Thank you Fiona for giving me permission to post your story here.
I get asked this a lot; what's the secret to your weight loss? The answer is really simple. You keep going.
I am an emotional binge eater. Always have been always will be. I've been a member of all diets, first joining when I was 14. I never managed to make it work until now. But what has been the difference?
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This time my focus wasn't really losing weight. I desperately wanted to fix my relationship with food. To unpick those deeply ingrained habits and to learn new ways to manage the urge to binge eat. Every time I'd tried before I'd raced to lose the weight, concentrating on the numbers, eating as little as possible in a effort to beat the scales and lose it all as quickly as possible. Didn't work!
I have been at target for 18 months
Slimming world. The appeal of the plan is simple. YOU CAN EAT!!! I so need a plan where I can eat. No weighing, no measuring, no umming and arhhing over one more potato. No restrictions. You can work it round all meals, all food, all situations and you can eat! I had faith. It was the only plan that I could see myself doing forever. That's what I wanted. My forever. I had faith and believed in the plan.
So I made the decision, it can take as long as it takes, I'm not cheating and cutting corners to push for huge losses on the scales. I want to learn to do this, I will not give up. I will go to group no matter what.
I had so many ups and downs. 5 months of losing. Gained 11lb in one week. Spent 3 months losing that 11lbs. Spent 5 months losing and gaining the same 7lbs. Fell off the wagon SO many times. But I kept doing it, kept going, having faith. Little by little the binge eating got less, I learnt to recover from it more quickly, I became brilliant at drawing the line, I learnt to eat and enjoy food and have moments off plan without guilt, I've learnt that you can do it, I've learned new ways to manage my stress. Running!
I didn't come this far, to only come this far!
I did it for the end game. The lifestyle. The way out. The numbers on the scales were just the by product. I wanted to fix my habits forever and the only way to do it was to never give up trying. No matter what. And this is something I'll do forever now.
5st lost in 1yr 6 months. At target for 1 year 6 months!