Future Fit Training Exercise to Music Instructor Student, Gill Butcher has been named as the First Place Winner of the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine, Slimmer of the Year 2009 Awards, after shedding an amazing 10 stone!
46-year old Gill used to weigh 20st 12lb and wear a dress size 26 until she joined her local Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club. Today, after being overweight for twenty years, Gillian (who is 5’ 8”) now weighs 10st 12lb and wears a dress size 12.
Gill’s weight had turned her into a social recluse and it took her 4 attempts just to gain the courage to walk through the door at her local Rosemary Conley class. “I spent 2 decades trying to blend into the background. What a waste!” says Gill, who has now decided to make up for her lost youth by taking up surfing and hula-hooping.
The problem started after Gill’s father died and she stopped rushing around and yet still ate the same food. “I turned into a couch potato and became more and more isolated,” says Gill, who didn’t used to be able to walk very far without panting and without her thighs rubbing together so much that it hurt.
When Gill’s mother started to suffer from dementia a few years later, and she used to put looking after her ahead of looking after herself, Gill began to pile on even more weight. “I never went to any social events. My confidence ebbed away and I felt I was going to spend my life fat and left out, looking in at life from the outside,” adds Gill.
One event Gill did attend in 2002 was a friend’s wedding in Australia, only for the occasion to be ruined by her friend’s future in-laws making hurtful comments such as asking how someone so fat could get into an aeroplane seat.
The final straw for Gill came in 2006 when she was visiting her mother, who was by now in a care home, and a nurse commented that she looked like her mother. “It was the shock I needed,” says Gill. “My mother was extremely overweight and twice my age!”
It has taken Gill 2 years to get down to her target weight but now she has, there is no stopping her. “My confidence has now returned and I’m having a great time,” says Gill
Rosemary Conley, CBE, presented Gill with the coveted Slimmer of the Year Award at a glitzy awards ceremony held at the London Marriott Hotel County Hall, on the South Bank of the Thames, on Tuesday 6th January 2009 along with her prizes of £2,000 cash, £250 of John Lewis vouchers and 2 Fast Track tickets for the London Eye. Gill comments “I honestly had no idea when I finally entered at the 11th hour and 59th minute that I had any chance of winning – the press launch was very exciting last week but also very tiring too”.
Gill is now working really hard on training to be an instructor – “I’d like to inspire others to experience the energy and vitality I have now, and see what they are missing,” adds Gill.
If you are interested in becoming an Exercise to Music Instructor and inspiring others to exercise their way to happiness like Gill did, then call a Future Fit Training Careers Advisor on 01329 829444.
For information about Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs call 01509 620222 or visit www.rosemaryconley.com
If you have any stories that we can include in future newsletters or on our website please email louise.martin@futurefit.co.uk!