Ella Scott
After experiencing a ‘worrying’ health scare, actress Joanna Page opted to revamp her life, kickstarting a fitness and food routine that has resulted in her dropping two dress sizes.
The 49-year-old Welsh actress and presenter is best known for appearing as Stacey Shipman in Gavin & Stacey, but you may also know her from Love Actually and ITV’s Loose Women.
The TV icon, who is currently featuring in the latest series of Taskmaster, recently revealed that she had a mammogram, blood tests and a cervical smear when she was 48.
“I realised you can't control most things in life, but you can at least check what’s going on with your own body,” she reasoned. “So I had a run of NHS health checks… and the BMI test confirmed that I was overweight.”
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BMI, or body mass index, is a medical screening tool that measures the ratio of your height to your weight to estimate the amount of body fat you have, as per the Cleveland Clinic.
A healthy adult’s BMI is usually one that sits between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m², while a score between 25 and 29.9 may indicate that the tester is overweight.
According to the mum-of-four, she wasn’t ‘remotely surprised’ that her test results told her she was considered ‘overweight’.
"I wasn’t remotely surprised. In the process of giving my kids all of me, I let healthy habits slip,” she confessed in her Daily Mail column.
Using the BMI result as a catalyst, Page opted to change her approach to eating, which previously included chowing down on biscuits in lieu of breakfast and tucking into cheese on toast, crisps and chocolate in bed.
“That wouldn’t have been so bad, I guess, but I hardly ever included fruit or veg in my daily diet," the Swansea-born star claimed.
Due to worries about developing diabetes, strokes and heart disease, Page began adding fruit into her diet as well as drinking more water.
She said that adding things, rather than subtracting them, has helped her to stick to her new diet.
“Rather than suddenly cutting food out and feeling miserable, I got into a mindset of adding the good stuff in.
“Instead of thinking: 'No more biscuits,' I thought, 'Today I’m adding in water or three apples'," she explained.
Now, she eats three proper meals a day, including a three-egg omelette with ham and cheese in the morning.
She also said that she consumes far less sugar than she used to because she doesn’t need to snack in between meals.
“I still have chocolate and crisps, but they’re no longer my main food source,” she claimed.
In terms of movement, the David Copperfield favourite does strength training from the comfort of her own home.
She also enjoys walking her dogs, spaniels Bess and Lola, alongside taking a dip in her local lido.
“Six months later, I'm down a couple of dress sizes but thankfully I've kept my curves and boobs,” she added.