Amazing transformation: Woman goes from size 32 to 12

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A mother who struggled to take her young daughter to the playground without getting out of breath is celebrating after losing an incredible 17stone. 

Vikki Billingham, who tipped the scales at a staggering 27 stone, could barely manage a trip to the shops and was embarrassed to go out most of the time.

The mother-of-two from the West Midlands found it difficult to get clothes to fit her size 32 figure and her weight was preventing her from being active with her young daughter.
And it was this that spurred her to try and lose some weight. 

Now, with the help of diet magazines and a slimming group, the super slimmer is down to a svelte 10st 9lbs - and a size 12 - and loves nothing more than a trip out to get the latest fashions.

‘It got to a certain point and I just had enough - I could hardly do anything with my daughter Jessica, who was three at the time, and I got sick of how I was living my life,’ said care assistant Vikki.

‘I couldn't get about easily as I'd get out of breath, and shopping was a depressing experience.

‘Finding something that fit was tough and even when you did it didn't look right, so I dressed a lot older than I was.

‘It's so much easier now, it's lovely to be able to walk in a shop and pick anything up and know it will fit. I feel so much younger now than I did back then.’

Now aged, 38, Vikki's long eight-year journey started out with her buying Slimming World magazines for their recipes and cooking them up at home in Brierley Hill, West Midlands.

‘I was too embarrassed to even go to the groups to start with - I wanted to lose a bit of weight first,’ she admitted. 

‘I lost about 11st on my own but then started to find the last few stone were really difficult to shift.

‘So about four years ago I started going to the group and they gave me the support I needed to keep going.’

Before, she said, her diet was full of ‘all the wrong things’ - a lot of bread, fried food and takeaways, and very little fruit and vegetables.

Now she cooks everything from scratch eating fresh fruit and vegetables and fish.

She has two children - Jessica, 12, and James, three.

As well as the diet, Vikki said she started going on three walks a week, and in January this year joined a gym to improve her fitness and lose the two pounds that will take her to her ideal weight.

‘It has changed my life completely - I do things now that I never would have dreamed of doing just a few years ago,’ she added.