‘Scared I wouldn’t fit on rides when I took my kids to Disneyland, I went from size 18 to 8 – it’s changed everything’

A Scottish mum who feared taking her daughter to Disneyland in case she wouldn’t fit in plane seats or on rides after her weight “ballooned” following the Covid pandemic has dropped five dress sizes in 10 months using weight loss medication.

Dianne Reddington, 43, said she had always been slim and fit, regularly running 10K races, eating well, and keeping active. However, when the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, her lifestyle shifted to working from home, not eating as healthily, and not exercising – at which point she said “the weight just started to pile on”.

Prior to the pandemic, Dianne weighed nine stone and wore size 10 clothes, feeling comfortable and happy with her appearance. However, by the end of the pandemic she weighed 12 stone and wore size 18 clothes, describing her physique as “unrecognisable”.

Following years of trying fad diets and being unable to make sustained progress, Dianne, who lives near Glasgow with her husband and children, was considering drastic surgery in Turkey when she came across a weight loss medication programme.

Since she started the medication in September 2025, Dianne has lost three stone and now wears a size 8, and said her weight loss has “changed everything”.

“When we came out of Covid, I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought: ‘Gosh, I’m unrecognisable’,” Dianne told PA Real Life.

“I would always fit into size 10 clothes, and I was comfortable with that. And even if I went into 12, I’m still comfortable. But then I was buying clothes that were size 16 or 18, and not even clothes that I would want to wear – it was stuff that would just hide the fat.

“I guess a turning point for me was when my daughter said she wanted to go to Disneyland, and I’d surprised her with that for her birthday. I kept putting off booking it because I couldn’t envision being the size I am going on such a magical experience…

“I was just getting bigger and bigger, it just felt like I was ballooning.”

Dianne said that over the years, she felt that “the weight was just piling on, and I couldn’t see any way of shifting it”.

She was not eating as healthily as she should be, nor exercising enough, and admitted that “at one point, I was drinking at least a bottle of wine a night”.

To try to lose some weight, Dianne said she “was doing keto, I was starving myself, I was doing intermittent fasting”, adding that she’d even been tempted to try the diet Christian Bale allegedly followed to lose a massive amount of weight for his role in 2004’s The Machinist, where he is said to have eaten a can of tuna and an apple a day.

Throughout all of the diets she attempted, Dianne struggled to stick to them and build a healthy routine. She said she felt constantly hungry, noticed changes in her mood, and stopped enjoying things such as going out for dinner with her family – “I just wasn’t the happy kind of person that I used to be”, she said.

Booking a trip to Disneyland Paris for her daughter’s birthday in May 2025 was “a turning point” for Dianne.

“All I wanted to do was not embarrass my child and actually feel comfortable in photographs, feel comfortable on the flight, feel comfortable in the rides I was sitting in,” she said.

“I was just mortified. I kept thinking in the back of my mind, at some point, someone’s going to say to me: ‘Oh, you can’t ride on this one’.

“That feeling of dread was just too much. It was horrible.”

Dianne became so desperate to make a change that she even considered travelling to Turkey for gastric band surgery – a weight-loss procedure where an adjustable silicone ring is placed around the upper stomach to restrict food intake and promote satiety – as she felt she didn’t have the knowledge or support to get her diet and lifestyle back on track herself.

However, Dianne said that one night she was scrolling through social media when she was presented with an advert for Numan’s weight loss programme, which prescribes GLP-1s including Mounjaro and Wegovy to promote weight loss.

After doing her own research, Dianne decided to take the plunge, paying £250 per month for the programme which included medication, meal and exercise plans, and app-based support.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be a short-term fix for me,” Dianne said.

“I needed something that provides that level of support, that motivation.”

Going through the consultation process, Dianne said she “had to take some shameful pictures of my body, front on, side on”.

“When I look back at them now, I’m so proud. But equally, at the time, I was repulsed,” she added.

Since starting on the medication in September 2025, Dianne said she has lost three stone and dropped five dress sizes, which has  “changed everything”.

She said her weight loss has made her feel more confident in her own skin, and the improvements she’s made in her diet and lifestyle have given her more energy and allowed her to regain her fitness.

“I’m on holiday, and I’m in a bikini for the first time in about six years, feeling comfortable,” she said.

“I just feel like everything’s changed. I feel so much confidence. I’ve got so much energy. I’m not going out at night and eating or drinking as much as I did before – because the weight loss management programme makes you feel less hungry – but I don’t feel like I’m missing out.

“I eat smaller portions, healthier choices like fresh fish, meats, lots of protein. I’m taking more vitamins as well, so my skin, my hair, everything’s improved.

“It’s just been such a change.”

Now, Dianne is feeling ready to start decreasing her medication under clinical guidance and coming off it altogether. She said she is also interested in switching to medication in pill form, which she feels would fit better with her lifestyle than her current injections, while she decreases her dosage.

“The last thing I want to do is just pile it all back on,” she said.

“I’ve made a huge investment in this, and I’ve tried so hard to get to where I am.

“It feels like I’ve changed those habits over that period of time, which means that I can continue those habits as I start to wean myself away from the weight loss medication – it’s very much a mindset, and I feel like I’ve accomplished that.”