I wasn’t going to blog about this, but I decided I kinda needed to, just to get it off my chest. Maybe then it’ll stop annoying me.

I’m a Weightwatcher. We parted company for some time last summer but I recently rejoined, and for the most part I think Weightwatchers is the best way of losing excess weight easily and sensibly.

Every now and again I treat myself to the official Weightwatchers magazine, and every time I wonder why I bothered my arse. It’s honestly nothing like the classes and I find it for the most part contradictory.

Each month they feature a “success story”. Now I could be alone here but a success story for me is anyone who WAS overweight and goes on to lose a sensible amount of weight, thus leaving them at a “healthy weight”. Seems fair, right?

So imagine my delight when I spotted the month of September’s vital statistics.

I’ve removed the WW member name, that’s not what this about. It’s about the hypocrisy within Weightwatchers magazine HQ.

So she’s 5ft 6″ tall, above average height for a woman, and she weighed 10st 7lbs and was a UK dress size 12 when she decided she needed WW help…. doesn’t sound overweight to me…. also sounds like she’s more likely be a size 10… although we have to allow for the fact that she might have freakishly large child bearing hips or something… (which she doesn’t btw).

One little google later and I’ve worked out her starting weight BMI

23.7 =  Normal

So I sought reference in my little blue WW file (every member has this, it’s like the WW bible). Someone who 5ft 6″ tall as you can clearly see would need to be 11 stone 2lbs to be classed as overweight.

Making this woman, at 5ft 6″ tall and 10 and a half stone a COMPLETELY HEALTHY WEIGHT. In fact she was 9lbs CLEAR from ever being even slightly overweight. You with me?

So this COMPLETELY HEALTHY WEIGHT woman slims down with the help of WW to 8 stone 13lbs.

Let’s check the file again. Hmmm minimum joining weight for a woman of 5ft 6″ tall is 9 stone 3 lbs. This woman is now 4lbs under that. Not only that but WW tell us (right next to that figure) that a MINIMUM HEALTHY WEIGHT for someone of 5ft 6″ tall is 8 stone 12lbs. This woman is 1lb above that. She arguably and with the help and backing of WW is now MINIMALLY HEALTHY. She’s 2lbs away from being underweight and in turn unhealthy.

Why does this gall me so much?

Is it jealousy? Auch y’know who wouldn’t kill to be a little slimmer. Of course I’d love to lose a stone BUT the difference is that at 5 foot 7 and 11stone 11lbs I AM ACTUALLY OVERWEIGHT!!

To my mind Weightwatchers have taken and glorified the story of a woman who was never underweight to start with, in fact she was perfectly healthy and turned it into some kind of modern miracle that she’s now a bony size 8.

I think it’s an absolute insult to everyone who is struggling with real weight issues and pays almost £6 a week to the Weightwatchers franchise in the hope of perhaps some day becoming the subject of one of these success stories.

The difference is that those people would actually be deserving of such a story.

*Gets down off soap box*

xo

Shoot me now

I have been really good this week, eating within my points, plenty of exercise and figure wise its paid off. My jeans are looser and my husband can see it off me.

Why on earth did Weightwatchers just tell me that I gained 1lb then?????!!!!!

I feel completely deflated and demotivated. I wanted to grab the WW scales and hurl them across the room. No…. but really… I did… I kinda wanted to drop kick the leader too…

I felt good this morning, liked the shape I saw in the mirror, but according to WW I’m still 11lbs overweight and now I feel like a fat cow.

Gutted

You may have noticed that I didn’t go to Weightwatchers last week….. well to be completely honest I was very fed up with the whole thing. I guess I was on a bit of a weight loss downer.

I spoke to my WW buddy Kelly and basically explained how I was feeling (I’d have been lost without you this week bird)…. very much like I was on a diet & deprived.

This wasn’t WW fault, it was purely mine. I wasn’t following the programme properly, I was being lax about it. So I’ve had a week off, wallowed a bit, felt sorry for my fat ass and I’m over it now.

I took myself to todays meeting with the attitude of, I can fix this and pull it back…

No need. I lost 1lb

Now you could literally have knocked me down with a feather, I was utterly convinced (partly because I’d weighed myself in the house this morning) I had gained at least 1.5- 2lbs.

Uh-uh.

I’ve learnt 2 major things from this episode.

• The scales in the house aren’t accurate and they need to be binned if I’m to stop torturing myself and dreading weigh ins.

• My weight problem is 60% in my mind, 40% in my body. I have a bad body image and I need to work on that. I’m going to start by booking myself into the college beauty salon for some pampering treatments

I also purchased a Pedometer today to try and up my exercise again. Pretty nifty little device that bascially calculates your steps and tells you what wine activity points you earn, if any.

It can seem a bit arduous clocking up activity points as before you earn any you need to reach do what is classed as a “normal” amount of healthy exercise, namely 10,000 steps per day. Thats the hard point, once you break that barrier though, the points clock up quite quickly! Already today just walking a short distance from WW and collecting youngest from nursery I’ve done over 3,000 steps.

Hope everyone else has done ok this week too, special mention to the gorgeous @lizzclare who lost 5.75lbs this week. Her secret? No meals after 5pm!! Well done Elizabeth xxxx

If you follow me on Twitter you’ve probably already heard the unexciting news that I stayed the bloody same again this week!! Ugh! Frustrating!!

3 weeks = no loss, no gain either which I know I should be pleased about, and I am, but at the same time this plateau is annoying/ boring the life out of me!

A few people have recommended that I perhaps need to vary my meals more, to kick start weight loss again and so I’m definitely going to do that. I’m also going to remove alcohol out of the equation COMPLETELY this week, as I’ve noticed with this stunning weather, my beer in take has increased again, and lets face it, beer is NOT waist line friendly!

How is everyone else getting on? Is the good weather having any positive/ negative effects on your weight loss?

xox

Stayed the same!

Nothing on, nothing off!!

I’m happy enough with that, as I enjoyed my time in London, eating pretty much what I liked

I think I haven’t gained because although I didn’t eat particularly well in my own eyes last week, I was still eating MUCH BETTER than I used to!

Proves that sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too, everything in moderation really is key

How did everyone else get on??

xox

I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again because I truly believe its helpful.

If you’re about to embark, or are already on a weightloss journey you should remember to document it in photos. I realise that initially that might feel like the last thing you want to do, but please trust me when I say its the most invaluable thing I have done.

Without photographic proof I’d still be arguing with myself that theres not really a noticeable difference in my shape etc. The brain is a powerful thing and let me tell you, on “fat days” I feel I’ve made no progress at all, even though my clothes say I have. So I get the photos out and thats when rationale wins. I can see the difference, there is no disputing it.

I’d recommend taking pictures every 6-8 weeks.

The picture below is me almost 5 months ago at Christmas Time. Just look at my thighs! Yikes! I’m a UK Size 16 here.

*Click on pictures to enlarge (at your peril )

This is me last week. 16 weeks after joining Weightwatchers. I’ve dropped 2 dress sizes and I’m a UK Size 12!!!! Weirdly my feet are also smaller by half a size!

I hope I don’t sound like I’m blowing my own trumpet too much, but I guess thats what I am doing to a certain extent. With purpose though, I think its important to take time to stand back, look, and appreciate how far you’ve come. There are times when I’ve just wanted to give up and revert back to my diet of junk food, but when I see the picture above I’m so glad I haven’t. I still realistically have around a stone left to lose, but I’m getting there

Not only do I think I look better, I feel better inside. I’ve always been a smiley happy go lucky person but my weight gain did leave me feeling very insecure and unattractive.With each pound off those insecurities have faded away.

If you’re on a weight loss journey I’d love to hear from you, have you taken progress pics along the way? Do you think its helped?

xoxox

Get In!!!!!!!!!! 2lbs off!!!!!

Total Loss so far = 17.5lbs

This is just the boost I needed. I’ve been yo-yoing the past few weeks and it was frankly doing my head in. So back to basics I went this week, cooking from scratch, smaller portions, dinner before 7pm, and lots more activity.

I have power hosed, gardened, walked the dog etc….. and none of it has been a chore. Exercise really does make you feel good, and it proves you don’t need to be sweating it out at a gym. Gyms aren’t for everyone, and they certainly aren’t for me.

Plans for this week are more of the same coupled with a little bit of power walking. I’ve always wanted to try this but didn’t want to look like a knob on my own. Thankfully my chum at Weightwatchers has agreed to join me in being pointed at & laughed at 2 nights a week. I’ll let you know how it goes

How is everyone else doing? xox

Yes that’s exactly what I weigh. I’ve put on a whole stone in six months, I like to call it the contentment stone

Joking aside though, enough is enough. I’m back on Weightwatchers as of today, aiming to lose a 2lbs a week. I’d like to get the stone off first and then go from there.

I am 5″7 tall and a healthy BMI for me is between 18.5 (what?) and 25 (sounds a bit more like it!). I wear a “snug” UK size 14 and would like to simply be a comfy 12 again. Nothing drastic.

My BMI is currently 27.45 putting me into the “Overweight” category. Not horrendously so but I did give up smoking for my health, so I can’t justify piling on the pounds, I need and very much want to be in good health.

So join me on the journey, I’ll be weighing in every Monday morning and if you have any healthy dieting tips/ recipes to share then I would love to hear about them xox