Mum known as the 'Pot Noodle queen' is now unrecognisable

A mum who was nicknamed the "Pot Noodle queen" because of how often she ate the instant snack has since ditched them, and completely overhauled both her lifestyle and her appearance. Tara Jennings, 26, ate more than 1,000 Pot Noodles in three years but after tipping the scales at 18 stone, she decided to swap convenience food for homemade healthy meals.

As well as Pot Noodles, Tara would also regularly eat frozen food that was cooked in her air-fryer because it was "a lot cheaper" and more "convenient." She's had fewer than 20 of the instant snacks since starting her health kick in April last year.

The mum-of-one now weighs a healthy 11 stone and 9 lbs and has dropped six dress sizes, from a size 24 to a size 12. Tara, who works in a Texaco garage, said: "I would bulk buy Pot Noodles and eat one daily, if not two a day.

"I would have it for dinner every day and then maybe tea. My son was young at the time so I would buy things that were convenient and it was cheaper as well. I would go to Iceland and all the frozen chicken would be three for £10 and fresh chicken from Aldi is about £4 for two breasts so it was a lot cheaper.

"When I first discovered my air fryer, it was so easy to wing food in there and wait until it beeped. I would come into the kitchen and then tend to my food and it was easier. I didn't have to keep an eye on the oven or wait for timers. The food was also last longer because it was frozen."

Tara also bought the "Pinch of Nom" cookbooks which are filled with healthy and slimming friendly recipes. She then started cooking a range of different low-calorie recipes including a hunters' chicken pasta and salt and pepper chicken.

Tara, from Blackpool, added: "The first book I got was the comfort book, so it's all comfort food recipes. You can eat a lot of it and feel like you shouldn't have but in reality, it wasn't that many calories or that much fat or sugar.

"You can eat as much as you feel like you need to and still be in a calorie deficit. I quickly found a couple of go-to recipes including margarita chicken which tastes like pizza - it tastes like you've cheated on your diet.

"They all taste like you shouldn't be eating them, it's like it's got to be wrong but it's genuinely insane. There's also a salt and pepper chicken recipe and it tastes like you've bought a Chinese takeaway.

"A few months into making this recipe, I ordered a Chinese and I didn't like it. I didn't think it was possible to go off your favourite takeaways."

Tara said she is "stunned" by the difference in her appearance when she compares herself with old photographs. She added: "Photos will come up on Snapchat or Facebook memories and I'm like 'oh my gosh.'

"I see the difference between then and now but I still think I look big until I properly look at two pictures side by side. My family tend to notice quite a lot and said it was fairly impressive. My nan is always congratulating me. They notice it a lot more than I do."

Tara says she used to have the "palette of a child" and wouldn't eat vegetables, fruit or pasta. But her diet is now much more varied and she says she enjoys making different recipes.

Tara said: "I'm a texture person so if I don't like the texture of something then I won't eat it. Things like tomatoes are normally 'no thank you' but when I make recipes from the book, I use tomatoes or passata.

"I eat peppers and onions now in recipes, it sounds stupid but I would never eat them before. I also eat pasta now. It sounds silly but I didn't have pasta bake until I was 21 and even then, I didn't eat it very much.

"But it's now one of my favourites. I eat a lot more than what I used to, I used to have the palette of a child."