With a desk job and love for chocolate, chartered accountant Helen Besant-Roberts found it difficult to avoid beating the bulge. As well as being a self-confessed chocoholic, her busy schedule meant she struggled to find the time to exercise. But, as time went on, the 47-year-old wanted to make a change. Weighing in at 15st 3lbs, she sought out a weight loss programme which could help her to get trim.
She said: “I have always struggled with my weight, since being a child.
“I had managed to control it in my 30s through diet and exercise but it had become a struggle in my late 30s.
“My exercise regime had diminished and I had lost focus.
“On top of that, I was struggling more with food and so the weight had crept back on.”
It was at that point when she enrolled in an online programme with trainer Oliver James, who has starred as a health coach on the ITV show This Time Next Year.
Determined to slim, she began the 12-week Take Control programme, which is bespoke to each individual, in terms of both how they eat and train.
It came after Helen had struggled between binging on high-calorie foods and attempting to lose weight fast on different diet plans.
“I associated dieting with denial and penance for the times when I over ate,” she explained.
“When I was being ‘good’ I would deny myself foods I enjoyed. I would also bounce from one fad or crash diet to another in an attempt to lose weight quickly.
“As a result, I couldn’t sustain it and would fall ‘off the wagon’, I would then end up binge eating and putting any weight I had lost back on.”
For Helen, the training programme meant home based work outs, as well as getting guidance over the food and coaching she had.
As well as regulalry exercising around four times per week, the accountant also altered what she was eating – choosing fresher food as opposed to high-calorie processed meals.
Helen said of her trimmer self: “I am very fit now and well-conditioned. My cardiovascular fitness is excellent and far exceeds anything I would have imagined.
“The training I do is enjoyable and varied as Oliver helped me discover a way of exercising that’s fun and keeps me interested.
“I understand a lot about fitness and training now as well so I can come up with my own programmes.”
She continued: “Oliver’s relaxed approach has taken so much stress out of weight management to me. I used to think it was all about complicated fad diets and clever science.
“I would get blinded by the claims of the latest trend but now I think of things in a very basic way – calories in and calories out.”
Another person who has spoken about how getting trim changed their life is deadlift athlete Eddie Hall, who spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about how he maintains his six stone weight loss.
For more information on TV health and nutrition coach Oliver James and his unique online ‘Take Control’ coaching programme please visit OliverJamesCoaching.com.