Dean lost 4st preparing healthy meals with ‘yellow sticker’ products

Dean Simpson-Humphreys, from Liverpool, first discovered his talent for shopping and slimming on a budget when he left his job as a recruitment manager in the NHS to care for his husband, who died in June aged 40.

The 46-year-old, who has gone from 18st to 13st 12lbs since joining his local Slimming World group, says: “We had to go on to benefits and money was a lot tighter than it had ever been. I couldn’t just go to the shop, buy anything and not think about the price anymore. At first I felt ashamed putting the yellow sticker foods in my basket, but then I realised someone was going to buy them and it was better than it all going to waste.”

Dean had always enjoyed being creative in the kitchen and soon found he relished the challenge of whipping up a healthy meals in line with Slimming World’s Food Optimising eating plan from marked-down foods. He began sharing his recipes and ideas on his Instagram channel, where he now has more than 2,500 followers. He also discovered food waste initiatives such as Liverpool Zero Waste and Too Good to Go, which connect people to unsold food from shops and restaurants in a bid to save it from being binned.

He says: “I’ve always loved my food and I’ve always had this thing for dissecting dishes and seeing how they’re made and how I could make them myself. When I joined Slimming World, I turned this into a challenge of how I could make Slimming World versions of meals I enjoyed – like chippy teas, curries and roast dishes.

“It amazed me that there wasn’t anything you couldn’t have and often we’d have dinner parties and no one would have a clue they were eating a Slimming World-friendly dinner. I would get a joint of pork for £5 in the yellow label section, freeze it and then every Sunday I’d make a roast for eight of us with meat, roast potatoes and loads of veg and it would cost less than £10 in total.”

Dean and husband Gary Simpson-Humphreys, who was a nurse, first joined Slimming World in 2010 to lose weight ahead of their wedding in 2011. Dean lost 4st and maintained his target weight successfully until Gary fell ill in February 2016. He was diagnosed with a tumour on his spinal cord and left with chronic liver disease and organ failure too.

Daily hospital visits on top of his full-time job took their toll on Dean: “I wasn’t sleeping or looking after myself at all – I’d have a drive-thru fast food breakfast, lunch would be something from the hospital canteen and I’d grab a takeaway for my tea on the way home from the hospital. It’s no surprise my weight went back up and I ended up on anti-depressants too. I knew I had to start looking after myself or I would never be able to look after Gary.”

As well as taking the decision to leave his job to care for Gary, Dean re-joined Slimming World. He said: “I had never known anything like the feeling I got in that church hall when I first joined Slimming World, we were like a family, so I knew that I didn’t need to be ashamed about going back and admitting I’d regained the weight. I needed to pick back up where I’d left off and be part of a group of people on the same journey again.

“I always say that Slimming World saved my life. Not just because of losing the weight again – I’m 4st down now and I’d like to lose around another stone – but because of the other members and the support. Talking to people and being part of the group, I started to re-realise my self-worth and I didn’t feel so alone anymore. I realised other people were all going through their own things and we were in it together.

“I learn so much from the other members too. Everyone’s got different experiences and different backgrounds and that all comes together, so for instance if you don’t know what to do with a particular food, you can be sure someone will.”

Dean loves sharing his tips for shopping on a budget and is now looking forward to sharing them with even more people when he trains to become a Slimming World Consultant himself. He also often cooks meals – from his bargain hunting, of course – for two elderly neighbours.

He says: “I didn’t appreciate how much my weight was affecting me – just little things like bending down to do my shoelaces and walking to the shop are so much easier now. I can’t wait to help other people in the same way and I know Gary would be very proud that I’m doing something for me. I used to think it was selfish to do something for myself, now I know that I can’t help anyone else if I’m not ok.”

Name: Dean Simpson-Humphreys

Age: 46

Slimming World group:  Wavertree Aquatic Centre, Liverpool, Saturday morning group run by Jo Young

Joined Slimming World: 2018

Starting weight: 18st 

Current weight: 13st 12lbs

Typical menu

Before:

Breakfast: Drive-thru double sausage and egg sandwich and hash brown with orange juice

Lunch: Beetroot and goat’s cheese ciabatta 

Dinner: Chinese or Indian takeaway

Snacks: 2 packets of crisps, 1 chocolate bar and a cupcake.

After: 

Breakfast: Cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, lean bacon, Slimming World sausage patties (from Slimming World’s food range at Iceland), beans and wholemeal toast

Lunch: Chicken salad with chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pepper, red onion, beetroot and low-fat cheese

Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese with a couple of garlic bread slices

Snacks: Fat-free cottage cheese with apples, Bepps Black Eyed Peas popped snacks, fresh fruit.