A super slimmer has shed half her body weight thanks to the unusual combination of martial arts, drumming and belly dance.
Shirley McAllister, of Shirley Close, Prestbury, piled on the pounds over a three year period while she mourned the loss of her mum.
After adding three stone and being told by doctors she was obese and had high cholesterol, she decided to take action.
Now thanks to an unusual combination of exercise Shirley, 50, has lost all that extra weight within 18 months.
Shirley, an alternative therapies adviser, wants to share her story to inspire others.
She said: “Most of my life I weighed about eight stone, which was a healthy weight for someone who is only 5’2”. But when my mum died in 2008 I was devastated.
“We were very close and I started to comfort eat to get me through my grief. Over four years I put on more than three stone, almost half my body weight, and had no energy. Then I decided enough was enough.”
Shirley decided to fulfil her lifelong dream of learning martial arts.
She joined the Ma-Ku Sho Karate club, which meets at the Fermain Club in Bollington, and within a year had achieved her yellow belt and won student of the year.
The achievement spurred Shirley on to join Kontaani, an African drumming group, which meets in Langley.
Combined with the exercise she gets teaching belly dance and support from her Slimming World group in Broken Cross, Shirley has a new lease of life.
She said: “I’ve never liked the gym and was rubbish at sports at school, so activities like karate, belly dance and drumming have really helped me.
“I can now run upstairs, bend down and pick something up without going ‘oof’, put my socks on standing up and paint my toenails without my tummy getting in the way.
“All joking apart, since losing weight my cholesterol and blood sugars are now normal as is my BMI.”
