We are delighted to share our first Diet For FREE Winner! Catherine has written an emotional blog about her journey, and has won 1 week’s worth of New You Plan Meals. Here is her story…
Hi, I’m Catherine. I was born on 25th January 1971 and was the last of 4 children to my fabulous parents, weighing in at a whooping 11lb 11oz. My twin siblings were 7lbs 8oz and 8lb 12oz and the smallest was my other sister who weighed in at 5 lbs 8oz, so even from birth I was the biggest in the family.
I grew up in the 70s and dad went out to work on a farm while mum stayed at home and looked after the family. We never had takeaways as it was something that was never thought of in those days and we all used to sit down to a full home cooked meal every night, which always consisted of fresh food. So why was it that even though we all ate the same food, I was still the biggest in the family?
At 11 years old I started high school, which had a strict uniform policy, consisting of a blazer. I was 11 years old and had to wear a blazer that was meant for a size 18. I was mortified by the fact that I was a young adolescent but couldn’t get a standard blazer. I was always the one on the outside looking in. Yes, I had friends but it always felt as if we were the misfits. We weren’t the ones who were popular or fitted in with everyone else.
My mum went to slimming clubs so I decided that I was going to go along with her. In hindsight, I think she only did it so that I would go too as she didn’t weigh as much as me. I hated walking into that cold church hall and standing on those scales in front of everyone and the consultant – who wasn’t exactly slim herself – telling me that I was 18st and if I didn’t do something soon about my weight I “would be obese for life, which would probably be short as I was eating myself into an early grave”.
The following week I returned to that horrible, cold hall and stepped back on the scales. You have no idea how hard it was for me to go back there after that first week but I kept thinking “I’m going to show that woman”. When I stepped on those scales, I’d lost a grand total of 4lbs and I was so proud of myself. Then my mum stepped on the scales and even though she was lighter than me she had lost 6.5lbs – a whole 2 & ½ lbs more than me. How was that possible?! We had eaten exactly the same food for a week. Still, I persevered and the next week I’d lost 1lb. Week 3 I’d put on 1 & ½ lbs and so the pattern of yoyo dieting had started.
By the age of 21 I was well over 24st. It then got to the point where I no longer got weighed and just avoided the scales and bought clothes in bigger sizes so really all I was doing was hiding my head in the sand. To hide my weight, I just tried to be the one that people relied upon but would always be the first to laugh at myself so as not to be the butt of jokes.
Then in 2002, I heard of a different kind of diet, called VLCD and decided to give it a try. I found the nearest place and went along. But it was so expensive. That was 21 years ago and it was £97 a week, so I can’t even imagine how much it would be now. At my first weigh in, the scales showed that I had lost 11lbs. To me, that was huge, but I found it hard going as they said you could only have 4 of their packs a day. I stayed with the plan for 8 months and lost 7st but the cost was crippling me and people said that I looked ill and when I look back on the pictures now they weren’t wrong. The plan was happy to take your money but the support they gave at the time wasn’t the best. I stopped doing the plan and of course the weight went back on plus more.
I went to my GP and was prescribed Orlistat. OMG this was horrendous! Definitely not something I would recommend to anyone – the stomach pains and constant running to the loo was awful. I was then referred to a Bariatric Surgeon who told me to go home because that he wouldn’t do the surgery on the NHS unless I managed to lose at least 5 stone on my own first.
In July 2020 I decided to see a private surgeon. He was blunter than the NHS one. He said there was no way he’d do the surgery as I would die on the operating table and to go home and lose 5st before he would even consider it. And then it would cost me £10,000. I walked out of his office frightened, dazed and in tears. I went home, got out my laptop and started looking at all the different diets. I was going to be 50 in January, which was just 6 months away. I had a big holiday booked to Iceland and New York. I hated and dreaded the thought that I would be getting onto that plane and sat squashed in a small seat and have to ask for a seat belt extension in front of the whole plane.
While trawling the internet I came across The New You Plan. I looked through the website read some testimonials and thought why not – what have I got to lose?
I ordered my first box which arrived on 5th August 2020 and I started on the plan the next day. I started on 5 packs a day and was pleasantly surprised that they were filling and also tasted better than the previous one that I did. I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing apart from the Secret Slimmers Group. At the end of week one, I had departed with 16.2lb. I kept getting on and off the scales as I didn’t believe what I was seeing. To say I was over the moon was an understatement.
Week 2, I stepped on those scales and it only showed a 2lb loss. I remember the week before how good I felt that I’d lost so much but how could I go from losing so much to just losing 2lb?! I saw other people’s loses and wondered how I have so much to lose but yet have only lost 2lbs this week. Then I sat and thought about it and realised that in 2 weeks I was actually nearly a stone and half lighter. It was then that I realised that it didn’t matter if I only lost 1lb a week as it was still a loss and I needed to stop comparing myself to others as I wasn’t anyone else – I was me and this was my journey.
It took about 3 months before people started to notice that I had lost weight. When you are that big nobody really notices you but I knew and I was now doing this at my pace and for me. It did upset me at times that those closest to me didn’t notice but you know what that spurred me on even more.
January 2021 came and we were in the throws of covid so obviously the big holiday was postponed until August 2021. That wasn’t so great as Iceland in Summer has 22 hours of daylight, which meant no Northern Lights. Next it was postponed until January 2022, so I stayed on the plan and continued to lose weight. I’m not saying it was always easy and I’m not saying I always did it right but I was doing it for me.
Fast forward to January 2022 and off I went to Iceland and New York and I got on that plane and sat comfortably in my seat and didn’t have to ask for a seat belt extension. I walked and walked around New York and saw those Northern Lights after waiting for hours in the freezing cold.
I am now 52 years old and still on the plan. I have lost over 16st!! Yes, I still have a way to go but it doesn’t matter how long it takes me – I will get to that final destination. I am becoming the best version of me and I look and feel better now than I ever did at 42, 32 or even 22. I am a person that tries to never regret anything, but the one regret I have is not finding New You earlier.
Remember, the only person stopping you is you. If I can do this, what’s stopping you?!
Catherine
The post Diet For FREE Winner Catherine Blogs About Her New You Journey appeared first on The New You Plan.
Aideen
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