Meet our second dieting couple

by NAOMI COLEMAN, femail.co.uk

Fed up with dieting alone? It needn't be like that.

If you want to shed some pounds and slim down your man at the same time, then following our personalised diet plan together could provide all the support and motivation you need to reach your ideal weight.

Here we introduce our second couple.

And they will be sharing their experiences of the diet with you week by week.

COUPLE TWO: VAL AND KEN HOUGHTON

VAL HOUGHTON

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Age: 49

Height: 5 foot 1½ inches

Current weight: 12 stone 12 pounds

Target weight: 10 stone 7 pounds

Motivation: Her sister's 60th birthday party in August and her 50th birthday in September.

Val lives in Chorley, Lancashire with husband Ken and 16-year-old son Daniel. Their daughter Catherine, 21, is away at university. Val works part-time as a child minder.

She already eats a healthy diet preferring pasta and salads to fry-ups and hamburgers. She makes sure everything she cooks is low fat because Ken suffered a heart attack three years ago and is also diabetic.

'When Ken fell ill, we had to change our eating patterns keeping to low cholesterol food and avoiding sugar,' she says.

'The problem is not what I eat but how much I eat. We tend to have four meals a day - breakfast, lunch, tea and supper - and each one contains quite large portions.'

Although Val leads an active life, by walking into town every day and taking the stairs instead of the lift, she plans to spend half an hour a day on her exercise bike from now on.

'Ken has always had trouble losing weight, but this time I'm going to make sure he succeeds, so I'll be the one cracking the whip,' she says.

KEN HOUGHTON

Age: 53

Height: 5 foot 10 inches

Current weight: 16 stone 10 pounds

Target weight: 14 stone 10 pounds

Motivation: To improve his heart condition and help control his diabetes

Ken Houghton, is a retired lorry driver, but had to give up his job three years ago because he suffered a heart attack and is diabetic. He is now taking a part-time course in Information Technology (IT).

Ken wants to lose weight because of his heart problems, gout and because he is diabetic.

He has been overweight for some time - in fact until a few years ago he weighed 18 stone.

But he is now determined to shift more pounds as extra weight makes him more breathless and, because of his gout, causes pains in his legs.

He already follows a low fat, low salt diet - to control his high blood pressure and cholesterol levels - and only drinks around three pints a month, but is prone to eating large portions of food.

'Even though I eat healthily and hardly touch booze I can't seem to shift the weight. I've even resorted to buying a smaller plate, but it looks like I might need a saucer.'

Although he's under doctor's orders not to exercise too much because of his heart condition, Ken aims to walk the dog every day and generally be more active.

'I can't promise to be a racehorse by the end of 12 weeks, but Val and I promise to stick to our diets with a vengeance.'

Good luck to both our dieting couples!

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