I couldn’t afford a gym membership, so I started weight training with my kids – and now I’ve lost the 7th

A mother-of-two has shared the secrets to her weight loss success after shedding a whopping 7 stone by ditching her 5,000 calorie diet and involving her kids in her home workouts.

Cassie Morrison, 26, from Hull, made an ongoing effort to shed the pounds by swapping her unhealthy diet for lean protein products and incorporating her toddlers into a range of workouts including squats, shoulder presses, planks and arm curling.

The combination of lifting the children and following a healthy diet saw Cassie’s weight drop from 17 stone to 10 stone in two years – and she is now a size 10.

Cassie, who is estimated to have saved £1,000 on a gym membership, said: ‘Exercising with the kids has helped me enormously. I could never afford the right weights, but I really wanted to put in the effort and lose weight, so using my kids was the next best thing. I’ve always done it.’

The mother-of-two has struggled with her weight all her life and explained that she was always bigger than average.

Although she said her meal plan wasn’t particularly bad, she still drank about 5,000 worth of snacks and junk food every day.

But when she got to size 26, she could no longer see herself in the mirror.

After she went on vacation and couldn’t even have her picture taken without shame, she decided enough was enough.

The mother of two started her weight-loss journey with no money for the gym, so she decided to get creative with her exercises.

Her children, Rubie, two, and Broden, four, have been essential to her incredible weight loss and muscle building journey.

As she progressed, Cassie was able to expand her workouts, including five-minute sessions on each part of the body, and installed a pole in her garage to teach herself pole fitness.

The 26-year-old has managed to work her way down to a size 10 and hopes she can go down to size soon.

She said: “My kids love that I involve them in training. They enjoy participating, so we do this a few times a week.

‘We’ve been doing this since Rubie was ten months old, it was definitely the most exciting and strange part of my journey.

‘I tried every diet in the book, but incorporating it into my exercise routine and running a 1,500 calorie deficit really stuck with me.

‘My weight was out of control – I was gaining weight all the time and I didn’t want any pictures taken and I didn’t even want to let my son swim.

‘People underestimate how useful it is to come up with unique workouts and how much you can do at home.

‘As far as diet goes, I still try to eat as best as I can, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t have a protein shake for breakfast every day because it’s still better than how I used to eat.

‘I would binge eat almost every day – I would eat shared packets of crisps, chocolate, biscuits and ice cream in one sitting, and from snacks alone I would easily reach around 5,000 calories.

‘When I became pregnant with my second child, I felt like giving it up. At that time I was already a size 26 and had the feeling that I would not be able to lose any more weight.

‘Doing everything at home meant I could just go at my own pace, which was so useful because there was no pressure to do things a certain way.

‘When I was older I couldn’t even walk to my parents’ house without feeling like I couldn’t breathe and having heart palpitations, and they only live ten minutes away, which was no way to live.

‘All I want to do now is get stronger and build some muscle, just to look good and feel really good about myself.

“The kids will definitely still be used as weights to get me there!”