Slimming World: Weeks 1-4

So I’ve just completed my first month on the Slimming World diet, which has been great fun although difficult as I love desserts! I’ve found some amazing low syn or even syn free recipes though which I’m planning on posting in the coming weeks, but this post is more of an introduction.

Between my fast metabolism and my stomach condition (gastroparesis), I spend the first 18 years of my life underweight and struggling to gain and body mass. Then my medication changed and I started gaining weight FAST. Currently I am three stone heavier than I’d like to be. Maybe that’s not as much as some other people would like to lose – I am a fairly average body size and don’t look very overweight – but to me that is a big change. I can’t stop the tablets that are making me put on weight so I am trying to lose it healthily, which is why I turned to the Slimming World diet. Slimming World is more of a lifestyle change than a diet. It’s all about managing food, having the right food most of the time and unhealthier stuff in moderation. However, there are a few flaws in this when you take into account my health conditions.

I have myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) which means that my body physically doesn’t change the stored fat in my body into energy. I also have gastroparesis, which is a partially paralysed stomach. This means that my stomach isn’t very good at actually digesting the food and breaking it down. This means that my body struggles more with high fibre and low fat foods which, unsurprisingly, are what Slimming World revolves around. Between all of these things, I am struggling to find a balance which will help me lose weight and not adversely affect my health. I am going to stick with Slimming World for a while and see if I can make this work. (If anyone has any tips, feel free to leave them in the comments!)

My first week I stuck to the diet very well and was very disappointed when I went to my first weigh-in and I had put on 1lb. I am a massive foodie and love chocolate and cheese, two things which I am having to massively cut down on for this diet, so giving these up and still putting on weight was very disheartening. After this, due to some personal events, I had two weeks off of the diet; and I mean, completely off. The day before my weigh-in at the end of the third week I at about 15 Krispy Kreme doughnuts. However, during these two weeks combined I only put on 1.5lb – less each week than the first! My theory is that my body can break down the white break and fatty food easier, but I was still putting on weight either way. For my fourth week I got stuck back into the diet and, halleluiah, I lost 1lb at my fourth weigh-in. It wasn’t much, but it was a step in the right direction. I’m hoping that the weight loss will continue, and I am working hard to stick to the diet.

I’ll make all of the weight-loss X chronic illness mistakes so that you don’t have to and document them here; please leave any helpful information or tips in the comments and together we will beat this! As my Slimming World consultant says, “Onwards and downwards”!