Mary Stuart-Miller, 52, is featured on the front of January’s edition of LighterLife magazine for her life-changing weight loss. “I’m just confidently amazed and surprised at being the cover girl and for where I am today,” she told the County Times. “I just can’t believe it’s me half the time. Not only am I shocked with how I looked back then but also with how I look today because it has gone so fast.” After years of self-confessed neglect, the travel PR ballooned to 18 and a half stone before deciding to take action at the LighterLife club in Roffey. “I was always small and a size eight or ten but I started to put on masses of weight from the point I had kids,” she explained. “I also had two difficult relationship break-ups and an unhappy phase that lasted about 15 years. “But the epiphany moment came in October 2011 when I saw a picture of me dancing with a Honduran waiter and that was the nail in the coffin.” Mary stuck to a strict 600-calorie-a-day diet from a selection of four foods supplied by the diet club which eventually got her down to 10st 12lbs. “I’d never been to a diet club before but I had a weigh-in and was shocked to find out that I actually weighed a stone heavier than I first thought. “After that I was in the zone and once I started there was no stopping me which I think is the only way to do it, it’s all or nothing. “There have been so many changes but the main practical thing is being able to buy a size ten and even size eight again which is just ridiculous and the biggest thrill.” However, it was not just her dress size that she has rediscovered since losing the weight. “The total irony is that the ship I was working on which is where the picture was taken of me and the Honduran waiter was where I met my boyfriend, an Italian journalist from Rome, when going back on the ship after losing the weight.” Mary also notes making her children Nick, 23, Alice, 20, and Matilda, 11, proud as an inspiration for the weight loss. “They look at old pictures of me and say they can’t believe it was me and don’t remember what I was like back then and nor do I. I just can’t believe I was that person. “Even when I upload pictures of me now on Facebook my friends can’t believe it either. “Most of them didn’t know me before when I was slim so they’ve been shocked but the response has been so nice and supportive.” The new, slimmer Mary plans to stick to her weight and has even created a new relationship with food. She said: “At first I was desperately worried about eating anything but when I came off the LighterLife foods, tasting the simplest and freshest food just tasted amazing. “I’ll have fish with salad for lunch and fish with vegetables for dinner but that’s because I want to, not because I have to. “It’s has been a totally life changing experience and 2012 was an amazing year. “I would be so pleased if 2013 went even half as well.”