Former hairdresser’s a cut above the rest after maintaining 3st weight loss for 20 years!

Throughout her 20s Jackie Rogerson tried everything she could to lose weight, including taking slimming pills and even wearing a suit that claimed to help you sweat away the fat, without success. It wasn’t until a client recommended she join her local Slimming World group that she managed to make a change and lost 3st ½lb.

More than 19 years later, Jackie, now 45, has maintained her target weight ever since and hung up her scissors to become a Slimming World Consultant and fitness instructor. Today she’s also been named Slimming World’s Top Target Consultant 2016.

Jackie, from Wigan in Greater Manchester, says: “This year I’ll be celebrating 20 years at my target weight which is amazing in itself so to be Slimming World’s Top Target Consultant 2016 is the cherry on the top. It’s so special for me when every member gets to target because I know exactly how they feel and, better still, I know I can help them stay there – I’m proof of that.”

The rockabilly fan had been a sporty teenager but gained weight when she left school to work in a local hairdresser’s and gave up her active hobbies.

At her heaviest, Jackie hated looking at herself in the salon mirrors every day and tried a long list of weight loss methods to try to shift the weight. She says: “Every time a new fad diet came out or someone came in the salon and told us about a new way to lose weight, I'd give it a go. One of the best was a suit which claimed to sweat off the fat while you slept – all I remember is that it cost me £20 and the only thing I lost was that £20.”

It was actually one of Jackie’s clients who told her about Slimming World in 1994. She says: “I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never been to a group before, but I’d tried everything else so I thought I might as well give it a go. When I got there I was one of the youngest ones, everyone was dead welcoming though and straightaway I was hooked.”

Jackie, who lives with her husband Wayne, couldn’t believe that she could eat pasta, rice and potatoes freely on Slimming World’s Food Optimising healthy eating plan. She says: “I became a vegetarian when I was 17 so I thought I ate pretty healthily, but looking back I had a lot of creamy pasta sauces and ready meals. Now I make all my own soups and sauces from scratch, and even though I’m not the world’s best cook I’m famous for my Slimming World-friendly garlic mushrooms in a creamy sauce with pasta.”

In her first week Jackie lost 7lbs and she’s never looked back. She reached her target weight of 10st 1lb, having lost 3st ½lb and gone from a dress size 16 to a 12, in 1996. She says: “I didn’t race to target because it was important to me that this wasn’t just another quick fix. I’ve always thought the word diet meant ‘dare I eat that?’ and Slimming World has never once felt like a diet – to me it was about getting to where I wanted to be and staying there. The day I hit target I felt incredible – and fitting into a pair of size 12 jeans was the best feeling!”

Losing weight isn’t the only change Jackie’s made. She’s also quit smoking and swapped hairdressing for two very different roles – she started running her own Slimming World groups in February 2000 and trained as a fitness instructor in 2010.

Jackie says: “Within a year of becoming a Slimming World Consultant I decided to give up hairdressing to concentrate on it full time and now I look after 500 members in my Slimming World groups each week – and I love it. Then about six years ago I discovered Zumba and I absolutely loved that, too. I trained as a fitness instructor and started teaching Zumba on a Friday night to all of the Slimming World members in the area. All of the money goes to charity and recently we raised £1,000 for Help for Heroes.”

This year Jackie’s looking forward to celebrating her 20^th year at her target weight and is delighted to be marking that milestone with the Top Target Consultant 2016 award. She says: “I love being able to say to people ‘I’m going to help you get to where you want to be and stay there’, and I think that keeps me motivated too because I don’t want to let any of my members down. To me Food Optimising is just natural now; it’s the way I shop, the way I cook, the way I look at a recipe – I always joke that it’s as natural as putting on my red lipstick. If by winning this award I can inspire one person to walk through the door at Slimming World that wouldn’t have done otherwise, then I’ll be happy.”

VITAL STATS

Name: Jackie Rogerson
Age: 45
Height: 5’7”/1.7m
Starting weight: 13st ½lb/182½lbs/83kg
Current weight: 10st 1lb/141lbs/64kg
Weight loss: 3st ½lb/42½lbs/19kg
Starting dress size: 16
Current dress size: 12
Date joined Slimming World: April 6^th, 1994
Date reached target: June 24^th, 2006
Length of time maintained target: 19 years and 34 weeks
Date became a Consultant: February 23^rd, 2000
Group: Jackie runs the Hindley Green Slimming World groups in Wigan.

BEFORE MENU

Breakfast: nothing or just toast with margarine
Mid-morning: a cigarette and a sugary, fizzy drink
Lunch: a couple of cheese pasties or some quiche
Mid-afternoon: another cigarette and a fizzy drink
Dinner: pasta in a creamy sauce or a microwave ready meal
Evening: a couple of packets of crisps.

AFTER MENU

Breakfast: scrambled egg on wholemeal toast or Quorn sausages, baked beans, scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms fried in low calorie cooking spray
Lunch: a homemade soup or jacket potato topped with baked beans
Mid-afternoon: some carrot or cucumber sticks
Dinner: a big plate of homemade pasta with creamy garlic mushrooms pasta
Evening: a small packet of crisps and a bottle of lager.

FACT BOX

Other memorable moments from 1996, the year Jackie Rogerson hit her target weight at Slimming World:

• Take That broke teenage girls’ hearts by announcing they were splitting up
• Dolly the Sheep was born
• The Prince and Princess of Wales got divorced.