Slimming Success

Jo Fowler Super Slim Consultant

At 27 I have battled with my weight for the best part of 15 years. I was always the fat kid at school nick named "tank" and gradually I became comfortable in my skin not realising how big I was getting. Never weighing myself, not caring how big I was I went through life eating MacDonald’s for breakfast, KFC for lunch and a trifle for dinner. I firmly believe now my weight was due to external influences and I turned to food for comfort.

In January 2008 I went to the doctors and was told that a gastric band was an option to help me shed some of my 27stone 121b. Surgery scared me and although I had yo-yo dieted before with the likes of weight watchers and slim fast, I was determined to give it another shot without weight loss  Surgery.  Diagnosed with Benign Intracranial Hypertension (high pressure in the brain due to  obesity), I knew that if I didn’t lose weight I could go blind. I set a date for my wedding July 2008 and gave myself a goal to lose a few stone in the 6 months.

My wedding dress had to be made specially and was made at a size 30. By the time I got married in the July it had to be taken in to a size 26 which felt great but I had been here before so nothing special.  In September 2008 I answered an advert in my local paper asking for group leaders for Super Slim. 

I had never heard of Super Slim before so rang the number to enquire. The night I signed up I celebrated with pizza and Ben & Jerry’s - totally true to form, celebrating with food.  In October, I opened a club of my own after receiving training. When I opened the club I weighed in like all the other members however, I weighed in at 21 stone 121b. So yes I had lost 6 stone all by myself but I was the fattest one there and I was the group leader. Nothing like weight watchers where the group leaders are stick thin.

So my first week I stuck to the back to basics plan I lost 5Ib and I was chuffed I wanted to see a new number on my scales so began to take it so seriously, well, as seriously as I could handle. I still had a take away every Monday night after been weighed in.

Then, my mom came to pick me up from college and she didn’t recognise me from a distance and she was shocked at how different I was looking I was now in my first ever pair of size 20jeans. By December (my birthday) I got into my first pair of 18's!   Christmas came and I dished up a massive traditional dinner and really enjoyed it and lost 21b Christmas week.

Today I weigh in at 13 stone 81b and have realised so many things; my quality of life has Changed, my medical condition has gone, my son is proud to have his friends round cause I play football and as for take aways... well I will have one if I really have to.  I have a sign on my door saying no take away menus and can now eat just one Rolo. I have realised it was in my mind and that if you want to lose weight only you can because no one force feeds you the rubbish food.