Southport restaurant owner who lost more than six stone has created new ‘slimmers menu’ to help others 

A Southport restaurant owner who lost more than six stone has created a ‘World of Slimmers’ menu to help other people on their weightloss journey.

Paul Drewery, who owns the House of Ivy on Lord Street, is offering 10 healthy-plan dishes along with weekly specials on the menu which also includes their ‘Ivy Sins’ value.

The 54-year-old father-of-two who’s gone from 20st 5lb to 13st 11 ½lbs after joining Slimming World in November last year says:

“I am also a chef at the restaurant, and I’d created dishes that I could eat – and people were asking me if I could put them on the menu so they could eat them too.

“Too often people who are trying to lose weight don’t eat out because they’re worried about whether they can stay on plan – or it will mean going off-plan which can throw them for days or weeks afterwards.

“It can make them feel isolated and like a pariah, whereas this makes them feel special and able to continue on their weightloss journey.”

“I’m just grateful and happy that I’m able to help, and I’d say now about 50% of my lunchtime customers from Thursday to Sunday order from the slimmers’ menu – so it’s very popular.” 

Paul, who also owns Spender’s Bar in Scarisbrick Avenue, has struggled with his weight since his mid-20s.

After studying accountancy at Liverpool University, he became manager of Maloney’s cocktail bar for 18 years, and he saw his weight begin to soar.

“It was the late nights, a bad diet … and lots of alcohol,” says Paul. “It was always a party place.

“I’d end up eating breakfast at 4am in the morning at the all-night café, and it just wasn’t a healthy lifestyle at all.

“I tried all the fad diets and I’d lose the weight, only to put it all back on the moment I stopped.”

Paul, who has a 26-year-old son Ethan from a previous relationship and a four-year-old daughter, Brooke, with wife Chantelle, had just lost weight through exercise and ‘one of those diets’ before Covid hit.

But he says: “You can’t keep it off that way.

“It coincided with lockdown beginning in March 2020, and Brooke being born in June that same year, so the exercise fizzled out and the bad diet returned. Slowly but surely, I put the weight right back on again.”

Paul had lost the motivation to lose weight until health problems made him realise it was time to take action.

In December 2022 he ended up in hospital with an irregular heartbeat caused by his excess weight, lack of sleep and stress. And he adds: “All the aches and pains were coming back, and it became increasingly difficult to play with my little girl.

“I couldn’t roll around on the floor because I couldn’t easily get up again; it would take me ages and I’d have to roll over onto all fours.

“I had to do something about it.  I didn’t want to do another quick-fix diet which wouldn’t work long term, and then I met someone who had lost 17st with Slimming World and suggested I try that.

“I joined in November 2023.” And Paul has never looked back.

He lost six stone in the first 30 weeks and has just got his 6.5st award.

Before he would often skip breakfast or eat unhealthy snacks like pasties and pies or have a bacon butty ‘dripping with fat’. Lunch would be more unhealthy snack foods or crisps with three bars of chocolate; and tea would be pizzas or pasta with thick creamy sauces with lots of garlic bread.

Now he eats zero % Greek Yoghurt with fresh fruit and muesli for breakfast: “Or I’ll have a full English cooked healthily with fry light. I’ll have eggs, tomatoes and vegan sausages, or maybe Weetabix.

“Lunch will often be cooked chicken with soy sauce, spring onions and ginger mixed with rice so it’s like a fried rice dish.

“My main meal will be something like a Thai Massaman curry which I might have with cauliflower rice.  I’ve found it easy because I can eat and be full, and I can still have snacks like Snack a Jacks rice cakes or a bit of chocolate, like a couple of Celebrations with a cuppa, to satisfy my sweet craving.

“If I have Coke, it’s zero sugar instead of the full fat version.”

“I feel so much better and a hundred times healthier – and I feel 20 years younger. I can go out and play with my little girl.

“I’m back in the gym because I want to go and enjoy going – I’ve found a love for it again. But it’s about what you put in your mouth; you can’t outrun or exercise away a bad diet.”

Joining Slimming World was, he says, the best decision he ever made.

“Fiona Foulder, my consultant, is brilliant at what she does, and so supportive, as are all the other members. You couldn’t wish to meet a more welcoming group of people.

“I still eat a lot but I eat the right things; it’s about choices and a healthier lifestyle.  Being able to create dishes that are healthy and share them in the restaurant so that other people like me can go out and not feel guilty is great.

“The menu is called the World of Slimmers menu and is based on the principles of Slimming World, and the feedback has been really good which is lovely.

“It’s nice to know I’ve got there, and now I’m helping others.”

Fiona Foulder holds Slimming World meetings at The Fleetwood Hesketh Sports & Social Club on Wednesdays at 8am and 9.30am, and on Saturdays at 8.30am and 10am; and at Liverpool Road Methodist Church on Thursdays at 9.30am and 11am. To find out more call Fiona on 07599 237766.

Find out more about the House of Ivy and it’s new menu here.

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