Today marks 6 months since I began my skinny jab story, 26 weeks ago I excitedly took that very first injection and today I am 3.5 stones lighter (49.2 lbs to be precise) and have lost 20% of my body weight.
People have commented that I look younger, healthier, and happier. I have totally changed my look. I have gone from shoulder length brown hair to a blonde pixie cut, and I am starting to wear clothes that I want, not just what I think I can get away with.
I took the jab on holiday with me and came back 1.2lb less than I went, and then every day this week my weight has continued to go down as I have regained my ‘normal’ routine. So, I am now 3lbs lighter than the day I went on holiday.
Quite a few people have asked me about the rationale for continuing to take the jab while on holiday and I know that in the Facebook groups there is a lot of talk of people choosing to take a break from the jab so that they can fully enjoy the holiday.
Throughout this story I have been really clear that I can only tell my own story, from my own perspective and share what’s happening for me and I’m not suggesting that I am speaking for anyone else’s experience.
For me the reason that this has worked so amazingly well is because it is totally changed how I think about food, and I no longer see my next meal as my reason for living, the highlight of my day, the thing that will either make my holiday brilliant or spoil it. Previously if I had gone on holiday while on a diet, I would feel deprived if I couldn’t choose whatever I want to eat. But now I am choosing whatever I want, but what I want now is totally different.
Maybe this example will help. I have never smoked in my life, if I were to go on holiday with somebody who’s a smoker and they were to say, ‘I’m just nipping outside for a cigarette’, I wouldn’t feel deprived in any way, I wouldn’t think oh I wish I could go out with them and have a cigarette, because I just wouldn’t think like that because I don’t smoke. I don’t feel deprived, it’s just not something that I have got any interest in doing, and for me that is how I feel about eating certain foods.
I can be sat at a table with somebody who is having desert or a glass of wine and not feeling deprived. I can be really looking forward to my meal and halfway through my plate finding I’m full up. I have experienced feeling it would be rude to not eat more, so I’ve eaten a few more bites beyond what I’ve really wanted, and then really had to give up and go no I don’t actually want any more of this, I’ve got to stop eating now.
That is why I was totally comfortable to continue the jabs while I was on holiday.
This doesn’t feel like a diet, this feels like a new way of eating, and I can eat this way whether I’m on holiday, at home, going out for a meal, and even through Christmas.
My only concern is for how it will feel when I come off the jab when I’m at my target. My hope is that I will have readjusted to this new way of eating for several months by then, so hopefully that will be my new normal. If it is still challenging for me to maintain my weight, then I can only hope that my determination to maintain my new healthy weight will outweigh my desire to overeat.
My plan is that when I get to my target weight, whatever that may be, I will then pick an upper limit, probably about 7 lbs above my target, and allow this to be my wriggle room for holidays events and Christmas. But once I hit that upper 7 lb limit, I then go all out on a very low-calorie diet until I return to my goal weight.
But that’s a challenge in my future.
Right now, I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved and really want to be a support and help for anyone out there who has concerns about starting this.
Here’s to the next six months and seeing what I will achieve by my one-year anniversary.
I’m trying not to fall into my previous trap by setting targets to hit specific weights by specific dates. I have had a much more laid-back approach to this process and just been open to seeing what was possible.
My next major milestone is only about 5 lbs away because in about the last 20 years the lowest my weight has ever been is 13 stone 10lb, so hitting 13 stone 9lb will be a very big deal indeed.
It’s been a life changing six months and I’m very excited to see what the next six months brings.