So you may have read my previous post on disordered eating and my battle with the bulge throughout my earlier years where I assert diets are damaging and create a negative association with food. I also said how I have accepted myself for who I am and have broken the chains from this negative association with food and now I eat freely whatever I like and refuse to feel guilt or go on a diet.

Well guess what I still stand by all the above and I’ve joined my local fat club (Slimming World)! Now you may see this as a contradiction but stay with me as I explain.

So nearly three years ago I met my man.  Like I’ve heard in a lot of new relationships, when happy we can put on weight. I guess with happiness and acceptance of each other, comes that extra poundage!  For me the weight has gradually gone on probably due to being wined and dined and I’ll occasionally join him in his love of snacking crap in the evening  in fact thinking about it he does like to snack quite a bit. But perhaps the biggest culprit is that social glass or two of wine in an evening that I wouldn’t have had if I was living on my own. So all in all over the first couple of years I think I put on a stone (14lb’s) so not anything too much and certainly not anything that really bothered me.

However, it all started to go a bit pear shaped or perhaps my body did when I thought it a good idea to build my man a bar in a shed in the back yard.  Not being big drinkers and just enjoying a social one here and there, I didn’t really think we would use it that much but how wrong was I.  The bar was a novelty at first and it was like being a kid in a sweet shop.  Not sure about you but when I was a kid I loved playing shop and it was a bit like that only playing barwoman. Anyway I think we all know where this is all going…the more we used the bar the more we started to get even more cuddly than we were.

Neither of us were that bothered to do anything about it until my clothes were literally screaming when wearing them and I really didn’t want to buy a new wardrobe of clothes and be mistaken for a beached whale when at the seaside.   Yes we could have just decided to cut down our drinking and ate healthier but I think we both needed a bit of discipline about it.

Now during the same time it seemed that nearly everyone I know were members of Slimming World and they were really raving about it and had lost significant amounts of weight, Danny too knew of people.  I had tried it out when I was 18 and quite liked it as they have big lists of ‘Free’ foods  which incorporates most veg, most fruit, grains, beans and lean meat and by ‘Free’ it means you can eat as much as you want.  I liked this as I’m not into restricting myself and measuring out a pea sized portion like some diets. I viewed it more as a healthy eating regime that shouldn’t end once the weight is off.

Over the years my tastes have changed too so the types of foods I crave these days happen to be healthy foods rather than junk so being able to eat an unlimited amount of all the foods I love wouldn’t really feel like I was depriving myself but just being kind to my body by feeding it the much needed ingredients it needed.

So a couple of weeks ago we rocked up to our local fat fighters club and so the journey begins…

I’m intending to give updates to my weight loss journey as it will make me more accountable and also it will be a bit of a journal as I’m interested in seeing how being on a ‘diet’ has any negative effects to my relationship with food. Will I start obsessing over what I can eat? Will I start labelling foods as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ again? Will being on a diet make me think more about food?  Will I feel deprived? Will I feel guilty if I eat something I shouldn’t? How will I feel if I put on weight one week? and Will it work?

If you are interested in following my dieting journey then pop your email address into the box above right and you’ll be emailed when I post a blog!