Losing my weight didn't make me happy!

25th February 2017

Love yourself first and everything else falls into place.

For some losing weight has a massive positive impact on our lives, especially when you lose a lot of weight, it can completely change your life in every way!  After having a chat with a mate yesterday and talking about how stepping on those scales makes her feel when they're not going in the right direction, I pointed out that it's hard not to let those numbers on the scales have a negative effect on you when watching them go down in the first place had such a positive impact on your life and it's true!

In my meetings this week I've mentioned how getting to goal in 2014 was one of my life low points, trying to explain to members how it didn't make everything better. We all know losing weight has a positive impact on our health and it makes us feel better for so many reasons but it doesn't solve everything and that's what I've talked about, I honestly thought by getting to goal my life would suddenly be perfect - how wrong I was.  What it actually did was reinforced by a conversation with another member - it made me stop and look around and see that the things I'd been blocking out whilst I'd been "in the zone" on my way to goal and realise things were still making me unhappy, my life wasn't what I wanted it to be, I didn't enjoy my job anymore, I wasn't satisfied with my world, which was one of the reasons I'd been overeating in the first place, blocking out the stress and unhappiness with food.  I still didn't feel "good enough".  Once I'd realised that, I went on to work on the other aspects of my life, then I found my smile, I love that Weight Watchers actually incorporates this into their programme now, there's actually a programme material focused on the SMILE aspect, success isn't just about about the weight loss, it's about so much more.

Chatting about this to my mate and asking her about how Weight Watchers and being my member had changed her she told me, "I didn't feel I was good enough before, I connected being thin with being attractive and I felt I wasn't attractive, my reason for joining Weight Watchers was pure vanity, I didn't have any health problems, I just thought if I got thin he would find me attractive.   I now don't worry about that and you & Weight Watchers have taught me, beauty isn't what you look like on the outside - it's what on the inside, and I'm a good person and I love the way I look and I know now the people who love me, love me no matter what I weigh, getting thinner has just been a bonus to be honest, oh and I'm now a pretty good cook too, even if it takes me 3 attempts to make butter chicken!"  No she maintains her five and a half stone weight loss for herself because she enjoys dressing in nice clothes but doesn't feel that she has to be a specific weight, more one that's healthy and comfortable for her to maintain.  She's healthy now and although back then there weren't any health issues, she's well aware there could be if she was to regain the lost weight which is helping her to stay focused on maintenance.

Another leader had also commented at our area meeting that, when I'd said that for the first time, it had helped her, she told me "I had literally come back that day after corrective surgery to my breasts, and you dropped that pearler 'losing my weight didn't make me happy'  if that was the case, why would anyone ever regain the weight? I can remember letting a huge sigh of relief and feeling, thank God it's not just me, because I was desperately unhappy following goal.  Had I been encouraged to embrace me, my habits, my quirks I would have been better equipped, which is why, now I am, unstoppable! Thanks Bev for letting me off!! Xx"

And look at Rachel now, almost 10 stone lost;

I won't lie, when she told me this, it actually bought tears to my eyes because society makes us believe that if we're thin enough everything will be okay and that's just not the truth!  How many 'thin' unhappy women do you know? In addition to losing weight we need to embrace who we are, know it's okay to be us, quirks, flaws and all, although I don't think anyone has flaws, we have characteristics.  So how about we all start accepting and loving ourselves,  empowering each other and working together to achieve the best versions of ourselves possible because when women support each other - incredible things happen!

There's a lovely couple of pages in the Weight Watchers journal that asks you to 'celebrate amazing you' because sometimes we need to remind ourselves how amazing we already are.   Just take 5 minutes to big yourself up (I bet the majority of poeple reading this will struggle to do it), I'll start you off...

- I am BeYOUtiful

Go on come up with at least another ten things!

Here's to a wonderful day of working towards the best version of yourself, a journey that never ends. xx