A former 15 stone regular Greggs customer who ditched her every day pastry lunch has now transformed into a personal trainer and bodybuilder after she successfully shed six stone. Staceylee Richards, 38 who had a tough relationship with food growing up used to pop into her local store during her lunch break at work every day but she finally overcame her unhealthy eating habits after she joined a gym with a friend and started taking part in weight training.
The reformed bodybuilder who used to struggle with fad diets which would only show her results for a short period of time learned how to control her comfort eating habits and finally lost a whopping six stone after the covid pandemic lockdown in 2020. Last weekend she announced that she had officially won her first bodybuilding competition, the Mirror reports.
Staceylee said: “I was addicted to food and I would think about it constantly. It was my comfort for when I had ups and downs as food always made me feel better until later on when the guilt would hit. Working in the banking office was hard as there was temptation everywhere; if it was someone's birthday, there would be a cake, or at long meetings we'd have biscuits and coffee.
"But the biggest culprit was the Greggs down the road. I'd go every lunchtime and order the usual; a steak bake, a sausage and bean melt, ham and cheese baguette and a jam doughnut.
"Thinking about it now makes me feel sick but that was the norm for me. Growing up, I was always bigger than my friends. I used to compare myself to my smaller girlfriends.
''It would get me down and I'd comfort eat. When I was 11-years-old I went to secondary school wearing a size 12 skirt and I just kept getting bigger."
Staceylee's rocky food relationship continued into her 20s and her weight would yo-yo from fad diets to binges. In March 2014, Staceylee, then a size 18, joined a slimming group where she lost eight dress sizes in 12 months, leaving her weighing just 10.5st.
She left in 2015 to join a gym and started weight training and in 2017 threw herself into her bodybuilding training when she was made redundant from her job at the bank. Staceylee said: "I loved seeing the results and my muscles getting more and more defined.
''The person who introduced me to the gym taught me the ropes and I'd look online for exercises and tips. Soon after, I started following bodybuilders on Instagram and began seeing muscle definition which I loved.
''It was so refreshing to be active after the long hours I was working at the bank.' In the first seven weeks of lockdown, I put on two stone which was crazy.
"I missed going to the gym to train for competitions and found myself comfort eating again. I'd eat biscuits with cups of tea when watching TV and my love of potatoes was back in full force."
"[After lockdown] I went to the gym every day and me and my coach would train weekly. I've managed to shed just shy of six stone. Now I can't even find women's size four jeans that fit and I have to shop in the children's section.”
Last month, Staceylee came first in the Fit X Welsh Championships which is her first win since getting back into her training. She added: "Words can't describe how proud I felt on that stage, just last year I was in such a bad place both physically and emotionally, so to be able to get back to my competition physique and get such a big win, it's very exciting.
“I'm the happiest I've ever been and I wouldn't swap that for the world, especially not a Greggs steak bake.”
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