However - I'm back. For two reasons really - one, that I have had a post bubbling around in the back of my mind for weeks, and this seems to be the right time to write it; and two, writing is a really important part of me & what I do, and I miss it!
One thing I have been doing since the last blog post is losing weight. I didn't want to blog about that because, while people are interested in milestones etc, I didn't want to end up writing broadly the same content each week about losing or not losing a pound or 2. No issue with other people blogging in this way, I hasten to add, and in fact I read and enjoy many of them, but that level/frequency of sharing is not really my style.
So, in the middle of last year, I had a revolutionary few weeks. I applied for 2 jobs (and got one), and decided that I didn't, in fact, have to accept that I would never manage to lose weight. With much unwillingness and trepidation, I joined a local Slimming World group, and set myself a totally unachievable target so that I wouldn't have an excuse for stopping too early.
I am not a girly girl, and didn't expect to be comfortable in the Slimming World environment - after weigh-in, the "Image Therapy" group is where challenges and successes are discussed, and hints and tips given. If I'm honest, I still find some of the labels and language hard to take seriously (the word journey is very heavily used, which always makes me think of bad reality TV), but actually the concepts behind it are sound, and having a community of people who are trying to do the same thing, and are challenged/doing well at different times, is invaluable - I appreciate it so much more than I ever expected!
I also found the eating plan incredibly easy to follow, as it is not faddy, and revolves around principles which I really already knew, but wasn't really following well - eating lots of fruit and veg, choosing lean meats, and all other things in moderation. This meant that we were able, as a household, to eat in a diet friendly way, rather than me having to eat special food, or count every calorie I ate.
Having joined in July, I now find myself 4lbs off the "totally unachievable" target I set at the beginning, with 3st 4lbs lost so far. I would not have believed I could keep going for this long - and it genuinely is down to the accountability of a group, and being officially weighed, and the support that goes with that, as well as the straightforward nature of the plan. Whilst I am not actually at target, I feel broadly happy with how I look and feel so can see the end of the process in sight, hence blogging about it now!
There are really 3 things I wanted to say in this post:
1) I'm back - getting that difficult first-post-back out of the way so I don't feel under pressure to say anything meaningful next time!
2) I am not being sponsored to say this, but if you are considering losing weight, I wholeheartedly recommend Slimming World, for sensible eating principles, being realistic about having a life alongside a diet, support, achievableness (that's a word, right?), and providing a framework for keeping the weight off at the end.
3) Just to mark the near-end of a process which has somewhat dominated the last 7 months, here are a couple of photos. I appear to have largely avoided the camera since about 2011, so struggled to find a recent one, but here is a before and after.
Before:
Last weekend:
In real (rather than vanity-photo!) terms it means just over 3 dress sizes dropped, feeling so much fitter & healthier (without much exercise...that's the next project), standard knee high boots which fit round my legs, and clothes shopping being considerably more fun. Hooray for Slimming World! That is all.
**for those who are not interested in diets and my vanity, other topics will resume from my next post!**
