Slimming World Secrets

2½lbs off – and I’m nearly at Target

Absolutely OVER THE MOON with today’s result, especially considering the plateau I’ve been stuck on over the past three weeks. I’m now just 1½lbs away from my Slimming World Target. Squeee!

My week

• Average Syns per day: 10.6
• Average Speed foods per day: 10.1
• SP days: 2
• Body Magic days: 6
• Result: -2½lbs
• Total loss: -4st 12½lbs

I wrote last week that I’d been “pinged” by the NHS Covid-19 app and told to self-isolate. As I’m trying to do the right thing (and I work from home anyway, so it’s no great hardship) I stuck to the rules and stayed home.

The amazing weather meant a full weekend of sunbathing, so I’ve had worse times when stuck between these four walls. Lockdown 2 this was not.

As luck would have it, I’d just done a big shop before the dreaded ping – and I made sure I worked out plenty as well. Again, I usually do my step aerobics at home.

So staying on plan was actually quite easy. I kept my Syns down and my Body Magic up. I threw in a couple of SP days and had plenty of Speed food.

By midnight on Sunday night, my exile came to an end. But at 2am (I couldn’t sleep, it was so hot) I was pinged again! Unbelievable!

Ping or no ping, I was not missing this gig

This meant extending my self-isolation to the Wednesday night. It should have been midnight but I was watching Pete Doherty in concert that night, so I knocked off a little early. So glad I did – WHAT a gig!

It was like 18 months’ frustration without seeing live music was suddenly over, and 500 people in a hot, sweaty venue went absolutely bananas. So much Body Magic pogoing down the front, and the temperatures must have been close to 40C – it was literally like a sauna.

I had my app running on my phone, so I completely expect to be pinged again. But I’m double-jabbed, I feel fine and I did my ten-day exile (well, nearly). If I get pinged, it was worth it for that incredible concert.

Anyway, after weighing in at home last weekend, it was back to group on Saturday, albeit with lovely stand-in consultant Sally.

OMG, I’m actually nearly at Target!

I didn’t weigh before I left the house, but I had a sneaky suspicion that it would be a decent loss. And it was indeed. The scales were kind and I got a 2½lb loss, which is a full 2lbs below my previous PB low, and just 1½lbs off Target.

I was – and still am – absolutely ecstatic. What an amazing result. In another week or two, providing I’m “on it”, I could be a Target member.

If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be in the position, I would have laughed. I’ve been doing Slimming World for more than seven years, and Target has always been something that happens to other people – not me.

But since starting afresh in January 2020, I’ve been really focussed, and so determined to get to that hallowed place. It’s been such hard work, but it’s great that it’s all paying off.

But what if I “do a Nigel?”

The only thing that worries me slightly is the little voice in my head telling me that I might “do a Nigel”.

Nigel was a guy who joined my Slimming World group in 2014, a few weeks after I did. By his own admission, he was morbidly obese. His target was to lose 6st.

And he did really well, losing big chunks of weight week after week. He won every award going over his first couple of years – Man of the Year, Mr Sleek, even one half of Couple of the Year, as he used to attend with his wife.

He lost 5st 13½lbs – he was just ½lb away from Target. But he didn’t do it. The following week, he came in with a gain, and then another and another. Before long, he’d gained a couple of stones.

He now attends another group and, five years later, still hasn’t got to back where he was. I really feel for him, especially as I know how I piled on the weight in 2019, undoing five years of hard work.

Let’s just hope history doesn’t repeat itself, because that would be too much to bear. I just need to continue with what I’ve been doing the past 18 months or so, and stick rigidly to the plan.

Target is in my sights, and I’m locked on. I got this!