Motivational Monday : Back to Weight Watchers

Last year, to get rid of the baby weight, I joined Weight Watchers. I went from a size 16 to a size 12, losing a stone and a half in the process, between July and November. I was thrilled.

And then I got bored, and lazy, and started making excuses. The baby wasn’t sleeping, work was making it difficult to get time to exercise and make proper dinners, the chocolate was calling me and I was sick of the sight of low calorie brown bread. So I stopped going, told myself I’d go back in the New Year, and that surely the habits I’d learned would keep me on the straight and narrow. I had a way to go on my weight loss journey but I said I’d get back to it.

In the mean time, my back injury worsened, my mental health deteriorated and the chocolate became my best friend, so my weight has crept back up again. I’m back up to a 14 and have regained just about a stone, which I’m not happy about. Fitting into jeans no longer has a happy dance, and I’m looking at what I’ll be wearing to a friends wedding in August with a certain level of dread as I know I should have kept at it and I’d be in better shape. My weight has become something I’m insecure about, something I use to put myself down, something that works as a way of berating myself. It ruins beautiful pictures of my son and I, as despite the fact that they’re cute happy pictures, when I look at them and I’m in a less happy mood to start with, all I can see is the excess weight, the stomach, the half packet of biscuits too many.

This morning I’ve had enough. I brought E to creche and headed to a Weight Watchers meeting, where I was weighed in for the first time in 6 months and where I was surrounded by men and women who had done amazing things in short amounts of time. There was no judgement, just support, which is exactly what I need. I’m starting off again with the Simple Start plan, which means I can eat as much as I need of certain foods (fruit, veg, wholegrains, some dairy) and even two treats a day – definitely helps with the feelings of deprivation. I’m already searching Pinterest for interesting meal and snack ideas that will help me stay on plan and not feeling bored or deprived – it’s certainly full of fantastic examples but the pictures are making me drool.

Today is Day One all over again, but this time I’ve got a goal – exactly 8 weeks until the wedding where I want to be a size smaller (down to a 12), with hopefully a stone less on my frame – and writing it here means I’m accountable. Apologies to those of you who have no interest in diet things, I promise that at least some of the posts I put up will have delicious sweet alternatives, I have to look after my sweet tooth somehow.

Hopefully if any of you reading were waiting for a sign to say “Yeah, time to kick the chocolate habit”, you might get some ideas along the way. Wish me luck!

What are your favourite diet friendly snacks? Let me know in the comments below!