Or should I say; our return journey!
Looking at my husband, a bookie would never give odds on the fact that he's a fussy eater and I'm certainly not going to be winning any chef of the year competitions! Certainly not a match made in heaven but if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach then I must be the most cherished woman alive!
After my daughter was born, almost 7 years ago, I was confronted with the reality that baring 4 children has not had a very beneficial affect on my body. I tried to embrace the ideology of "I've earned these fat rolls" but somehow the flabby body reflected in the mirror just does nothing for my self esteem. My fat jeans were getting so tight I had to opt for leggings to feel comfortable. Enough is enough!
We have successfully tried Slimming World before, about 3 years ago. I went on it originally after my daughter was born, with a friend of mine, and had great success. I didn't quite get down to my goal weight but at least managed to shift the majority of the offending blubber. I tried to get my husband to join me but he refused, having a man's total disdain for a group of women meeting every week to discuss their diets. He didn't fare too well on just trying it himself because he is a fussy eater and the red and green days were too restrictive for him.
3 years ago we had a scare, when his father's health started deteriorating and he wanted to go and visit him before he received the dreaded phone call. We immigrated to the UK about 15 years ago from South Africa so it was a long flight that lay between him and his visit home. The doctor advised against making the trip due to the high risk of deep vein thrombosis. She gave him Slimming World vouchers and said that he had to give that a try before they would consider something like a gastric band.
I laughed when he said he had the vouchers and said, "Oh well, I guess I'll go back and use them, I could do with losing a few more pounds." and nearly fell off my chair when he said,
"I'm going!"
By this time Slimming World had introduced extra easy so, with this program and the motivation of wanting to go and visit his father, we set out on a journey that took over a year in which he lost 12 stone. (That's 76kg!) He went from not being able to walk down the street to doing a duathlon, alternating between running and cycling every day and generally having a zest for life again. Sadly work got in the way. He was unhappy and wanted to start his own business, this meant every spare minute was spent working to try and build it up to the stage where he would be able to leave his job. He no longer had time to exercise and we were both stressed with various things, including selling our house and buying a bigger one so old habits were slipped into and, before we knew it, we were back at square one.
At the beginning of the year he tried to go back to group but didn't enjoy going on his own and my head was not in the right place to take on the mammoth task of being on plan 100% where Mr Fussy is concerned. We eventually decided before the summer holidays that we would just enjoy ourselves, have a big blow out and start fresh when the children went back to school. So, here we are! Let the games begin!
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