A CLIENT turned team leader for Weight Watchers has told how an eye test changed her life and made her lose over three stone in just eight months.

Amanda Bennett now runs eight meetings a week across Ayrshire, including classes in Saltcoats, Stevenston and Kilwinning.

Explaining how she first started with Weight Watchers, she said: “When I went for a routine eye test nearly three years ago I wasn’t expecting to be told that my blood pressure was high! My optician advised me to go straight to my doctor where I found out that as well as my blood pressure, my cholesterol levels were also high.

“I was totally shocked, came home in tears at the age of 44, to be told that was not nice, it was a wake up call that I needed.

“Since I had my hysterectomy operation 12 months before, I knew I had been gaining weight and felt terrible, but couldn’t admit to myself that I needed to lose weight. I honestly hadn’t realised how much my weight gain had been affecting my health.

Amanda decided that she had to do something drastic so that day she walked into her local Weight Watchers meeting in Troon and has never looked back.

“I loved attending my meetings and the support of my leader and the other members was what kept me going back. The plan was easy to follow and I could still have a Chinese takeaway at the weekend. I love my chocolate and if I’d been told I couldn’t include chocolate I would have walked out there and then but I could have it!

“I have lost 46.5lbs to get to my goal weight (which only took me eight months) and have never been so slim since I had my first daughter 23 years ago !

“I went back to my doctor for a check up and I thought to myself that if he didn’t immediately notice the difference in me, then I would turn round and walk out of the surgery. He did notice and was extremely happy with the huge difference that losing the weight had made to my health.

“My blood pressure and cholesterol levels are now both normal and I’m over the moon and full of energy these days.”

Amanda loved her Weight Watchers meetings so much that she applied to be a leader and became a leader in September 2015 and she now runs eight meetings a week in Saltcoats, Maybole, Dunoon , Stevenston, Symington and Kilwinning.