Denise Welch EXCLUSIVE: Actress reveals she battled 'destructive' food addiction and binge eating
She's lost an incredible two stone before her wedding to husband Lincoln Townley in 2013.
And Denise Welch has reflected on her impressive weight loss five years on exclusively to MailOnline and opened up about overcoming her food dependency which escalated in the wake of going sober in 2012.
Swapping her alcohol addiction with food addiction, the 59-year-old, who credits LighterLife Total for her initial weight loss and LighterLife Fast 5:2 for maintaining her slender figure, admitted she wasn't aware of her weight gain at the time.
Stronger: Denise Welch has reflected on her impressive weight loss five years on exclusively to MailOnline and opened up about overcoming her food dependency which escalated in the wake of going sober in 2012
Yet, she slowly realised she was replacing her nightly alcoholic beverages for a sweet treat, something she never did before going sober.
She shared: 'I had periods where I was much slimmer but all of the periods in life, in the last 20 years when I was slim without trying, it was the bad time in life.
'I had problems with alcohol and it was when I took alcohol out of my life six years ago that I started to replace alcohol with food. I wasn't aware I was doing it at the time, it was a slow burn.
The Lighterlife ambassador continued: 'Your body starts to crave sugar, people have this idea that you cut out alcohol and you lose weight, but it's mostly not the case because your body craves sugar so much.
'I never had a sweet tooth in my life, I'm from a confectionery family so I've been around cakes all my life and never had a sweet tooth and suddenly I did and Lincoln was the same. '
Then: Swapping her alcohol addiction with food addiction, the 59-year-old, who credits LighterLife Total for her initial weight loss and LighterLife Fast 5:2 for maintaining her slender figure, admitted she wasn't aware of her weight gain at the time (Pictured in 2012)
Incredible: She lost two stone while on the weight loss programme and still maintains it today (Pictured in 2015)
After realising her sweet tooth had become a problem, Denise became aware that she was eating in a 'destructive way' that wasn't healthy and was feeding into her addictive personality.
She said: 'We both gave up alcohol and we both ate all the pies, I still do enjoy a pie but I make an informed decision when to have one.
'What was happening was I was replacing alcohol addiction with food addiction and realised that because I was eating in a destructive way, it wasn't healthy.
Adding: 'It wasn't just about "gone on I'll have that dessert" I began secret eating and there was no need for me to do that.
In the past: Yet, she slowly realised she was replacing her nightly alcoholic beverages for a sweet treat, something she never did before going sober
Aware: She said: 'I had problems with alcohol and it was when I took alcohol out of my life six years ago that I started to replace alcohol with food. I wasn't aware I was doing it at the time, it was a slow burn'
'Who was I hiding it from? No one in my family had any problem with me doing what I wanted but I just realised I had a bad relationship with food and this is something that was going to become as bad for me as the alcohol addiction.'
Owning her issues, Denise revealed that her motivation to changed her lifestyle came after her now husband Lincoln, 45, got down on one knee and proposed.
After the excitement, she publicly discussed on Loose Women and various publications how she wanted to lose weight ahead of her big day and came to the decision of which diet to choose with her other half.
'That was my internal motivation and my external motivation was my lovely husband had proposed to me and I knew I had a wedding coming up,' she began. 'I'm not saying I was a beast but two stone on a small framed woman is enough to make you not happy with how you look.
'Destructive': After realising her sweet tooth had become a problem, Denise became aware that she was eating in a 'destructive way' that wasn't healthy and was feeding into her addictive personality
Motivation: Owning her issues, Denise revealed that her motivation to changed her lifestyle came after her now husband Lincoln, 45, got down on one knee and proposed
'I basically made it quite public on telly and in publications that I wanted to lose weight and a lot of diet companies approached me wanting me to do their diets.
She continued: 'So Lincoln and I sat down together and discussed what was going to be best for me, he wasn't going to do the whole process with me but he was going to benefit from whatever lifestyle changes I was going to make as a couple.
'Lighterlife were and are the only company that were offering CBT, cogitative behavioral therapy, and as much as I was a bit nervous about it, I didn't know what group therapy was and it sounded so terrifying, where as it was a group of fabulous men and women. '
Now overcoming her binge eating, Denise admitted it's 'refreshing' to no longer stay in her 'all or nothing' cycle of 'crooked thinking' about food.
Decisions: After the excitement, she publicly discussed on Loose Women and various publications how she wanted to lose weight ahead of her big day and came to the decision of which diet to choose with her other half
She explained: 'I could quite possibly put five pounds on over a weekend by binge eating to then be completely down on the Monday when I realise I have another five pounds to lose.
'I was in that cycle of crooked thinking often through the last 20 years. It's so refreshing not to have to deal with that.'
Denise married contemporary artist Lincoln in 2013 in an idyllic ceremony attended by her friends, family and two sons Matt and Louis Healy, from her previous marriage to Tim Healy.
The actress admitted that getting sober and changing their lifestyles together have enriched their lives in every way, making them stronger and more in love than ever before.
Family: Denise married contemporary artist Lincoln in 2013 in an idyllic ceremony attended by her friends, family and two sons Matt and Louis Healy (Pictured above)
Future: The actress admitted that getting sober and changing their lifestyles together have enriched their lives in every way, making them stronger and more in love than ever before
She said: 'I think because we both got sober together and we both are a couple in every single way and we are both so proud of each other because we have achieved so much more than we ever thought.
'Lincoln was in a bad place like me a few years ago and is now a leading contemporary artist.
'We got knocked by everybody at the beginning and lots of horrible things happening, the fact we got through that and we decided to change what we could about our lives. We hope people can see it's never too late to change.'
Denise lost 2st in 2 months on LighterLife Total and maintains with LighterLife Fast 5:2, to find out more visit www.LighterLife.com