Jennifer Ellison looked fantastic as she lounged by the pool in Turkey on Wednesday after revealing she had left fad diets behind.
The former Brookside star, 40 – who was a size 18 at her largest – showed off her figure in a cropped yellow bikini.
She paired it with contrasting thong bottoms and shielded her face from the sun with a straw hat.
In September, Jennifer – who found fame as Emily Shadwick in Brookside – revealed she has stopped dieting and is happy with her weight of just over 10 stone after years of yo-yo dieting.
She told new! Magazine: ‘I’m not the smallest I’ve ever been, but I’m at a happy weight where I feel good when I get into the pool in a bikini or a suit.’
Amazing: Jennifer Ellison, 40, looked fantastic as she lounged by the pool in Turkey on Wednesday after revealing she has ditched fad diets
Gorgeous: The former Brookside star – who was a size 18 at her largest – showed off her figure in a cropped yellow bikini
She added: ‘I’m in a happy and confident place. I’m currently about 10¾th. I no longer feel like I’m in that rat race where I have to look great. I stopped trying to diet.
‘When you do fad diets they don’t work, so I gave up. My weight has gone up and down so much over the years, so I just try to eat healthy now.”
Jennifer told the publication that she lost her self-confidence after gradually gaining weight and going down to a size 18.
She recalled, “My agent called me, and the thought of auditioning…I would turn it down. I would say, ‘I can’t do it.’ I had lost my confidence. I had literally given up on myself’.
Last year, Jennifer – who shares three sons Bobby, Harrison and Charlie with husband Rob – revealed that before taking part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins: ‘I had given up on myself. I never looked in the mirror.
‘I didn’t think I would ever be able to get on stage again because no one would want me. From a girl known for acting and men’s magazines, I had grown into a mother and teacher.’
Jennifer previously admitted during an appearance on Loose Women: ‘I started to worry about seeing people from my past because I thought they were looking at me and thinking, what the hell happened to you?
‘People in the shops would say, “God girl, you’ve put on weight, haven’t you!” I was a size 18 in self-destruct mode. I wouldn’t look in the mirror, I didn’t care. Everything was about my (sons).”
In September, Jennifer – who found fame as Emily Shadwick in Brookside – revealed she has stopped dieting and is happy with her weight of just over 10 stone.
Lifestyle: The actress explained how she went through years of yo-yo dieting
Confident: She told new! Magazine: ‘I’m not the smallest I’ve ever been, but I’m at a happy weight where I feel good when I step into the pool in a bikini or costume’
Beach ready: She added: ‘I’m in a happy and confident place. I’m currently about 10¾th. I no longer feel like I’m in that rat race where I have to look great. I’ve stopped trying to diet
Changes: Jennifer continued, “When you do fad diets, they don’t work, so I gave up. My weight has gone up and down so much over the years, so I just try to eat healthy now.”
She decided to take drastic measures and went to a detox center where she was given almost 400 calories a day.
Jennifer added: ‘I would take a slice of apple and walk six miles and then come back starving. I was told the perfect analogy about wanting to help your son – like when you need to put on a flight oxygen mask, you put yours on first.
“To be a good mother to them, you have to take care of yourself.” For me it was self-neglect, everything revolved around the boys.’
Jennifer rose to fame with Brookside in 1998, in which she played Emily Shadwick until 2003. During this period she became a favorite of the boys’ magazines.
She shares her three children Bobby, Harrison and Charlie with husband Rob Tickle, whom she married in October 2009.