Now FOOD is my FUEL

After years of comfort binges, Glenda McGinty, 45, changed her relationship with food

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Throwing my arms in the air in celebration, I cried tears of joy thinking about how far I'd come. It was March 2022 and five years before, I'd been miserable, overweight and stuck in a rut, driving a bus by day and binge-eating by night. Now, I'd trekked to Everest Base Camp, having lost half my body weight and gaining a whole new outlook on life.

I hadn't always been overweight - for most of my life, I'd been healthy at 5ft tall and 10st 7lb. But when my granny Janie died with Alzheimer's at the age of 83 in July 2005, I'd completely lost my way. Granny had been my best friend in the whole world, and without her my life was empty. I put on a brave face, smiling for my passengers during my 12-hour shifts, then I'd pick up fish and chips or burgers and chips on the way home, close the curtains and hide away, trying to eat away my grief and loneliness. I'd scoff two big bars of chocolate for pudding. During the day, I'd skip breakfast, then munch crisps and more chocolate for lunch. But eating my feelings didn't make me feel any better, and in the six months after losing Granny I gained 4st and went up several sizes in my work uniform. By early 2006, I was bursting out of a size 18, the buttons on my smart blue shirt straining.