Mum sheds 7st after 'mortifying' plane incident on family holiday

Jon Macpherson
·4-min read

A mum has lost 7st after she was forced to ask for seatbelt extender on a family holiday.

Adele Thornton was left mortified when she had to ask for the extended during a family trip to Rome. The embarrassing moment sparked a dramatic lifestyle overhaul, leading her to swap fast food and meal deals for nutritious home-cooked dishes.

In just over a year, the 40-year-old has shed an impressive 7st, now tipping the scales at a svelte 11st and slipping into a size ten from a size 22. The mum-of-two expressed her astonishment at the transformation, saying: "I can't believe how much weight I've lost - my 16-year-old daughter is horrified that people are saying I look like her now I've lost all the weight.

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"It has thrown me back to feeling a lot younger and a lot healthier. I also look a lot better and now I've been able to do lots more when it comes to my fitness."

Adele's stunning weight loss has given her a new lease of life and she's taken part in activities she previously wouldn't have been able to do because of her size. She recently climbed Mount Snowdon in North Wales and did the world's fastest zip line, which comes with a weight restriction.

She said: "For my 40th birthday, I was given the chance to do a zip line in Wales which is the fastest in the world. I had seen it on social media before and there was a weight restriction on it and I was too heavy, so I wouldn't have been able to do that."

"It was quite cool but it's horrifying so it made me conquer my fear of heights."

Adele lost around five stone in 2019 but put the weight back on during lockdown when she would often eat cheese boards while doing online quizzes and bingo. But after returning from the trip to the Italian capital in October 2022, she decided that she 'knew she had to get the weight off'.

So joined her local Slimming World group just days after landing back in the UK and made simple lifestyle swaps. She completely cut out having cheese and would instead cook from scratch using recipes from the group's cookbooks.

Adele added: "Cheese boards are my absolute nemesis - I absolutely love cheese and wine and beige foods always has to come with it. During Covid, I would often spend time on online Kahoot quizzes or I would play Bingo with my family over on Zoom.

"I would just have sausage rolls and scotch eggs, snacky foods are just so easy to have to hand instead of having a proper meal. That all had to go so I've cooked a lot of stuff from scratch using the Slimming World app and their recipes on there.

"We now do a lot more clean eating and have gone back to basics instead of eating processed foods and pre-packaged foods. I went to Rome and just couldn't fasten my seatbelt so I had to ask the flight attendants for an extension line.

"It was just mortifying - it was a horrible experience and my younger daughter was asking why my seatbelt was a different colour. It was embarrassing, I just knew I had to do something about it when I got home.

"I knew I was going on holiday to Mexico in the following year and that I had to get the weight off."

After joining Slimming World, she started running again and completed the London Marathon on April 21 in five hours and 55 minutes. Adele, of Huddersfield, said: "I felt amazing - I don't think anything can prepare you for the emotions.

"I just felt so proud of myself but just not because I had lost the weight to be able to run. The marathon itself is such a big challenge and I ran every single step of it - I didn't walk or stop or anything.

"I was massively proud of myself and was just crying like a big baby."

Adele's diet before:

  • Breakfast: Nothing

  • Lunch: A meal deal from the supermarket

  • Tea: A takeaway

Adele's diet now

  • Breakfast: Overnight oats or an omelette

  • Lunch: Homemade soup with toast

  • Tea: Jacket potatoes

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