As she releases her autobiography, fitness icon Rosemary Conley shares her tips for keeping strong and setting goals

INTERVIEW: KATE LOCKETT.

PHOTO: ALAN OLLEY

It’s 50 years since Rosemary Conley started her slimming classes in a Leicestershire village hall. Since then she has published 37 books, including the popular The Hip and Thigh Diet in 1988. But her latest, an autobiography called Through Thick and Thin, charts the story behind her success.

The 75-year-old, whose video-based website is designed to help people 50 and over nurture their wellbeing, tells HELLO!: “My goal is to help other people stay fit and healthy into older age. There isn’t a magic formula. You have to be committed and as active as you can.”

Rosemary talks to us about dieting myths, stresses the importance of daily exercise and her unlikely career path…

Rosemary, how did you get into the diet and fitness industry?

“During my first marriage I put weight on. It wasn’t a terribly happy time. I had a really bad relationship with food, gained two and a half stone and utterly loathed myself. I learnt about how to lose weight; then, having lost the weight, I started classes in my kitchen with half a dozen neighbours, then moved to the village hall. Everybody loved what I was teaching them – how to lose weight and make the most of themselves. That was the start of my career. I paid £8 for 30 posters for those first classes and 50 years on, here we are today.”