Coronation Street favourite Channique Sterling-Brown has opened up about her staggering weight loss in an emotional transformation post.
The brunette beauty – who is best known for her role as Dee-Dee Bailey on the ITV soap – has always been open about her glamorous life online. And it’s fair to say she’s been hard at work over the past few months as her character fought tooth and nail for cobbles icon Roy Cropper to be released from prison for Lauren Bolton’s murder.
And it seems like she’s not going to be slowing down any time soon after it was revealed last Thursday (May 30) that the real assailant behind Lauren’s death was her on-screen boyfriend Joel Deering (Callum Lill). Away from the cameras, the star had opened up about her fitness journey after she completed the Manchester 10k marathon with many of her co-stars recently.
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Taking to Instagram, the 27-year-old shared a series of celebratory snaps with her golden medal proudly hanging from her neck. But what viewers may be surprised to know is that the actress has been through quite the fitness transformation over the past few years.
(Image: Instagram)
In an emotional post, the soap siren opened up about how she lost 100lbs after years of being “obsessed” with her weight. She confessed that over the years she has tried “diets, shakes and tablets” before she took a break from social media to work on her mental health.
Sharing a dramatic before and after picture, the star shared her weight loss experience with her 16,000 followers online. She wrote: “Couple of years ago it got really bad, I was losing control. Hating yourself is a s**t way to live. I came off socials for over a month and when I came back, I unfollowed all the pages full of beautiful, unrealistic bodies.
“Consuming those images daily used to send me spiralling. Comparison’s a killer. Instead, I follow women who represented me more, in terms of shape, skills and skin colour.”
(Image: Getty Images)
It was at this point that the TV favourite changed her mindset on weight loss and strived for a healthy diet and boosted fitness instead. Channique went on: “I stopped seeing the gym as punishment for being fat and started focusing on fitness. For the first time ever I started enjoying working out, my high school PE teacher would be shook.
“I didn’t notice my weight loss until my clothes were a bit big. So then there’s this excitement of feeling fitter, new wardrobe (cos a b**ch loves to shop).” As the Dee Bailey star started to shed the pounds, she started to feel uncomfortable by the amount of compliments she received from her friends and family.
She went on: “But then came the compliments, which weirdly made me so uncomfortable. Awkwardly smiling, when people gushed over me being thinner, not my 1st class degree.
(Image: Instagram)
“Then bare anxiety, ‘If I put on weight is everyone gonna notice?’ It was like confirmation that all my toxic thoughts had been in the back of everyone else’s head all along.
“When people compliment weight loss I know they mean no harm, but when it becomes the main focus of your achievements, it’s disheartening. Now I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of myself, but that’s linked to being two years veggie, being healthier and my head being a happier place to be.
“Not always of course, I still have my moments, things I’d change. But I’ve learnt to keep it moving, don’t let those negative thoughts fester or they will take control.”
(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
The actor shared her newfound belief about modern beauty standards and explained how she has grown from this experience. Channique explained: “Changing how I see myself and unlearning the toxic beauty standards society feeds us, is the real glow up. I now realise the gal on the left is just as much of a bad b**ch as the gal on the right.
“Let’s build each other up for more than just our dress size/ I always want to be known for my love, laughter and loudness, not the body they live in.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8pm on ITV1 or catch up on ITVX.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
