Like any other bride-to-be Jen Atkin was excited about planning her wedding when her fiancé suddenly called it off.
He told her she was eating too much junk food and was “too fat.” It was a turning point for the 26-year-old from England who went on to lose 112 pounds and win a beauty pageant.
The 26-year-old aviation administrator who lives in North Lincolnshire stopped eating takeaways, hit the gym and managed to go from weighing 247 pounds to 131 pounds.
Jen is now happily married to someone else and has been crowned Miss Great Britain in the country’s top beauty pageant.
“I’m still in shock at winning, I’m so happy I can’t even put it into words – I honestly can’t believe it,” she said after winning the contest, according to The Mirror.
‘Hard work pays off’
“When I started doing this it was just for a bit of fun, I never imagined how far I would come. Three years ago I would never ever expected to be winning Miss GB.
“Hard work really does pay off.”
Jen had retired from pageants after she got married but when her name was put forward for the 75th Miss Great Britain competition she decided to give it a go.
“Winning Miss Great Britain marks the end of a long and difficult, but also amazing, journey,” she added.
“Although my body has changed so much I think don’t think my personality has, and I think that’s really helped me.”
Jen said he weight ballooned while she organized her wedding and she became a weekend recluse dining in on takeaways. Her ex-fiance decided to call the wedding off in 2015. Jen’s weight had increased to 238 pounds.
“The day he left I thought my world had ended – I cried for weeks and used food as my comfort,” she said, according to Fox News.
“When we broke up, I was devastated but it ended up being the best thing that’s happened to me.”
As tough as this was to deal with for Jen it was a definite wake up call to get healthy. She is such an inspiration.
Please share her beautiful story with others.
