A Matter of Choice

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year for parties and celebrations but unfortunately not the most wonderful time of the year for your waistline.    There are different ways you can approach this; First option is to say stuff it it's Christmas and eat anything and everything you fancy - if anyone points out you will put on weight then eat them too! Second option is to avoid all parties, don't drink,  refuse all treats and generally make yourself feel like you are missing out.  Personally I have always gone for the first option, and traditionally start January maybe half a stone heavier and feeling a bit rubbish.  This year I am ATTEMPTING* a third option, one that Slimming World has been suggesting to me for many years.  I aim to stick to the plan when I can  (oops I sound like I've eaten a SW consultant now - sorry!)  The plan being - not to eat mince pies for breakfast 'just because it's Christmas' Not t...

I always said I'd get there eventually and last week I finally got to my Slimming World target, and also got my 2 stone award. Regular readers will know it's not the first time I've reached target - the first being in 2007 with a total loss of 4 stone.   I reached target again (although one 1/2 stone heavier than my pre-pregnancy one) as Leo reached his second birthday.  Now with Louka at 21 months old I'm finally back there once more. I love Slimming World, and while the plan is easy to follow, it's not always easy to keep your head in gear which is why it's taken me almost 2 years each time to lose a couple of stone.   I'm not sure what the secret was the first time as losing the initial 4 stone seemed easier and certainly took less time! But that's it now, I'm done with having babies, and while I don't imagine for one second that I won't stray out of target range I'll still be going to my weekly group and trying to keep it in...

It's hard to believe that it was 8 years ago this week that I first walked into my local Slimming World group. I had no idea how it was going to change my life but change it it did (You can read about it all on my Slimming World page if I've not told you it a million times already!) After just over a year I had reached my target weight of 11 stone having lost just over 4 st, and I managed to stay there or thereabouts for well over a year. I was a complete convert, I continued going to my group and it was reasonably easy to stay at target, days on and off plan balanced themselves out and I didn't feel deprived or like I was missing out on anything, in fact it was quite the opposite, for the first time I was wearing heels and skinny jeans and stopping dead in my tracks walking past shop windows as I didn't recognise myself! Then I got pregnant and my initial thoughts of pretty much sticking to the plan throughout the pregnancy soon went flying out the window! O...

Way back in my early Slimming World days someone in my group reached their target and I heard someone say 'This is the hard bit now, staying there'. I've heard it said many times since and I always thought it a stupid statement,  how can staying the same weight (or maybe losing a 1lb or 2) be harder than losing 4 stone or whatever you had to lose to get there?? I hate to agree but I kind of see what they meant now! I reached my target, (well a target, ideally I'd like it 1/2 stone lower) at the start of the summer.  I stopped going to group but somehow managed to stay within the target range (3lb above or below the actual target weight) for almost 10 weeks. In the last couple of weeks before returning to group it all seemed to catch up with me and when I weighed last week I had put on 6lb, putting me 4lb over target. This gave me one week to lose at least 1lb or I would have to start paying to attend group again. I left all determined and had a good few days of ...

It has been four weeks since I wrote an update on how I am doing at Slimming World, that in itself is not strange as I never planned to do it regularly, what is strange is the fact that I reached target three weeks ago and haven't got round to mentioning it! I also haven't been back to group since then although that's only due to Leo being off school and it being too much like hard work to stay after weigh in with both the boys, being at target means I don't have to pay so from that point of view I don't need to go at the moment.   I will go next week to weigh in to keep myself on track but probably won't end up staying again until after the summer holidays. Personally I'm not a fan of weighing and going, I've always liked to stay to the meetings, even if sometimes they can be hard work!  Certainly in the winter when Aaron will be around to look after Louka I'll go back to staying every week.  Although I'm pleased I've got to ...

I've had it said to me many times that I don't need to go to Slimming World, sometimes because I know how to do it, and sometimes because 'I look fine/don't need to lose weight  etc.  Over the years I've had members who are currently bigger than me telling me it's easy for me because I'm younger/ I'm so good at it / I like cooking/ I've been exercising  etc etc. If I occasionally am disappointed with a maintain or a gain on the scales some say 'but you don't need to lose more you're slim enough' And I get it, I REALLY do,even though it might not seem like it. When I first joined in 2006 there was a girl in my group who looked gorgeous, wearing a clingy top, skinny jeans and a pair of boots I could never have even dreamed of wearing. She was there every week and every week I looked at her and wondered why she was there. I wondered why she sometimes thought she'd had a bad week or got annoyed about putting on a few pounds. ...

I know I've been a little overdue with my Slimming World updates but I'm still going to group and I've also been enjoying setting up a facebook page and closed group for those who attend our weekly session.    This has been great as not only so I love doing things like that, it has also helped me stay focused and 100% on the plan - you just can't be eating too much of the wrong things while doing that can you! So, how have I been doing?   Well after several weeks of '1lb off, 1lb on' I finally got myself in gear last week and at today's weigh in I lost 5lb  - I think that's a record for me! It also meant I collected my 'Club 10' award (for losing 10% of my starting weight)  and my 1.5 stone award! I took Leo with me today as it's a Bank Holiday and school was closed, he was very good although upset that he couldn't stand on the scales too!   He asked loads of questions, (nothing new there!) and was a little confused why it's...

I've never been a fan of sports or going to the gym, from my school days until only recent years I would go out of my way to avoid doing even the smallest amount of exercise,  I was the big kid in the class, the one always picked last in games and I used to dread every PE lesson. This stayed with me as I grew up and would miss out on lots of things with my friends, on summer Sundays we'd all go to the park and while they played rounders or volleyball I'd sit in the sun making jokes about how that was too much like hard work and I was busy getting a tan or drinking a beer but really I didn't have the confidence to join in and was worried they'd laugh as I got too out of breath running around. Only as I lost weight did I discover that I could actually exercise and not die.... although MY GOD did it kill me at the time I was stunned to see how much easier it all became as the pounds dropped off and I got stronger. For about  year I regularly did exercise DVDs at home ...