Club 10

Slimming World update: This evening I weighed in at 12st:8½lb which means that I've lost 10% of my body weight since starting the Slimming World programme on July 6th.  To mark my achievement I was awarded this certificate —

Before joining Slimming World I would never have imagined that simple card certificates could mean so much to me, but they do.  I now have 4 of them — ½ stone lost, 1 stone lost, silver Body Magic (for exercising) and this one, and they're all proudly displayed on a notice board above my computer desk.

After years of struggling with my weight, enduring withering frowns from company and practice nurses, and with only moderate success in dieting, I can hardly put into words how it feels to be making solid progress. In 9 weeks I've lost 20lb.

My weight loss graph on the Slimming World website shows that, if I keep this rate up, I'll hit 11 stone by the end of November. However, everyone I talk to says that losing weight gets harder as one nears an ideal weight, so I'm taking the graph's prediction with a hefty pinch of salt.

It would be lovely, though, to reach 11 stone before Christmas. That will give me a Body Mass Index of 24.1, which is comfortably within the healthy range (18.5 - 25.0). And there, I think, I will stop.

I don't plan to stop attending Slimming World though, as there's still so much to learn, and encouragement to be given and received.  My Slimming World group has transformed the way I eat and rekindled my enthusiasm for new and interesting recipes. To ruin it all by slipping back into my old ways is a prospect too ghastly to contemplate.