Health News - Snacks and the city piled on the pounds

Published: 6 January, 2011
by TOM FOOT

MARY Tinsley has dropped three dress sizes and lost 3 stone 10 pounds after walking past the sweetshop on her way home from work.

The 40-year-old legal secretary from Mornington Crescent had a daily routine of “snacking mindlessly” on chocolate and fizzy drinks after leaving work in Museum Street, Bloomsbury.

Ms Tinsley said: “I had got into the habit of leaving work and walking to the bus stop via the sweet shop and buying a chocolate bar and a packet of crisps and a can of coke every day. I wasn’t actually hungry but it was like my reward for finishing a stressful day at work.”

She added: “It reached a point where how I looked and felt was making me miserable.”

Ms Tinsley decided to do something about it. She started tracking what she ate as part of the Weight Watchers programme and took steps to change her routine.

She said: “I planned a different route home which didn’t go past that sweet shop. I changed the way I cooked and started to eat more fruit and vegetables. I also started walking to work.”

Ms Tinsley is Camden’s Weight Watchers leader and is holding a free public health session in Our Lady Help of Christians Church Hall, Lady Margaret Road, Kentish Town, from 9.30am on Saturday.