Food News, with Amanda Killelea

SLIMLINE Kath Whipp is laughing all the way to the dress shop after her amazing shrinking exploits.

Kath has lost an incredible 6st 12lbs in just 12 months and it is all thanks to Blackburn's Slimming World Club.

She had always been overweight since primary school but had never had the inclination to slim down until her mum Anne joined Slimming World.

Kath, of Longworth Road, Billington, said: "My mum didn't understand how to follow the diet so she paid for me to join to help her out.

"I lost a stone in just four weeks and I haven't looked back since."

Now Kath has been entered into Slimming World's national "Greatest Loser" competition and is hoping to walk away with the £2,000 first prize.

Vegetarian Kath follows Slimming World's "green" diet plan, which means she can eat unlimited amounts of pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit and veg. And she is allowed 10 sins a day so she can still eat her favourite crisps and have the odd tipple of alcohol, which is 2.5 sins per measure.

She said: "Before I joined Slimming World I used to eat a lot of fried food, olive oil and cheese.

"But since I started the diet I haven't deviated from it once. "It really is quite easy because if I get peckish I can just cook up some pasta or heat some baked beans."

A typical diet day for Kath starts with cereal and boiled eggs, snacks of fruit, pasta for lunch and rice and curry for dinner, not forgetting her sins of crisps in the evening.

Her mum Anne and brother Simon have also shed the pounds on the diet, making a total family loss of 14 stone in just 12 months.

Kath has sold all her bigger clothes and is waiting until she has shed another three stone to reach her target before she invests in a whole new wardrobe.

She said: "All my friends and family have been really supportive and love my new look.

"My daughter Taryn can't believe it.

"She keeps drawing pictures of a new slim mummy.

And the great thing about the diet is that it is really healthy - I've only had one cold since I started."

Kath's Slimming World consultant Vicky Jackson has more than 100 members at her class at St Mary's College, Shear Brow, every Wednesday and has just started another class in Clitheroe.

Vicky said: "Kath has done really well and such an inspiration for other class members. Anybody can follow the diet and Kath has proved it really works.

"If anybody else wants to slim down for summer they can come and join us at either class and give it a try."

Kath said: "If I win the Greatest Loser competition I will definitely be going away this summer to show off the new me."

THERE are two eating plans slimmers can follow with the Slimming World diet - the Original Eating Plan, which includes meat and fish, or the Green Eating Plan, which is vegetarian, or a mixture of the two. Here are samples of both:

GREEN EATING PLAN

BREAKFAST: Two slices of hi-bran bread, beans and a poached egg.

LUNCH: Batchelors savoury rice, one pack of Findus Lean Cuisine vegetable tikka masala, one 125g pot of very low fat flavoured yoghurt, one peach or nectarine.

DINNER: Two Quorn burgers, new potatoes with fresh mint, sweetcorn, peas and broad beans, strawberries with low fat fromage frais.

SNACKS: One mini Mars ice cream, two rich tea finger biscuits, one 125g very low -fat yoghurt, one 425g Baxters country garden soup.

ORIGINAL EATING PLAN

BREAKFAST: 28g bran flakes with milk, two slices of hi-bran bread, one teaspoon of jam.

LUNCH: Roast chicken, salad, beansprouts, beetroot, pickled onion.

DINNER: Pork ratatouille, one glass white wine.

SNACKS: One yoghurt, two rich tea fingers.

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