If I Can Do It, Anyone Can!

Lisa Riley on teaming up with This Morning to help others lose weight.

- Tess Lamacraft

LIFESTYLE

This Morning

MONDAY-FRIDAY / ITV / 10.30AM

Always warm, down-to-earth and honest during interviews, Lisa Riley has been a firm favourite at TV Times since she burst onto our screens in 1995 as Emmerdale’s Mandy Dingle.

Since leaving the world of soap, Lisa has gone on to enjoy a host of diverse roles, from troubled Rebecca in Fat Friends to fiery mum Lorna in last year’s harrowing BBC1 drama Three Girls.

However, it’s Lisa’s dramatic weight loss that has been making headlines more recently.

Over the course of 18 months, the former Strictly contestant shed 12 stone and this month she’s appearing on This Morning in a series of special films called Life of Riley, encouraging and motivating viewers by insisting that if she can do it, anyone can.

Here in an exclusive interview, Lisa, 41, who’s recently published a book, The Honesty Diet, talks frankly about how she’s gone from a size 28 to a 12 and how it has transformed her life…

How did you get involved with helping people on This Morning?

After the success of my ITV documentary, Lisa Riley’s Baggy Body Club, it was clear a lot of people related to what I’ve gone through and wanted to know more. I’ve made all the excuses myself not to lose weight and so I know what people are struggling with. My aim is to help people and go, ‘I understand. I’m not going to patronise you. I’m just going to tell it like is and be a mentor for you.’