Alison Hammond - with her distinctive Brummie accent and her larger than life personality - has fast-become a national treasure since she first appeared on Big Brother series three back in 2002. Let's face it, our TV screens wouldn't be the same without her falling in the river during a weather segment on This Morning, or her viral interviews flirting with Hollywood heartthrobs. And now, well, her life is about to change as she has been unveiled as a new Weight Watchers ambassador alongside the likes of Robbie Williams, Oprah and Kate Hudson. In a bid to inspire others to join her on a wellness journey, HELLO! caught up with 44-year-old Alison to find out why she has chosen to embrace a new way of life in her forties and how her teenage son inspired her to shed the pounds…
Alison Hammond on…deciding to lose weight
"I am 44 now, and there are certain things I can't do, and I am the sort of person who wants to embrace life and enjoy it. In the back of my head I was putting things off, like my son would ask 'can we go for a bike ride' and I was like 'yeah, yeah, we'll go for a bike ride' but never actually get round to doing the bike ride because I didn't want to not be able to complete the whole lap. Then I thought, if I carried on doing this there is diabetes and do I want my journey to be going that way? Actually, I don't, so I just thought let's go a different path."
Alison loves her body and the skin she is in
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Alison Hammond on…hitting back at trolls
"In the time that I have been on social media, I have probably had three occasions [of trolling], my advice is always the same, and that is: ignore, block and forget. I feel sorry for the person who says it, if someone, for instance, says 'Alison, you are a fat so-and-so', well straight away they have got an issue with fatness and they are just projecting their problems with fatness. I feel sorry for them, they haven't got to the point where they can address their own problems. If anything, I will embrace a troll and love them, you can always kill them with kindness, you can kill anyone that is nasty with kindness!"
Alison Hammond on…being confident in your own skin
"I absolutely love who I am, I love my body, I love the skin that I am in, I love everything about my body…What I have learnt in my 44 years, is that you can only do you, I can only do Alison, you know everybody is taken, so I can only be me. Ultimately, I am going to be living with me for the rest of my love, so I want to love who I am. I want to look in the mirror and say, 'you know what, you are a good person, you are a lovely lady.' I don't want to look in the mirror and think 'I can't stand you.'"
The 44-year-old plans on getting healthier
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Alison Hammond on…choosing WW to help
"I was doing WW way before WW even approached me, I went along to my local group because I saw my friend who I hadn't seen in two years, he literally looked like a different person. I was like 'OMG you look amazing', not just like smaller, he looked happy, his eyes were glowing!" Alison added: "I see lots of people losing weight, but they look like death, they have been doing it all the wrong way they don't eat, there was something about my friend…I saw happiness. It's 2lb a week weight loss so it is a healthy weight, I am looking at this like a 'two- or three-year project Hammond', I am enjoying the journey."
Alison is the newest ambassador for WW. If you'd like to know more about WW, visit ww.com.
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