Slimming World Secrets

I did it! I’m a Slimming World Target Member!

Just writing those words seems completely alien. I honestly never thought I’d get here. But, this morning, after joining Slimming World more than seven years ago, I finally became a Target Member. Mad!

My week

• Average Syns per day: 9.9
• Average Speed foods per day: 12.6
• SP days: 5
• Body Magic days: 5
• Result: -2lbs
• Total loss: -5st 0lbs (TARGET!)

I wrote last week that I had two weeks left to lose my final 2lbs (I had two weeks left on my current Countdown). Yet I also knew there was a slight chance I might get to the promised land in half that time.

I had an absolutely angelic week – five consecutive SP days, average Syns below ten again and loads of Speed foods and Body Magic.

But, while I was expecting a loss – maybe 1lb or so – I wasn’t expecting to get to Target at all. TMI, but I’d not “been” for a few days, so I was carrying excess baggage, as it were!

I didn’t expect to hit Target this week

So I headed into group in the former home economics room of a school built well over a century ago without any great expectations.

Besides, my lovely consultant Tracy was missing due to going down with Covid (get well soon, babe!) and I kinda wanted her to be there for when the magic moment happened.

When I entered, there were only four people in the room – me, the stand-in consultant Heather (who’s also lovely!) and the two weigh ladies, Michelle and Jane.

I said my hellos and told them there was an outside chance that this could be a Target weigh-in – but that it probably wouldn’t be.

There was much “Ooooh!-ing”, raising of eyebrows and wishes of good luck.

Once I’d inserted my card into one slim, white box to sign in, I hotfooted it over to the second one, which is plugged into the black box of the scales.

The moment of truth

I took a deep breath – as I always do before weigh-in (no idea why!) – and gingerly stepped on.

On the desk above was another black box, this one displaying an LCD readout that would tell me my weight.

As ever, the weight reading started high and then began to descend, the numbers changing fast at first and then slower and slower.

The readout soon got down to 10st 1½lb, which was great – I’d got a loss despite being constipated!

Then it hit 10st 1lb, which meant a new personal best, so I was more than happy with that, too.

Then 10st ½lb – lawks! And then – with what seemed to be an inaudible clunk – it changed to 10st 0lb. I stood there frozen, not daring to move a muscle in case the scales changed.

I’m a Slimming World Target Member!

But they didn’t – I was 10st 0lb, I’d lost a total of 5st in weight (literally a third of my body weight – I was 15st when I started) and I was officially a Target Member. At long last!

My hands shot up to my wide-open mouth, already hidden behind a mask, and I just kept repeating “Oh my God!”

I jumped off the scales and began to do a lap of honour around the room – something I did years ago when I got another award, I forget which one.

But the 20 or so chairs set out for group were all empty, so that particular celebration was short-lived.

It briefly went through my mind how sad it was that my consultant wasn’t there, that there were literally zero other members there – and that I didn’t get to Target in front of my old Night Owls group – fellow members I’d known for many years.

I also remember Claire on the Slimming World Podcast talk about how she felt something of an anti-climax when she got to Target a couple of weeks ago.

No anticlimax for me – I wanted to enjoy myself

But I didn’t want any negativity and was determined to enjoy myself – because I’d worked bloody hard to become a Slimming World Target Member.

So there was much celebration and jubilation between Heather, Michelle, Jane and me.

Michelle wrote out my certificates – one for Target and another for losing 5st – and dug out two shiny stickers for my book. The Target sticker I got was one of the old blue sparkly ones – so I asked if I could have a black (newer) one to match my certificate.

Cupboards were scoured, and a black one was found. So I now have a new and an old Target shiny – I’ll stick the blue one inside my book next to the weigh-in result.

Michelle took my photo for the Facebook group and Heather gave me a few tips about what to do as a Target member – none of which really sunk in as I was too dizzy with excitement.

One thing she said struck home, though, and that was that many people would go out and celebrate reaching Target with big meals and loads of drinks.

I won’t be doing that! I’m a Target member and I have every intention of remaining one for a long time to come.

I’ll be having a few drinkies later, as I do every Saturday, but I’ll be counting all the Syns and having a Syn-free meal when I get in.

No badge and no book but no problem

I didn’t get my Slim for Life book, as Heather didn’t have any, and I didn’t get my Target badge either for the same reason. I think Heather stepped in at the last minute to cover group, so didn’t have everything in her bag of tricks.

But that’s OK as it means Tracy can present me with those next weekend, assuming she’s recovered from Covid by then.

And that was that. There was no Image Therapy as I was the only person to have stayed, so I headed out into the warm August sunshine grinning from ear to ear as I removed my mask.

I then sat in the car updating social media with the good news – and my phone hasn’t stopped pinging since, with well wishes from friends and family.

Taking the scenic route to Target

So there you go. I did it. My road to Target has involved taking the scenic route to say the very least.

I’ve had good periods and I’ve had terrible periods, the worst being that I regained almost 4st in 2018/19 due to having crap going on in my life.

Slimming World took a back seat so far back it was about a mile behind me in another car in another town.

But I still kept going to group and I knew that, one day, my head would get back into gear. And that’s what happened. From January 2020 to August 2021, I lost 4st 7lb, and I got to Target.

And if I can do it – especially during a global pandemic and three lockdowns – anyone can. I guess I became my own lockdown project. While everyone else was making banana bread, I was making me a better version of myself.

Now begins the real challenge

They say that staying at Target is harder than losing the weight in the first place. I’m a little nervous about the future – especially as I have no book and so don’t know what the hell I should be doing!

But I’ll write more about that in a future blog. For now, I just wanna bask in the glory of having become a Slimming World Target Member.

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” Kate Moss once said. She’s right, you know? It feels amazing! While my body’s not quite where I want it to be, it’s infinitely closer than it was 18 months ago.

Here’s to the future!