MY DANGER ADDICTION

Sarah Cooper, 39, couldn’t stop snacking on supermarket treats

- MISHAAL KHAN, KATIE PEARSON

Sarah’s top tips

• Take small steps to start with, ones you’re comfortable with and are confident you can achieve.
• Be kind to yourself. If you slip up, it’s OK. Move forward and keep going.
• Don’t force yourself to eat things you don’t like – find the things you do. Eating well can and should be enjoyable!
• Don’t feel you have to run marathons! Any activity is progress – like taking the stairs instead of the lift.
• Take 10 minutes each day to plan and think ahead, and to reflect on your progress.

Standing in the sweets aisle, in my Co-op uniform, I was salivating as I tried to take my eyes off the rows of large bars of creamy milk chocolate and packets of biscuits. As a customer chucked a couple of bars of chocolate in their basket, I tried to hide my jealousy with a half-hearted smile.

I was just 16 and, while this Saturday job at the supermarket should’ve been helping me lose weight through being on my feet all day, it only made me crave the goodies on the shelves.

I was a teenager – I should’ve been fit and energetic, yet I was already a size 18. For the last few years, I’d started to feel self-conscious about my body and had sat quietly in the corner of the classroom hoping nobody would notice me.

My mum Gail, then 42, had suggested I get the job at the Co-op, but once I’d started, the temptation was far too much. At the end - or even during - my shift, I would give in to a packet of doughnuts or a bar of Galaxy.