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In January 2017 I was at my heaviest at 13 stone, embarrassing really, and I felt quite disgusted in myself if I am being honest. I mean 13 Stone!! This was my full term weight during my 4 pregnancies….Wow… ouch, that hurt.
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The thing is once my children had grown up a little and were in full time school, I kinda got into my fitness, I joined the gym, I started running (cant do it now have buggered my knees up) and stuck to healthy eating.
In September 2016 I weighed a 9 Stone 13 lbs, and felt great and ready for my holiday to Portugal. But after my holiday I became stuck in the ways of living over there. With the holiday being all inclusive it really didn't help, I kept telling myself I was on holiday and I should enjoy it whilst i can seen as I don't have many holidays, plus I had paid for it after all. Isn't that what we all do? Well, the thing is it didn’t stop when my holiday was over, it carried on when I got home. I continued to eat junk, (mainly kebabs and takeaways and alcoholic beverages most nights) I never re-joined the gym, I paid for it just never went. By me living this way, the weight just piled on me, and In January 2017 I weighed my heaviest ever, as stated at the beginning. This was it, it was time to make a difference, so I finally made a decision to change my life for good and join Slimming world.
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It was a real change, right from the beginning, but I got into the whole cooking from scratch, I actually really enjoyed it and felt I had accomplished loads and praised myself on a job well done. There was plenty of food to choose from which we as a family could eat. With access to the slimming world app and the online recipes, along with the pinch of nom website it became a lot easier to choose a varied menu throughout the week, which made it less boring.
It was the snacking that became a problem, on an evening where I would eat 3 packets of crisps I decided to change that and have a cup of tea with a sweetener (this was a woman who used to have 3 sugars in her tea) to try and fill the hole. The only problem was I used to have a packet of custard creams with my cuppa, this had to be changed, so what did I do?? I had scrambled egg, or a benefit bar from Aldi as my syn allowance instead. It was a big change but I had to remember why I was doing this. I didn’t want to get any bigger.
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Here is what a daily menu looked like at the beginning of my Slimming world journey.
Breakfast
Malted Shreddies or Bran Flakes, (HEB) Milk with sliced Banana. (It took some getting used to but the banana replaced the sugar as it was sweet and added natural sugars to boring cereal).
Snack
Cup of Tea with a fat free Yoghurt and fruit added like raspberries and Blueberries.
Lunch
Salad and Tuna mixed in Lighter Salad Cream (syned only 1 – 2 syns) or left over food from the tea night before.
Snack
Cup of Tea
Dinner
Stew (done in Slow Cooker) packed with plenty of Veg, and Sweet potato Mash with extra Veg.
Don’t forget you are allowed up to 15 syns a day for woman and up to 20 syns for men.
So then for Lunch the next day I would have the leftovers from Dinner night before and then change my evening meal for something like Spaghetti Bolognaise made from scratch or Chicken and Salad with SW Chips. (Basically oven baked in Fri light no fat used) as this only took 30 mins really which isn’t long to wait for a meal after work.
In my first week I had lost 8.5lbs, I got my first ½ stone award, now how good did I feel? I continued to go down this avenue, plus it was helping my children by feeding them good, healthy nutritious meals.
As I became aware of the things I could use without looking it up all the time, my menu change throughout the weeks. I would have a cooked breakfast all syn free, I would have omelette syn free, Bacon and Egg butty all syn free using my HEB and fri-light to cook with. This doesn’t sound like a diet does it, but it works as long as you are cooking it in the right way and using non fatty bacon like medallions.
Here are some meal examples
Can you believe these foods are only a few syns due to the sauces only.
By 18th May (4 months later) of following the slimming world plan, I had lost 1st 11 lb and weighed 11 Stone 3 lbs. This was without any visits to the gym or any exercise at all. I still had my weekly kebab or takeaway on a Friday and alcohol usually Amaretto and Diet Coke. I saved majority of my syns throughout the week for this occasion, because this was something I couldn’t do without, I needed my Friday night treat, but I knew it was covered by my syns. I even had syns available for Sauces like lighter Salad cream or Tomato Sauce if I needed it over the week with my salad or fry up etc.
I was on a roll, but then I found out I was pregnant within a week of reaching this weight. The pregnancy was planned, (just never thought it would happen with losing 2 pregnancies prior) All I kept thinking was, what am I going to do now, all this hard work I had done was to be undone. OR WAS IT??
I had read stories that you could still continue with slimming world whilst being Pregnant, It was the only diet the Midwives association agreed with, because it isn’t a diet, it’s a change in cooking and lifestyle and making better cooking choices for healthier meals whilst still eating all the nutritious foods needed to help a growing baby.
So I carried on following the slimming World Plan, I just had to get a nurse to fill out a form to give to the Rep of Slimming world to make sure there were no issues with my health during pregnancy. On July 20th weigh day (3 months pregnant my First trimester) I weighed 0.5 lb lighter than I did when I found out I was pregnant, yes 11 stone 2.5lbs how? Yes I thought the same, obviously I had lost weight whilst still being pregnant.
Think my daughter was so impressed she decided to join Slimming world with me. We kept each other going. Obviously my weight fluctuated and wouldn’t stay the same for the whole of the pregnancy, but I could see now that I could manage it better than I did in my previous 4 pregnancies. No way was I going to put 4 stone on not this time around.
I continued to cook from scratch, eat slimming world friendly meals, and help my daughter along the way to achieve her weight goals, and that she did up to now in 6 months she has lost just over 1 and ½ stone, and that is over the Christmas period too (such a hard time for anyone to diet) We are still going and today sees me at full term of this pregnancy.
Despite all the googling I did I couldn’t find many stories on the internet about how much weight people had gained whilst being pregnant and following the Slimming world plan. So here is my story and final results.
My total weight gain throughout 40 weeks of being pregnant is 1 stone 2.5lbs, this could have been a total different story had I packed in slimming world.
I gained the most weight the last month due to over indulging at Christmas with many portions of Cheesecake and cream, and chocolate, during this week I wasn't counting the syns or eating well, because I deserved to enjoy the festive period. That was alcohol free wine too.
A break down over the trimesters of being pregnant, versus the average weight gain during trimesters:
Trimester Average Weight Gain My Weight Gain
1st Trimester – Weeks 1 to 12 1-5lbs - 0.5lbs
2nd Trimester – Weeks 13 to 27 1lb pw = 15lbs + 7.5lbs
3rd Trimester – Weeks 28 to 40 1lb pw = 13lbs + 8.5lbs
40 Weeks Total 33 lbs = 2 St 5lbs + 16.5lbs = 1 St 2.5lbs
Weight gain during pregnancy is compiled of the following:
Baby Weight
Placenta Weight
Uterus Weight
Amniotic Fluid
Blood Increase
Extra Body supplied to help feed Baby.
I hope you find this information helpful during your slimming world and pregnancy journey.
Being pregnant doesn’t mean you have to eat for two, nor does it mean a huge weight gain. My 4 previous pregnancies I gained 4 Stone with each of them that’s double the average each.
You only need on average around 200 calories extra when heading into your 2nd and 3rd trimester, this is why you are given an extra allowance of HEB, so instead of 1 HEB a day you can have 2 from the choice, this gives you the fibre content you need. You don’t need extra syns, we just want extra syns.
I wish I had known this with my previous
pregnancies, maybe my body wouldn’t have stretched so much and left me with so many scars. Be in charge of your own body.
Good Luck.
Update
1 week after giving birth to my healthy baby boy who weighed 7lb 13oz I had lost 19.5lbs which took me 2lbs under the weight I was when I found I was expecting.