Growing up in Australia I lived right on the coast north of Sydney and going to the beach was part of my everyday lifestyle – not so much in the winter of course, but come summer the beach is where I was just about every single day. I went swimming before work and a swim after work, and on the weekend would lie on Manly beach for as long as I could manage. I should be a prune by now but because I looked after my skin in the sun I managed to escape any real sun damage.

You have to prepare of course; lots of moisturiser, SPF sun-cream, a good (stylish) hat and a light cotton shirt for when the sun got too strong. You have to look good too so a pair of sunglasses, smooth-skinned legs and even your nails need attention (dead sea nail care works great) as your feet are on display don’t forget. I could never read on the beach but took a little portable radio which I placed beside me – and a good sized beach towel too, there’s nothing worse than trying to lie on a bath towel with half your body on the sand.

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Well it’s that time of the week – the day before the weekly weigh-in – which can be a little tricky when your weigh-in falls on a Monday. Making it through the weekend without getting off track requires more will-power than you apply during the week because your routine is different and Sunday especially is when everything tends to relax.

The Monday night meetings are always entertaining because almost everybody has a tale of guilt to tell – we all give in to temptation in some form between Friday evening and Monday morning and getting together and having a laugh about it is good for everyone’s self-esteem. One lady is aiming for buying her first bikini in fifteen years, another is getting married in August and will soon be sending out bridal shower invitations and intends to buy a ‘killer dress’ for the occasion – she’ll get there too as she has lost seven stone in just over a year!

My opinion is that if you have done really well during the week and stayed on track then a little off-plan stuff on the weekend wont affect your weightloss, unless you embark on an orgy of fry-ups and chocolate for 48 hours. Anyway, fingers crossed for tomorrow night!

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Hi, today I am 13 stone 6 pounds.

Until child number five arrived six years ago I never had a problem with my weight and always hovered between a size 10 and size 12, which suits me perfectly. About ten years ago I lost an incredible amount of weight through stress and went down to a size six and weighed around 7 stone, it did not suit me at all and I would not be looking to returning to such an extreme ever again. Let’s be frank ladies – once you hit your 40′s you should not be aiming for the size zero look, not only will you have no shape or curves whatsoever but a size zero face on a mature woman is very, very ageing. Not a good look at all. Anyway, I don’t blame my youngest for leaving me with three stone of excess weight entirely because at the time I was living in France – beside a winery – and despite my very busy lifestyle at that time there is only so much physical activity that will counter-effect the ravages of an abundance of red wine and brie taken on a daily basis…

So I piled on another stone on top of the post-pregnancy weight and within two years I was weighing over 13 stone. From a starting weight of just nine stone that is quite a hike! anyone who has found themselves overweight within a relatively short period of time will know how distressing it is; none of the nice stuff you wore just a couple of years earlier fit any more and you have to start buying larger sizes, and you just don’t feel as though you look nice in anything! even then, you still somehow feel you don’t look that different to how you used to – until you see of photo of yourself…and it is reality check time. Well now that I’m living back in Belfast I met some mums at the school who were going to Slimming World locally and they all appeared to be shrinking somewhat over the weeks and months since last September…well, I decided that I wanted in on whatever they were getting and doing because it looked good to me!

I joined Slimming World at their group last month, with lots of support and enouragment from them, and in the first week I lost five and a half pounds…weight that no amount of ‘cutting back’ had managed to shift in the past six years. I was amazed. Slimming World is not actually dieting but rather learning that there are far more foods that you can eat as much of in a day than you assumed was possible. Now I will admit that it does involve cutting right down – but not out entirely – on foods like bread, butter and milk, but the list of ‘free’ foods that you can consume right throughout the day is as long as your arm. Lean meat…? the sky’s the limit – poached/scrambled/boiled eggs…? go for it! – now wait for this…boiled/mashed/roast POTATOES – indulge baby! the secret in cooking too is using fry-light which is an oil-based spray which you use instead of olive/vegetable oil but you can use as much as you like so you will go through gallons of the stuff. It works brilliantly too. Nothing is banned on this eating plan, you are simply re-jigging the balance of what you eat…but the thing is you MUST eat as much of the ‘free’ foods as you can a day as they are chosen for their low-density and the speed with which they are used by the body. Okay some more examples of free foods; any canned, fresh or frozen fruit; pork, beef, chicken, turkey…just trim the fat off; fish – so long as it has no batter – is free; muller-light yogs – eat as many as you can or want in a day (great for filling up or snacking between meals), same for activia fat-free yogs; mushrooms, tomatoes – toss them in a pan with fry-light with a egg or two and some lean bacon and you can have a fry-up every morning for breakfast! sometimes I save my two slices of wholemeal bread daily allowance for later in the day and stack it with salad, ham/chicken and a slice of low-low cheese. Or – a slice of wholemeal toast with the slice of low-low cheese melted under the grill with a cuppa for supper.

Okay the, so I lost five and a half pounds the first week – then missed two meetings in a row due to the easter break and when I returned found I had rediscovered two of those lost pounds…not to worry though because I went a little off track, but I am back on the bike again and have lost another half a pound in just three days. Not bad at all! This week I am doing really well and hope to lose between two and four pounds so, fingers crossed, by eating my through the free-food list every day and doing some cardio stuff at the gym I will achieve this. No – I WILL achieve this! my goal is ultimately to get back to nine stone and I WILL do it! when you see men and women at your meeting who look wonderful and fit and then discover that one has lost five stone in eight months, and another has lost TEN stone in a year…you know that you can achieve the same success. If they can, why not me…?

Feel free to join me on this journey! I will be updating here weekly and would love to hear from anyone else who is doing the same thing…or considering it.

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