ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Festival-Goer Drops Eight Dress Sizes After Being Filmed Struggling To Dance

Festival-Goer Drops Eight Dress Sizes After Being Filmed Struggling To Dance

At 20 stone, size 26 Anita Davis decided to take the plunge and shed the stones when a friend filmed her struggling to dance at a festival

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Deciding to lose weight can come when at various times in life and for many different reasons.

Some take the plunge for health reasons, others feel the need to do so to keep up with their kids and for a few it's simply for their own self esteem. Some even just tune into Love Island and think to themselves, 'Hang on, why don't I look like that?'

But one woman's mind was made when she saw a film of herself struggling to dance at a festival.

Size 26 Anita Davis, tipped the scales at 20 stone because she found solace in takeaway curries and fish and chips following her mum's death.

But now Anita has lost half of her body weight and is an impressive size 10. Bravo Anita, bravo.

Before her weight loss, the mum-of-one avoided nights out with friends for fear of people staring at her and preferred to stay in gorging in crisps and drinking wine - sounds like my normal Saturday evening.

However, the turning point came in late 2015 when she attended a ska charity weekender in Sandford, Dorset - at which she helped out each year.

She had spent a year looking forward to the event but after she was caught on camera, barely able to get through one song, she vowed to change and has now dropped eight dress sizes.

Cover Images

The 48-year-old from Lincoln, said: "I look forward to this event every year but that year I found myself sitting down rather than dancing, when I couldn't even dance to one song. I could barely breathe.

"When I found out a friend had filmed me, and when I saw it, I was very upset. I was horrified.

"While I'd been dancing, I'd been thinking, 'I won't be able to come back next year,' and that moment was now on film. It really hit home.

"I couldn't breathe. I had to stop dancing and sit down. I spent the entire time worried people were staring at me.

"I said to myself, 'By next year I want to be able to dance all weekend'... and I did!"

Cover Images

Anita, who stands at 5ft 4in, told how she ballooned after her mum, Janet, died from cancer at 68 in January 2012.

She found comfort snacking on nuts and chocolate and eating Chinese takeaways until she felt too anxious to go out and worried what people thought.

She explained: "I stopped going out in case people stared or I got stuck in a chair in a bar or restaurant.

"I avoided special occasions, like a school reunion, family barbecues. I felt embarrassed and unhappy with myself, so I stayed home and ate and drank."

But she also found that her size was affecting the time she spent with her 13-year-old son, Riley.

Anita and Riley.
Cover Images

She said: "I wouldn't take him swimming because I didn't want to be seen in a swimsuit. I couldn't take him on a bike ride.

"He wanted to go to McDonald's and sit in, but I didn't want to go in in case people looked at me and thought that's all I ate because I was big. So we'd go to the drive-thru and take it home.

"Riley called me pretty and beautiful no matter, but later I learned that the kids at his school had called me fat and I felt sad for him."

Can't everyone just be like Riley?

Desperate to lose weight, Anita signed up to Slimming World in April 2016, and was inspired when she spoke to her local group's leader who talked about zip-lining with her own children.

Cover Images

Anita said: "She said she'd been zip-lining with her kids and I realised I wanted to do things like that with Riley. He was missing out."

So she ditched her favourite pastries, fry-ups and thick and creamy pasta meals for lean meats, fish, salad, fruit and veg, and soon the pounds fell off.

As Anita started to lose weight, she and Riley celebrated each weigh-in with a hug, then she booked them a holiday.

She said: "I knew he wanted to learn to surf and knew, after losing weight I'd be able to wear a swimsuit and go and watch him and go for a paddle in the sea, which I wouldn't have done before, so I booked it."

Cover Images

Then in December, after all her hard work, Anita - who is now a Slimming World consultant - was filmed at the music event once more - but this time she was seen bopping around the dance floor like the Duracell bunny.

She said: "When I went to the next weekender, after I had lost all the weight, I felt exhilarated. It was me who could drag everyone else on to the dance floor.

"I got lots of compliments, people were shocked. They said they didn't see me that way - big. But now they could see me skipping about and how much happier I was. Some people said they wouldn't have recognised me.

"I got up and danced all night. I made a lot of new friends and felt a lot more confident."

This is enough motivation for anyone wanting to lose weight - if Love Island isn't doing that already.

Featured Image Credit: Cover Images

Topics: UK News, Awesome, Weight, Inspirational, Community