I was so fat I couldn't walk round my kitchen island. But now aged 73 I've lost three stone and FOUR dress sizes in less than a year - here's how. By TV chef ROSEMARY SHRAGER
Proper news from Britain - News from Britain you won’t find anywhere else. Not the tosh the big media force-feed you every day!
As you read this, I am somewhere between Land’s End and the White Cliffs of Dover, pedalling my heart out on the second day of an 18-day, 450-mile charity bike challenge.
I can hardly believe this myself. After a lifetime of despising exercise and struggling with my weight, I’ve reached a place where I’m reaping the physical and emotional benefits of prioritising my body and health.
Nine months after I started training, I’m more than three stone lighter and four dress sizes smaller.
And while I can credit perseverance plus the support of a personal trainer and cycling partner, I have something else to thank for my achievements – Ozempic. Half a million people in the UK are using Ozempic, or other kinds of GLP-1 medication, to help aid their weight loss.
However, my motivation was not simply to lose weight, it was also about building longevity.
I had an operation for a hip replacement in 2023, and this time last year, while I was no longer in physical pain, I was living an incredibly lazy life. I wasn’t exercising at all.
Indeed, I was so unfit I couldn’t walk around my kitchen island without steadying myself on the counter.
I live in a beautiful part of the country, on the border of Kent and East Sussex, but I dared not walk into my village for fear of not making it back home.
I’m known for my love of food, having presented TV cookery programmes over the past four decades, including shows such as Rosemary’s School For Cooks. I’ve recently been a judge on Cooking With The Stars on ITV, and have also taken part in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and The Real Marigold Hotel.
Food has always been at the heart of everything I do, on and off TV.
Although I always ate relatively healthily – salads, baked potatoes, meat and vegetables with the odd portion of chips – looking back, my portion sizes were excessive and, in the absence of exercise, I grew bigger and bigger.
A couple of years ago, at 5ft 7in tall, I weighed 20 stone and was deeply worried about my health. I realised major lifestyle changes were needed. When I heard about Ozempic, it felt right to give it a try.
I have always struggled with my weight. As a child I wore bigger clothes than other girls my age, and by the age of ten I was seeing a Harley Street doctor to establish why I was so fat.
The doctor imparted the news that I had a very slow metabolism, so I was put on a diet, and at my boarding school – the former Hampden House School for Girls in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire – I endured daily remedial exercises.
After the afternoon bell rang, I trundled to the school gym for private fitness sessions with our PE teacher, hating every second and feeling deeply embarrassed about being singled out. Imagine being the only pupil who got special treatment because of her size.
In that gymnasium I developed a negative association with movement which has lasted all my life. I came to despise exercise.
I got married to Michael, a barrister, at the age of 22, and after setting up my own catering company, food became my life.
After having my first child, Tom, now 52, in 1972 (I also have a daughter, Kate, age 50) I got into Pilates. But the same battle continued. Before every class I was locked in a mental fight, arguing with a voice in my head that said, ‘Don’t bother’.
Like most overweight people, I’ve occasionally tried quick-fix diets, from the protein and citrus fruit diet to the cabbage soup plan and, more recently, one that involved eating a shedload of prunes.
If I was promised a 10lb drop in ten days, I needed no more convincing.
Did any of them work? Of course not! Within weeks of shedding weight, I was back to square one.
In my early 30s, and desperate to come down from a size 16, I became bulimic. I would secretly binge-eat then purge, although I didn’t confide in anyone at the time.
Rather than lead to noticeable weight loss, my secret addiction kept my weight stable.
After roughly a decade I sorted myself out by checking into a recovery centre in Canterbury for a month. I’ve not been bulimic since, but my weight has gone up and down like a yo-yo.
During my 12 days in the I’m A Celebrity jungle in 2012, I temporarily lost 2st 3lb after surviving mostly on tiny portions of rice and beans.
Then, after regaining the weight, I lost a fair bit again on the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme before being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes seven years ago. But whatever prompted the weight loss, the results were never sustainable.
I consider myself lucky for having an hourglass figure. I have always been in proportion, without an obviously bigger bottom or a pear-shaped body with larger hips, so my size has been somewhat disguised, and I never suffered a crisis of confidence professionally or socially.
However, I have never felt attractive or really good in myself.
I have endured embarrassing moments such as being unable to buckle up an aeroplane seat belt without an extension. After boarding, I’d quietly whisper my request to an air stewardess, then feel humiliated when the extra-long belt was paraded down the aisle.
During uncomfortable moments like these, my larger-than-life personality has been my saviour.
I am naturally self-deprecating, having long viewed myself as a caricature and been able to laugh things off, but behind closed doors it was sometimes a different story.
I longed to feel sexy, and my constant weight fluctuation was psychologically tough, especially when clothes would suddenly not fit, which made me feel frumpy and unattractive.
Consequently I’ve always tried to wear loose clothes that don’t accentuate my weight.
I fretted, too, about people judging me, wrongly believing that because of my size I was out of control of my life, which wasn’t true at all.
When I first approached my doctor about Ozempic two years ago – being diabetic and very large – the medication was instantly approved, but huge off-label demand had sparked NHS shortages so I couldn’t get a prescription for months.
While waiting, I made a pledge to not just take Ozempic. I knew that to sustain any long-term weight loss I had to combine the drug with daily exercise.
So last autumn when, at 20 stone, I started on a small 0.25mg dose, I also committed to my Two Wheels For Meals challenge.
For years I had dreamed of cycling along Britain’s south coast, a route I’d enjoyed by boat on ITV’s All At Sea alongside Bradley Walsh and Richard Madeley years earlier.
Initially my mission, which I hope will raise at least £100,000 for Hendy Foundation’s food banks initiative, was met with scepticism. Some laughed because – seeing my size – they didn’t believe I was serious, while others voiced concern, among them my agent Annie, who feared I’d taken on too much too soon.
Whether I agreed or not didn’t matter, I couldn’t let down the charity or myself – and that’s when I pulled my finger out.
In September I booked a local personal trainer for sessions three times a week. During our first meetings in his private gym I barely moved, but slowly – very slowly – my fitness grew.
What started as five minutes on the exercise bike increased to ten minutes, then 15 minutes and more, with the difficulty level rising steadily, too.
On top of walking, my trainer also introduced me to weightbearing exercises, largely to strengthen my legs in readiness for starting on-road bike training in February.
Mounting a bike in a quiet cul-de-sac near my home for the first time in 30 years was terrifying. I couldn’t stay upright, let alone stop. I fell off a few times but, surprisingly, made quick progress.
After gaining confidence cycling on off-road tracks, I advanced to road routes.
Nine months on I am fit enough to ride for four to five hours a day – up to 42 miles – and I am loving the new freedom that fitness has given me.
The penny has finally dropped: exercise is the key to health and, thanks to it, I have an all-new zest for life.
I adore being in the fresh air, and when I stop on grass verges for a sip of water I love noticing things like blossom in the trees, the sound of lambs bleating and cows asleep in a field.
Cycling is now my sport.
I’ve discovered a movement that I relish, and that’s a lesson to us all.
If you don’t like going to the gym, don’t go. Find an activity that appeals to you because, once you do, you’ll keep it up. As we age, exercise is especially important because muscle and bone strength help protect us from conditions such as osteoporosis and make us less likely to be seriously injured if we have a fall.
Happily, I’m no longer unsteady on my feet or clomping around, struggling to carry my weight on very little muscle mass.
Now I’m stronger, I’m standing upright and I don’t walk, I skip!
Doors are opening all over the place, including my wardrobe.
For years I’ve stored smaller-sized clothing in the back of the wardrobe in case I might one day squeeze into them again. And now, happily, after 50 years of not wearing trousers – I only ever wore skirts, for comfort – I’m wearing jeans!
For the first time in my life, too, people are saying, ‘My gosh, you look like you’ve lost weight’ or, ‘You’re half the size!’
But although losing three stone (and counting) is wonderful, this journey isn’t simply about weight loss, it’s about creating a second chance at life – and that bit is working, too.
Last month, my doctor checked my diabetes markers and was thrilled to report that my blood sugar levels have reduced and my blood pressure, cholesterol levels and kidney function have all improved.
I’m still on the diabetes drug metformin but I’m moving in the right direction. Hopefully, long-term, my diabetes will do a disappearing act altogether.
I definitely consume less food. I no longer eat three meals a day – I have lunch and dinner – and I feel fuller quicker.
Save for the odd glass of champagne, I’m also virtually teetotal.
I’m still deeply passionate about food. Cookery is in my DNA and I love going out for dinner as much as I enjoy preparing meals at home. The only difference now is my portion sizes are much smaller.
In a year or so I’ll wean myself off Ozempic but, right now, my priority is to continue what’s working – combining a weekly 1mg dose with exercise.
I’m not ashamed to be using Ozempic. It has helped me lose weight, which enabled me to exercise harder and embark on the most extraordinary challenge and, thankfully, I’ve not suffered from one of the unsavoury side effects that many people have complained about.
Looking forward, who knows what is possible.
My dream is to film a TV series where I complete bicycle rides in lovely places or compete in a show such as Celebrity Race Across The World.
I’m certainly hoping that TV companies will see what I’ve achieved and think, ‘Rosemary’s fit now, she can do stuff.’
I am undoubtedly less of a liability now that I’m stronger and more capable.
When I think about how far I’ve come, especially at the age of 74, I get emotional.
Of course, there are times, usually riding in wind and rain, when I question whether I’ve taken on too much.
But then I think about the donations I have received – and will hopefully continue to receive – and it revives my determination to accomplish a goal that once I never dreamed possible.
- To donate to Rosemary’s cycling fundraiser, visit hendyfoundation.org/rosemary-shragers-wheels-for-meals-challenge
- As told to GEMMA CALVERT
