My Story

Why is this mission so important to me? Here is the short version of my story.

I was always a ‘big girl’. A ‘bonny baby’ who became a ‘tubby toddler etc’.

My Mum lived in a large body. As did both my Grandmothers and all of my Aunties.

When I was 11 years old Weight Watchers came to town!! My wonderful Mum and my Auntie C were beyond excited! Finally, this was their chance. They would join this new ‘club’, lose the weight they had both struggled with for years and their lives would change forever!! Plans were made. The ‘last supper’ of fish and chips! The eating of all the chocolate, cakes and biscuits was completed in order to avoid temptation.

They returned from their first meeting having been weighed, given a target weight to achieve (from a BMI chart) and a book with a list of rules to follow. During the first few weeks both lost a considerable amount of weight. The compliments flowed, the new clothes were bought and shown off. Life was indeed getting better. So, when someone suggested that it might be a good idea for me to join them it seemed the obvious thing to do. My Mum loved me. She knew how hard it was to live in a larger body in our society. This seemed to her to be the best thing she could do to help me to avoid what she had been through. I will always be grateful to my Mum for loving me so much. How could she have known? None of us know what we don’t know. She did know (because it was written in the literature that she had been given), that losing weight would make us healthier, happier and more attractive. We would gain confidence. We would be fitter. Why wouldn’t we all want this?

Unfortunately, what the literature didn’t tell us was:-

95% of diets FAIL! (long term results show weight regain after 2-5Yrs)

Health does not equate directly to weight.

Weight cycling is more detrimental to health than being ‘overweight’.

My Mum lost a very significant amount of weight over the next 7 months. Unfortunately, she regained all of it. Plus more over the following 3 years!

I spent the next 50 years weight cycling! Being hungry. Feeling out of control. Hating my body. Experiencing guilt and shame when I'd gone 'off plan' or 'cheated'. Then rebelling against the restriction and bingeing. I tried every diet going. I restricted or counted calories, macros, points and/or syns!

I’ve spent hundreds, possibly thousands, of pounds on pills, potions, books, shakes and diet clubs. Plus gym memberships and equipment galore!

Worst of all, I helped and supported others to do the same, (because, at the time, I was so convinced that this was the best thing to do!) I lost weight through Slimming World and was persuaded to become a consultant. This was when I realised how much of a money making industry diet culture is. I heard the same stories over and over again. I saw the same faces coming back to rejoin so many times. Often, not only had these women regained any weight they had lost previously, they had gained more besides!! They felt like they had failed. In truth, it was diet culture and, by default, me that was failing them!! I learned my lesson, but I regret that it took me so long! I resigned and started to research a better way.