Slimming World Secrets

Target week 3: It’s like being in the eye of a storm

Being a new Slimming World Target member is hard. It’s a balancing act, like being in the eye of a hurricane. All is well so long as you stay at Target, but one tiny slip-up (or slip-down) means you’re out of range and your bubble is burst.

And for someone who is quite capable of massive gains and massive losses (my biggest weekly loss was 8½lbs and my biggest weekly gain a stonking 13lbs), that means another level of jeopardy.

My week

• Average Syns per day: 12.2
• Average Speed foods per day: 12.4
• SP days: 1
• Body Magic days: 5
• Result: +½lb
• Total loss: -5st 6lbs

My week was pretty angelic after last week’s naughtiness. I kept my Syns pretty low, upped my Speed foods massively and even threw in an SP day the day before weigh day for a last-minute boost.

This week saw the reintroduction of my extra daily Healthy Extra, but the fact that this equates to an extra 42 Syns over the week (in non-Target times) scares me.

I know the good burghers at the Sparkly Castle have done their homework, but I really don’t want to regain any of the weight I’ve lost – and how can the equivalent of an extra six Syns per day result in anything other than gains?

Do Target members ever get used to gains?

Sure enough, I gained this week. Only ½lb, but a gain is a gain, and I’ve not been at Target for long enough to not feel a tad disappointed.

My aim is to be AT Target – or maybe slightly below it, by 1lb or so. As things are now, I’m 1lb above it, and I just feel like I’m a bit of a fraud because, although I’m technically a Target member – nicely in my bubble – I’m still above where I was.

As I wrote when I reached my first Target, I need to reset my mindset.

When you’re losing weight with Slimming World, every loss is celebrated. You get the big well-done from your consultant, a round of applause from your fellow members and those all-important Slimmer of the Week and Slimmer of the Month awards. Not to mention the big awards for every 7lbs lost.

After you’ve got to Target, you still get the applause and the lovely, encouraging words from your consultant, but it no longer feels like the celebration it once did.

I need goals – something to aim for – to succeed

I’m the type of person who needs goals to succeed. At the start of this year, I set myself several goals, and I don’t mind sharing those with you here:

My aim was to achieve as many as possible this calendar year. The weight awards and getting to Target were the most important to me. Anything else would be a bonus.

I missed out on Greatest Loser in my old group by 2lbs, but I was just so pleased to have been in the reckoning, as I’ve never got close to that honour before.

To win Woman of the Year so soon after hitting my original (5st) Target was a dream come true and has led to me being featured in Slimming World Magazine next spring. We’ve yet to hold our Miss Slinky competition.

But, as I say, the main goals for me were those weight loss ones – regaining my 3st, 3½st and 4st awards and then striving to get my 4½st and 5st (and first Target). I then reset my Target to 5½st, so I had another goal to aim for.

Since restarting Slimming World in January 2020, I’ve had goals. They have spurred me on and, despite one or two slip-ups, I’ve done well.

Even having an incredible week or month and trying to win Slimmer of the Week or Slimmer of the Month gave me really good short-term goals.

No more goals – at least not for another year

Now I’m Target, I have no more goals. I know I should be happy with that. I’ve achieved what every member sets out to do by lifting the golden Target prize (twice!)

But now there are no goals – just this balancing act. And I need goals!

Actually, that’s not quite true – there is the Diamond Member status to achieve, and I really want that so bad. But that won’t be until almost a year has passed. I have no short-term goals anymore.

And what happens if I slip out of my Target bubble between now and then? Do I need to start all over again to get Diamond status, or how is it supposed to work?

Christmas is on the horizon and I know from following the plan over the past seven and a half years, that that is my danger period.

Christmas is a Slimming World minefield

I get a week off work over Christmas and new year, so it’s so easy to slip into bad habits. That’s not just me – but virtually every Slimming World member I’ve ever seen in group.

It’s so easy to say, “Ooooh, I’m going to enjoy myself and start again in the new year”. Even last Christmas, I gained 10½lbs in that week. Once, I gained 13lb in Christmas week, which remains the record for my old group.

I really, REALLY don’t want that to happen again now I’m at Target. So I think I’m going to spend the next few weeks leading up to Christmas trying to get to the bottom of my Target bubble to give me that 6lbs buffer to tide me over the festive period.

A gain will be virtually inevitable, but if I can limit it to 6lbs and remain in Target, that will be brilliant.

The balancing act of being a Target member

So there ya go, that’s where I’m at: a balancing act. My head is far, far from being in the mindset of a Target member, but I’m hoping I’ll get there someday soon.

For now, as Storm Arwen batters the world outside my window, I remain in the eye of my Target hurricane, balancing on the razor blade above the shark-infested waters of gaining one side and losing the other. Slip either way and you lose.