How She Lost 4.5 Stone Without Dieting — A Real Slimpod Transformation

So I have got Louise with me today, and Louise got an amazing story to tell. Um, she has lost a lot of weight, 4 and a half stone to be precise, uh, and has gone from a size 22 to a size 12. Uh, so welcome Louise, and thank you so much because you've got a fabulous story, and that's why I just, uh, wanted to inspire everybody by, um, by sharing it. Now, you have, you have just got into a size 12, and what does that feel like?

Do you know what it feels like? It's amazing. It's— I still, you know, I've got it hanging up. I've got the, the jacket hanging up in the bedroom, and I keep looking at it going, yeah, it's just mad. But that's what I'm doing. I'm looking at it. It's hanging, literally hanging on the door, and I'm like, Haven't put it in a cupboard yet because I just like to admire the fact that it fits.

Fabulous. And this is, this has kind of taken a year because you, you know, it was, it was in SlimPod Extra that you were, you were talking about it. But you say that one of the main things that's responsible for this huge weight loss is the fact that your brain has now been retrained to not think Slimming World. What's that all about?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I ran a Slimming World group for about 2 years, and I'd lost— I had my daughter, she's 14 now. I had my daughter, then I discovered Slimming World, and I lost all the baby weight and a bit more, which was great. And then I thought, I'll do it, I'll join, you know, I can do Slimming World. And I started running the group And it really just, you know, it really just becomes sort of the way I thought about everything. I was a slave to sins. I mean, you know, I mean, I mean, the name of them alone, but I was a slave to sins. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, food became a massive treat. And so I started focusing really, really like, I need to do this so I can have this treat. And my whole brain was wired, it started wiring that way. And I, I was an absolute slave to the scales. Every Sunday, without fail, I'd get on them scales and it would either depress me or make me really happy. And it was up and down. And the week really was defined by every Sunday jumping on them scales first thing in the morning after a cup of coffee, thinking, please, let me lose a pound, or, you know, and it just became all-consuming and my brain just Even when I stopped doing Slimming World and I packed in the club and, you know, and I gave up the franchise and everything, I still, up until, up until I found SlimPod, I still thought that way. And that was, that was 5 years later, 6 years later even. I was still thinking, 'Sins.' I was still thinking, you know, all of the things they teach you. I was still jumping on the scales, not liking it. You know, lockdown, like everybody, was really tough and I used it as an excuse to sort of be self-indulgent. And I hated myself even more every time I got on the scales. I was like, self-harm, what am I doing to myself? Why am I doing this? And so, yeah, and it— and I just became really despondent, like really, really despondent, you know. I got my pony, we've got 2 ponies, and we got Dolly, who's the youngster, and we got her, and, and I got her ready, you know. She was quite young when I got her. I was getting ready to back her, and I was like, I'm gonna ride that pony. And that year went by, and I never made a difference, and I was started really disliking myself even more, just thinking, I've got this beautiful pony. And, you know, and luckily I wasn't— I didn't end up backing out. I waited another year anyway. And that was when I decided, you know, it was in the middle of the night, popped up on Facebook because I was sitting there just looking at stuff and I was like, I've got nothing to lose. So that's what I did. And yes, a good year now.

Amazing. And so what sort of things have you been eating over the last year that have been different to what you ate before?

I think I've been much more sensible about the food I eat, but I don't deny myself food. I literally don't. If I— we have pizza religiously every Friday. We always do. It's Pizza Friday in our house. And, you know, I still have pizza every Friday. I mean, you know, kicking and screaming, I'll eat pizza every Friday, but I just don't eat as much pizza. So I still have it, and I don't sit there and begrudge everybody else, because when I was on Slimming World, I'd sit there and I'd be giving my husband dirty looks for enjoying his slice of pizza, just annoyed at the dog because he was having a slice too, or whatever, you know. It's true. And but now I, I just, I have a couple of slices and Bob's your uncle, that's it. You know, I, and I don't, I don't sit there and begrudge anybody. I join in. I don't feel like I'm being left out and feel like I'm being punished. I just join in. So I just eat. I eat less than I did before. But the big, the big, big, big, big thing for me that Slimming World gave me right— Slimming World, sorry, Slimming World gave me right away was I stopped snacking. I literally, I was, I mean, I could have a six-pack of knickknacks at my desk. And I could polish them off while I was on a call with somebody and just sit there, eat. And I, and because of, I work, you know, in the conservatory right by the kitchen, I literally got up and grazed all day. I grazed, just walked, like, kitchen cupboards open. What have you got? I love that. I love that. And it was, it was almost immediate. I listened to the podcast, did the videos in the first week, and I just noticed one morning, you know, around 12, 12 o'clock when I'd be going for another bag of crisps, I was like, actually, I haven't eaten any crisps. And so for me, that was the big thing, was, was that right away it changed that for me. I stopped wanting to snack. I didn't really— I can walk past crisps in the aisle now and not even think, oh, Quavers or Monster Munch. And I literally can. And if I do have them, I'll have them like, you know, at a— like if we've got a work event and, you know, you always have the crisps but, you know, I'll take a handful and that'll be it. I literally don't need it anymore. And that's the— I think that's been the big change for me, is eating smaller, eating more healthily, but not to the point where, you know, I'm, you know, I won't let myself have those things. Because I think if I start denying myself the things I really want, I'm just going to go back into that cycle again of using food as a reward and I don't wanna be there again.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's, I suppose that's the retraining that's happened, hasn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So you say that you are now the person you've always wanted to be.

Yep.

Tell me more about that.

I think I'm just happier in myself. I'm not angry about things. I'm not, I don't dislike myself anymore. And I think that was, you know, it's always— we're very British, aren't we, about things, you know, where I was like, you know, liking yourself is a very sort of, you know, it's very LA, isn't it? You know, we go to that in Britain. No, no, no, no, we do. But, you know, I think I like who I am right now. I'm not, you know, I've taken a sort of a less strict approach with myself of all things. And, you know, the person I always wanted to be was a good mom and a good friend and somebody who just, you know, really sort of took things and, and really ran with them and didn't sit there and go, oh, why did I do that? And start being hard on myself. So now, you know, I'm, you know, you know, I deal with a lot. I'm in quite a stressful job. I deal with that really well. You know, my kids, you know, that age, teenagers, how much fun is that? You know, and, and I do all the things I want to do. You know, I've started running, which I used to hide in the toilet in cross-country in school. I mean, I used to hide away from the seizure. My friends cannot believe that I, you know, I run, you know, I run a 5K about 3 or 4 times a week. But that's because, you know, I knew I could. I mean, I was still very big when I started doing it, but because I, my mindset had changed and I, it wasn't impossible anymore. I became much more confident about it. Yeah. So fabulous.

And so you, you also say, um, in, in the post that you, um, that you wrote that, uh, that You've taken, taking away the guilt of failing helped you to succeed.

Yeah.

What's that about?

And I think it's true, isn't it? Because every time, especially I think things like the, you know, Weight Watchers, Slimming World, any of those groups, you know, you're, you sit in front of people and you fail in front of people and you just feel so bad about it. You feel, you know, you don't want to go and They're like, "Oh, Louise, you know, you stayed the same, put 2 pounds on this week." And you just, yeah, you just feel like you're letting everybody else down. You're not just letting yourself down, you're letting your family down, you're letting the people in the group down. And I always felt that way. So every time I'd lose weight, and I would, I'd lose it, but within 6 months I'd have it back on and more, every single time. And I always felt that I was letting, letting myself down, but letting the family down, letting the kids down, you know. You know, "Here's your mum, you know, she, she can't be running around the park with you, you know, she's not gonna, you know, alongside the pony with you or whatever. And I always felt that kind of guilt about, you know, look, I tried and I failed again, kids, you know, or, you know, Mum or whoever else it was, you know. And even me, I just, in the end, I became sort of, I don't know, I just became more and more sort of disappointed that every time I'd try it. And then in the end, I got to the point, probably about 4 months before I found SlimPod, last year. I got to the point where I was like, well, what's the point? You know, I'll just resign myself to being overweight. And I just literally became despondent. I just, you know, and I was thinking, you know, I've done Slimming World, I've done, you know, I've done Weight Watchers, you know, and you name it, I've done it. I've tried it all. I've done the shakes, Herbalife, done it all, you know. And I just wanted— I knew there was something else. I knew it was about here. I knew it was more here than because I knew I could do it, but I just could never sustain it. And I think that was the, you know, that was kind of what I found with SlimPod.

Yeah, amazing. And you know, you also had a major realization as well during this process about things taking time. In particular, weight loss, because I know that so many people who are so used to dieting just get, you know, it's about instant results, isn't it? It's about jumping on that scales and seeing the result. And so it takes time. It takes, it takes them time to actually click that this is going to take, that the mind and body talking to each other will do it, but it will take time. And, and I love the way that, that really helped you to get and gave you room to succeed, just that acceptance. And so just to, just explain how that's come about.

Yeah, because I think that, I think that was a realization I had sort of February this year because I was thinking I've been, well, 4 months, I think was probably about 4 months in, and I was, you know, I was buying some clothes in the sales as you do and I was like, right, you know, I'm going to get some 16s, going to try them, you know. And, and as I was going through that, I was like, you know, I bought a big load of dresses at size 16. I thought, great, I'll just wear them until, you know, my next size comes along. And I just stopped and thought, I would never have done that ordinarily. I would never have accepted the fact that I was going to be a 16 for a while. I'd have been like, nope, need to be a 10, need to be a 10 next week. You know, I would never have accepted that. And I was perfectly happy. I bought them. I thought, you know what, fabulous dresses. I still got some of them now and they are really quite big, but I bought them and I was like, I'm happy. I've just spent, you know, whatever it was, £80 in the sales on, you know, 6 dresses. And I accept the fact that, you know what, this is a process. This really is a process. This isn't about the race to be as thin as possible. It's about, you know, it's taking time because at the end of the day, you know, it didn't take me 10 minutes to put weight on. You've got to reverse that process. But it really, it was like the realization that my brain had actually accepted that, you know what, actually this is— and I know it's overused— a journey. But it really was for me. It was, you know, accept that, you know, for a while you're going to be a 16, you're not going to go right to a 10, you know. And then, you know, so then I bought more clothes and, well, you know, I, I just think I got myself into that realization that, you know, it will happen. You've got, you know, you've got to take that time. You can't rush it because you're just going to disappoint yourself because it can't happen overnight. And I think it was that sort of, like, retraining the brain again, think differently.

Yeah, amazing. And that's really, really important. You know, it kind of, it really does free up your anxiety and all sorts of things. Now, you, obviously, you used to, when you were on Slimming World and all the Syns and the treats and all the rest of it, you used to treat yourself, uh, you, but now you don't use treat, uh, food as a treat anymore.

Yeah.

And that's a really important reframe, isn't it?

Absolutely. And I did, I would save them Syns up to the end of the day because you get, you know, whatever it was, 12 Syns, or I can't remember. And I would save them up and I'd be like, right, I could have a packet of crisps, small bar of chocolate. And it literally, my whole day would be focused on, right, I've made, you know, I'll have my tea the right way, in the way I should, and then I'm having a packet of Quavers, or, you know, salt and vinegar squares. And I literally, that's the way I went from day to day, you know, I would get through the day and at the end of it I would like, yay, I'm having a bar of chocolate or a, you know, packet of jellies or whatever my poison was at that point. And I would always do that. And I deliberately didn't do it this time. I mean, I'm— it's a conscious effort for me as well. So, you know, if I, if I want something like, you know, if I, you know, I'm out, I'm out and, you know, I don't know, we're getting ice cream with the kids, I'll have the ice cream. It's not a treat for me. It's— they're having ice cream, I'm having one too, you know, and it's about joining in and making it part of my life. And, and I never feel guilty about it. Never. Ever, ever now. No, never do. And what I do now is to treat myself. I just recently bought myself a really good pair of running shoes. That's my gift. Yeah. And then, you know, and then, you know, I bought myself some joppers for the, you know, joppers. No, I mean, you know, nobody looks good in a pair of joppers. I mean, special type of person apart from my daughter looks good in hers. But I bought, you know, I bought myself some joppers so I can go ride the pony. You know, I would never have done that. Never. I mean, I'd have ridden in whatever, you know, pair of trousers I had. And, you know, I went out and did that. So they're the kind of things I reward myself with now. So if you, you know, as I'm losing weight or, you know, as I'm doing something like—

the non-food rewards.

Yeah. Yeah.

And you just mentioned the pony. So that brings me nicely on. Now, at the start of this, you obviously had a dream or you had a dream like a year before you started, which was a huge driver in your success. Tell me about that dream. Tell everybody about that dream.

I, so I've loved, I mean, I've had horses on and off over the years, and, and so when my daughter was 5, you know, got into horse riding, and we got a pony when she was about 9, and I love this pony. I mean, I would I would keep this pony in the room. As soon as Niamh goes off to university, the pony's moving in the house because I love her with a passion, right? Just, it's, yeah. And so anyway, so I was always going, you know, I was always going to be too big to ride Ruby because she's only a little pony. And then as Niamh was getting up and, you know, growing up, I was like, she needs a bigger horse, she needs a, you know, good-sized pony or, you know, a Section D, which is the one I've got. And then, and so I was thinking, I could ride that horse. I'd be, you know, I'd be able to carry me, you know, when I was thinner and height-wise I'd be fine. And I was so— I'd seen— I knew Dolly already, the pony I bought. I knew her from when she was a baby, and the girl put her up for sale when she was 2, and you don't really back until they're 4. So I was like, Charlotte, shall I get it? And it was just— I'd just turned 50, and I was like, I deserve a pony. That's it, because I'm 50 now, I deserve a pony of my own and something for Niamh to ride. So we got Dolly, went and bought Dolly. And the husband's like, oh, what, another one? Why? Why two? And I think you always need two. Yeah. And then so we got Dolly and then I just every— I was thinking, right, I'm going to back her when she's three. I didn't in the end, I waited. And I'm going to lose weight and I'm going to ride that pony. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ride her. And it just became— I was still stuck in that spiral of just being unhappy and disliking myself and nothing I could do was right. And even having Dolly there and, you know, she was staying, she was here at the house at the time. And looking out the window and seeing Dolly outside. And I was like, still thinking, I just want to ride her, but I don't know how. I don't know how I'm going to do it. And it just became really sort of just really despondent and just thinking, well, Niamh will just end up riding her. It'll be Niamh's, you know, it's Niamh's pony, she can ride her. And then, then as I started looking at other things and how can I lose the weight and what can I do to make a difference, then, you know, obviously I've signed up for Fabs SlimPod in the middle of the night, signed up and I was like, you know what, this is it, this is it, I'm gonna do it. And it started resonating with me right away because I knew it was here, I always knew it was here, you know, I always did know it was there but just didn't know how to unlock that and make it work for me. And then I started, started losing weight, started losing weight, and then I started seeing, you know, I was working with Dolly still on the ground because she wasn't ready to be backed. And then I started thinking like, I can do this, I really can, you know, I'm dropping my weight and You know, I'm doing it very sensibly and sustainably. And I was thinking every time, you know, every time I worked with Doll, I was thinking, one day I'm going to be on you. One day, me and you, I'm going to ride you. And so she was sent to be backed, to be sent away for somebody to do in the summer. And at that point when she came back, I was well within the range to ride her weight-wise. But then I sort of chickened out because I was like, she might kill me. So I'll put the kid on her first because she's much better than I am. 'Putting Eve on her first.' And then, you know, and I just kept putting it off, and all my friends and people were like, 'Get on.' And I was like, 'No, no, no.' And because it was just that the big sort of, 'You're there, you did it,' you know. And I was like, you know, 'Do I deserve that?' In a way, I started thinking, you know, 'Do I?' And then one day, she— Eve was riding in the summer. She was like, you know, September it was, Eve was riding, and I was like picking up the muck, as you do, And I thought, you know what, I deserve it. I deserve to get on that pony today. And so I just walked in with my riding hat and I went, I'm going to get on. And my husband was like, you are? And I was like, get in, get on. And I did. And I got on it. And it was like the proudest I think I've been in a long time, you know? And it kind of freaked the pony out because the pony was like watching me like, you're in the wrong place, love, you know? And so now I ride. I don't ride her all the time still because obviously she's a baby and Niamh needs to teach her a lot. She's better than I am. But I'll get on, you know, once a week now at least, you know, I just get on and have a walk around and, you know, and just it's just that, that sense of achievement. It's like, you know, I did it. And the reason why I did it and, you know, watching Dolly flourish and grow and, and Nev and stuff and thinking that, you know, I can be part of that as well, you know.

So absolutely fabulous. It just, just shows you how the why and the reason and is just so powerful. So you've only weighed yourself 6 times in the year. This is a big change, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. Because, because I literally was a slave, an absolute slave to, to the scales. And I would just, you know, I'd psych myself up and get on and be like, oh, Oh God. And I just always, I just every week, every Sunday, I started the week with just weighing myself and then being really disappointed or really happy, you know, like, and, you know, and it just kind of was self-perpetuating. I would just get on and I'd go, oh God, and then I'd go and have another slice of toast or, you know, it would just be some way to take it away. So, and since I joined, and I think even just, I think the first starts of videos and stuff, you know, all the stuff that you do at the beginning. I was very much about, you know, I was thinking, this is really about me thinking differently now. So it doesn't matter what I weigh, it's how I feel. And right away I could start feeling the differences, you know, because I think it's just that, I think your mind just takes a different approach and start thinking, you know what, this is fine, this is fine the way it is, it doesn't matter what that says. And, you know, I've lost, you know, I've lost all that weight over the last month or two. I weighed myself the other week because I was trying to work out, you know, like sort of on the year, what I'd, you know, what I'd lost on the year. And I'd actually not lost that much really weight-wise since the last time I weighed. However, I'd lost like a couple, like 2 dress sizes because now I'm sort of working out and, you know, and I'm stronger and, you know, I'm definitely fitter than I was. But I think if I'd have, you know, in my old mindset, I'd have been really down about that. I'd have been like, "Oh my God, I've been eating good and I've been doing this and I should have lost, you know, 7 pounds," or, you know, and I didn't. I just went, "Oh well, well, that's because I'm leaner, you know, I've got more muscle, I'm running more, I'm training, you know, and stuff." And so I was like, "That's okay, that's fine, I'm happy with that," you know. Great.

So Give me 1 or 2 tips that you would, that you could share with Slimpodders who are going through their journey right now.

I think the biggest one for me was to really acknowledge that it is going to take a bit of time. So you, because we're all used to immediate results. I mean, if you've used, you know, obviously being being a Slimming World Consultant in a previous life, you know, they tell you that, you know, first week everyone should lose 5 to 7 pounds. They should just, because, because a lot of it is the way you're eating, a lot of it is water, and in the training they say everyone should be losing 5 to 7 pounds in the first week. So, you know, we all, we all go after Christmas like, hey, I've lost half a stone, and then, you know, obviously your body kind of adjusts and things like that. And so I think for me, I've always had that mindset as soon as I go on a diet, regardless of the fact I did Slimming World all those years ago, I think, right, I should lose at least, what, half a stone this week. And when I don't, I become really upset and it's not working. And so for me, that is a big thing, is that it takes time and it's different. You've got— it's different than everything else that you think, you know. You know, you've got to give it time. You've got to believe in it and commit to it. Otherwise, it's like anything. There's only, you know, if you're not committed, You know, it's only going to work to us, you know, to the level of commitment that you put into it. So I think that's really important. I see that when a lot of new people join, you know, about, you know, because everyone's been so trained by the diet industry that you lose weight like that, that you should be losing lots of weight right away. And it's just, you know, it's what we hear, it's what we see on Instagram and TikTok.

Totally. And, and it's done purposefully, uh, to spike dopamine to give you that bit of excitement because that's what everybody wants, obviously. But then it's only temporary.

Yeah, absolutely. And so I think for me that, that is, is something that I, you know, I would tell people is that it does take time. And, and also, you know, you've got to, you've got to understand that it's taken you a while to get here. You know, it's taken you a while to get to whatever weight you are or however, you know, unhealthy you feel. You are, it's taken you that long to get there. And, you know, you're gonna have to slowly peel that back bit by bit. All of those things that made you be where you are right now, for whatever reasons they are, all of that has got to be unpicked and peeled back to the point where, you know, you're ready to embrace it and ready to change and make it sustainable as well. I think that's really key because I think we're all so hard on ourselves as well. You know, you know, I know I am. You know, I'm like, "Oh, messed it up, didn't I? It's my own fault. It's because I'm bloody rubbish, because I've got no commitments, because I've got no willpower." You know, and all of those reasons I thought that, you know, I couldn't do it. You know, I think it's just taking the time and reflection. And I still do my wins every night without fail. Still do. Never missed it yet. Went on a cruise, went on 2 cruises, took my mum on one, and then I went on one with the family. Took it with me, you know, I was away for work. On Monday night, took it with me, make sure I do it every night before I go to bed. And it just gives me time to think, even if I've had a really horrible day, like really horrible day, I'll think, actually, you know what, I did do this and I did do that and I did do the other. That's all right. That's a success for the day. And it just really, I think, just keeps training my brain. So I enjoy doing that actually.

Yeah. No, great. It's our brains veer towards the negative. That's what we do naturally as a, as a human, as a species. And so we do have to work at keeping it going in the direction to, you know, towards positivity and keeping us happy. So anyway, wow, just fabulous. Thank you so much. I, you know, I do these because, because I just, I love giving everybody the opportunity to, you know, to get some motivation and inspiration from other people who have, you know, stories to tell. And, and yours is so different. There's so many different bits to your journey and the way that things have been reframed. It's just fantastic. So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Sandra. Honestly, you've saved my life. You really have. Thank you.