Hello, my name is Angela and I love chocolate but who doesn’t?!
However, I made it my aim last year to lose a stone in weight in a year by attending Slimming World.
I had just come out of having an operation and I had to do daily exercises to improve my mobility so after discussing this with my enabling team I thought it would be the perfect time to pair this with losing a bit of weight too, to make it a bit easier to do the exercises and improve my health all round.
It can be a daunting thought, going on a diet but my enabling team were really enthusiastic and encouraging. They helped me to start finding out about slimming world meetings in my local area, and although there are a lot of different meetings happening, there were only a couple at the times of day that I wanted to go.
My enablers helped me plan, making arrangement with me about how to get there, what to expect and all the time helping me to stay motivated to try out one of the meetings.
On the day as you can imagine I was a little bit nervous and excited at the same time, so with support off I went. This was the first meeting that I had tried, and I really liked it and felt comfortable so that became my group.
I love going to the meetings and being a part of the group there. The leaders are lovely, and we all celebrate whenever someone has lost any weight which is such a good feeling, and no one is made to feel bad if they have not managed to lose any weight that week, because let’s face it, we all know it can be tough some weeks.
My absolute favourite part of the groups is when we do taster weeks! Everyone brings a sample of something they have made, and we all get some cheeky snacks so we can see what we might like to try for ourselves. Bring on the guilt free snacks!!
I have also been learning how to cook a bit more at home, I have support to plan what I would like to make and shop for the items I need, I have added things like lasagne and cakes in my signature dishes!
All good things in moderation, of course. If anyone wants to pass my details on to Gordon Ramsey, I can teach him a thing or two now.
I have earned lots of certificates along the way for hitting certain milestones and my enabling team continue to encourage and motivate me, support me to plan healthier meals every week and keep developing my culinary skills.
The certificates I am the proudest of are my bronze Body Magic award that is awarded for 45 minutes of activity a week, over three days, maintained for at least four weeks. And I have hit my goal of 1 stone lost! Woohoo!!
I am planning on carrying on with my slimming world group as I really enjoy going and being a part of the group and recommend it to anyone who might be considering it – give it a go!
