Don't Tell Me I Can't… Change My Whole Life!

Claire Parry-Witchell lost weight… and reinvented herself.

- Kristina Beanland

For most women, the idea of someone forgetting that they have met you before would be mortifying. But when it happened to me recently, I saw it as a compliment. In the last three years I’ve lost 14st, switched careers and given myself a lifestyle overhaul. and now at 42 years old, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been…

It took me three decades before I finally faced up to my size. I’ve always loved food. As a child, I’d stop off at the sweet shop on the way home from school and I never left anything on my dinner plate. Luckily, dancing lessons kept me in shape – that is, until aged 21, when I started working as a jazz singer.

I threw myself into my work, and I didn’t have time to exercise. By the time I reached 23st – too big for my 5ft 8in frame – rather than confront my weight, I ignored how I couldn’t climbup stairs without feeling hot and out of breath.