Meadow Harrison decided she needed to make a major change to her lifestyle after looking at pictures taken on herself at a New Year’s Eve party at the start of this year
A woman who lost four stone and eight pounds while following a Slimming World plan has proved you can lose weight while still enjoying a beer or wine in the evening. After going out with friends on New Year’s Eve 2024, Meadow Harrison from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, woke up on New Year’s Day and said she was “mortified” when she saw pictures of the celebrations.
After years feeling insecure in herself and binge eating through her emotions, Meadow promised herself she would make a change in her lifestyle. Over the years, the 22-year-old office manager had tried a number of different diets including calorie counting, Slimfast, 700 calorie fasting and the James Duncan diet, but none of the plans ever stuck.
In the new year, Meadow decided to try something new and picked up a Slimming World magazine.
She said: “When I turned 21 and was at my heaviest, I liked going out and socialising with friends and family. I was getting to a point where I was feeling really insecure about my weight and going out turned into a really negative experience.
“On New Year’s Eve I went to a party and woke up the next day, looked at the pictures and was mortified. I wanted to do something about it and promised myself on that day I would never ever feel the way that I felt again.”
Meadow found Slimming World magazines on the table of her home, as her mum was following the plan and had lost a stone and a half, and made a plan of action for herself.
She tried the Slimming World plan on her own for one week before stepping foot into her first class, weighing 13 stone 7 pounds and wearing a size 16.
Meadow said: “I actually felt really nervous when I walked through the door, but I felt instantly relaxed as soon as I walked in. It was like something had come over me and I felt like this was a door that had been opened for me that’s going to completely change my life.
“The only way I can describe it is that you’re in a room full of people that are showing up for themselves and it’s just the most inspiring thing in the world.”
While on her Slimming World journey, Meadow faced some challenges when she was having a bad day.
She said: “Before I started my journey I would binge eat through my emotions. I was an emotional eater and there were times where work was stressful or had a bad day, and it took some serious willpower to get around those food cravings that I’d have.
“When I was binge eating I wasn’t necessarily thinking about what I was eating, I just wanted everything bad for me. One time I’d had a stressful day, eaten lots of chocolate and fell back into old habits.
“I realised how bad that made me feel. I was like ‘I don’t need to feel like this again’. The plan made me feel really good and binge eating never made me feel good.
“I’d also keep my head in the game and remind myself of the reason why, I’d always say this is your final destination and you need to get there… this is what you need to do.”
After nine months on the Slimming World plan, and without the help of weight loss injections, Meadow lost four stone and eight pounds to reach her goal weight of 9 stone.
Meadow, who is now a dress size 8, described Slimming World as being “flexible” and “kind” compared to anything she had tried before. She added that if she wants to have a beer or wine at the end of the day, she could do so.
She said: “The plan is so flexible, I can still have a beer at the end of the day when I want to. I can make curries for my friends when they come around for a drink and can still have curry and wine.
“It can all be on plan, I’m literally spoiled with food choices so why would I give up and why would I not do it?”
After seeing such drastic changes, Meadow decided to become a Slimming World consultant and open her own group at St John’s Church Hall in Walmley.
The group, which had over 60 people in attendance, lost a total of 90 pounds in just one week.
Meadow said: “I thought if I bite the bullet and invest, I can help as many people as I want to feel as good as I do. I just want to change as many lives as possible and make as many people feel as good as I do.
“I’m 22 now, and I could never see myself joining and had this misconception that it was for the older generation. I was so wrong.
“Even when you are with people of different ages, you don’t feel like you’re the youngest person in the room when you are. You just walk in and everyone is there to lose weight and support each other. These people carry you through your journey.”
Meadow also shares her weight loss journey on TikTok and often posts videos of what she eats in a day, recipes to try and different supermarket items that are low calorie and syn free.
While posting online, Meadow says she receives a lot of comments from people claiming that Slimming World is causing people to have a “unhealthy relationship with food because they can have an unlimited amount of pasta”.
Meadow said: “That’s a really common misconception, yes you can eat pasta on the plan but we would never encourage you not to add additional proteins and vegetables to make it healthy.
“We actually teach people how to eat balanced meals so they don’t over eat.”
Meadow’s favourite Slimming World Friendly meals
Breakfast: A slice of brown bread, cheese spread and beans
Lunch: A Slimming World bowl from Iceland as they’re great on the go and there’s lots of choice
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese with lots of cheese (You can lose weight and still eat something that feel like a hug in a bowl)
Snack: Fruit dipped in chocolate and a beer
