A Bit About Me

Hello and welcome to my blog! I hope you will find it interesting and useful.

I joined my local Slimming World group yesterday - the first time I've ever been to a slimming class. I'm not new to Slimming World, having been an online member earlier this year, so I was already familiar with the rules. However, whilst I initially lost some weight (around about a stone), my motivation had disappeared of late as it was too easy to decide not to weigh myself, or to keep moving the scales around the house the scales showed a loss. So, I made the decision to join a class in the hope that regular weigh-ins that I can't cheat on and some support from fellow SW members would make the difference for me and get my weight loss back on track.

My weight has always fluctuated over the years from weighing 8 and half stone at my lowest, and fitting comfortably into a size 10, to over 12 stone and having to squeeze into a size 16. Now, I've made the decision to get back to that size 10 figure I loved for good. I'm getting married this November, and want to look my best on the day - after all, the photos will last a lifetime! I've already bought my dress, which is two sizes smaller than my current biggest measurement, so I definitely have pressure on me to lose the weight. However, I am confident that by starting now and continuing SW classes I will accomplish this.

I've done plenty of other diets in the past, and have had success - my eight and half stone figure was achieved through Weight Watchers, however I always felt hungry on the diet and as soon as I reached target the weight was creeping back on because I couldn't sustain that level of hunger long term. I've picked Slimming World this time, as I love the flexibility of the diet. Its great to know that I can eat something whenever I am hungry, without having to worry so long as its one of the many free foods. I also love the fact that I don't need to measure most things. This is particularly good when cooking - it means I can make dinner for my fiance and I without having to deprive him of the big portions he loves! I also like the syns allowance, as I would never want to give up my treats of crisps, chocolate and wine! I find the diet easy to follow, and great when eating out too, and as I know it works well for me it's the perfect option.

One of my passions in life is cooking. I have never been a 'ready meal' girl, instead I always like to cook things from scratch which is perfect for the SW way of life. I've already worked out how to tweak most of my favourite recipes so that they are SW friendly, and I always like to try out new recipes to keep things interesting. I'm intending to post recipes that I come up with on here, so I hope these are useful to anyone reading.

I'm also a bit of a vegetable obsessive. No meal is complete without a stack of veggies included - again something that fits so well with SW. I like to cook a lot of stews, curries and sauces where veggies are included as an ingredient, and when I'm having something more simple, such as chicken, I always like to have at least 3 kinds of veg on the side. I've also been known to have bowls of veg as a snack (current favourites being mashed turnip or sweetcorn!) The one thing I didn't have too much of before SW was fruit, which is something I'm trying to incorporate more, but sometimes do struggle with.

I've started this blog for a few reasons:
1. I want a record of my weight loss, that I can refer back to in tough times, and that's out there for everyone to see so that I can keep myself motivated (I would feel back telling my readers that I've had a gain!)
2. I love writing, and I'm looking forward to waffling on about how I'm feeling about the diet, what I'm eating, what I'm doing, etc. Plus, whilst I'm writing I can't be eating chocolate!
3. I'd love to help others with their weight loss, and hope that the recipes I post will be useful.
4. The blog will also act as a record of any hints/tips that I find useful so that we can all refer back to them.

Thanks for reading, I hope my first post has given you an idea of what I want to achieve through this blog, and I hope you return soon. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts - I'd love to hear from you. Also, if you wish to follow me on twitter you can do so @LauraASnell