On 10th January I attended my first Slimming World meeting to kick start my weight loss journey. My primary goal is to get down to 10 st by the end of the year, and with the possibility of aiming for 9 st after that. This secondary goal is one that I don't know that I can actually get to, because I wasn't even that weight during my prime ice skating days as a teenager, but is one that I would like to try and achieve.
After the first weigh in, I lost staggering 6 lbs, which was a complete shock. I was expecting, and hoping, to have lost 1-2 lbs, so to have tripled that figure was incredible. However, I am fully aware that some of that weight was "water wight", and that this is not a figure that will likely crop up every week. and if if does I will actually looks at what I'm eating and see if I'm eating too little, because that is not a maintainable weight loss regime.
So what have I learnt this past week? One of the big things, is that you really don't have to go without. We're all human, and we can't expect to be perfect and completely regimented 100% of the time. It's just not sustainable, and because we have the cravings, we're more likely to drop off the lifestyle change and go back to our old, unhealthy ways (they don't like to use the word diet, which I appreciate, because that suggests that this is a short-term fix rather than a long-term solution).
With Slimming World you can actually still have things like chocolate or sweets as long as you don't go overboard with them This was an area that I particularly concerned about, because I have a massive sweet tooth and am a bit of a chocoholic to say the least. But there are much healthier alternatives out there, than just having a chocolate bar for instance, which is full of SYN's. (SYN's are the numerical measurement that the company use to monitor all the little extras that you might have throughout the day, such as chocolate, alcohol, various dairy products, etc. Women can have up to 15 of these per day.) For example, if you buy a pack of the jumbo chocolate 'Snack-a-Jacks' and have just one, it only counts for 3 of your daily SYN's, compared to 12 if you have a Cadbury Dairy Milk. That's 4 times the number of SYN's for really the same level of fullness in the long run. This easy change means that I'm still getting that chocolate fix that I crave, but just doing so in a much more sensible way.
Similarly, snacking is absolutely fine, you just need to make sure that you're having the correct portion sizes. For example, mixed nuts are a great put-me-on in the afternoon, because they are a really good source of nutrients and antioxidants. However, they can also be quite calorific and high in fat, albeit the good kind, so it is important to stick to the recommended serving size or you might be doing more bad that good. A great pairing, is to have the nuts and then to have a piece of fruit, such as a bunch of grapes, with it, because then you're getting a burst of healthy sugar for an instant energy booster, and the protein for a more slow release burn.
Another thing, is that it's still important to have protein in your diet. This may seem very easy for people who eat meat regularly, but for a newly vegetarian, this was an area that I really had think about. I quickly realised that the reason why I wasn't hungry before was because I was filling myself up with unhealthy snacks in the afternoon or having high calorific drinks. Shocker right? After cutting those out, the need for faux meat was real, and so I started adding in veggie chicken and sausages, so that I stayed fuller for longer. I also started having tuna in my salads at lunch, so I guess I'm more pescatarian than vegetarian now, to further increase the length of time between eating.
One of the best things about already being a veggie, was that having vegetables and fruit in my diet was not an issue. It was already there. It’s also great, because I naturally make a lot of "Free" meals (where you don't have any extra SYN's, its all just healthy goodness), so that was just an extra feather in my cap.
One of the biggest lessons that I learnt is that it's okay not stick to the plan every second of every day. I had a really bad anxiety attack this week, and had a Domino's pizza, because I just wanted comfort food, and still managed to lose weight. This was one of the reasons that the 6 lb loss surprised me so much, because I thought that I'd pretty much shot myself in the foot. My anxiety is going to be my biggest hurdle to get over, because when I do have a bad attack all I want to do is to just eat junk food. This is the cycle that needs to be broken, or I'm going to end up bigger than I started.
This was something that our session leader also touched on in our meeting yesterday. There are going to be times where we do go off the plan a little, but what's important is to not beat yourself up about it. If you have a "bad" meal, just have it as that one meal, don't then throw away the rest of the day just because you’ve already messed up. And if in the end you’ve gone over your SYN's for the day, it's okay, just brush it off, and start again the next day. As I said last week in the Productivity blog post, one of the best things to do is to just be kind to yourself. Everything takes time, and there are always going to be bumps in the road. So don't sweat about it, just continue on the journey.
I am super excited about this weight loss journey, and am excited to take you all along with me.
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