My Fat Plan

In many ways, June has not been a great month, but its been a month of improvements and a slow steady return to normal after the nasty bug of May.  It has not been a month of weight loss.  I have held pretty steady for the whole month and I think there are a few reasons for this.  I just don't think being tired and under the weather is my bodies preferred time to let go of fat stores.  As the month went on, I pushed my fitness, so I knowingly didn't help.  I decided fitness was more important. I really want to do the year challenge for walking on my Garmin watch and this requires you complete four quarterly challenges.  I did the first quarter and April saw me nicely ahead on the second quarter.  This gave me a useful buffer in May when I walked very little once I came down with the bug.  I started June a little behind but still not feeling great.  I was walking but my walks were often less than a mile a day, so I was losing ground.  The...

So I had a little money.  I had my newly downloaded Vinted app.  I had a plan.  I knew what I needed.  I started shopping. I began by going through things and favouriting a whole lot of things, before I was able to afford them.  There were definitely a few things I fell in love with that I was absolutely going to get, if they were still there.  Not all of them were.  There was a great t-shirt bundle that went just before I could afford it.  So when I had money, I was ready to go...  I discovered though, that Vinted actually lists your purchases to 20 per day.  This was actually a lucky thing, because my Asda order came and I found I needed size 24 more than size 26. On my first day, I had focused on jeans as they were something that made me anxious.  I didn't want long or short jeans or skinny jeans.  Just regular length.  Bootcut if possible.  I was not fussed about colour so much either.  I ordered two pairs in...

I had a plan to buy new clothing when I had some spare cash that consisted of buying two pairs of jeans in sizes 28, 26 and 24 leggings in size 26 and 24 a couple of plus sized dresses designed to plus sized flexible basic t-shirts that fit, not just for now but for layering and staying warm in the winter ponchos whatever I could find in charity shops underwear This seemed like the most flexible and best way of making my meagre resources stretch as far as I could so I could future proof my wardrobe for further weight loss and have something to wear now.  It all changed though when I decided to have a look at Vinted. Vinted was a revelation because it was obvious that with the availability and prices, I would be able to rethink my plan considerably.  I was expecting to pay around £30 per pair of jeans for instance an I wanted to buy six pairs.  This meant that I was planning on spending £200 on just jeans.  It wasn't surprising that my plan when it came to everything ...

I was losing weight and at first, the clothes I had just started to fit better and look nicer.  Then it started to become clear that it would be an issue and I really didn't have the resources at that point in time, or for a few months, to do anything.  I was pretty limited in what I could do.  So I thought a lot about what I needed to do and how to make the clothing I had go as far as possible. The most immediate issue was going to be my jeans as they were getting loose and starting to sit low on my hips.  So I brought a belt.  As long as I could keep wearing my jeans, everything on my top half could be worn even if it was to big. My next concern was having something nice to wear if I needed to go out somewhere.  So my plan was to get one nice thing in the next few sizes down.  I used sales and my birthday to buy three things.  I estimated that my clothes would kind of be ok for size 28 but at size 26, I would really start having issues.  Th...

I think a lot of people can relate to anxiety around clothing in one way or another.  There are just so many things to get anxious about. I didn't much care as a kid.  I liked pink, the brighter and more fuchsia the better.  I didn't care if the shades matched.  I cared if they were comfy though more than I cared about the colour.  I had a pair of trousers that were pink and so patched in the end that my Mum called them my disreputables and in the end, she threatened to throw them out if she saw me wearing them again. I remember one time my family went with other for a meal one lunch and I accidentally forgot to change my slippers for shoes.  I was pretty mortified. So I definitely prioritised comfort and colour but was keenly aware that some things were embarrassing or inappropriate out of context.  That context bit is still really important to me and something I often find hard to judge.  Is this the right clothing for the occasion?  Too sm...

April was an amazing month, I was regularly waling 5km and sometimes as much as 7km, often including hills.  I had started doing a little dance fitness using youtube videos by the Fitness Marshall.  I had been able to buy some clothes finally and had underwear that fit, jeans that fit and some new clothese I felt I looked so much better in.  Although my weight loss had not been the quickest, I finally reached the 5 stone mark at Slimming World.  Then at the very end of April I got to go on holiday! OK so it was a group holiday and I met a handful of the people before.  It was also a cycling holiday for my husband I was tagging along with, but who cares!  All you can buffets, some warmth (April had been so cold!) and a place full of history and culture to explore.  I just had to be brave enough to do the exploring by myself while my husband was off doing his cycling in the mornings and early afternoons.  I had decided to not diet and just really en...

So I was losing weight and working on my fitness at the beginning of July.  I was waiting for an NHS referral for additional CBT and also group sessions with a Dietician with the Weight Management Service. My husband and I had been going to Slimming World since March and in July, we both reached important milestones.  I reached my Club 10 target, which meant I had lost 10% of the weight I was when I began Slimming World.  My husband reached is target of 13 stone, having lost 2.5 stone.  He is a fit guy and although this leaves him in the overweight category, he really does not need to lose any more weight.  He definitely does not want to lose muscle.  He has since then maintained his weight really well.  He has enjoyed buying smaller clothes and has really seen an improvement in his cycling times.  He is very clear on the reasons why he wants to maintain his current weight.   He had also been taking Lansoprazole for issues with his diges...

So the New Year came with lots of good intentions to start doing Slimming World again and to get back to walking.  It didn't exactly happen.  I saw an advert for Healthy Cornwall on facebook though, saying that those that lived in certain postcodes with a BMI above 30 could get a free trial for Slimming World.  I applied to Healthy Cornwall on behalf of both myself and my husband.  It took a few weeks to sort. We unfortunately lost a close family member of my husband's in January 2023 after a short stay in hospital.  Not the best time for dieting.  It was still cold and wet and my husband was even less inclined to go out for walks with me at that time, he just had too much on. By the time Healthy Cornwall contacted me, the funeral at least was over and we were both more than ready to get back on it.  We joined a group near us and it has been very good for me in so many ways.  I was quite happy to find I had not regained the weight I lost before Ch...

I was in a position where I knew that losing weight was going to require looking at my mental health, diet and exercise.  Any exercise I did had to be extremely low impact and also low cost.  Walking was the obvious thing but in order to do that, I had to leave the house.  At that point in time, there was no way I was able to do that alone as my anxiety was sky high.  My husband was often working and my circle of friends had really shrunk.  I knew if I was going to succeed in losing weight and being healthier, I had to start changing everything, one small step at a time. We have done Slimming World before, back when it was red and green days, and knew the gyst of it so the plan was that we would start doing Slimming World by ourselves at home.  I was able to find a set of books so I knew the Syn values and what things were a Healthy Extra A and what things were a Healthy Extra B.  My husband was keen to do Slimming World with me.  He had a lot les...

Park Yoga is a charity I only recently learnt about when their posts appeared in some of towns facebook groups.  They provide free yoga sessions in many parks across the UK and are always on the lookout for more venues and yoga instructors.  Since their beginning in 2017 with only two sites, they have increased their number of sites to 32 this year.   I had been thinking about Yoga but I have a very limited budget and I just couldn't squeeze a regular class in.  I have been to a few yoga classes before but a long time ago when I was much thinner and fitter.  So when I saw that Park Yoga was beginning from May to September, it was great!  I felt ready to increase my exercise and yoga once a week seemed like a great idea.  Even better with it being free. Things didn't go to plan though.  I missed the first session because I was away and then the rest of May because I as unwell.  So today was my first time.  Still I have four more mont...