Meet the Northampton couple who lost 12 stone between them despite pandemic challenges

A Northampton couple who inspired each other have managed to lose a whopping 12 stone between them.

Jodie and Oliver Bird from Kingsthorpe love to holiday and eat out together, however they realised their lifestyle was making them gain weight.

The tipping point came in January 2018, after Jodie’s best friend asked her to be her bridesmaid.

The 38-year-old said: “I didn’t want to be the fat bridesmaid as everyone else in the wedding party was slim.

“The bride wanted to lose weight too, so we started attending WW Workshop meetings together.

“We both had to have quite a lot of dress alterations as we lost so much weight before the wedding.”

Jodie, who is a public health wellbeing advisor, lost more than four stone, which inspired her husband, Oliver, to also join WW (formerly WeightWatchers).

Since starting in 2019, the 33-year-old has lost a huge seven stone by using WW online resources.

Jodie added: “I had a really good leader. She was not a preachy person, but instead really supportive. She knew people had bad weeks and good weeks and would never dwell on it but rather encouraged us to draw a line under it and move on.

“I had a great group too and we had a real laugh together.

“I never felt like I was deprived of food and seeing other success stories really spurs you on.”

The duo also started to incorporate exercise into their lives, so much so that on one holiday they were getting up at 7am to workout together.

Jodie attends sessions such as Clubbercise, Zumba and HITT, and Oliver uses the gym, having been a complete gym-phopic prior to his weight loss.

During lockdown, the duo also bought their own equipment and set up a mini home gym so they could continue their fitness journeys.

“Exercise helped me mentally and physically,” Jodie continued.

“When I first started, I would wear dark clothes and stay at the very back of the class but then after losing weight, I would turn up to classes in full neon face paint and neon clothing and I’d be at the front of the class.

“I felt so much better about myself and my confidence had grown massively.

“It feels so good when people comment on how great I look now.”