Sarah's story was featured in the Daily Express
Sarah Wilson lost 2 stone in 5 months.

I left hairdressing college at the age of 18 not really sure what I wanted to do with my life, I had bought The Stage newspaper that week and noticed an open audition to be held in Manchester that following Saturday. I didn't drive then so I asked my dad if he would take me. We arrived at what seemed like a derelict warehouse, we went inside and at the back was a makeshift studio. I auditioned and there was an agent there watching us, after we had finished we filled in an application form and went back in to see the agent. She offered me a job dancing on a cruise ship, I jumped at the chance, I was to fly out the following Sunday.

I arrived on the ship and the first thing I was told was that I was too fat (I was about 8 ½ stone) and that I had to lose the weight or leave. This started my battle with food, up until then I had never really bothered dieting. A couple of the other dancers were bulimic or anorexic.. I kept a food diary and I rarely ate more than 400 calories a day, I was doing 4 shows a week, 2 shows a night. And also working out at least twice a week, I lost the weight but very slowly, not realizing that at the time I just wasn't eating enough food. But the pressure from my dance captain made me not want to eat, at meal times it would be a competition to see how much food the dancers could leave on their plates.. One night at midnight buffet (the cake one) we put loads of cakes on our plates and went to sit down, a gentleman actually videoed us eating because he couldn't believe that dancers would eat.

I remained on the cruise ships for 2 seasons all the time struggling with my weight, and being reminded that I was too fat... I didn't know any different at that age.. I did as I was told. As soon as I left the ships in April 1989 I joined Warners as a bluecoat on the Isle of Wight. I loved this job as it wasn't about the weight, it was just pure fun. But as a dancer's career is quite a short one I was only a bluecoat for a season, leaving me free to continue my career as a dancer.

I then through a friend became friendly with the group Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers and after a few months I joined them as a dancer, helping choreograph the shows and also portraying the jive bunny character. Again I was reminded that my weight had to remain quite low. This wasn't as strict as other dancing contracts. I travelled the world performing shows and doing TV appearances, also doing pantomime with Lionel Blair, Una Stubbs and other celebrities. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and was able to relax a little bit with my eating habits.

I then started working for an all girl trio, from the off I was under pressure to lose weight as we were wearing more revealing outfits and the boss decided to bet me money that I couldn't lose weight and get down to around 8 stone, (I was about 9 when I joined them) I took her up on her challenge just to prove that I could and got down to the weight, it took me ages, I used to taking slimming tablets and more or less starve myself. I have tried slim fast, laxatives, cabbage soup diet, slimming tablets from the doctors.. most things really. My family told me that I used to show signs of being anorexic even though I wasn't a really low weight. I also used to work in nightclubs as a podium dancer in between contracts, so again having to keep my weight low as the clothes we wore were quite skimpy. I worked in clubland in different groups for about 6 years. I then decided it felt the right time to retire, well from the dancing scene anyway.. I had become tired of the pressure to remain slim. When I look back at the photos I never want to be that weight again because I associate it with the difficulties of trying to stay that weight.

The most ironic thing was that I actually rang up about doing an audition for a slimfast advert, (I was about 9 ½ stone at the time) I sent a photo to them and they actually said that I wasn't fat enough but to come down to London for an audition anyway, so over that weekend me and my sister (she joined in to be sociable) ate everything in sight to gain as much weight as I could. (It was fab) I did the audition in a pair of leggings and tried to push my stomach out as far as I could. Needless to say I didn't get the job.

Over the next few years I did numerous things, one of which was owning a shop with my sister, the bad news was that we were next to a newsagents and we were never that busy, I started to grow and over the space of a couple of years was soon a size 16/18.

It was just good that I didn't have to watch everything that I ate anymore. I used to say that I was happy and that if others didn't like me as I am that it was their problem. My sister grew with me, I was one of these that used to say slimming clubs were rubbish and that there was no way I was paying someone to weigh me as I could do that at home, and I had done that many diets that I knew what I was doing and I could do it on my own. (How wrong I was)

Me and members of my family joined a local slimming club called "slimlines" the manager and proprietor Lyn mulligan had worked for "weight watchers" for 17 years and decided to go it alone and start her own company. We arrived and when I got weighed in, I got on the scales and I kept saying how I found it difficult to lose weight and well basically I had a bit of an attitude mainly because I thought I knew best. Lyn listened to me and told me I weighed 12 stone 6lbs. I was gutted, had I eaten a horse over night...?? I listened to Lyn explain the programme and thought well that's easy enough, in the first few weeks I didn't really lose much (I did go on holiday as well)

Then it started moving, only in small amounts but I thought this isn't bad really. And I didn't really have to concentrate to follow the plan. I realised that throughout my dancing career I had been guilty of starving my body and not eating enough hence why it always took so long to lose any weight, you need to put the fuel in to make your body work. It is getting the balance right so that you lose the weight. I eventually lost 32 lbs, and felt fabulous about myself (I have a few flabby bits but hey).

Then Christmas 2006 Lyn asked me if I wanted to become a manager, now there is a difference between performing in front of an audience and actually talking in front of an audience and motivating them at the same time. She eventually persuaded me and I started training with her, I opened my first class 10th April 2007, I now run 6 classes and they are building up nicely. I now also run 3 dance workouts a week for Slimlines where I incorporate different styles of dance like salsa and jive etc. How wrong could I have been, all those years of starving myself and feeling the pressure from the people I worked for. To now find out the secret to losing weight easily and enjoying life at the same time, I certainly do.

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