Losing Weight with Slimming World

Losing Weight with Slimming World

You may remember last year, at my 40-year old health check, I was advised to lose weight and exercise more. Although, after years of yo-yo dieting on every fad diet to ever hit the book shelves, I did not hold out much hope for long-term success.  The nurse handed me a leaflet for Slimming World, and after an initial flurry of excitement over the unlimited carbs paragraph, I stuffed it into my pocket and went away to think about it.

For about 5-months.

During this time, I continued my pattern of avoiding carbs from Monday-Thursday, and then devouring them in the form of Roast Chicken & Thyme flavoured crisps every Friday night.

Over the summer, I gained a few more pounds.  Many of which had Prosecco written all over them.

But, when the new school year started, something switched inside me and I knew I was ready.

Now, if you are not familiar with the Slimming World format, you will be forgiven for arriving at your first meeting and thinking ‘WTF?!’  After the initial new members presentation where the consultant takes you through the plan step-by-step, you are then invited to stay for IMAGE therapy.  This is the bit where you sit around and talk about your weight loss ‘journey’ in a group setting.  It’s ok, I rolled my eyes at first too.

Once I got past the clapping, I saw the potential benefits – support, encouragement, motivation.  And let’s face it, I had been trying to go it alone for over 20-years and weighed more than I did when I first started! Maybe a change of strategy was exactly what I needed.

Besides, there really was no other diet left in the world for me to try.

Keeping a food diary is key in the early weeks, especially if you are in a bit of denial about wine not being one of your 5-a-day *coughs*.  But, the rest of the plan was easy enough for me to get my head around.  You can eat as much free food (fish, lean meat, eggs, rice, pasta, potatoes, pulses) as you like and fill 1/3 of your plate with super free food (fruit, veg) at every meal.  Things like bread, cheese, fats and alcohol are also allowed, albeit in limited amounts.

I’ve been following the plan for almost 5-months now, but this is the first time I am blogging about it.  There is a reason for this, and that is because I have posted ENDLESSLY about every other diet I have ever embarked on, only to abandon it a few weeks later.  I made a promise to myself this time to wait until I’d lost my first stone, so I had something tangible to write about.

During this time, I have not counted a single calorie, weighed a single ounce of free food, or rejected a single carb.  I have had to stop eating as many crisps though (BOO!) and I do have to measure wine before I pour it into my glass… some days my measurements are more generous than others! This has meant my weight loss has been a tad slower than it maybe could have been – I am definitely taking the scenic route to my goal weight.  However, I’m still managing to lose most weeks and I’ve dropped almost 1 ½ stone now.  I want to lose about the same again, so if I continue at my current rate of around 1lb a week, I shall hopefully be beach ready for summer!  How I would love to wobble less around the pool this year.

There’s also something called non-scale victories!  Remember the Cynthia Rowley dress I bought years ago with the intention of slimming into but never did? IT FITS!  I’m not sure if I like it now I’ve seen it on though…

I’ve also discovered a lovely little community of people who share recipes, swap tips and encourage each other.

All this time, and it wasn’t the crisps that were sabotaging my relationship with all the other diets after all. I just had yet to find ‘the one’ for me.

****

This post is so gushing about Slimming World that I feel I should point out it is NOT sponsored by them

9 Comments

  1. February 5, 2015 / 11:12 AM

    Thank you for posting this, I have been undecided about trying Slimming World for a long time as it is the one diet that I think I could manage. I think I am going to sign up. You have done so well, that is a fantastic weight loss and you have done it the right way too.

    • Grenglish
      Author
      February 5, 2015 / 11:37 AM

      I LOVE it! Honestly, can’t recommend it enough. Can do it online too, but going to meetings is best I think, if you can!

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 13, 2015 / 7:53 AM

      thank you lovely x

  2. February 8, 2015 / 1:45 PM

    Wow!! Well done! I tried Slimming World last year and was so surprised by how I could eat all the things I loved…carbs! I quit though because I was doing it online (Slimming World not being available in Doha) and I think I quit because I missed out on the community aspect of weekly meetings. I think I need to get back into it again!

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 13, 2015 / 7:52 AM

      It’s the only plan that has ever worked for me, but I do think that is in part down to attending the group meetings every week.

  3. February 11, 2015 / 12:21 AM

    Well done darling, so amazing when you find what works for you-love what a supportive group you’ve found too (reminds me of that time post babies, you just need people you click with, the fact you’ve all had a baby/ have a mutual goal isn’t really the be all).

    I, personally go up and down so easily with my weight, PCOS doesn’t help nor does gorgeous Greek food on tap (yes it’s healthy but not if you eat EVERYTHING).

    I know I’m not ‘big’ but we all have a weight that’s healthy for us and our build don’t we.

    I must say you have never once looked overweight to me, I consider you slim but only you know what feels right.

    I love how positive this post is, it doesn’t sound like an obsessive diet and really seems to be helping you approach weight loss in a natural, healthy way. I love food, I hate deprivation and I do think I’ve relearned all the past obsessiveness, at least I hope I have. Glad to see they don’t do ‘syns’ anymore, I remember trying the diet when I was 19 and it wasn’t for me, sounds amazing now x

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 13, 2015 / 7:51 AM

      I do love it! You look fab, you always do. All the Greek food is delicious but you are right, it is just making sure you don’t eat everything on the table!

  4. Chris
    November 22, 2016 / 3:20 PM

    Though this thread is now a year and half old, it is worth noting that assessing the success of any slimming club or diet is not something that can be done over the space of a part-year session. Statistics show that the VAST MAJORITY of people attending slimming clubs put the lost weight back on after 1-2 years. A study of WW for example showed that only 20% of those who reached their target weight, could keep it off after 2 years and only 16% over 5 years. Thus for the majority of people, these “services” are failing, and yet people keep returning for more and paying money to do so.

    We have to stop fannying about with diets and clubs and fads and see once and for all that these are not solutions. When your primary focus is weight loss, you have missed the basic point. The crucial element is to resolve to eat healthily and give your body what it needs and not to put poisons, toxins and mind/body altering substances into your mouth like sugars ! The weight loss comes as a by-product of that life style change as does increased energy levels, better health and sharper mind.

    The life style change that is required is to take responsibility for your own health and to be bothered enough and diligent enough to fully educate yourself about foods, about ingredients, about labelling laws, about the villain that is sugar and about how the way you eat something is as important as what you eat. Slimming clubs hide this stuff from you and pander to the general customer market that is lazy, that can’t really be bothered, that doesn’t want the hassle of research and numbers and just wants the club to hand the solution to them on a plate. And that’s why the vast majority fail. They are not being properly educated. They are not coming away from the clubs with the tools and skills to research, to acquire information and to take responsibility for that learning curve. So once they stop going to the clubs, they gradually revert back to norm because they haven’t been educated to fend for themselves. That ensure that some time in the future, they will be back to those clubs and keep paying the subs. It’s a great business model and the clubs literally make $billions from it.

    So the question is Grenglish, openly and honestly, here we are Nov 2016 and your article was published Feb 2015, so how is your weight now? Have you stayed on the SW eating regime all this time or have you switched to something else? Have you put any of the lost weight back on? That’s what counts.

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