Ola Jordan has dropped from a size 14 to a size eight in just four months as she and husband James show off their impressive weight loss, after dropping a combined 6.5 stone.
The strict ex-professional, 40, admits that she longed for her ex-dancer body and doubted if she would ever have a flat stomach again after becoming a mom for the first time in 2020 and gaining weight during the pandemic.
Her self-esteem was so low that Ola refused to leave the house, feeling a shadow of herself compared to the confident professional who competed on Strictly every Saturday night in flashy, revealing dresses.
After posting a photo on Instagram and admitting she was “appalled” and “disappointed” by her figure, Ola and James, 44, vowed to change their lives and now they feel better than ever.
Transformation: Ola Jordan has dropped from a size 14 to a size 8 in just four months as she and her husband James show off their impressive weight loss, after losing a total of 6.5 stone
Out with the old: The strictly professional ex admits she longed for her ex-dancer body and doubted if she would ever have a flat stomach again after becoming a mom in 2022
Ola told MailOnline: ‘I feel like I’ve lost a whole person.
‘A size 14 was the largest. I’m also pretty short so a size 14 for some people isn’t big and that’s the problem with weight and sizes because some people say a 14 isn’t big. But being 5 foot 3 and a size 14 is big.
I am now a size eight. I missed my old self. There’s nothing wrong with admitting it.
“People now preach body positivity and they accept it, but I really missed the old me and that’s not just my body, it was with dance and everything. Health is important to me and I want to stay healthy for as long as I can.’
James added: ‘We’ve lost six and a half stones between the two of us. This has been since the summer after the photo we took on July 20.
“I missed my old self”: His self-esteem was so low that Ola refused to leave the house and felt a shadow of his old self compared to the confident professional who would compete in Strictly
Ola’s motivation to go down three dress sizes came after she realized that her physical appearance had changed so much that she no longer recognized herself.
The photo of her and James taken in July shows the couple, who share two-year-old daughter Ella, in a bathing suit after years of unhealthy eating.
Former Dancing On Ice star James says he drank up to three caloric hazelnut lattes a day while unable to move his body, admitting the sad loss of his father caused him to suffer from brain fog and moodiness.
Ola felt the same way: shunning red carpet appearances and hiding out at home until she was ready to face the potential trolling and backlash by posting the bikini pic and finally taking responsibility.
She said: ‘For me it was my stomach. I used to think, is that all? Is that my belly after pregnancy? Am I ever going to lose that? But I have. Now I have a nice flat tummy. My face changed a lot. When I look at the photos, I feel like I’m so swollen.
“People said that after pregnancy I would just go crazy because I am a professional dancer, but I am just like everyone else. I sat there in my baggy lockdown clothes stuffing my face and didn’t dance. My body was not going to back down.
‘I didn’t want to fix myself and nothing suited me anymore. That was my breaking point.
‘I was hiding. I was in denial. People said there are a lot of moms who seem fine, but if you’re not happy, you’re not happy.”
James continued: ‘I hated my gut. I saw a few photos of myself either playing golf or hanging out with friends and my gut really hung over the top.
“I couldn’t wear a certain belt because whenever I wore it, I’m quite hairy and have a hairy chest and my belly hair used to hang over the top of my belt and get caught.
“It looked like all the bees in a hive had stung us. Honestly, we were both so fat!
‘Nothing suited me anymore’: Ola’s motivation to drop three dress sizes came after realizing that her physical appearance had changed so much that she no longer recognized herself
‘I’m just like everyone else’: The dancer says she was frustrated by the public’s misconception that she would “go backwards” after having a baby because she’s a professional dancer
Ola, who shows off her figure in a white bikini in new photos for MailOnline, admits that her sex life with husband James has improved since they lost weight because she finally feels better in her own skin.
She said: ‘It’s amazing. I am much more sure. I didn’t want them to see me before to be honest.
‘It’s confidence and even now that I get dressed I’ll wear nicer clothes. I feel sexy again. I’m not wearing my big panties anymore and I’m wearing my sexiest stuff.
I have worked hard and I am very happy with myself. I’m really happy.’
And James is also delighted with Ola’s transformation, adding: “It’s wonderful to see her happy again because it’s all been for Ella and now she’s done something for herself.”
“Now she can put on all her clothes…it’s good to see her happier again.”
Family: Ola and James, who admits to losing motivation and suffering from “brain fog” after his father’s passing, welcomed daughter Ella in 2020
What’s her secret?: The former Strictly partner has launched the Dance Shred fitness website, which is a 12-week program that combines learning to dance with functional training.
Her fans will be dying to know how the Strictly couple went from hating their physical appearance to posing for a joint photo shoot looking just as healthy as they did at the height of their professional dance careers.
They say the answer is their new DanceShred.co.uk 12-week fitness program, which combines Latin American and ballroom dance with functional training for a high-intensity workout.
Ola says her weight loss journey began with dancing with her daughter Ella in the kitchen and cutting out unhealthy foods, with the couple later adding burpees, squats, and hill climbers to help shed those unwanted pounds.
She explained: ‘We started making changes to our diet: we stopped eating snacks and takeaways. Sometimes we had takeout 2-3 times a week. We still treat ourselves, but we are aware and we don’t do it all the time. I lost by a rock in the first few weeks.
James continued: “We started dancing in the kitchen and because I’ve been a gym fanatic for so many years and used to train Ola and I’m a qualified physical therapist, I started to include functional exercises within the dance and create these routines.”
‘We would do the Cha Cha and then we would do functional exercises and we started doing that with the Jive and music. You can do the Cha Cha on burpees and go back to Cha Cha, go back to something for the abs and we were linking and changing it.
“We were burning a ton of calories through dancing and doing functional movements like squats, lunges and pushups, you’re building muscle and doing strength training.”
‘We got ourselves into a mess’: James insists his and Ola’s physical transformation wasn’t to make money, saying they really found themselves in a rut for five years.
As someone who has become known for his bold opinions, James is aware that not everyone will buy into his and Ola’s story, and admits that he would be the first to question their intentions.
There are cynics who will see them as just another pair of celebrities trying to make money in the ever-growing fitness and wellness industry, gaining weight on purpose only to lose it again, while promoting their new platform.
But James says that those people are wrong and insists that his physical transformation is completely genuine.
He said: “People have been saying ‘clearly they got fat on purpose so they could make a fitness DVD’…yeah, we wanted to be fat and obese for five years, we thought five years ahead just so we could release a fitness DVD.” “. platform.
No, we’ve got ourselves into trouble. We did something about it and people have asked how we did it and we’re going to share it because we know it works.
“If we did it in a very short period of time, I would think the same thing because I’m quite critical and it’s part of human nature because a lot of celebrities put out these DVDs and stuff and I get it and people go.” to judge no matter what you say.
“I can assure you with my hand on my heart that there is no way I would want to be fat for five years to do a fitness platform.”
Adjustments: The couple says that, along with their new fitness regimen, they’ve also stopped eating unhealthily after admitting to ordering 2-3 take-out meals a week in their prime.