Coronation Street star Colson Smith has been on quite the weight loss journey this year and he puts a big part of his transformation down to the “proper food” Manchester-based meal delivery service Fit Chef provides him.
Smith – a regular on Manchester’s most famous cobbles since 2011 playing Craig Tinker – has been regularly sharing updates from his fitness journey on social media since the start of 2020 and most notably received an outpouring of support from stunned fans after taking to Instagram to share a post-run picture back in May.
The soap star made his return to screens for the first time since filming suspended during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown on Friday’s episode, and for his brief scene, Smith was seen looking much slimmer as his character with some even said that he looked “unrecognisable”.
This is all thanks to Fit Chef, a popular, healthy subscription meal service for busy people who love to eat but don’t have the time to cook. The meal prep business helped Colson drop the pounds for both his on-screen, and off-screen transformations, by providing him with restaurant quality food straight to his door every week.
Colson recently revealed his weight loss at the start of the UK coronavirus lockdown.
Speaking on his podcast Sofa Cinema Club – which he co-hosts with fellow Corrie actors Jack P Shepherd and Ben Price – about his weight loss journey particularly in conjunction with returning to film for Coronation Street, Colson said: “We are in direct continuity, but I’ve almost lost about ten stone since we left work,”
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“I might be wearing a wig and a fat suit when we go back,” he joked.
As well as attributing running, rowing and weight lifting to being fundamental parts of his transformation, and also calling No 1 Bootcamp – a fitness, weight loss and wellness retreat in Norfolk – his “second home” back in February, Colson has put a large part of his weight loss down to the “proper food” he’s been tucking into from Fit Chef.
The Manchester-based company is run by chefs Will Lee and Matt Williams – two professional cooks who knew meal prep was “top of the list” for Colson at the start of his fitness journey.
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Speaking to The Manc, Colson said: “At the start of the year, I sat down to plan out how I was going to make everything as easy as possible for myself [and] top of the list was meal prep.”
“I knew I wanted to keep normality in my food rather than your standard ‘Chicken, Rice & Peas’, so as soon as I saw FitChef’s menu, it just made sense.”
“Sweet Potato Hash for breakfast and Lamb Hot Pot for lunch? Yes please.”
He continued: “The first time I ever met Will & Matt, the brains behind Fitchef, we [just] clicked. They knew exactly what I was after.”
“It’s like eating from a restaurant every day, just with that hint of home love too”.
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“Whenever people have spoken to me and asked what I’ve been eating, their normal reaction is a state of shock, but I guess that’s what Fit Chef stands for – it’s lifestyle thing,” he continued.
“Proper food, proper results.”
Colson regularly shares updates on his fitness journey via his Instagram.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have taken its toll on industries of all shapes and sizes over these past few months, but supporting local/independent business has never been more important than it is right now.
The Manc is #BuzzingToBeBack – find out more about eats in Manchester here.
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The player celebrations from Stockport County’s League Two trophy presentation are glorious
Danny Jones
If you’re a Stockport County fan, you’ve had a very good year as the Hatters have just been crowned League Two champions and will be back in the English third tier next season – safe to say they’ve been making most of the trophy celebrations.
Players and staff very much included.
Edgeley was filled with flares and even people climbing on rooftops when they officially secured promotion back to League One for the first time in 12 years – the second time they’ve managed to go up in three seasons – and there was a great attendance in Stockport town centre for the bus parade.
But it was last week’s trophy presentation back at the stadium that produced some of the most memorable scenes, with County topping off a season of impressive and often high-scoring performances on the pitch with plenty more pageantry. Cue the music.
We still haven’t stopped laughing at Kyle Knoyle.
From bringing Isaac Olaofe’s ‘Tanto’s on fire!’ chant to life to hammering home puns on names like Fraser Horsfall, no matter how obvious, these are the kind of deeply unserious celebrations we expect from a trophy presentation.
County fan or not, you’ve got to admit it looks like a good party.
It’s moments like these that players, fans and staff work hard all season for; to prat around like muppets in front of their adoring supporters. They even got assistant coach, Clint Hill, in the mix and, as it turns out, he proved to be one of the biggest ring-leaders.
We sincerely hope the Hatters keep trickling out more of these party scenes as we know there’s plenty more that fans would love to watch back.
We’re still yet to see captain Paddy Madden, who won Player of the Month for April, and the gaffer himself, Dave Challinor, who has comfortably secured his legacy as one of the club’s all-time greats.
Challinor and the club have made no secret of seriously eyeing up the Championship and who knows what else at County’s momentum continues to build, especially with a huge stadium redevelopment kicking off soon.
What do you reckon, Hatters – do you reckon a third promotion could be on the cards?
Liam Gallagher says he’ll ‘gig in Lidl’ if Co-op Live still isn’t ready – and they sound pretty game for it
Danny Jones
Following the ongoing palaver with Co-op Live, Liam Gallagher has joked that he’d happily play his scheduled gigs in a Lidl if the arena still isn’t ready – at least we think he’s joking…
With Liam Gallagher having been named as one of the first acts booked to play Co-op Live last year, many are now wondering whether the venue will even by June, with the former Oasis frontman set to play four Definitely Maybe 30th-anniversary sets. That being said, he’s come up with a solution if not.
Vintage LG, we’ll give him that.
Obviously a bit of a tongue-in-cheek quip at the venue being sponsored by a supermarket and convenience store chain, it could have been any other competitor that the ever-witty youngest Gallagher brother picked but it somehow made it extra funny that he chose a budget brand like Lidl.
However, with the 51-year-old already having fun with stunts like voicing the tannoys on the Metrolink last year, for instance, we wouldn’t put it past him to take this joke a little further.
Better still, not that we’re getting carried away or anything but Lidl themselves seem pretty keen on the idea too; they even spent the time to build an entire setlist for the fictional show. Fair play.
Can you imagine? Liam Gallagher swapping the occasional tambourine shake for beeps from a barcode scanner as he moves back and forth on the conveyor belt. We know it’s absolute nonsense and we definitely shouldn’t be even remotely considering it… BUT it’s the stuff of dreams and strange things have happened.
A lot of stranger things have happened this week alone. As for the latest with Co-op Live, the Chairman and CEO of key-backers Oak View Group, Tim Leiweke, issued a full statement sharing his “sincere apologies”and insisting that they understand “there is work to be done to rebuild your trust in us.”
With the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Peter Kay, The Black Keys and more having their gigs pulled by the venue due to numerous issues, including an air conditioning unit falling from the ceiling, fans are understandably fearful that other upcoming events could face delays or general misfortune.
Much like the venue itself, we imagine we’ll be playing catch-up on this whole saga for the foreseeable, but here’s a recap of the story so far: