Ah January! The
month of remorse! This month we shall mostly be feeling guilty about all the
money spent in December, which we didn’t really have. We'll be kicking ourselves for not buying a present per
month from the previous March, (which would actually allowed us to have
afforded Christmas). This month we'll
look back to December and think, if I really am what I eat, then at the moment I’m a family
sized tub of Quality Street and three litres of Baileys. Well I will at least. I exaggerate actually, because I didn’t
hugely over indulge this year...in fact I rarely do at Christmas. The fact is, I’ve been severely overweight
since my early twenties, and Christmas has nothing to do with it. In the past I have been a member of various
slimming groups...from calorie counting to points counting, even groups
offering cognitive behavioral therapy whilst I starve myself on high protein
shakes all week...I’ve rarely had much success and if I have it’s been short
lived. This year though I’m making it my
year.
By day I’m a trainer for a large automotive manufacturer,
and spend most of the day on my feet in front of anywhere between 8 and 30
delegates. I am no shrinking
violet. However crunch time for me came
when I was told that in April I’ll be sent off to Portugal to train network
staff on a new car model that’s being launched.
This sounds lovely right? Oooh Portugal in April...Well it
is, in fact it’s heaps of fun too, however having done a similar event in Sardinia
last year, I also know that there’s nothing fun about seventeen hour days,
working your socks off in 34˚c
heat, and walking around 8 miles a day when you’re five stone overweight! Memories of catching myself in the mirror at
our mid-morning coffee break and finding that in my sweaty exhausted state, my
make-up had slipped half way down my face, and I resembled a (slightly more)
feminine version of “Sloth” from The Goonies
all came rushing back with a vengeance. I’ve been dreading this event coming
round ever since. Now I don’t expect the weather in
Portugal to be quite as intense in April, however my poor feet also took a
battering last year, and I just knew that the sensible thing to do would be to
join my local Slimming World group, and have a good bash at trying to lose at
least a stone before April. My housemate
and I decided that Slimming World looked like the most sensible eating plan out
there, and having bought the magazine a few times, we knew that people were
experiencing some genuine losses of anywhere from three to seven stone, so it
seemed sensible for us (knowing that we were carrying considerably more than a
fresher’s fourteen or 10lbs of post-baby weight!).
Meetings are somewhat of a nightmare for me. I have a short attention span and also get
frustrated by the fact that most meetings don’t have much thought put into
them. It seems many group leaders are taught
to follow the format of a “creeping death” approach, around the room to each
slimmer...one by one (even if there are thirty of us sitting there)
congratulating them on their weight loss or reassuring them if they’ve
maintained or gained. Don’t get me
wrong, it’s fantastic to really go in for publicly congratulating milestone
losses, and it’s inspiring for everyone to know how they’ve gone about doing
it...but everyone’s losses and gains?...shouldn’t that really be done at the
weigh in table? I can’t be the only one who
finds two hours of listening to shy members begrudgingly regale stories of what
they decided to (not) eat this week, punctuated with sporadic clapping more
than a little pointless...I know I’m not the only one because invariably half
the group decides not to stay to meetings, despite the research showing they’d
be more successful in their weight loss journey if they did.
Having spoken to numerous friends, all we have ever
really wanted from a group support environment is for current/new topics to be covered
and discussed, taste-tests of new recipes or practical how to cook XYZ demos to
be run. We want other members getting up
and telling us all about the new type of Zumba that’s been working wonders for
their waistline, or how it felt when they finally got to target. Something that we can say “hurrah, finally
something that I can try this week” to keep me motivated and inspired. We want to talk about how new government guidelines
around alcohol impact us staying on track.
We want to discuss the January diet TV programmes and whether there are
any obvious links between the experts advice and the plan we’re following, to
cement and reinforce our decision to do the plan! Knowing that Sharon lost half a pound this
week because she drank more water isn’t going to help me, and I doubt sharing
that information with the rest of us helps Sharon much! Having said that though, I have only just
joined my group, so I can’t make any judgement around that yet. Plus, I’ve made a commitment to myself to
stay to the meetings for at least one month, to try and get the best possible
experience and therefore results. Don’t
let me down group – I’m counting on you!
If in three weeks time you see some chubby blonde sat in the corner
rocking and mumbling to herself, it will be me, and it will be because I’ve had
three weeks of listening to the same conversations take place, like some kind
of diet Groundhog Day hell.
I’ve spent most of this weekend getting my head around
the plan, and filling my fridge with tonnes of free foods. I’ve made a promise to myself to make my
lunch for the next day each evening, so that I can avoid the calorific lunch options
in the restaurant at work. I’ve also
charged my Fitbit and have my gym kit in the car for a post work workout. I’m raring to go fellow slimmers! Hopefully this plan will be the one to change
everything for me. I’m all signed up to
the SW Facebook page, I’ve downloaded the app to my iPhone and iPad (just in case, so I’ve always got it to hand) and I’ve
already batch cooked a SW chilli con carne:
I've taken all my measurements, and I have the whole week planned - and nothing to get in the way of me having a great week but myself. Here's to a positive start to 2016, and being really low on the pounds (lbs rather than ££'s) come next December!
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