Thursday, 7 February 2013

Happy Day! - Guest Blog


I'm pleased to publish this guest article from an old friend of mine who has reached their weightloss target. A stay at home mum with two little boys to occupy her time, and has shifted a whopping 36lbs. Prepare to be inspired...

Today is a happy day.  It has been 15 months since I started my slimming journey, and I have finally reached my original target weight.  Overall, I've lost 2st 8lb and dropped 3 dress sizes.

It was my birthday that kickstarted things. I was thinking about what I’d really like for a present.  I realised I desperately wanted to shake off the frumpy baggy clothes and get my sparkle back.  Also, I'm a stay at home Mum with two young boys (4 and 2) and wanted to be able to keep up!  I knew that my eldest would be starting school this September and I genuinely feared the idea of Sports Day and the Mummies Race.  I've never cared about whether I'm the fastest on the field, but I didn't want it to be completely impossible just because I was fat.  Something just clicked, and the motivation was there at last.

A friend of mine runs a local Slimming World franchise, so I called my Mum and asked her if she’d possibly add a bit to my present by paying for the first few weeks.  It wasn't really about saving money - I just knew that if she’d paid for it, I’d feel obliged to go!

The next step was setting a target.  It was hard to know what to aim for.  I looked at BMI charts but just felt terribly ashamed to have got so big in the first place.  Aiming to be ‘Healthy’ just seemed so far away.  So I set my sights a little lower, and aimed to lose 2st 8lb just to get to a nice round number.  It would take me firmly out of the Obese category, and at least that was something.

For the first few months I found keeping a food diary really handy.  I couldn't imagine saying no to all treats so I allowed myself a small something every day, but wrote it down so I’d remember.  I keep a small Dairy Milk in the fridge and will break off 1 square if I really fancy it, rather than reaching for the biscuits.  I’m better at planning our menu and weekly shop now, and instead of cooking separate meals for the boys and us, I cook proper meals for the whole family.  The fridge has so much more colour and variety in it now, I love it.  I'm also more active, usually running around the common after the boys, but I also like to switch on the Wii Fit once the boys are in bed.

I guess because I have allowed myself treats and takeaways along the way, it has been a long road, but finally I've arrived at this point.  I feel like there’s still more weight I’d like to lose actually, and that’s okay.  I'm going to go for another half a stone and see how that looks and feels.  In the meantime, I've got a huge reward coming my way.  For my last birthday and Christmas, I asked my family for clothes vouchers, so in 2 weeks I'm hitting the shops for a new wardrobe.  Time to shine!

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