Thursday 27 July 2017

Plunge-Taking

I have taken it ... the plunge that is.

Started Slimming World last night. Mixed feelings. Initially excited but with certain mis-givings.

Positives first : Nice friendly group. Cheeful leader who looked an encouraging size 16. Nice church hall which took me back - it was eldest son's nursery. I had happy memories of watching him as a shepherd in his very first Nativity Play here back in 1997. The fact that he poked his toy stuffed lamb onto the end of a twig from the makeshift fire created by the teachers ( complete with red cellophane 'flames' ) and proceded to 'roast' it over the fire, as if it were a BBQ, did not deter me. At the time I was horrified but I can look back now and howl with laughter at his antics - a sign of things to come.

Not-So-Positives : Everyone looked quite skinny to me as if they had about 2 lbs to lose. The woman opposite me sat with a six box pile of something called Hi-Fi's - why do Slimming World then scoff on fake Bounty Bars ? Lots of Diet Coke drinking going on - a big NO NO in my life.

I've been here before - Weight Watchers ( same hall ), Lighter Life and everything in between. Our leader assures me this is different but I can't shrug off a feeling of cynicism that this is a business which relies on repeat offenders for an on-going income stream. There's no more calorie or point- counting, just different food groups which combine to make a suitably varied plateful and apparently I won't feel hungry.

Day one has started tentatively. Lessons learnt - Weetabix doesn't half suck up a load of milk and it looks like I may have to concede my cream in my coffee treat. No booze is going to be tricky but strangely, it's what I'm looking forward to most. I also have youngest son on board - he is a trouper - boy can he get fierce if he finds me with a bar of chocolate in my hand.

I'm not proud to admit that I'm weighing in at 18st 5lbs which is a total disgrace. Let's see what happens. I'm a sucker for a project though and once I get my teeth stuck in , I tend to go into evangelical overboard mode. Jo and Ruth - if you're reading this I need your help !





4 comments:

  1. Hi Claire. I've done the Slimming World plan a few times and it has changed over the years. I'm taking a break from the classes at the moment but I am still following the plan myself although I have found that a bit of weight creeps on again if you don't go to class. I have lost 2.5 stone but have another 3 stone to lose. It is an easy plan to follow when you get used to it and I lost 1-2 pounds per week on it most weeks. I did have one week where I lost 5lb. (Don't know how that happened), and I still had booze and the occasional meal out or takeaway with my syns without doing any damage. Unfortunately, my biggest problem is snacking, especially crisps and nuts, so I had to cut them out altogether - still had small amount of chocolate though.
    Good luck with the weight loss and if you need any info, just ask. My biggest tip though is for something that a lot of SW members seem to forget or fail to do after the first couple of weeks, which is the making sure that you have one third of your plate of food as speed foods. A lot of members seem to think that it is fine to have normal free food as most of your meal but you get a much better weight loss by following the third speed foods rule. I didn't follow it at breakfast as I just have a slice of wholemeal toast but definitely at lunch and dinner.
    Lynne x

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  2. The thing that I found most useful - writing EVERYTHING down that you eat in the food diary. It makes you think twice about unwrapping that chocolate bar if you know you are going to be writing it in that last SYN column. I don't go to classes anymore but I have what I feel is an 'acceptable' limit of 'over my target' weight and once I hit that I'm back on the straight an narrow! Mid afternoon Mug Shots were my failsafe snack replacement in the afternoons at work. Jo is an amazing advert for SW - and from what I used to see on her Instagram feed, she still allowed herself a 'dirty treat' every week - a girl's got to have something to look forward to! Good luck - now you've told us all that you're back in the saddle, you've got to stick with it :-)

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  3. Good for you for signing up. I got to target on Thursday having lost 9st 2lbs. My top tip would be write everything down, the new journals are great for that and for giving you some motivation. Good luck and if you need any help then just shout x

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  4. yay you go girl! You can do it keep up the good work first week weight loss was fantastic! It does work and Jo is a real inspiration to all of us xxx

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