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