by MARY MAGEE

THROWING away her chip pan has helped a local woman lose six stone in just under a year.

Rosie Cummings (38), a part-time taxi driver and self confessed chip addict, joined a local Rosemary Conley class in November 8 last year and has lost 841b in total. A delighted Rosie said she feels 100 per cent better and could never go back to her old self.

At 17 stone two pounds she was fed up with being overweight and generally feeling sluggish.

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, unfit and out of breath she knew that she had to do something.

She returned home from holiday on a Monday and joined the class that Thursday at the Christian Fellowship in Lisburn.

"I could have waited until after Christmas but I was determined that nothing was going to stand in my way," she said.

A lover of chips she would often skip breakfast and then eat chips for lunch and tea.

"I loved chips and ate them with anything," said Rosie. "If I didn't eat chips I didn't eat." So out went her beloved chips and in came healthier options like salad sandwiches and fruit.

By Christmas she had lost her first stone and was awarded Slimmer of the Week when she lost six pounds in seven days - at one of the hardest times of the year to lose weight.

"I was determined not to go to anyone's house for a big Christmas dinner and instead offered to work," she said. "I had to stay focused even during Christmas."

As part of her diet Rosie drinks up to five large glasses of water per day.

She eats a healthy balanced diet of Weetabix for breakfast, a light sandwich for lunch and a chicken dinner with lots of vegetables - a diet which would once have been unthinkable.

When she lost two stone Rosie began to exercise and now walks two miles per day "It's not that much," she said. "I just walk into town and back again but I thought if my 73 year old mother can do it then I can too." Recently she tried to eat a chip and it sickened her.

"I knew then I would not go back of the old Rosie," he said. "I put it in my mouth and was nearly sick. It was disgusting, I could taste the grease. I would eat oven chips but I couldn't go back to greasy chips.

mary.magee@jpress.co.uk

Ulster Star
31/10/2008