Slimming World Secrets

My 15 minutes of fame: I’m in Slimming World Magazine!

So, after several months of meticulous planning, heart-on-my-sleeve writing and fabulous photoshoots, it’s finally here. My feature in Slimming World Magazine is out now!

Back in October last year, I was invited to feature in Slimming World Magazine. The initial plan was just to write a few recipes but, as time went on, the feature evolved to something bigger: the lovely deputy editor, Sarah Davison, wanted me to write something about my journey.

Journeys plural, actually. As well as my weight loss journey, I have my transgender journey running alongside. In fact, rather than running in parallel, the tracks of both journeys are intertwined: I couldn’t do one without the other.

So I was invited along to the Sparkly Castle, aka head office, where I had my hair done in the salon, had loads of photographs taken and even saw Slimming World founder “Saint” Margaret Miles-Bramwell herself. I’ve already covered that wonderful event in my post, My magical visit to the Sparkly Castle.

Suffice to say, it was one of the best days of my life. I was treated like royalty and felt like a princess. I even received a big bouquet of beautiful flowers from the magazine team a few days later.

Getting the words and pictures just right

The photoshoot took place back in January. Since then, I’ve been working with Sarah, and the very fine sub-editor Marie, to hone the content.

I’ve spent most of my working life in the media, first in newspapers and then running my own food and drink magazine, Taste the Seasons, which went on to win nine awards including Magazine of the Year twice.

I also spent about 20 years as a sub-editor with a reputation for being as pernickety as they come, so I was keen that everything should be perfect with my feature.

I needn’t have worried – the attention to detail shown in everything from the poses in the photoshoot to getting the words themselves right was off the scale. As it should be.

First, I was presented with a Word document of the feature, all the recipes and the various panels. My original feature had been changed slightly to include more references to Food Optimising and so on, but that was fine.

The main thing is that it had been subbed beautifully. As we say on the subs’ desk, it was as clean as a whistle. I made a few tweaks, but they were all so minor as to be not worthy of mention.

Five pages for my 15 minutes of fame

After that, I received a PDF version of the pages. I couldn’t believe what had begun as a little recipe-led feature had now evolved to something covering FIVE pages!

There were no images on the PDFs, but I got to see the layout and make one final check. I also got to see the headline for the first time, and I love it.

“Losing weight helped unlock the true me.”

It’s SO true!

I made my final tweaks (again, there were hardly any) and sent everything back to Marie with a big thumbs-up. I’d need to wait until the magazine came out to see the images – both of me and the food.

Just the cure for Covid blues

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I got my copy of the May/June 2022 issue delivered through my door. I’d just tested positive for Covid-19 and was feeling ill, so this was a great pick-me-up.

Slimming World Magazine is my favourite magazine, so it’s always a highlight to flick through the glossy pages of a new issue for the first time. Even more so that day, knowing that I was inside!

So, you can find my feature on Pages 68 to 72. As well as the feature about my journey, there are three of my recipes:

• Andie’s ultimate burger and chips with homemade ketchup
• Full cooked breakfast
• Ham, mushroom and basil pittas

Then there are two panels – one on how I get organised and a second on how I keep motivated, both full of my top tips for getting to Target – and staying there.

Perfect pictures of the food – and me!

The pictures are out of this world. As a trans woman, I’m really funny about having my photo taken because some of the pictures of me look ruddy awful. But the main one of me from the photoshoot is fabulous. Big thanks to the super team of photographer Graeme and art worker Vicky.

It goes without saying that the food pictures are wonderful – this is something that Slimming World excels at time and again both in print and online.

The only photos I don’t like are the “before” photos of me pre-transition. But I wanted them to go in to show how far I’ve come. The magazine team checked with me several times that I was happy for them to be used.

100% support from members and consultants

Anyway, the same day I got my copy of the magazine, I also started receiving messages from the consultants. Some of these have become friends over the years and we support each other on Instagram.

Three days later, the magazine had gone on sale in groups. And I started to receive more messages – some from members I know, some from those I don’t, all over the UK and Ireland. Even the national 2021 Woman of the Year, Sophie Higginbottom, sent her love and congratulations. Absolute queen! 👑

While I trusted the magazine team to deal with my story sensitively, I was also a little concerned about trolls. I’ve had my fair share of transphobic abuse from people online in the past, so I braced myself for one or two nasty messages.

But, so far, I’ve had nothing of the sort – just masses of support from members, consultants and the magazine staff. Big shout out to Bekki from the magazine team, too, for arranging things behind the scenes.

As I said in my Sparkly Castle write-up, I think it must be in the employee terms and conditions that you must be a lovely person to work there. Everyone I’ve met, over three visits, has been wonderful.

Turning down newspaper coverage

I have had one newspaper (I won’t say which) contact me, asking to run my story. Sadly, I had to decline. While its reporting of stories involving trans people has been good, the comments below the articles online are so transphobic. They simply haven’t been moderated.

I was told the story comments could be turned off – both on the newspaper website and the associated Facebook post. But I know people might still be cruel on social media, so I thought it best not to go down that road.

It’s a shame, but I just don’t need that hassle in my life. I just wish the trolls would go away and take up a new hobby instead of seemingly making careers out of being transphobic.

If you want to read my story, it’s ONLY in the May/June 2022 issue of Slimming World Magazine. Copies are available to buy in group, or in the shops from March 31, 2022.

An achievement to be proud of

Anyway, I shall get off my soapbox now as this post is all about positivity. I don’t *do* pride very often – I’ve read too many Jane Austen novels (actually, that’s impossible, why aren’t there more?”) so I’m always a bit cautious about being proud of myself.

But yeah, I’m the first transgender person ever to tell their story in the 24-year history of Slimming World Magazine – and I’m actually pretty damned proud about that! I hope my story can inspire other trans and LGBT+ people to get out there and join their local Slimming World group.

If their experience is anything like that I’ve received over the past few years, they’ll experience nothing but love and support right from the top at head office to the consultants and members in group.

I mean it when I say that I couldn’t have come out as trans without Slimming World, so I shall always be eternally grateful. I could not have unlocked the true me without that Slimming World key.