From Binge-Eater to Salad Lover: Hayley’s 4-Stone Weight Loss Transformation With Slimpod

I've got Hayley with me today, and, and Hayley is just amazing.

Not—

I mean, she, she looks amazing. Uh, hello Hayley, lovely to have you here.

Hello Sandra, thank you for having me.

Uh, do you know what, I am so excited about this call because you have been very active in, in the Facebook group, and, uh, and, and I've just been so excited about you know, watching, watching your story kind of unfold. Um, and you had your 1-year anniversary, uh, recently, uh, 1-year anniversary on SlimPod. Um, tell us a little bit about, uh, how you felt a year ago, just, just before you joined the program.

So a year ago I was Probably quite a dark place, I would describe it as. I was definitely the unhealthiest I'd ever been in my whole life. I was very unfit, very out of shape. I think I was wearing size 22 to 24 clothes at the time, which was the biggest I'd ever been. I was dealing with it all by comfort eating, which of course made it all a lot worse. I was kind of confined to the house and the sofa because I didn't have the confidence to go out. I felt like everybody was looking at me and judging me on my size. I felt very unattractive, very, very down in the dumps most of the time, and I got to the stage where the effort of getting up off the sofa was too much, so I'd tend to just sit on the sofa eat junk food and repeat the process the next day. So pretty unhappy, I think, would be the short answer to the question.

Oh, and then you, you found an advert, or what did you— what, what kind of changed?

Yeah, gosh, I can't— I'm not trying to think, how did I stumble upon this? Um, I think it was a Facebook advertisement I saw, and you know, I tried every diet under the sun. I had done them all. I'd always managed to lose a significant amount of weight and then put it all back on plus more, which is the classic story of long-term dieters. Nothing ever stuck, and I just could not face the thought of being on another diet. I just, I knew I couldn't do it. I knew they didn't work by that stage because I always put the weight back on. So I found SlimPod. I had actually I know it's not hypnosis, but I'd actually had success with hypnosis to quit smoking several years beforehand. So the thought in my head was, it's okay, something playing, um, over and over again could have an effect on my subconscious. I like that. I read up about it. I saw some of the success stories and I thought, well, there's a free trial, nothing to lose. So I signed up to give it a go and it was life-changing. Best decision I ever made.

Amazing. So today, or yeah, today, just over a year later, what has— how do you feel? And also what's happened to coincide with this, with the anniversary of being on Slimpod?

Well, I feel like a different person. I'm not that unhappy person from a year ago. I feel free is the word that I use all the time. And I just say I feel free from what I would have described as an addiction to food, um, and to comfort eating. Um, I feel happy, um, I feel confident, and I just, I just feel like all the pressure of having to try and control what I was eating and control my weight and, um, try to improve myself, all that pressure has faded away and it's all just in the background now and I don't have to think about it. And 1 year on, I've gone from size 22 to 24 down to— I'm sorry, I actually, I'm wearing a size 14 top right now, which is amazing for me. Size 12 to 14 and size 16 jeans, which honestly I would not have said was possible this time last year. I am 4 stone lighter. I've lost 4 stone in the year and I've just got married as well in the same week as my SlimPod anniversary. I got married and it was the best day of my life. And I was, I felt confident and I felt pretty in my dress. And I just loved posing for my photographs and can't wait to get all the rest of the pictures, which, and again, I would never have said before, 'cause I hated the sight of a picture of myself. So yeah, it's a new me, drastically new me.

You're making me cry. Oh, it's just—

I've done a fair bit of that myself.

Oh, when I saw your pictures— oh gosh, look, um, when I saw your pictures, um, I did, I cried, especially as, um, As I had followed your journey, you know, and seen that unfold, and especially as I knew where you'd come from a year ago, because you, I mean, in your own words, used to spend most of your time on the sofa, didn't you? Tell us a little bit about that time.

I used to go through phases of wanting to be an active person, and I would try and force myself to some exercise class or start up doing some kind of regular exercise, and I rarely stuck to it for more than a week, if that. Um, um, it just was something that never came naturally to me, and I used to make the excuse, I think, of, oh, I'm just not a naturally active person. That's nonsense, absolutely nonsense, but I believed it, and I kidded myself into thinking that. Um, but yeah, I, I would describe myself as a binge eater. I would have waited until my partner went to bed at night, and then I would have tiptoed into the kitchen, and I would have spent the whole evening planning what I could eat. And sometimes it would be the most horrible selection of stuff. It's just whatever was there. I'd eat leftovers from dinner. I'd eat multi-packs of crisps, chocolates, whatever, crackers and cheese. It didn't matter what it was. It was just about getting the volume of food, and it was just trying to fill a void, I think. I don't know all the psychology behind it. I just know that I was trying to make myself feel better, and in the moment I kidded myself into thinking that eating made me feel better. It didn't, because even as I was doing it, I felt ashamed. And the fact that I was trying to hide it, I was embarrassed. I felt sick with myself. And then, of course, that leads to resentment and self-loathing. And then the more of that there is, the more of the cycle continues. And it's, it's just Binge, feel resentful, hate yourself, more bingeing. And that was my life for a very long time.

Absolutely. And so many people watching this will totally resonate with that because that's actually what happens. Um, but things have changed and I know that there's been big differences, um, on that front. Uh, so tell us about what happened on your 40th birthday.

So on my 40th birthday, which was back in October, so way less than a year after starting SlimPod, I raised almost £1,000 by swimming the equivalent of the English Channel crossing for a dementia charity in memory of my granny. So I gave myself 40 days before my 40th birthday. My slogan had always been, I want to be fit and 40, and I think I achieved that when I swam that distance. I was so proud of myself for doing it, and it felt amazing to swim those final few meters. It was amazing.

Absolutely. And you know what, it's such a big change to the way you were, and you know, have you— how did that kind of unfold? Because you didn't obviously get off the sofa and then swim the Channel. Was it forced in any way? Did you, you know, what actually happened?

It all very much took place in my mind. I never at any point thought, you know, I'm gonna become someone who swims vast distances. I never thought that. It started with wanting to eat more healthily, and it was a want. I started to want to eat more healthy things, and I started to want to get up and do something, because I no longer— there was no longer any appeal to sitting on the sofa eating unhealthy food. But I was bored then. I was thinking, well, what do people do? So I just started noticing that I was a wee bit more active just around the house, like running up and down the stairs more often throughout the day, which in itself was a big achievement for a while, even just getting up and down the stairs, because I used to be so out of breath from doing that. My knees were so sore, it hurt. To go up and down the stairs. So even that in itself was a victory. And I went from that to wanting to go out for walks, to leaving the car behind. If I just had a short journey into the town, I would walk instead of taking the car. And from there, I started to actually just get bored from the lack of a challenge then, because it was like, I'm good at this. I want to do more. So I started doing a bit more and I went swimming. I'd always kind of liked swimming on and off. Um, but again, I was sort of bored with the lack of challenge. So I, uh, I taught myself to swim front crawl using YouTube videos and practiced and practiced until I got better. And once I was able to swim a kilometer at a time front crawl in the pool, then I thought, okay, I want more now. So the next challenge was open water swimming. Um, um, I, one of my major breakthroughs was I thought when I ended up, um, I was working part-time at that time, so I had time for all this. Um, but Then I thought, oh, I'm starting a full-time job. When am I going to have time for exercise now? Because by that stage, exercise was something that I knew I wanted to do. So I actually trained myself to become a morning person, which I struggled with my whole life. And again, another lie that I believed about myself and I told myself was, I'm just not a morning person. My whole life, nearly 40 years of that. Turns out I can be if I want to be. And I now get up every morning at 5:45, which honestly, that if you told me that a year ago, I would have laughed out loud. No way. Um, I get up at 5:45 and I go and swim in the loch, uh, with a wee group of people I met who are just amazing, who go swimming every morning. On the mornings that I'm not swimming, I go to the gym. Uh, again, totally new behavior for me. And I only started that around November time, going to the gym 3 times a week again, because I just wanted a new challenge. And I find that's been the biggest change. I'm wanting to find new things I can do that are active. The more new things I try, the more things I discover that I love, and the more I'm encouraged to keep trying new stuff. So yeah, not forced at all. It was just this inexplicable urge to move more. And I knew where it was coming from. I knew it was coming from eating more healthily and from the SlimPod message and the FitPod kicked in and all of the videos and it just all comes together.

And you know what, I remember the post that kind of, that had you going into the sea and I think it was your first time and because you went with a group, didn't you? Maybe it wasn't your first time, but you were with a group of people running into the sea and this big post saying, who am I getting up to this time in the morning and getting into the sea at half past 6 in the morning. It was just fantastic.

Yeah, and I still have moments of that in the morning going, is this really me? Am I this person? And I've heard people now describe me as, um, oh, she's, she's a really active person, or she's really into her fitness.

I think, me?

Because I still, you know, in my head, I'm, I am still that sort of lazy, lazy person who didn't like to exercise. And then I have to do it about 3 and go, actually, yeah, I am a fit and active person who cares about your fitness. Um, and that just, just happened without me even trying.

Yeah. Amazing. So, I mean, you've done a lot of exercise. Tell us how the eating has changed. Uh, you know, have, have you dieted at all?

No, not for a moment. Um, you'd be amazed if you saw some of the things that I've eaten even over the past few weeks. I mean, I had a wedding too, and there was quite a lot of luxurious eating going on there, but no, I never tried to diet, and I said, let's start there, you know, I was at the point in my life where I said, I'm not going on any more diets because I know they don't work. The eating changed even before the exercise thing did. It was like a switch was flicked and suddenly I had no desire to do the binge eating. It just— and it happened. I know it happens at different rates for everybody, and I'm always careful to say that to people on the SlimPod group. Because I know it's not going to be instant for everyone, but it was for me, very much so. The very first week I found myself including salad vegetables in my shopping. My salad was probably the food I would just have described as the least appealing food on the planet. Honestly, Sandra, it's probably my favorite food now. I love a salad. I make so many different kinds and I throw in as many superfoods as I can, loads flavors. I put a lovely creamy dressing on it if I want to, because that's where the flavor comes from. I think I was just so used to diet salads, which was a couple of tasteless leaves and a slice of tomato, and not, not for me. Um, but I'm not at the stage where, um, you know, going out for a meal that was a treat would have been, let's order the most unhealthy thing that we can think of here, and it would have been all the fried foods and all the carbs and, you know, as much stodge on the plate as I could get, and then I would have felt awful for a day or two afterwards. Now I wouldn't enjoy that at all. And I do still enjoy, you know, I still enjoy my pasta, I still enjoy chips, but not a huge pile of them, you know, a little handful of chips alongside my meal. For example, I went for fish and chips on Sunday. We were out walking along the coast and went for fish and chips, and I asked if I could have a side salad with mine. They, for some reason, didn't have side salads at this little bar we were at. I did not enjoy my fish and chips because there was no salad with it. That's unbelievable to me because before I would have left the salad on the side. I wouldn't even have looked at it. Uh, and now I find I can't enjoy a meal unless there's a load of vegetables on it, a load of the good stuff on it. Um, so yeah, it's very much been, um, bit of everything in moderation. Um, and I've discovered the less I eat of all the, the heavy stodgy foods and the, the carbs and the fried food, the less cravings I get for, for stuff that isn't, you know. And if I, if I do have a day where maybe I have overindulged, um, on, on some of the less healthy foods, I tend to want more of them. Um, but if I'm eating healthily, which I do about probably 80, 90% of the time. Um, they rarely cross my mind. If I crave a food, it's salad. Um, if I crave something sweet, it's a lovely juicy apple or a banana or something like that. You know, my, I love my, my berries with, with full-fat Greek yogurt in the morning. And, and, you know, it's, it's all good stuff. And it's more about what the food will do for me. Um, rather than trying to take any sort of comfort from it. And I enjoy it. I enjoy everything that I eat. I won't eat anything diet-y that I know I'm not going to like the taste of just because it's low calorie or low this or low that. I eat what I want. And I really believe that's made all the difference because if I know I can have it, I'm not going to crave it and crave it and crave it until I crack and binge on huge amounts of it.

So literally what you want to eat has changed?

Yeah, literally what I want to eat has changed. One of my major addictions was crisps. My whole life, just crisps. I could have eaten them and did eat them by the multi-pack. And the problem was always on diets. I said, "No more crisps," got rid of them all, no more crisps. And as time went on, all I was thinking about was how much I missed those crisps and how much I wanted those crisps until eventually I would cave and then just binge on them. But this time I said, I will have crisps whenever I want to have crisps. And it turns out I don't want them that often after all. I think maybe I've had— I can know I could count on one hand the number of bags of crisps I've had in the past year, which I would have had in one day previously, if not more than that. I just don't want them. They don't appeal to me, and they were probably my favorite thing on the planet. So yeah. Literally what I want to eat has changed beyond recognition.

And what's happened with drink?

Gosh, that's a weird one. I don't really drink anymore. It's so strange to say that. Um, yeah, I— alcohol was a major one, um, especially on those darker days, you know, that's— that was part of the, the self-medicating was too much alcohol. There was wine every Friday night just because it was Friday night. There was always a bottle of gin open on the go. I would have drunk quite heavily, to be honest with you. I continued to enjoy alcohol from the start of SlimPod. It was still something I did, but very recently, really quite recently, since about the New Year, I think, since after Christmas, I think, because I did overindulge a bit on alcohol at Christmas time and it reminded me of how awful I felt when I drank too much, just, just not just a hangover, but just that feeling the next day of just not quite— I don't have the energy to do my usual exercise and all the rest of it. Um, so I just thought, well, okay, I'll have more drink when I want it, but I'm going to cut out this drinking just because it's Friday. And I didn't miss it at all. Um, I think I went maybe a good few months there without a single drop of alcohol crossing my lips, not because I ever decided not to. I said, I'll have a drink when I feel like it. I just never felt like it. I've been out to pubs and I've sat quite happily and ordered a soda water and lime and sipped that and enjoyed it. I've gone out for meals and I've been absolutely fine with a drink of water. In fact, the first drink I think I'd had in a very long time was in the champagne toast on my wedding day. And even then, I think I had maybe a glass of wine at dinner but didn't drink much after that. So Yeah, that's been a surprising one even for me, just when I thought I couldn't be more surprised. Yeah.

So in a recent post, um, you said that you'd lost 3 stone, um, quite quickly after joining the program. Um, can you recall the differences that happened to make that 3 stone drop off?

The binging stopped. That was, that was a major one, um, because I would say the majority of the calories that I ate were coming from those post-bedtime binges from 10 o'clock onwards. And so those stopped without me even trying, um, and also the fact that I was eating, I was choosing more healthy food, um, and less of the stuff that I suppose would have contributed to my weight gain. Um, also the fact that I was moving more, I suppose, so I was obviously then burning more calories. Um, so yeah, just the whole lifestyle change, I think, um, contributed to that. And honestly, it just started dropping off at the start, um, just because just from cutting out those things like crisps and so on, without even making an effort to cut them out, it just all changed within a week of me starting SlimPod.

Yeah, and had you— I mean, you've lost another stone, but that's come off far more gradually. And you said something really interesting, that you don't just think about it, you don't think about it anymore, that it's just happening on its own because you're fitter and stronger and healthier. Tell us a little bit about the difference in your mindset now to the way it used to be.

Yeah, I think, I mean, honestly, for me, I think that the mindset has been the major change out of everything because I no longer focus on trying to lose weight. That's not, and for quite a while now, that has not been my objective. I do know that somewhere at the back of my mind, I want to lose weight. And you know, I do eventually want to be an all-over size 12. Um, I would say that would be my, my dream size. But my focus for the majority of the past year has been on getting fit. I said to you, I wanted to be fit on 40, and I feel like I achieved that, even though I'm still overweight. You know, if the health service was to weigh me and measure me and whatnot, they'd still probably put me in the obese category, I'd say, or just barely in the overweight category. But I would still describe myself as fit and healthy, um, and I know that I am. And the side effect of that is, of course, that I'm going to keep losing weight. It might not be, um, very quick. I might, I might take another year, another 2 years more, um, but I'm not thinking about it anymore. I'm just thinking about what's, what's the next challenge I can give myself, uh, what's, what's the next sporty thing that I can take up. Um, what— we're going on honeymoon and all I'm trying to think about is what's all the activities we can do that I was never able to do before, all mountains I want to climb and the hikes and safaris and all that stuff. I'm gonna do a bungee jump. Uh, I think it's the highest bungee jump, bridge bungee jump in the world. I'm gonna do that while I'm on honeymoon. Um, and previously it's something I've always wanted to do, but I always was scared that I was too fat and the thing wouldn't fit me. That's the honest truth. And I was too embarrassed to tell anybody that. And I'm, I'm telling you that on this, on this video, I was too scared to do a bungee jump cuz I was scared I would, the thing wouldn't fit around me. So now I'm doing it because I know I'm fit and healthy and I want to do a bungee jump. So that's gonna happen. So yeah, it's, it's—

and you can.

Yeah, I can. Exactly.

I can.

So yeah.

Fantastic. Did you have, uh, a plateau? I mean, did the weight stop for a while? Cause I'm, I'm kind of on a hobby horse about this at the moment because that's, you know, that's what happened to me. Uh, and it was a huge light bulb moment when I realized that that was all part of the weight loss program, but sorry. Weight loss program, weight loss process, you know, that it isn't like that at all. It is full of, full of lumps and bumps. And so did that happen to you where you'd stop?

I think that's why weighing yourself is not the best reflection of how you're progressing. My weight has definitely not gone down in a straight line, apart from those first few months when I just you know, my diet had changed so drastically that I was obviously going to lose weight. But no, it evened out. I lost the 3 stone between March and August, and then from August till about the start of this year, there was pretty much nothing. There was occasionally, you know, pound off, pound on, but nothing. It was pretty level. And I sort of did some reading up on it too and tried to figure out, and then came to the conclusion myself that this is just normal. This is just just a part of it. And you know what, people are still saying to me, even though I hadn't lost weight for weeks or even months, people were still seeing me a few weeks later and going, you've lost more weight, you know, you've changed in size. My, um, toe float, the little thing I used to go swimming with, um, I still have to keep adjusting the belt on it. Um, and even though I wasn't— I knew the scales weren't changing, but this little belt was getting tighter and tighter and tighter. I had to keep tightening it. Uh, I'm sorry, it was getting looser and I was tightening it. And so yeah, my clothes size dropped down during the plateau as well. I was seeing the difference in photographs of myself, so I knew there were changes happening. I was just doing so much. I think there's, there's a lot to do with the toning and muscle buildup as well, which I was getting from my gym and from my swimming. So yeah, I just, at that point I thought, well, if I'm getting smaller, who knows what the scales say, except for me, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what they say if I'm, if I'm still getting smaller and getting fitter. That's the main thing.

So finally, um, what is the one big tip that you would give to other Slimpodders who are watching this today?

There's so many, it's difficult to pick just one. Um, so I think—

well, give, give two then.

Okay then. So the first one would be to commit to the whole package of SlimPod when you start. You know, I see so many people coming in and saying, this isn't working for me, I've been, I've been listening to the pod but I haven't watched the videos, or I haven't been writing down my wins, or I haven't been doing X, Y, and Z. Do the whole thing because it's, it's designed carefully like that by experts for a reason, and I, I really believe the wins part of it was crucial to me, um, because it changed my whole mindset, my whole thinking process. I started looking for positive things. I started seeing myself more positively. And so do the whole thing, don't just pick and mix little bits of it. And the second big tip would be don't treat it like a diet and don't restrict your eating, um, because again, I believe That is where a lot of people go wrong when they come into it, still stuck in that horrible diet mindset, um, where you still see people coming on beating themselves up because I had a bar of chocolate or I slipped and had 2 packets of crisps. So, you know, I've just told you I went out and had fish and chips at the weekend. I, I have chocolate if the craving hits me. I have, um, whatever I fancy off a restaurant menu. And, you know, it's, it's just about Learn in moderation, trust in yourself to stop when you've had enough. Um, but if you put one food off limits, that is the food you're going to focus on until you crack and have it. So allow yourself a little bit of everything, and as long as you're not having it every single day or you're not overindulging every single day, it doesn't matter. And that's the key to success in my eyes, is, is don't deprive yourself. Life's short. Live it, eat the foods that you enjoyed, have an ice cream at the beach, have a glass of wine at the weekend. The difference is have one ice cream and not a whole carton of it, or, you know, have a glass of wine but not the whole bottle, that kind of thing.

Yeah, and don't be scared of it really, because that's what happens with so many people. They get really scared and, you know, they think they've had— if they've had a glass of wine, they just think everything's out the window. And that's part of the vicious cycle, isn't it?

Yeah, and that, that's definitely so important that you don't— that phrase, 'I've fallen off the wagon,' I hate it because it seems, it just seems to be permission then, you know. I've had this one bad thing, so now I might as well give up and I might as well eat all the bad things, um, in one go. Whereas, you know, I'll enjoy my, um, meal, whatever it happens to be, or my my snack or my glass of wine, and then the next choice I make will be a healthy one, and I'll get up and go for a walk, or I'll get up and go to the gym, or my swim the next morning, and just keep going. It's, you know, it's not about starting again, it's a continuous journey. And, you know, it's— I think I used the analogy once, um, when I was replying to someone on the Facebook group, of it— it's like walking along a path, and just because you accidentally veer off the path doesn't mean you have to then turn, go right back to the start and start again. Nobody does that. You just get back on the path and keep going. And that's what it's like. Just keep going. Just keep swimming.

Just keep going. And on that note, I'm gonna say thank you so much. Um, seriously, I, I was, I was so looking forward to speaking to you because, you know, over the last year you've lit up everybody's lives in Cinnapod Club. And, you know, you've got— it's just, it's been so inspiring. And I just knew talking to you would be the most inspirational thing of all.

So I hope it wasn't a disappointment.

No, really, really not. Oh, amazing. Absolutely amazing. So thank you, Hayley. Thanks so much for, you know, speaking to me, but also, um, thanks for just being you and, and, uh, you know, constantly being an inspiration in the group as well. It's just so fantastic.

Thank you, and thank you for the life-changing SlimFood. It really has changed my life, Sandra, so thank you.