it's not a massive sort of achievement that you have to work towards before you get the next one if you know i mean it's not an overwhelming um achievement to oh god i don't know how to word what i want to say that it's only half a stone away every time isn't it yeah yeah it just feels more achievable

21:12um then maybe a stone or yeah yeah definitely now you talked about your mum i'm just thinking your family and your friends have been on this journey with you yeah what are they feeling and thinking about the mum they've got i mean so super glamorous like you are sat here oozing glamour where i i'm like literally um what what are their thoughts and feelings about you now yeah um so i've got two sons and a daughter um well my youngest is 12 so he doesn't say a lot you know boys 12 year

21:44old yeah yeah yeah yeah um but my 19 year old son who doesn't normally say a lot at all has actually been really especially since all this has happened since he's found out i'm the greatest loser and for 2026 and he's he actually told me he was proud of me which was lovely because that's not something i hear very often from him um so and he's and he actually sent me a couple of pictures that he found of when i was um 35 stone and he said like look at you mum you're just a whole different person i'm so proud

22:19of you so that's really lovely and my daughter yeah she's she's just she's like a mini me um so but yeah no she's she's immensely proud of me too and all my family yeah like they're all really supportive my mum and dad are very supportive um and obviously my partner steven um he's he's he's just been amazing on this journey he came into the journey sort of halfway through but he's he's just yeah he he's

22:51yeah he's amazing is he there is he there because you keep looking to the side like oh oh yeah he's here yes he's here he's here steven come on give us a little wave steven support me come on give us a little wave give us your hand hello there you go he's having a lie down be casual with it and just you know be here for support and obviously when the young 12 year old decides to kick off and start shouting go up there and calm him down and tell him to shut up

23:22oh like my husband with my small child barricaded in the other room we totally feel you here oh good on you steven thank you oh thank you it's been an amazing journey for fiona i'm very proud of her oh big up for love i mean vicky like you when when fiona came it must have told you about i had this choice i got a date given to me for this gastric bypass that must have been like gosh such

23:55a powerful conversation for you to have of like you know that belief that fiona had been given i guess from you and your group that this works yeah absolutely um i think from really early on i just just sort of said to fiona just take it as it comes um just just follow the plan and and see what happens um if you decide to do that you know slim and world will absolutely be there for you you can continue your weight loss journey in group so i never tried to talk her out of it at all because

24:27it's 100 is fiona's choice um and we do support members who take weight loss medication and have surgery as well um so she knew she had that support regardless but um i think fiona um saw for herself you know how much she was loving food optimizing and i remember fiona saying um she didn't want to go through the risk of surgery when she's got three children you know it carries a big life risk when you have such big operations and she said i want to eat normally and i want to cook

24:58normally and i want i want to to just be healthy and make great food choices and so when she saw she was doing that um i i had a feeling she would stick with slim and world i had a strong feeling um and obviously i was really glad that she chose to stay with food optimizing because i knew that she had it in her right from the beginning she even though she was sad and she was you know she was really shy she just had a twinkle in her eye and i think that just rhymed actually um it was just just a real

25:30powerhouse from really early on in her journey um and yeah she she's been amazing you can see the twinkle in your eye like you can see that you are like i'm doing this just maybe you can see that you know when people see the title of this a lot of people will click on this out of curiosity like wow this is an incredible achievement and there'll be people listening who are sat thinking i need to do that you know if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice that night you walked

26:01in the group if anybody's listening what would that bit of advice be do you think um i think the advice would be um just i think it's just about just look don't overthink it just take one meal at a time one day at a time um and when you know if you have a bad day or on the scales or if you just have a bad day in general don't worry tomorrow's a new day draw a line start again um one meal doesn't

26:32have to write off the whole week i like that saying vicky says that a lot in groups and that is something that always sticks with me it does when like you know we're only human we we do have times when we you know have something that maybe is not on plan and and then you think oh well if i've had that then i'll just go and reach for something else and then before you know it you're spiraling and and what have you and it's just about okay just be kind to yourself just be kind to yourself you've got this draw the line tomorrow's a new day yeah and actually you know what thinking about like

27:06on the on the article it shares some of the things that you did for the first and if you think about

Newfound Confidence

27:11where you were then and where you are now i mean look here january 2022 you started walking to improve your fitness then the next month you booked a session with a personal trainer i mean then you've joined a gym uh for solo workouts later on in that year in october so that's a heck of a confidence boost isn't it and then you walked 5k to raise money for alzheimer's society i did you wore a pair of knee-high boots you bought a sparkly christmas dress and you braved a bicycle for the

27:45first time in 30 years last year i mean yes i did you are you know like you say that confidence but also it sounds like it's not just necessarily about all about the food optimizing now this is also about the activity and the fact that you want to get out there and move more as well yeah absolutely yeah i mean joining the gym was just um it did start off with a pt um for me that was the best way to start um it wasn't in a gym she had her own little um gym in her garden and i would go there and it was a

28:20one-to-one session and it felt comfortable it felt like a safe space um for me to start to get some confidence and after i'd done that for a while i thought actually i think i could probably go to the gym now um so yeah went and joined a gym and again nervous probably felt going into that gym the first day i felt going into slimming world um because you're around all these people and you think oh you know they're all really buff and really like you know gym people slim and blah blah blah but um

28:52i made friends at the gym too so you know yeah i made friends there and you know every time you go and hyphy hyphy and yeah they again that they just made it so comfortable and easy for me too so yeah and yeah it's just gone from there really yeah i love a bit of gym i love walking and my son had his bike in the garden and i was looking at it and i thought to myself hmm is it true that once you ride a bike you never forget so out it came and i got on it and yeah you don't once you know how to

29:28ride a bike you know so i got on it and off i went and i loved it it was it it just like again like to tell myself 35 stone ago sorry when i was at 35 stone you're gonna get on a bike like what no no no no no no no no but yeah i loved it and actually it is something that me and steve have spoke about actually just getting ourselves bikes and actually doing bike tricks now going out and about and yeah get a tandem you know one in the front one in the back no

30:03it's about too far it's about too far who sits on the front and who sits on the back do what i did and get an e-bike it's way more fun really oh yeah much more fun then you can pack all your snacks on the back as well that's very important until it's just to push it up a hill that's when you don't like it yeah that's why i had to do the day yeah it was exhausting oh bless you do you know what i think the the fiona of 35 stone would be looking back going well done i am so proud of you like i'm just thinking about the hope that you

30:35are giving other people having been crowned this you the ripples that this is going to have and the lives that you're going to help change i mean vicky you must be like like a proud sister and the whole group must be just rooting for for fiona i mean how do you feel sat here tonight you know actually i think of myself like a proud mummy even though um not old enough to be fiona's mum but i do i feel like it's like a mummy protective role um so excited about it

31:0623rd of february we've known since so it's been a long secret oh a brilliant brilliant secret and also i suppose you know this is what you do as a job vicky what what does that feel like for you to be a consultant just so you know i don't think always so many members really know what that role is really like and what it what it really entails oh it's it's the best job in the world i say it all the time um it's so rewarding um it's like all jobs jobs can be hard and there might be some parts

31:41of it you like more than others um but it's so rewarding and you know a bit like what um fiona was saying about telling her children and my children are not always known i've done slimming world you know i've done it since one was born and since one was small um and just sharing with them fiona's success and they're like wow that's what you do mum like you really do help and change lives and i was like i absolutely do i said i love it i absolutely love it and i wouldn't do anything else at all oh gosh vicky is a fabulous consultant but you can tell that by her group she's got like

32:18five amazing groups and you know a lot of people even if they end up leaving they come back like i said there's lots of faces i've seen you know return um vicky's definitely got a very good you know high a lot of people got a respect for vicky as a consumer consultant yeah and did you know what it is about vicky that i see and i see in all our consultants is that empathy and understanding like that non-judgment and you get it you really do vicky's also so inspiring because she plays netball

32:48and it's something i've never ever been able to do is play netball and you do don't you you love yeah vicky's like yesterday i'm playing netball i've not played netball since i was 15 i can't think of anything worse but you literally embody body magic and food optimizing and that just uses it out doesn't it anybody can play netball anna um i play with men and women i play with people from 16 up to 76 and there's walking netball you don't have to run you know you can go to

33:19walking netball we don't jump you don't run it's more the ball that drives me like catching it and throwing it it's quite hazardous i did have two black guys the other week where i got a ball in the nose and yeah i broke my finger at school playing it and i was the dyslexic dyspraxic overweight kid so i couldn't catch the ball i couldn't run i'm just scarred by it but you give me hope about netball that one day one day maybe 86 on my zimmer frame i'll do walking netball but i just think like with activity just like how fiona was talking about walking and the love for riding the bike

33:52um i just love moving and it's just finding something that makes you smile and when we talk about activity in group and um we were talking about a feature on the app today about um the mood changing activity seven day challenge and i just said all of these things will make you smile they might make you feel silly i said but they will make you smile and that you know alongside the food optimizing for me is what is like the golden ticket um you know at the beginning of my journey

34:23activity was not a part of it at all but it's something that i've grown to love because i can do it now i've lost the weight you know yeah well if people missed out last week we did move your mood and we looked at that challenge that you just mentioned vicky it's a members uh brucey bonus um episode and it includes seven minutes of me and anna testing some of these activities that are available as part of this challenge uh whilst me knocking a microphone over almost and anna

34:55headbutting her light uh lampshade so um that's waiting for you thank goodness no that's there fiona and it's been fantastic to meet you both and we wish you you know the best in the celebrating that you're both gonna do and especially you fiona you're going to the ball how exciting yeah that's very exciting uh another excuse to wear a sparkly dress i love it i mean there must be an excuse to put a sparkly dress on but yeah swimming world is all about the glitter it really is it's like yeah

35:27absolutely and that's me i'm a bling girl anyway ask anybody ask anybody i love it so i'm really excited for that a dream come true i've heard about it for years and now i actually get to live it which is amazing oh wow well you've definitely proved that the opposite of isolation is connection absolutely yeah definitely that is what your story screams from the rooftops and long may that continue thank you so much uh for speaking to us and and you as well vicky you're welcome thank you thank you

36:02for having you know giving me this opportunity it's been amazing thank you oh now next week we are going to be hearing from more consultants just like vicky actually who are going to be talking about really their role um of how they came to to be there and really how swimming world has changed their lives it's going to be an inspirational emotional one as we hand over the reins of the podcast to the consultants very very exciting if you'd like to come and have a little nosy we'll put some clips of

36:35this interview on our instagram um maybe maybe we'll slip in a clip of steve in there how about that fiona yeah absolutely why not it's either if anyone's listened to the podcast they won't have seen steve so you can have a we'll do a screenshot of steve and put that on our instagram this week but anyway i'm not very photogenic look we're here to have fun and that's exactly what we want you now have a great week and we'll be back very soon lovely thank you so much thank you bye for now bye

37:10bye