An overweight mother has revealed how she went from being a couch potato to prize-winning bodybuilder – after her husband signed her up to a gym without asking her.
Clair Rauso, 41, from Croydon, south London, was initially furious when her other half Adam bought them both a gym membership without consulting her.
At the time, the mother-of-two was a size 22 and weighed 17 stone as she loved to binge on junk food and hadn’t exercised for years.
Clair was a size 22 and weighed 17 stone, left, before finding a love of exercise that made her take up bodybuilding. She’s now a size eight and weighs 10st
Clair used to eat lots of junk food and hadn’t exercised for years before Adam signed them up for gym membership
She said she felt like the fattest person in the gym when Adam dragged her along for her induction.
But despite her initial reluctance, she soon embraced a new healthy lifestyle and went on to lose seven stone.
Clair slimmed down to 10st 6lb and is a size eight thanks to exercising and following healthy recipes on a nutrition website.
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She says she now loves to workout and has has even shown off her ripped body on stage at a bodybuilding competition.
Adam, who was tipping the scales at 16st, joined his wife on her health kick and dropped four stone, to reach a healthy weight of 12st.
Clair said: ‘I remember the day Adam came home from work and told me he’d signed us up for the gym. I was fuming. We went to an open day and must have been the fattest people there.
The pair now love working out together and want to keep being gym buddies into their eighties
Clair said she and Adam ‘must have been the fattest people there’ when they first joined the gym as he was 16st, left, while she was 17st
‘Before then the only exercise I had was walking across the road to the school where I work. I even used to get in the car to drive to the supermarket at the end of the road because I couldn’t face the walk.
‘I was still angry at my first session but it didn’t take long for me to become addicted to the gym, especially when the weight began falling off.’
The couple, who have two teenage sons, have gone from doing no exercise to training together at the gym five times a week.
They never buy ready meals any more, instead choosing to stock up on meat from Musclefood.com.
Now the couple have lost 11st between them after working out and eating healthily and say they have never felt better
Before embarking on their healthy lifestyle, the couple and their sons were eating high fat, calorific foods.
An average day would include buttery toast for breakfast, sandwiches and crisps for lunch and lasagne and chips for dinner. Snacks would include pies, cakes, biscuits and huge bags of crisps.
Clair said of their diet: ‘Initially we just cut out all the rubbish food like the biscuits and crisps but once we could see the change the exercise was making we wanted to take it a step further.
‘That’s when we started looking at our diet. I try to cook using single ingredients so for dinner we may have chicken, rice and vegetables. I avoid using any tinned or processed food where I can and we make all sauces from scratch.
Clair had got out of the habit of even basic movement like walking, preferring to drive everywhere
‘We were eating massive portions before so have really cut down on portion size too. I feel healthier now than I ever have and my energy levels have gone through the roof.’
Now Clair cooks homemade meals and the family snacks on fruit, yoghurt, nuts and raw vegetables.
They also satisfy their craving for treats with high protein snack bars, crisps and protein ice cream.
The trigger for their lifestyle overhaul came after Adam signed them both up for the gym without telling his wife.
Clair’s weight had been giving her back problems and despite talking about exercising and eating better, the couple never did anything about it until Adam took the matter into his own hands.
Clair was furious when husband Adam, pictured together before their weight loss, signed them up for the gym
Now Clair said she’s a fitness fanatic and their exercise regime has enhanced their family life.
She said: ‘We go to the gym five times a week and train with the weights for about 90 minutes. I also do an hour of cardio on a Sunday morning.
‘Despite all the time working out, we spend more time with the boys than before and do much more together – losing the weight really has changed us as a family.’
Adam agreed saying: ‘I’ve gone from never being able to leave the petrol station without grabbing a pie or two to eating raw broccoli as a snack.
‘I knew that exercise would be important in shedding the pounds – what I didn’t realise at the time was how we needed to get our diet right too.
‘I’ve gone from skipping breakfast and lunch to eating three meals a day and filling up on healthy snacks rather than pies and cookies.
Clair said she’s proud of her 7st weightloss and encourages others to follow her example. ‘It doesn’t matter how much you weigh or how little exercise you’ve done in the past, you can do this,’ she said
‘Going to the gym and eating well is now part of our lives. We’ve become really passionate about it – I can still see us tottering to the gym when we’re in our 80s.
‘Doing this together has been great. If Clair’s having an off day I encourage her and if I don’t feel like going to the gym, she’ll push me to carry on.
‘I’ve been so inspired by what we’ve achieved that I’m now working towards becoming a personal trainer.
‘Before this, we were just drifting. Now it feels like we’re living life to the full.’
Last year Clair competed in her first bodybuilding competition, Pure Elite and came second in the Body Transformation category.
She explained: ‘I was so proud of the weight I lost that I wanted to show it off. I also wanted to prove to people that regardless of your age, how much you weigh or how little exercise you’ve done in the past, you can do this.’