My Journey ... 16th Sept 2013 to 27th May 2014. 8 Months : 9 Stone 4lbs

Thanks Janet ... I can't quite believe the difference myself lol. This evening my consultant asked me to send him as many before, during and after pics as I could find (for Woman of the Year, not because he's stalking me ;) ) and it's quite surreal to see the change.
 
Thanks Princess89 :D ... my eldest daughter was born in 1989 too :) I spent the day with her yesterday - finally buying me new clothes. I've made it this far by taking in my original size 32's, finding a few size 20's in my wardrobe (which were then subjected to my needlework butchering too) and kind donations of size 14's from friends and family when they were having wardrobe clear outs.

I hate clothes shopping, so I've been putting it off ... my lovely husband though had pledged me 50 pounds for each stone I lost, so I had a bit of a windfall ready and waiting to be spent and my girls kept nagging, so I bit the bullet. 1 day in Milton Keynes with my eldest and another with my younger daughter this coming Saturday but at a different shopping centre. And, amazingly, it's fun! Maybe I've always hated clothes shopping because I've always been big lol. Anyway, It seems I'm now in a comfortable size 12 - the smallest I've ever been since I was about, well 12 (if that to be honest) and a couple of the bits that I bought are size Small/10.

I bought loads - work tops, jeans, nice leggings, casual tops, cardigans, fitted tops, shirts, shoes (my feet have shrunk too) and, thanks to being a bit of a bargain hunter I still have half my budget left for more :D For the first time in my adult life I have a wardrobe full of clothes that all actually fit me ... all I need now is a new actual wardrobe to fit the fruits of Saturday's labours into ;)
 
Well done for your fantastic loss you look lovely. I have recently re-started SW and this is my third week, have lost 3.74lbs till now. I have read that you limit carbs and I am doing the same thing as when I follow Extra Easy with all those carbs I don't loose weight. What amounts of carbs do you have? And do you have one A HEX and one B HEX?
 
luisagb said:
Well done for your fantastic loss you look lovely. I have recently re-started SW and this is my third week, have lost 3.74lbs till now. I have read that you limit carbs and I am doing the same thing as when I follow Extra Easy with all those carbs I don't loose weight. What amounts of carbs do you have? And do you have one A HEX and one B HEX?
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Most days I actually follow Red / Original plan because it naturally limits carbs :D I tend to have two HEb's a day - one of which is my porridge oats and the other I usually have as olive oil or dried fruit rather than carbs (if I want carbs then I just do an EE day lol).

I am a bit haphazard with my HEa though as I can't stand milk and don't want cheese every day, so that's a bit hit and miss (I make sure my calcium levels are kept up by eating tinned fish which is high in minerals - and fish oils to replace the dairy based fat in the HEa).

I find that I don't miss starchy carbs at all - they are mostly so bland anyway (apart from brown rice, which I do like for taste and texture) that I prefer courgette ribbons or cauliflower rice and butternut squash (which I* roast, mash, bake in it's jacket, make into wedges etc) is my ultimate comfort food. Who needs boring old, dry, potato? :D

Good luck on your journey Hon :) xxx
 
Wow, well done Molly - what an achievement! :clap:

I'm hoping it's an omen that the day you made your target weight is the day I started my latest (and hopefully last) attempt to shift this weight.
 
I have just read the whole thread! Molly you are such an inspiration, you look amazing and i loved the post when your daughters took you shopping so funny! I am also thinking about start mending some of my size 20-22 stuff as it's getting a bit bigger and i don't want to buy a new wardrobe every time I change size!xx
 
Thanks Jonny ... and you are doing amazingly well so far :D I think the important thing is to take it bit by bit rather than looking at the (very daunting) target loss. I've been overweight all of my life, apart from my one brief foray into slimness via the black coffee and fag diet (wonderfully effective but not exactly sustainable for life lol), but this time I've (I hope) tackled the underlying issues. You can do this too - whatever happens on any given day, overall you can only fail if you give up completely (((HUG))).

I'm going to get on my soapbox now .... It really, really p*sses me off that people STILL don't get that overeating is the opposite side of the coin to anorexia. People like us aren't obese because we're lazy or intrinsically greedy by nature - overeating is our coping mechanism for life - anorexics use food as a means of self control which helps them feel less helpless against life's difficulties - we use food as an anaesthetic, to soothe, comfort and stop us feeling. And the more we put on weight, the more we need comfort - it's a descending spiral. No one would dream of saying to an anorexic 'eat more pies and sit on the couch', yet that kind of snap judgement is made about us by someone every single day. Just as anorexics are offered support and counselling, so should we be - CBT therapy to help us find alternative coping mechanisms and break our destructive cycles of self loathing for example. Instead we are left to flounder on our own - thank goodness for the internet and groups like this where we can often come to understand ourselves through the experiences of others and pull together to beat this thing! <off soap box now>


New Patty, that's exactly how I felt. I'm officially a skinflint anyway, lol, and the thought of spending good money on clothes I'd (hopefully) only be wearing for a month or two was horrific - that was a bi-monthly visit to hobbycraft potentially going down the drain ;) And let's face it I'm only just now emerging from a decades long cocoon of 'black', so no-one was going to notice anyway. The taking things in worked really well for me - I didn't even go the whole hog and take in complete seams most of the time either - just darted and created pleats :D xx
 
MollyMolly said:
Thanks Jonny ... and you are doing amazingly well so far :D I think the important thing is to take it bit by bit rather than looking at the (very daunting) target loss. I've been overweight all of my life, apart from my one brief foray into slimness via the black coffee and fag diet (wonderfully effective but not exactly sustainable for life lol), but this time I've (I hope) tackled the underlying issues. You can do this too - whatever happens on any given day, overall you can only fail if you give up completely (((HUG))). I'm going to get on my soapbox now .... It really, really p*sses me off that people STILL don't get that overeating is the opposite side of the coin to anorexia. People like us aren't obese because we're lazy or intrinsically greedy by nature - overeating is our coping mechanism for life - anorexics use food as a means of self control which helps them feel less helpless against life's difficulties - we use food as an anaesthetic, to soothe, comfort and stop us feeling. And the more we put on weight, the more we need comfort - it's a descending spiral. No one would dream of saying to an anorexic 'eat more pies and sit on the couch', yet that kind of snap judgement is made about us by someone every single day. Just as anorexics are offered support and counselling, so should we be - CBT therapy to help us find alternative coping mechanisms and break our destructive cycles of self loathing for example. Instead we are left to flounder on our own - thank goodness for the internet and groups like this where we can often come to understand ourselves through the experiences of others and pull together to beat this thing! <off soap box now> New Patty, that's exactly how I felt. I'm officially a skinflint anyway, lol, and the thought of spending good money on clothes I'd (hopefully) only be wearing for a month or two was horrific - that was a bi-monthly visit to hobbycraft potentially going down the drain ;) And let's face it I'm only just now emerging from a decades long cocoon of 'black', so no-one was going to notice anyway. The taking things in worked really well for me - I didn't even go the whole hog and take in complete seams most of the time either - just darted and created pleats :D xx
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The pleats are a good idea, i bought a cheap sewing machine at Ikea hahhaa im crazy!!
 
IKEA do cheap sewing machines??? I really need a new machine as I've given mine away in a fit of altruism or two. Is it any good? :) I'm going to need a run there soon anyway, for crafting box frames, so I might have a look.
 
MollyMolly said:
IKEA do cheap sewing machines??? I really need a new machine as I've given mine away in a fit of altruism or two. Is it any good? :) I'm going to need a run there soon anyway, for crafting box frames, so I might have a look.
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Hi yes, check the website! It's ok pretty basoc but full size one, cost me £45 because it's on offer, otherwise £60 which is still a good price x
 
Molly you are so right about people's extreme eating patterns. I know I've been guilty of judging people without really understanding or thinking about the underlying reasons. Even in my small way of loving the sweet stuff and knowing I was being controlled by it didn't stop me. Whatever the issue and reason, I know it takes a lot of working through to come out 'whole' the other end. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

New Patty...wishing you lots of success with your weight loss journey. And good for you getting into altering clothes as you go along.

Molly, hope you can find that bargain sewing machine at Ikea. Mines a very old Singer...can't even remember which year I bought it and ashamed to say (as a dressmaker) it's never been serviced, let alone been given a drop of oil!!
 
janetelizabeth said:
Molly you are so right about people's extreme eating patterns. I know I've been guilty of judging people without really understanding or thinking about the underlying reasons. Even in my small way of loving the sweet stuff and knowing I was being controlled by it didn't stop me. Whatever the issue and reason, I know it takes a lot of working through to come out 'whole' the other end. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. New Patty...wishing you lots of success with your weight loss journey. And good for you getting into altering clothes as you go along. Molly, hope you can find that bargain sewing machine at Ikea. Mines a very old Singer...can't even remember which year I bought it and ashamed to say (as a dressmaker) it's never been serviced, let alone been given a drop of oil!!
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Thanks! I'm not very good at altering thanks god for youtube there are videos for everything! Xx
 
Oh I think sewing machines (like children ;) ) thrive on benign neglect ...once you start taking them apart and oiling bits it all starts to go downhill lol. I did have a beautiful old Singer treadle, but it took up so much room that I gave to a friend who I knew had always wanted one. I had a 70s electric Singer too which was state of the art in it's time (I gave that one to a teen mum who was sewing all of her son's clothes by hand because she couldn't afford a machine). Then my eldest daughter (who is just getting a sewing based crafting business off the ground) relieved me of my only remaining machine. The only one which had ever been properly serviced was the last one - and it was a nightmare of a machine afterwards (I wasn't exactly sorry to see it go lol, thyough she seems to get on with it OK, so perhaps it was all in my head!).

I'm no seamstress Patty - I couldn't make an item of clothing from scratch that was remotely wearable by anyone who could see it and have a choice, but simple alterations to professionally made clothes is much easier :D I tend to do them by hand most of the time - my (currently non existent) sewing machine is used for things like quilting, upholstery and - primarily - stuff for the prams (one of my - many - hobbies is restoring old fashioned coach built prams and they often need new hoods and aprons plus linings and bedding). :)
 
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Thank you McNaughty - I do indeed feel so much better :D No more IBS, indigestion, thrush, piles, sleep apnoea, Achilles pain, aching knees and hips, palpitations or blood sugar dips ... and my excema is virtually gone.

When I write it down like that it's quite frightening - all of those things were part and parcel of my day to day life and I just accepted them. I knew there was no point in going to the doctors for any of them because he would (quite rightly as it turned out lol) have attributed them to my weight and I didn't want to hear it. Now - not only are they gone but I've gained loads of things back into my life ... being able to lie in the bath instead of kneeling, wrap a towel all the way around me after said bath, cross my legs, run for a bus, climb stepladders, get in cars and know the seatbelt will fit, get down on my hands and knees to do housework, come down the stairs without clutching the bannister for dear life and so much more :D

I never, never want to go back there!!
 
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