Healthy living
Diet and weight loss
The Rosemary Conley story
Diet guru Rosemary Conley is still at the top of her game says Patsy Westcott
I've arranged to meet Rosemary Conley CBE in the Personal Shopping Department of Debenhams in the Shires Shopping Centre in Leicester. It's apt that the woman who once described herself as the Delia Smith of dieting should choose somewhere so Middle England and so, well, ordinary.
She sweeps in - surprisingly small at just 5ft 2in, blonde hair impeccably coiffed, neat bottom encased in Guess jeans topped by a pale lime skinny-rib, a wisp of matching chiffon around her neck, and shoes with a small heel.
In her train are Debra, her assistant, and the four finalists of the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine 2007 Slimmer of the Year contest, who between them have lost nearly 39 stones. "Isn't it fab? Isn't it incredible? You won't recognise their 'before' pictures," she bubbles enthusiastically.
The "girls", as she calls them, are here to be fitted with outfits for a photo shoot at Chatsworth the next day.
She says, "Slimmer of the Year epitomises everything we're trying to do. We want someone to pick up the magazine and say, 'Wow, that could be me in a year's time.' These girls have been very overweight - we're not expecting them to have bodies like Michelle Pfeiffer - but they have got fantastic figures and we want to show them off. It's about getting across the message, 'If they can do it, so can I.'"
Conley's own waist, an enviable 23in, is something she attributes to the calorie-burning effects of Salsacise - an aerobic workout based on the popular Latin dance, which is part of her latest diet and exercise regime.
Exercise has been a factor in the Conley weight-loss equation since the Eighties and all classes include an exercise section taught by qualified professional instructors. "It means members have a reason to come to classes after losing weight and gives them a reason to maintain their new weight," she says. It also helps the skin to shrink, so avoiding the loose "elephant skin" that can characterise dramatic weight loss.
After declaring that she was hanging up her leotard for good in 2002, Conley changed her mind last year when she brought out her Gi Jeans Diet and two new exercise DVDs. Gi stands for Glycaemic index, of which more later.
A third DVD, the Gi Jeans Weight-Loss Workout, is appearing, together with her 28th book, the Ultimate Gi Jeans Diet. The book is designed, according to the blurb, to make you look "dynamite in your denims".
The format will be familiar to the millions who have bought her diet books over the years - a wodge of readers' success stories, a couple of chapters outlining the diet and exercise programme, followed by recipes. The book also includes a quiz designed to identify your "real" biological age.
This down-to-earth approach must, at least in part, account for her 35-year reign as queen of the dieting business. She was born in Leicestershire and has stayed close to her roots. Her offices are at Quorn Grange, a few miles from Leicester, and her manor house is nearby.
Entrepreneurship is in the blood. Her mother, Celia, designed a "beauty cap to keep your rollers in place at night" that sold in Harrods. "She got all her WI ladies making them," Rosemary recalls.
Conley was "quite sickly" as a child on account of asthma but her childhood was a happy one, marred only by the financial difficulties of her father, Oswald, a hosiery wholesaler. These problems have had a profound effect on how she runs her own business. She prides herself on always paying her bills on time and has never borrowed money.
After leaving school at 14 with no qualifications, Conley became a secretary and then a Tupperware lady. It was the two stone she gained in 1971 after a cordon bleu cookery course that launched her career as diet guru, first with the unfortunately acronymed Slimming and Good Grooming clubs that she initially ran from her kitchen and sold to IPC Magazines in 1982 for £52,000.
Conley continued to run the clubs, expanding them nationally until 1986, when she and IPC parted company. It was then that she developed gallstones and was told by her doctor that unless she cut down on fat she would need an operation. The low-fat diet she adopted not only delayed surgery for another five years but was responsible for the dieting phenomenon which made her name: the Hip and Thigh Diet.
In the same year she became a committed Christian and married Mike Rimmington, her second husband, a former ICI marketing executive, who is co-director of the Conley empire.
Last year the business - the magazine, her franchise chain of 170 Diet and Fitness Clubs with 80,000 members, her books, videos and DVDs and her online slimming club, rosemary-conley.co.uk - turned over £13 million, £10 million of that from franchises.
Conley attributes her success to adherence to her original gospel of a low-fat diet combined with exercise. She prides herself on producing non-gimmicky, effective diets. "I use ordinary, everyday foods put together in a way people enjoy eating. Lots of diets suggest eating foods that leave me cold."
But I suspect there is more to it than that. After 35 years in the business she remains firmly hands-on. She still holds her own classes and answers letters addressed to her personally. She also takes a real satisfaction in her clients' weight loss. Despite the personal shoppers, several times during the afternoon I spend with her she charges on to the shop floor, returning laden with clothes.
Recounting how a member of her classes recently brought in a letter that Rosemary had written to her mother, an early acolyte, some 30 years ago, she says, "I think it's sad that some people when they become successful become detached from their 'fan base'."
Now, after the wilderness years of low-carb, high-protein diets, Conley is once again riding high. The Ultimate Gi Jeans Diet, like all Conley's slimming regimes, is low in fat. But she has shrewdly given it a 21st-century spin with the inclusion of the Glycaemic index, which is the effect that each food has on levels of sugar in the blood. Once again she has proved to have her finger on the pulse of the market.
Ideas such as portion control promoted by diet gurus of the past decade have also left their mark. Where the original Hip and Thigh Diet allowed unlimited rice, potatoes and pasta, the Gi Jeans Diet is carefully calorie-controlled. Some people took the "unlimited" rather too literally, it seems, and ate too much. But the message is essentially the same.
Conley turned 60 in December, an event she viewed with unenthusiastic equanimity. These days she's not so keen on the Delia label, feeling - with justification - that she's made it in her own right.
Her organisation is third in the UK slimming stakes - after Weight Watchers and Slimming World - and business is up by 45%. The fact that she looks so good is its own advertisement.
With a new relationship with Universal Pictures and her daughter, Dawn, 31, looking into new products, Conley is not about to retire. "I love my relationship with my slimmers and being able to supply all they need to achieve their goal. I consider it a privilege. I don't believe in luck, I love what I do and I work at it," she says.
Saga has teamed up with Rosemary Conley to bring you a fantastic two-for-one offer on her online slimming club. Click <a href="HowISlimmedWithRosemaryConley.asp" class="sect-au">here</a> to read a 'before and after' success story based on Rosemary's Gi Jeans Diet.
Offer details
Rosemary Conley has teamed up with Saga to bring you a fantastic two for one offer for her online slimming club rosemaryconleyonline.com
So if your New Year resolution is to lose weight and get fitter and healthier in 2007, why not take advantage of this exclusive offer?
What do you get when you join rosemaryconleyonline.com?</h1><li>A personal welcome pack, including a motivational CD from Rosemary and exclusive retractable tape measure- Flexible choice of plans, including the brand-new GI Jeans Diet
- 24/7 access worldwide
- Your own personal weight-loss coach
- Fantastic online support and motivation
- Exercise advice
- Great value for money - from as little as 10p a day with the one-year offer
Special Saga offer
Two months for the price of one. For every month's membership you buy we will give you another absolutely free
Three membership options</h1><li>One-month membership - £34.99 (eight weeks for the price of four)- Three-month membership - £49.99 (six months for the price of three)
- One-year membership - £79.99 (two years for the price of one)
www.rosemaryconleyonline.com/saga today to receive your free personal diet profile
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.