How Pip Dropped 4 Dress Sizes WITHOUT Dieting | Slimpod Emotional Eating Success Story

So hello everybody, Sandra Roycroft-Davis here. I'm founder of thinkingslimmer.com and the creator of the SlimPod Programme, and I've got a very special lady with me today because she's one of our SlimPodders and she's got a really, really inspiring story. And her name's Pip, and she wrote to me because she She'd just had this kind of real change of everything to do with food, and she'd said that she'd found moderation and that she exercises because she wants to and she enjoys it, and that she eats very differently, and she's also lost quite a lot of weight in not a very long time. So I just wanted to inspire everybody with her story because because we all need inspiration these days, especially with our lockdown stuff going on. So Pip, thank you so much for agreeing to talk to me and to, you know, to inspire everybody else really, because you've just got such a lovely story. And yeah, so over to you. Tell everybody what's been happening.

Okay, well, It's really nice to speak to you, by the way. And then, let me see, mid-January, I started listening to SlimPods. I just basically followed the instructions that you tell everyone to do, listen religiously to your SlimPods every night and write in a journal 3 wins. And I started doing that. I mean, I've always known deep down that my problem with emotional eating is psychological rather than just a matter of willpower. So I was quite confident that it would have a positive effect on me, and indeed it really did. So I listened to my SlimPods, I still do every night, I don't miss an evening. Now and again I will miss writing in the journal, but I never miss listening to my SlimPods, and from day one I noticed the difference. I wasn't feeling the urge to eat, I just genuinely wasn't, looking for food all over the place like I would usually do. And as you say, it's just positive from day one. And within the space of— let me think— from January to now, I've probably dropped 18 kg , so there we are, four dress sizes! So, um, you know, whereas before I would always exercise because I was either trying to burn off the calories or something, I'd be eaten which I shouldn't have, or, you know, as not really punishment, but I would only exercise because I wanted to lose the weight.

Yeah.

But now I exercise because it just makes me feel better and it gives me a really good feeling. I think it releases the endorphins and yeah, it keeps me going. So if I don't do exercise on a daily basis now, I generally feel just kind of like a little bit under par mentally. It keeps me on top mentally, and the SlimPod has helped me realize that that's the effect that exercise can have. Yeah, which is great.

Absolutely. And so what form did your emotional eating take when you were an emo— when, you know, when you used to do quite a lot of that?

I would say I've always been an emotional eater. I would say mid-teens, I would start my struggle with food, and when the weight would go on, and I would use food as a coping mechanism. I think unhappy teenage years kind of led me into that pattern of eating, and it never really left me. I've gone up and down in weight over the years. I've tried different, obviously, different diet solutions, detoxes, Slimming World, this and that, everything really, but the weight always went back on because, because I wasn't really addressing the root symptoms of the reason for the eating and being aware and paying attention to why I was eating. Yeah, but now, as you say, it's— it was before, it was all or nothing. I would diet very strictly for maybe 3 months at a time, lose a lot of weight, and think, wow, I've done that now, look at me, and then instantly, as quickly as it went off, it would go on twice as fast because I would gravitate between, you know, dieting strictly, binge eating. Yeah. So now I've realized that I can have, if I really want something to eat, I just have it and I don't worry about it now. I don't think, oh, that's going to that's going to do really for the week or the day or whatever. I have it if I want it, but I can just— I think what's different is there's no shame attached to having anything now.

Right.

Yeah, I'm so much more calmer around eating that if, you know, I generally gravitate towards eating healthier. I enjoy eating healthier, but I find that when I eat sugar, it affects the way I think, my sleep, my skin, everything. So I tend to stay away from it naturally anyway. But yeah, so I think I found the moderation, and that's really liberated the way I look at not just food and diet and everything, but everything in my life as well.

Right, amazing. And so the whole, the whole way that everything has kind of the before and after with food and Not so— I'm not talking about your weight because that naturally follows, you know, when you're in control of food and you're feeling better about all of that, then obviously the weight will follow. But so what you want to eat has changed?

Oh yes, definitely. Yes, yeah, I would be always looking for something to soothe my frazzled nerves, for instance, or just a pick-me-up if I was tired, or, you know, naturally gravitated towards chocolate or crisps or whatever. I don't feel the need to do that anymore. I don't, you know, it's, it's not that I'm purposely trying not to, I just don't feel the need to. I don't feel the want.

Right, and so obviously you've got quite a bit of stress in your life with various you know, circumstances. I'm not going to go into them, but did you feel that that contributed to your emotional eating? And how has that changed now? Do you feel that everything's calmed, or how has it worked?

Yeah, absolutely. I don't feel as stressed because my diet's a lot healthier. I'm exercising more, obviously, because I've been listening to the SlimPod, and I've changed my mindset around food and exercise and my habits. So yes, I have stressful times, and you know, sometimes it's more stressful than others, but I don't go to the habits that I used to go to anymore, and I'm keeping the weight off because of that as well. And I'm feeling so much healthier. And the number of people who've come and said, you know, wow, what on earth are you doing? You look so different, your face is different, your mannerisms are different. You know, I've got a good friend who said, oh my god, you just got some kind of sparkle that I haven't seen in you before. And that was really nice to hear.

Oh, lovely, how lovely. That's so cool. So finally, what size were you when you started, and what size are you now. I can see that you're, you know, you're quite trim now, but it'd just be great to kind of hear the, you know, the difference. What size were you when you started in January? And now it's only April. Oh, actually, it's the 1st of May today.

1st of May today.

1st of May today.

Well, when I started, yeah, I was an 18, and, you know, bulging out of everything I owned really, clothes-wise. So I'm now, I'm about 12 to a 14, but some clothes are 12, some clothes are 14, depends who makes them, obviously brands are different. But yeah, size 12 jeans at the moment, so I'm really happy with that, and it's just, just so much more comfortable to get around as well. Yeah, so today, today the rain had stopped So to go into work, I just instantly jumped on the bike and cycled into work and back. Really didn't think about it. It's just great, it's not raining, in on the bike.

Fantastic.

So before, I would have driven everywhere. I mean, my work is only, it's not far away, it's within 5 miles, but I would have driven everywhere before. Not anymore.

Fantastic. And you know, the thing is, when we, when you wrote about this to me, you said that it's kind of just happened. You know, you, I think you trusted the process, didn't you? You just let it happen rather than getting worried and anxious about it. You just trusted it and, and it kind of just happened.

Yeah, I think so, because I really wasn't looking for a quick fix. I really was prepared for it to be a long-term prospect, you know. I realized that for years and years, I mean, for the past for beyond 35, 40 years I've been abusing, well yeah, abusing my body with bad food and habits really. So I understood that it was going to be for the long term. I didn't really expect to lose the weight as quickly as I did. I was quite surprised when I did, to be honest, because historically in the past when I've lost a lot of weight very quickly, it's been because I've been very strict with diet and very strict with the exercise, but in this case I've not had to be hugely strict because I've just been following instinct, and because I think I had an open mind and just let it be, you know, let what was happening happen, I've reaped the rewards and I haven't been stressed about it and I haven't been, you know, I've not weshed, not weshed, I've not measured anything, I've not weighed, I don't own a scale anymore anyway, but I've not even measured with the ribbons. I've just gone by how I feel and how my clothes fit me and by compliments people give me.

Yeah, it's fantastic. And I think, you know, because you put that kind of goal way out there into the future and said, right, this, you know, I'm in it for the long game, I know that my habit is my mindset, it's my habits, and this is going to take a while, I think And that probably took the pressure right off your body and you kind of just let go and said, right, that's gonna be it. That's, for me, I think what's done it really. It's just that your body's just let, you know, said, right, okay, I'm just gonna do this. And because you put the— you weren't worried about what was happening today or tomorrow, you put the goal right out there in the future.

That's it, yeah, exactly. I mean, I wasn't I wasn't slimming down for an occasion or for anything in particular. I was just— I just wanted to feel healthier and feel more like myself, you know.

Fabulous. Look, I won't keep you any longer. I am so, so chuffed that you came and spoke to me today, and thank you so much. You're, you know, you're looking amazing, and honestly, you know, you just said you had a lot— the amount of years you've been battling food, but you don't actually look old enough to be that long, to be battling food that long.

So it's amazing.

Well done, you. And thanks so much again.

Oh, thank you. No, thank you for SlimPod. As I said, without SlimPod, I'd just be really miserable and a lot bigger. So thank you.

Oh no, you're welcome. Thanks, Pip. Thank you for joining me.