It's that time of the week again, I attended my local slimming world group this morning to do my weekly weigh in despite all the snow. The last seven days I have lost another 2.5lbs taking my total to 13st 2lbs lost.

This week I would like to talk about what we at slimming world call "body magic", or exercise, as any health professional will tell you to be healthy and lose weight a balanced diet and exercise are needed. When I first joined slimming world nine months ago I did not do any exercise apart maybe from lifting up the tv remote, but after about a week on plan I decided to try and do a bit more, I started by just going for a gentle walk around the block for five minutes,which was more than enough at the start. Over the next few weeks the 5 minutes turned into 10 then 20 and so on, before I knew it I was going out most nights for at least an hour as my fitness levels were increasing. At this point I made the decision to take things to the next level and decided to join the local gym. I made an appointment to have an induction and despite feeling very nervous and body conscious about going I went down and did it. I then started going on a regular basis, a couple of times a week at first and again I built that up to 5 times a week, also the length of time increased from 30 minutes to at least an hour a time. On top of that I started swimming one morning a week and started playing my favourite game of squash, which I had not played in several years.

The reason exercise is important is a number of reasons, it will help to speed up your weight loss, it will improve your inner health, but one of the big reasons I did it was to help tone up whilst losing the weight to combat having problems with lots of excess skin, I am sure I will have a bit but the exercise is definitely helping. I personally have found that I have become some what addicted to fitness over the past couple of months, I think whereas before I was addicted to chocolate and junk foods my addiction has just found a different avenue.
If the gym is not your thing then there are plenty of different ways of getting body magic, any form of movement where you heart rate is raised is good for you, just going for a walk or maybe a bit of gardening. There are a number of groups you can do like Zumba or maybe try some aqua jogging.
I have found that over the last nine months my fitness levels have improved beyond recognition from what they were before I am currently doing between 6 & 10 hours a week now. The other huge plus to gaining fitness is that I can do a lot more with my kids which I couldn't do before, we go to the park regularly and I even went to crealy with them for the first time recently and it was like being a child again, I was on the drop slides with them and everything.


TIP OF THE WEEK

My tip this week is to keep a food diary, everyday I keep a record of everything I eat. By writing things down it makes you much more aware of how much you are eating and armed with that knowledge you are much less likely to eat things you probably shouldn't.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Slimming world quiche.
Ingredients:
5 eggs                                                                                    
1 tub of quark (very low fat cream cheese)
Onions
Peppers
Sweetcorn
Mushrooms
Lean ham
Fry light low fat cooking spray

Soften all the vegetables in a frying pan with a few squirts of fry light adding the ham at the last moment. Whisk the eggs and the quark in a bowl and season. Spread the the vegetables and ham mix into a fry lighted flan dish and then pour over the egg mixture. Bake in a preheated oven (190 degrees) for 25 minutes. Serve with some nice salad leaves, ideal eaten hot or cold.

confidence

a nice board Katrina made about me.

Well it's Wednesday again and that can only mean one thing, weigh day. after my 9.5lb loss last week i was not expecting a lot as is my normal pattern, but was more than happy to see another 1.5lbs had come off. Another 0.5lb would of been nice as i would of achieved my 13 stone award, but i will have to wait until next week. the group was a hive of activity this morning with several new members joining us to start their

slimming world journey, good luck to them all.

This week i wanted to speak about how slimming world has improved my confidence over the last 42 weeks since i joined. when i first joined although i was not a shy person, i was not what you would call an extrovert either. as the weeks went by i found myself joining in the group more and more and then my consultant Katrina asked if i would like to join the groups social team and take control of the pay station for the group. I did which meant i got to speak to every member each week, i quickly found myself loving the role as i could see people changing each week.

Outside of the group it is the little things that you notice, like before i joined slimming i would never travel as a passenger in a car, always using the excuse that i got travel sick, the real reason being that a lot of the time the seatbelt would not go around me, but now i have the confidence i do not worry about it and easily fit into cars. Another area where my confidence has grown is just being out and about in public, before i joined i would catch people staring and chuckling at me in the supermarket because of my size, which is never nice. but recently i walked to the gym at the same time all the college students were walking to school but i found myself walking with my head held high and not worrying about anything.

On a day to day basis i find things that used to worry me don't anymore. Just before Christmas my group had its annual Miss Slinky competition where one of the groups fabulous ladies is voted Miss Slinky by their fellow members. Just after the group started i disappeared outside and then returned dressed in a nice frock in front of the whole group, nine months ago i would never of dreamed of doing such a thing so it goes to prove that losing weight is far more than just a physical thing.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Plan, Plan and Plan again, since i first joined i quickly learnt that if you sit down each week and plan your meals for the coming week you do not have to think about it during the week which in turn means you are less likely to fail. as the saying goes " Fail to prepare, prepare to fail".

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Cauliflower curry, take a bag of frozen cauliflower and add it into a saucepan with two stock cubes mixed with water to cover, cook until the cauliflower is tender and then blitz to form a paste. fry off any vegetables and meat of your choice in a pan with fry light until golden and then add to the paste, add curry powder a mix well then serve on a bed of boiled rice. Enjoy.

Hi, my name is Paul Palmer and I am a 37 year old man who lives in tiverton with my fiancé
and three kids. In February last year I was suffering from a number of health issues
including hypertension and depression caused by the fact that I was severely overweight
and after trying numerous "faddy" diets with differing success I decided that things needed
to change. I went to see my GP to discuss the chance of having bariatric surgery and he
told me in order to qualify I would need to join a proper weight loss group to prove I was
serious about losing the weight, if I could lose 10% of my weight in six months I would
qualify for the surgery.
I went away and carried out some research of groups in the area and decided to contact
the local slimming world group as the plan seemed to be the most suitable for my way of
life. I contacted the consultant Katrina over the phone to find out a bit more info and to
explain that I was very nervous about joining a group. She asked me to pop along to the
group the following week and see what it was like.
So the Wednesday morning arrived and I walked into the hall not knowing what to expect
and despite being a fairly confident person I was a nervous wreck, I was greeted by the
consultant Katrina with a big friendly smile and was shown around and then sat down with
a couple of other new members for our new member talk. Katrina explained to us how the
plan works and made us feel very welcome. After our talk the other newbies and I joined
the rest of the group where Katrina introduced us and we were greeted with a round of
applause, immediately I felt a lot more at home and was fascinated as Katrina spoke to
each member in turn discussing there results and planning for the coming week. After
group finished I returned home with my new member pack and sat down and read the
whole thing through and I must admit I felt quite sceptical, all the previous diets I had tried
always had a lot of food groups to avoid i.e. don't eat pasta and bananas etc but here was
this plan telling me I could eat as much of these foods as I wanted. Anyway I stuck to the
plan and after a couple of days I realised I was not at all hungry which was a first, as in all
my previous diets I was ready to eat my own arm after a couple of days.
The following Wednesday I went back into group to face the scales and I was amazed with
what I saw, I had lost 12lb, I was lost for words. The group then started and Katrina started
to give out the weeks awards and when she called out my name and revealed to the group
my loss for that week there was a huge cheer and round of applause. The feeling of pride
that surged through me was fantastic and really spurred me on.
Over the next few weeks I found myself consistently losing around 5lb a week and I was
loving the plan, the group had become like a second family and I couldn't wait for the next
group to come along. My attitude to food completely changed which is why slimming world
don't call the plan a diet, it is a lifestyle change which is totally true.
After the first month I decided to start doing a bit of exercising and I would go out for a
walk in the evenings, At first I could only manage 5-10 minutes but that didn't matter as like
the plan says any form of exercise is better than none. Over the weeks I found myself
getting further away from home each time I went out as my fitness levels improved. After a
while I decided I wanted to increase my exercise so I decided to sell my Xbox to raise
money to pay for a gym membership and started going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week.
The difference the plan was having on my life was immense, my blood pressure was
dropping all the time and my medication was being cut every month, my depression was a
lot more under control and I felt so much better about myself. I reached my 10% weight
loss after 8 weeks but I then told my GP that I would rather continue on with the plan
instead if going for bariatric surgery. I have made a lot of new friends not just from my own
group but from Katrina's other groups as well via our private Facebook group.
If anybody is thinking about joining a group I would highly recommend joining slimming
world, your weight is never shared, it remains private between you and Katrina, only your
weekly losses are announced and even then if you want them to remain private that is totally fine too. You will be made to feel very welcome and you too can change your life, it
doesn't matter whether you want to lose 1 stone or 20 everyone is welcome.
I have now been a member for 40 weeks and have now lost 12st 12lbs, I go to the gym six
days a week as well as swimming and playing squash, my blood pressure issues are now
a thing of he past, so to say that it has changed my life would be an understatement.
I will be doing a weekly blog from now on to share some of my hints and tips with everyone
including recipes and will occasionally upload one of my food diaries along with regular
pictures showing my progress.
If anyone is interested in joining one of the local groups you can find more info out via this
link, http://www.slimmingworld.com/joining-a-group/nearest-group.aspx?
pcl=Ex16&pcr=6uj&control=master.
I go to the Wednesday morning group so I would love to see you there one day, I also love
to pop into the other groups from time to time to pick up ideas and meet all the fantastic
people who like me are trying to change their lives with slimming world.
That's all for now but I will be back next week with some more ideas.

at the start and after 35 weeks

my consultant Katrina Barker