Eileen Walsh: Bursting out of my dress was the push I needed to lose 4st

BEATING THE BULGE: Now slim, Eileen remembers the days she was called a ‘big lass’

When police officer EILEEN WALSH started to pile on the pounds, late night takeaways and pints in the pub were the main suspects. Here she reveals how she overhauled her diet.

 

A FEW years ago I was working on patrol with the police and attended an incident where a member of the public spotted me at the scene.

Later on, he rang the station to ask if he could speak to me, as he was a potential witness.

As he didn’t know my name he left a description – “big lass with a pretty face”.

When I saw it in the police log, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I was a size 16 and didn’t feel overweight but started to wonder if that’s how people really saw me?

Before joining the police at 19, I’d never had any issues with my weight.

I’d been a size 10 gymnast with a six-pack stomach and could eat anything I wanted.

At 17, my cousin John Joe, who was the same age as me, was killed in a motorbike accident which left the whole family grieving and devastated.

For two years, I became something of a party animal and it was only when another cousin, a police officer, suggested I needed some focus that I applied to the police.

It was the best thing I ever did.

There are some difficult times, such as when I have to deliver devastating news to a family.

But my own experience helps me approach it in the best way possible.

However there are child neglect cases and road accidents that are difficult to forget.

But there are also very satisfying times, such as when we catch a criminal and see them jailed as a result of our hard work.

Yet one of the problems with being in the police is the shift patterns.

I’m in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) now but, when I was on night patrol, I worked mostly with men who seemed able to eat anything they liked without piling on the pounds.

They would think nothing of ordering a takeaway curry on their meal break at 2am and, of course, I joined in.

Before long I was eating a takeaway pizza, curry or Chinese four nights a week.

On rest days, we’d socialise together and have greasy doner kebabs and pints of lager.

Within six months of joining, my weight had crept over 15st and I was in size 16 clothes.

Although I was overweight, I was very confident and never had a problem socialising.

Being 5ft 10d-in tall, I carried the weight well, which also helped.

But looking back, perhaps it was a false confidence.

There were times that I knew I needed to slim.

As police officers, we are given riot training every two years, learning how to deal with petrol bombs and holding a shield against a crowd.

Having been so athletic in my younger days I thought I’d find it easy, but holding a heavy shield all day was exhausting – I passed but by the skin of my teeth.

Clothes shopping would leave me feeling down.

I’ve always liked fashion and feeling glamorous but I’d search through rails of trendy clothes and they’d never have my size.

I lived in jeans, trainers, cardigans and hoodies.

When I met my now fiancé Rob through work – he’s a police constable – we clicked immediately.

The zip broke and the dress ripped wide open. Devastated, I ran back into the house in tears – nothing like that had happened before

My weight was never an issue for him and he proposed within six months.

But being athletic and 6ft 2in tall, he can eat whatever he likes and never put on an ounce.

We both like to cook together and as I was so happy, I never thought about how my weight was creeping up.

The turning point came in November 2011.

Rob and I were getting ready to attend an annual police ball and I picked out a black dress that I loved.

It was a size 16 but it wouldn’t zip up.

Rob had to pull the dress together and I held my breath.

As I was getting into the taxi, the zip broke and the dress ripped wide open.

Devastated, I ran back into the house in tears – nothing like that had happened before.

I ended up wearing a less flattering black dress and felt like a beached whale.

My confidence was shot to pieces for the first time and it was then that I remembered a friend on Facebook who had joined Weight Watchers and had lost more than 4st in a year.

I decided to get Christmas out of the way and in January 2012, I joined a meeting at Ovenden, Halifax.

Before my first meeting I asked Rob to take pictures of me in my underwear, front and back, because I knew that if I ever felt like falling off the wagon, I could just look at those pictures to spur me on.

When I stepped on the scales and saw my weight for the first time – 16st 1lb – I was surprised but not upset.

It made me more determined than ever to lose the weight.

I stuck to three proper meals such as two Weetabix with semi-skimmed milk, a tuna salad for lunch and dinner was a Weight Watchers chicken curry, which I’d bulk out with lot of mushrooms, peppers and onions.

It made the meal feel more substantial and always filled me up. IWOULD also treat myself to chocolate, such as a two-finger Kit-Kat each day.

In that first week I lost 8lb. It was a great confidence boost.

I hadn’t denied myself anything and never felt I was on a “diet”.

Within weeks I had lost 1st and I kept going.

Rob and I already had one son, Cole, five, and when I fell pregnant with my second, Thomas, now almost two, in December 2012, we were overjoyed.

I stopped going to Weight Watchers but when Thomas was four weeks old I rejoined in October 2013 and my weight loss success continued.

I started walking more and recorded my steps on a Fitbit.

My friends and I would set each other challenges to reach a certain number of steps per day.

By February 2014, I’d lost 3st 8lb and when I bought a size 14 dress for Valentine’s Day it turned out to be too big.

When Rob and I went to the police ball that November, I wore the same dress that I’d burst out of but being a size 12 I had to have it taken in.

I felt like a million dollars.

Weighing 12st, I’m just starting to creep into size 10 clothes, which I’m thrilled about.

? The full version of this article appears in the September issue of Weight Watchers magazine on sale now.

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