Slimming World Secrets

I’m doing a photoshoot for Slimming World Magazine!

I’m a very happy girl today – I’ve just been asked to take part in a professional photoshoot for the multi-award-winning Slimming World Magazine. What an unbelievable honour!

My week

• Average Syns per day: 18
• Average Speed foods per day: 12.3
• SP days: 3
• Body Magic days: 6
• Result: +½lb
• Total loss: -5st 6lbs

First, my week. I’m not going to dwell on the result except to say it’s been a third gain in a row – but they’re all tiny ones (+1lb, +½lb, +½lb) and I still have a 2lb bubble buffer.

That said, I’d like to get back to my actual Target – or slightly below it, so I’m really working on stepping up the Body Magic this coming week.

Anyway, I’m not going to dwell on a teeny gain because I have far more exciting news to share with you.

Being asked to appear in the magazine

As regular readers will know, I was asked a few weeks back if I’d like to be featured in Slimming World Magazine. Er, yes please! Where do I sign?

So I helped Team: Sparkly Castle by jotting down some recipes, some of my top slimming tips and a little about my journey to Target as a transgender Slimming World member.

This was originally going to appear in the March/April 2022 issue, but was then moved back to the May/June edition.

I believe Slimming World has already photographed the dishes from my three recipes – but you’ll have to wait to see the images. I can’t wait to see them.

The accompanying pictures of me were just going to be a few selfies I’d sent in.

The hunt for full-length photos

Then, last week, I heard from Sarah Davison, the deputy editor of Slimming World Magazine. It’s Sarah who’s been organising this whole feature.

She asked me if I had any full-length pictures – both of how I look now, and how I looked before starting Slimming World (fat and pre-transition)!

And, alas, I do not. I don’t have that many images of me pre-transition as I can’t really stand how I looked back then. Looking at those photos now, I just can’t mentally connect with that person as being me.

Neither do I have any decent full-length photos of me now. Pretty much all of the photos of me that I actually like are selfies – I can take two-dozen pictures on my phone and probably won’t like 23 of them, but there’s usually one that’s OK.

The paint-pot home studio photoshoot

So, on Sunday, I tried to get some full length photos of me at home. As I live on my own (apart the cats – and they’re rubbish at photography), this meant that I had to resort to the timer on my trusty Canon camera.

And to make sure I could get all of me in the shot, that meant precariously balancing the camera on top of a paint pot, on top of a filing box, on my office windowsill. This was the ultimate amateur photoshoot.

Eventually, I’d taken a few dozen pictures from different angles. But they weren’t good. The lighting was poor and I just wasn’t that happy with how I looked.

So I sent the least bad over to Sarah with a new phone selfie (which was actually pretty good but not full-length) and told her what had happened.

Return to the Sparkly Castle

And then she replied, saying she didn’t want to use any images I wasn’t 100% happy with – and would I like to join her at head office for a photoshoot with the in-house photographer?

So, after mulling over this proposition for a good microsecond, I responded with a great big YES (once I’d booked the day off work, anyway).

So there you have it. Next week, I shall be making the short journey to the Sparkly Castle for what will be my third visit – and surely the most rewarding.

I don’t get to have the full makeover, hair and wardrobe experience – but I don’t mind that one bit. This is a food-led feature, so it’s just amazing to be asked along to have my pictures taken.

The first time I visited the Sparkly Castle, a few years ago, it reminded me of the Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick Road in the Wizard of Oz – here was this beautiful place, and I was inside. I felt enchanted.

Let’s hope the photographer can work his magic with the lens at next week’s photoshoot. Now I just need to decide what to wear – I might give the gingham frock and ruby slippers a miss, though. 😉