Now this is an inspiring story..
The airline diet: Couple lose 12st after plane could not take off because they were too heavy
By Lucy Laing
Last updated at 9:51 PM on 03rd October 2008
The plane was on the runway; the holidaymakers in good spirits.
And when the stewardess came down the aisle towards Jan Coupe and her husband, she thought the flight attendant was going to check their seatbelts.
Then came the moment Mrs Coupe wished the earth would open up and she could disappear.
Alan and Jan Coupe
Too heavy: Alan and Jan Coupe weighed too much for their plane to take off
For the stewardess had to tell the couple - who weighed 38st between them - that they were too heavy for the plane to take off.
As his wife cringed with embarrassment, 20st Alan Coupe moved to the front of the aircraft to help even out the weight.
While it was a scene they wouldn't have wished on their worst enemies, some good has come of it.
The couple, who run a bed and breakfast business, were so shocked they started to diet and have now lost 12 1/2st between them.
Mrs Coupe, 49, said: 'It was a decent-sized plane full of holidaymakers - it wasn't a small plane - so it was devastating to be told that even a big plane like that couldn't cope with all our weight being at the back.
'The stewardess asked one of us to get up and move to the front, so Alan volunteered to move which I was thankful about as I was so embarrassed I just couldn't look up.'
Alan and Jan Coupe
Slimline: The couple have now lost over 12st through healthy eating
She added: ' We couldn't believe that we were too heavy for the plane to take off.'
The couple married in 1980 and Mrs Coupe said they settled into a routine of eating late at night.
'We ate takeaways at least three times a week, and had our favourite Chinese or pizza,' she said.
Mrs Coupe, from Stubbington, Hampshire, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in January 2005.
In April that year, the couple decided to go on a week's holiday to Guernsey with son Chris - and that's when the plane from Southampton couldn't take off.
It wasn't the first time their weight had caused a problem.
A few years earlier they had been on a boat ride at the London Dungeon with their son and daughter Chloe.
Mrs Coupe said: 'Both Alan and I sat on the same side of the boat and it tipped over, causing water to slosh in.
'The man in charge asked us to move to balance the weight in the boat, and the children were mortified.'
Following the plane ordeal, and also to help with her MS, Mrs Coupe joined a Slimming World club.
She persuaded her husband to attend and in the first week Mrs Coupe lost 8lb and Mr Coupe lost 9lb.
Instead of takeaways at night, the couple had pasta, vegetable curries or steak salads.
Now Mrs Coupe has lost 6st 5lb and her 54-year-old husband 5st 13lb.
Mrs Coupe, who has also dropped six dress sizes to a 14, said: 'I don't feel embarrassed about getting on a plane anymore - we all feel so great we could fly around the world now without a hitch."
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