I’ve been at Slimming World target for a couple of weeks now, and after sixteen months it’s been very hard to make the mental transition to the notion that I don’t have to lose weight anymore – that I’m actually at my ideal weight. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.
Actually, I say sixteen months – but really, before that I had been on a miserable usually-failing diet since my mid-teens. I’d never been happy with my weight, even when I managed to starve myself down to a stone lighter than what I am now at age twenty-two – I wasn’t very well at the time and still thought I needed to lose more. As such, I have actually never been happy with my weight until now. It’s a very strange feeling.
The first week after getting to target, I maintained (and was utterly shocked to do so, given that I’d spent the weekend at UKGE eating all the things I’d been avoiding in my last few weeks of trying to get to target!). The second week, I put on a pound and a half (which is perfectly within my target range – Slimming World allow you to be up to three pounds either side of your target weight once you’re a target member), and I’m finding it quite difficult to get it into my head that that is okay and that I’m meant to be going up and down now and not really losing any more.
Last week, I was experimenting with having one extra Healthy Extra B choice per day, which is a recommended way to maintain once you’re at target. This week, I’m not doing that, ’cause I’d like to lose the pound and a half and be perfectly at target again. I suppose I’m going to be playing this game forever now (I’ll be at Slimming World for life – I’m never putting the weight on again!). It’s just going to take some getting used to.