Fighting the flab turns Jackie into a cover girl

Now her determination to shed the pounds has led her to becoming cover girl on this month’s issue of Slimming World.

Jackie Renforth, aged 27, decide to finally deal with her weight problem around 11 months ago.

She said: “I’ve always felt big and have never been slim in my whole life.

“I tried all the diets – this diet, that diet, crash diets.

“You name them, I did them, but I always put the weight back on.”

Jackie, of Turberville Place, Warwick, spent nearly five years on the club scene in Cyprus, soaking up the sun and living the lifestyle.

And when she was in Majorca she spent a summer performing in a girl band called Pop Tart and managed to get herself down to a size 12-14, but was still much larger than the other girls, who seemed effortlessly skinny.

On stage Jackie had all the confidence and wasn’t bothered about her figure.

But off with the costumes was also off with the confidence and backstage she always fought the urge to eat.

“When I was singing to an audience, I didn’t care about my curves,” she said.

It was when she decided to return to England for the birth of her son Max, who will be two in October, that she decided to knuckle down and lose weight.

And it was the loss of weight which encouraged her to begin a whole new career – she starts a nursing course at Warwickshire College soon, which she hopes will lead to a hospital placement and a nursing degree.

She joined Slimming World’s Lillington class and gave herself a 10-month target to go down in dress size.

“Last time I was a size 10 I was a girl. I was about eight when I started putting weight on.

“I just felt down all the time after going on so many diets on my own and nothing coming of it.

“After having Max I decided finally to do something.

“Doing it with a group is much easier because you get the support and I know it sounds a bit cheesey, but we’re like a family, we help each other out.

“It’s not a diet – it’s healthy eating and you don’t starve yourself.

“You eat lots of fruit and veg and can have carbohydrates.

“It’s one of the few programmes where you can eat carbs – and I love potatoes and pasta.

“I feel great and so much more confident. Now I can wear what ever kind of clothes I want to.”