Joining Slimming World – How I lost 6.5lbs in a week

I’ve been down this road before, I know. This is not my first rodeo with battling with my weight. I’ve documented on this blog my previous foray into Weight Watchers after the birth of E, but after a few months where I had lost weight, I was bored, I fell off the wagon, I vowed to never eat slimbo breads again. In the mean time, medication changes and increased pain causing less ability to exercise. With my back injury, I’m not really able to do much workout things at the moment – and classes like Zumba are a long way down the road. To be fair, the chocolate biscuit addiction was of my own accord, as was the disaster that was mixing the child’s birthday (multiple cakes) and Easter weekend. Weight piled back on. However, I had an epiphany in the last two weeks where I decided that this was it, I was setting myself a goal of not being this way by the time I turn 25 in September. So off I headed to my local Slimming World, and here’s how I got on.

Inspired by the losses I’ve seen from friends and family members, and some incredible people I know from the inter webs, including Tracey from Love of Living Blog and Laura from Shred It, Dice It, Lose It, I made my way along (after a few weeks of negotiating with myself) to my first Slimming World meeting last Saturday morning at 11.30. It’s in our local GAA club, which I’d actually never discovered before (extra perk, discovering community facilities!) and seemed to be really well attended. (I went to the earlier session this morning and found out that was a very quiet session indeed – it was packed full of people enthusiastic about their weight loss journey).

The leader was friendly, down to earth and not preachy at all. She showed the group of new joiners a photo of her before she joined two years ago, showing us a clear example of how far she has come using the plan. She proceeded to go through the basics – what syns were (like the weight watchers points), what made up “free” foods (you can eat lots of these), what are “speed” foods (lots of fruit and veg options which will help speed up your weight loss) and the healthy a and b options. I’ve yet to fully figure the whole lot out, but each of us was handed a pack with different explanatory booklets. At the end of the process I stepped on the scales, saw a figure which was higher than I thought it would be, and vowed to never see it again. I gave myself a goal of being down 2 stone (28lb) by the end of the summer which would have me about half way to proper target weight. Little by little is the plan, smaller goals before the longer marathon, as it were.

The week started out tough – the chocolate cravings were mad for the first day or two, as I was taking the approach of cutting it out completely as I didn’t trust “just one biscuit”. After a few days though, the cravings for it properly aren’t existent. I’ve been eating a lot of fruit and veg, and cooking from scratch with healthier options. I’ve even made my first ever carbonara from scratch which was delicious.

I’ve been doing a lot of walking – over 20,000 steps a day – and have found that while also taking me out of the boredom eating cycle and being good exercise, it’s also increased my mood and helped with back pain. It’s been amazing for my mental health this week. Endorphins, who knew? I probably should have listened to this advice years ago. I’m lucky to be surrounded by lovely walks that I can take with friends on the go with a coffee or with the buggy, or even solo with podcasts in my headphones – beautiful views and good conversation definitely make the miles seem shorter. I’ve also cut spending on the bus for unnecessary trips into town, instead making the 30 minute walk in with the buggy (unless it’s raining). Now I just need to sort myself out with a new pair of waterproof walking shoes – as comfy as my Skechers are, they’re simply not up for the ever changing Cork weather! I used to live in my old Merrell shoes when I worked in an outdoors shop, think investing in a new pair will definitely be on the cards!

The hardest parts have been trying to figure out what I should or shouldn’t have when out of the house – I definitely need to prepare more snacks for on the go. I’ve currently got a bowl of apple slices and grapes in the fridge to pop into a little tub for on the go for a sweet treat that works for me and E! I’ve also been making use of my syn points for treats like sugar free vanilla skinny lattes (my downfall but good for the sweet tooth and caffeine!) and the odd cereal bar. However, my jeans feeling looser did make me feel confident going in for weigh in and Image Therapy at Slimming World this week.

I stepped on the scales and even though I was feeling confident I was shocked when she said I’d lost 6.5lbs! Absolutely thrilled, but shocked, as the most I ever lost in a week using Weight Watchers was 5lbs. Just half a pound off my first half stone down, I’m now reinvigorated for the week ahead and am seeing the rewards of avoiding the biscuit tin and getting my ass out into the fresh air! It’s not all doom and gloom on this – I’m eating lots, and eating things I like to eat, just making much healthier choices and it’s paying off.

So, there’s week one of Slimming World down. Wish me luck from here on!