I have always had problems with my weight. Even at school I was always the largest of the girls and was bullied as a result.
Fortunately, I met the most wonderful man who loved me for who I was when I was nearly seventeen years of age. He proposed to me on my birthday and I was very happy to accept.
We married 43 years ago and for the most part it has been a very happy marriage.
I started gaining more weight after we lost our son at eight hours old. To begin with I ate very little but once I started to eat again I couldn’t stop myself and comfort ‘ate for England’. This lead me to fall into a deep depression which in the end required hospital treatment, as an outpatient only thankfully.
Family Problems
You would think that other than my husband the next person I would turn to for support at this time would be my mum. But when I tried to talk to her about the loss of our son she told me to just get over and don’t upset other people. She told me ‘you have a daughter be happy with her and forget about this baby’.
I never truly had a good relationship with my mum and this hurt me so much that I was never able to forget it. I really don’t know what it was that she didn’t like about me, but throughout my life I was always in the wrong, even though I was the one of her three girls who she always called upon if she need anything done or wanted to go somewhere.
My weight crept up until I was 17 stones at the beginning of 2015. That May mum was taken very poorly with an infection of her gall bladder which her doctor dismissed as IBS from which she also suffered. Finally, my sister phoned for an ambulance and mum was admitted to hospital where they called me at 2am to visit as she wouldn’t last until morning. In fact she survived for 7 months more, but the untreated infection had damaged her brain, so that she was unable to eat anything but puréed food.
Jane Before Slimming World
I visited my mum often whilst at the same time not eating the right foods. Over these months my weight inevitably crept up to 18 stone 9 pounds the heaviest I had ever been.
Mum finally passed away on Christmas morning 2015. We were not able to get to see her before she passed something I will always regret.
Following her funeral, I spoke to my asthma nurse who said they could refer me to Slimming World for twelve weeks. I looked at groups in my area I found one that was held on a Saturday morning which suited me well as it was one of the days I had always spent with mum.
The Start Of My Weight Loss Journey
On the 30th January 2016 I joined the Slimming World group that was to change my life for the better. It wasn’t an easy start though as when I returned home my phone rang. It was my cousin telling me my Uncle had passed away that morning, the last of mum’s family had joined her, my favourite Uncle too.
Another funeral was held three weeks after mum’s, but it wasn’t the last. A week later my mum’s sister in law and my Aunt passed away so we attended another funeral three weeks later. In the space of ten weeks we had been to three family funerals.
Once these funerals had all taken place, I started to focus more on myself and my slimming world journey. I cannot say it was a quick journey. It took me until May to lose my first stone. I achieved my Club10 in July. 2 stones by the end of August. It then took me until October to get my 3 stones. Five months passed before my 4 stones was achieved. 4.5 took another three months and five months for my 5 stone award.
Achieving Target
The quickest was my 5.5 which was 6 weeks. Then I had another three funerals in 3 weeks to go to and I lost my focus. It took from November of 2017 until May of 2018 to get the last half a stone I would lose a pound or 2 one week and put on 3 another. As I said, it was not a quick journey, but on the 2nd June 2018, I finally achieved my target after 2.5 years. I was 6 stones and 1 pound lighter.
Jane At Target - Well Done
I must say I have messed around with my journey, but I have no one to blame but myself even now at target I am messing with my head and put on first week so out of target ‘oops’, back in the next and then out again I must try harder.
Joining Slimming World Braybrooke Hall was the best decision I have ever made, other than agreeing to marry my wonderful husband.
We have both made lifelong friendships with many of the group members. It’s like have an extended family. We have such a great social life now, that our children moan that we are never in when they call. Before joined Slimming World we never went anywhere.
I hope everyone reading this takes comfort from the fact that it is not always a fast journey. Some people can do it fast but others like myself can plod on at a slow pace and get there in our own time.
Good luck each and every one of you.
Jane