Tanya’s Self-Love Journey: Beat Emotional Eating & Achieve Weight Loss with Slimpod

So, Tanya, tell me a little bit about before your SlimPod experience and now, and really the benefits that you've experienced that are over and above weight loss, because weight loss is really a side effect of, you know, yes, of SlimPod, but it's also a big— it's a side effect of healthy eating as well, obviously. And And so, yeah, just tell me a little bit about your kind of before and after as far as life is concerned.

Okay. Before SlimPod, I was like so many other people where you live, eat too much, drink too much, work look after everybody else. I'm a mum of 4. I got, I had elderly parents and I was the main carer. I was working full-time. And to be honest, I just threw anything down my throat. I would eat whatever there was. And as a consequence, I was and still am overweight. But like everyone else, I tried other plans. I, you know, I'm going back years. I'm going to Rosemary Conley and, you know, do the weekly exercise class and obviously Weight Watchers, Slimming World, weigh everything that goes in your mouth and measure everything and stand on the scales every day. I would say I tried everything. Like so many people do. Um, but I've had gone through a very bad traumatic time in my life in as much as my, my marriage failed. Um, and then in the October of '22, my, my eldest brother died, um, of cancer. And so obviously for me that was heartbreaking. And I'd got my mum and my dad who I was caring for. I had to bring them through this. Then in February, I found my husband, um, having had a heart attack. And as I say, he, we were best friends. Um, my new partner actually tried to save him, but it was too late. He was gone at 65. My brother was 65 as well. Then in the May, my mum passed away after a stroke. And I carried on going, just carried on going. I was trying to be fitter, trying to be more healthy, but my head, obviously, with everything, was screwed up.. And then this, this little face kept popping up on, on Facebook. Um, and it was Sandra, and she kept saying these things, and I was like, oh yeah, it's just another thing, it's just another thing. And then the anniversary of my brother's death, I thought, you know, because 6 I'm 60 now. He was 65. If you don't start looking after yourself, you're going to be another one. You're just going to get bigger and bigger and more and more unhappy. And so I signed up. 10 days, I'll give it a go. And I'm still going because it wasn't instant for me. Because there was, there was too much. There was too much going in. And I have these really big plans. By my 12 weeks, I was going to be my size 10 again, as I always was. Every new thing I started, this was going to be it, and I was going to be my pre-baby weight. No more. I don't think that anymore. I no longer stand on what I call my mood step, because I used to stand on the scales every day and it would set my mood for the day. I was a teacher. If I stood on that step, the children would have hell to play all day if I put weight on. You know, because stand on it. Oh, oh, I'm the same. Oh, that's okay. Stand on it. Oh, I've put on 2 pounds. Oh well, I'll stuff my face all day. What's the point? And I don't do that anymore. I know where the scales are. I haven't hidden them. I haven't smashed them. They are in exactly the same place as they've always been, but I don't stand on them because it doesn't matter. What matters now is that I'm happy with me. I want to get slimmer because I want to be able to do more. I do far more now than I ever used to do. I mean, I can send you screenshots of how many steps I used to do and then screenshots of what I do now. I mean, last Sunday I walked 10 miles. Um, a few weeks ago I walked from my home to Swanage, which is 13 miles.

Wow.

Um, I, I, and it doesn't hurt anymore. I don't get out of breath. My asthma doesn't bother me. Um, I live very, very close to the beach. There's a hill. I used to have to stop 3 times coming up there. The thought of that now just shocks me. And it's, well, it's just normal now. I can get up that hill, no problem. And since the day I joined SlimPod, which the 1st of October last year, I have probably used our lift. I'm on the 3rd floor in a block of flats. I've probably used our lift 15 times. I just up and down the stairs, up and down the stairs. That was my first move more. I will use the stairs. And I used to have to stop on each floor. No, I can actually run upstairs now. Um, and breathe at the end of it. Um, so that was my first movement, little, little step. And so now, let's say my original goal was I'm gonna be a size 10 in 12 weeks. It's changed so many times because my realization of, you know, I'm not Superwoman. I am Superwoman, but I'm not Superwoman in as much as I can lose all that weight in such a quick time. Yeah. I can't tell you how much weight I've lost because I don't stand on the scales. I can tell you that I'm wearing different clothes. My clothes I was wearing hang off me now. I can tell you that I wear some really funky stuff now.

Lovely.

I wouldn't have been seen in because I'm 60, 61 now. I mean, I'm in dungarees and, you know, flowery dungarees and bright colors. And whereas I was always in black. Um, and it's all to do with this. And I, I, I The change is incredible, and people that haven't seen me for ages just look at my face and can see a happy person. Because I'm happy, I walk taller. I walk with a bit of a swagger, which sounds really bizarre, but I'm— this is me. If you don't like it, tough. Look another way. Go somewhere else. And it's, this is, ah, you, and I can't, I can't tell you how it's worked. It wasn't instant. I have a confession. I don't listen to Trevor every day. I've been so busy in the last few weeks. I have listened, but not religiously every day, like like I was. But I know what he says, because if I go to pick something up, he's in my ear going, "Do you really want that?" No, I don't actually. I'll have a glass of water. I'm not really hungry. Um, that's not me. Um, but it is now. It's just completely changed me. And as I say, I can't tell you how much I've lost, but I can tell you the biggest weight I've lost is in here. The weight I've lost from my head that was beating me up all the time is worth 8 stone to me, because I was guilty all the time. Every time I had a couple of biscuits, oh well, I've messed that up. I'll start again on Monday. Now it's a couple of biscuits, oh well. Actually, I don't even think, oh well. I wanted those biscuits, I'd have them. I can walk away from them now, but it would have been, oh, I've had a couple of biscuits. Oh, I'd had two, let's have another. And pre-SlimPod, I would have eaten a whole lot, um, or not have any and begrudged whatever diet I I was on. Say, I can't tell you what a difference SlimPod has made to me. Let's say I'm with a new partner, and when I first started this, I didn't tell him what I was doing. And after a few days, he said, "Who are you listening to?" because I listen to audiobooks a lot. So, what are you listening to? So I said, well, it's a positivity pod. And that's what it is. It's not SlimPod to me. It's a positivity pod because it tells me how good I am and how able I am. And actually, I can't really tell you what he says. I mean, I was a drama teacher. I was a performer. I was an actor. So line retention is really good, but I couldn't tell you what Trevor says to me because I don't listen. He— it just goes in. And I know sometimes I say, I can do this, because he's obviously just said, you can do this. I know he says something about a pebble in the pond, about a snowball rolling down a hill, but I couldn't tell you exactly what he says, but whatever it is, it flipping well works. I, and people, I was skeptical, really skeptical when I started this. But I thought, you know, 10 days don't cost me anything. Best money I spent. Definitely the best money I spent because I'm a new person. No, I'm not a new person. I'm me. I'm not Tanya trying to do something to please everybody else. I'm Tanya being Tanya. And I've got my confidence back. I used to be, I used to act, I used to perform. I've done things on television. But the last 17 years, probably, all this weight has gone into my head at the same time as going onto my body. And that's a long time. To be pushed down. Oops. To be pushed down. And in a very, very short time, really, I've pushed it up. And I'm happy. I'm happy. If things happen now that aren't good, I just, okay, we'll deal with it. I find so many good things now. You know, we've been away for a few days, came in last night, having had to stop and watch a podcast. And the first thing I did was go and look on our balcony. Because the flowers are so beautiful. It's dark. I have to see it because the flowers are beautiful. It's raining. So what? It smells lovely out there. Just weird. And as you can tell, I've got my voice back.

I know. And Tanya, when we spoke before, you said about self-love. Uh, and, and that was such an important thing, um, to you about looking in the mirror and, uh, and now seeing, um, somebody that you like rather than being, you know, repulsed by. Tell me a little bit, tell me a little bit about that because you, um, did you have fear of failure as well going on?

Oh yes, all the time, you know. A lot of people, you know, you've got to be able to do everything. And if you can't do something, then you beat yourself up. That was me. And with so many diets, I had failed. And to me, I was always going to be a failure. And this is so different. So say my first goal map was I was going to be size 10. And then it was after about 4 weeks, I just thought, this is too big. This is too small, actually. Change it. Break it into little bits. So I broke it into— I— a goal was I'm going to like who I see in the mirror. Another goal was I'm going to be able to walk up the hill without having to stop. So I made those my main goals. And the look in the mirror, I, I had little steps every day in order to meet that. And one of them was to look at myself, glasses off, very close to the mirror so that I could see. You don't see that. And then smile. And that changes everything. Smiling instead of looking and going, oh God, look at you. Is that— makes such a difference. And I made sure that every morning I cleansed, toned, moisturised my face, put on some lip cream, sprayed myself with perfume, which I only ever did when I was going out. That's me rinsing. And I had a list, a checklist, and I could tick it off. And it became like cleaning my teeth. All of those things I have to do because that's, that's part of my everyday. And more and more I've got to like this person that I was looking at. There's lots of things I'd like to change, but actually this is the face I was gifted with when I was born. Yes, it's a bit more crappy. And aged and experienced. But if people don't like it, tough. I quite like it now. I go and buy earrings. I'm really about just going to buy a pair of earrings, and I'd never do that before. So breaking it into little goals of, I'm going to like who I see in the mirror. I'm going to be able to walk up the hill without stopping. I'm going to make sure that I listen to the 4 pods that I listen to regularly, and I'm going to do myself my own little exercise regime. I'm going to have a timer going on. And so I've done this, and so it's 36 minutes. That when in my normal life, not when I'm running around like a lunatic, as I have been, every morning up, listen to my pods. I can't listen to them at night. It wakes me up. So I listen to them. And when he says, get into the most comfortable position or whatever, I'm usually in some strange stretch or And I do that, and that's my done before one. See, I listen to you. It makes me feel really good. Don't get out of puff. I can touch parts of my body that I would never have been able to touch before, and I'm saying them toes. And it just feels great. It's now part of my life. And if I want to have an ice cream, I will have an ice cream. And I won't beat myself up about it. I eat more healthily because I like the taste more. You know, if we go somewhere and it's something and chips, I don't really want the chips. They're not as tasty as I used to think they were. So, I, the other day, I had some salmon and vintage cheese fish cakes on a bed of rocket with the poached egg on the top. And I could have had gammon, egg, and chips. But I just didn't want that. You know, what I had was absolutely beautiful and tasted much better than any chip. There's just so much that you've changed in my life. And I can't thank you enough. The best thing I did, joining was the best thing I've done.

So sweet. I'm just happy to, you know, to hear all this. It's fabulous. So yeah, I mean, honestly, it's great. And I'm going to stop the recording because I'm going to have to wind up in a moment anyway.

Okay.

But it's In fact, I'm just going to say to you on camera how fabulous and all. And so thank you. Uh, it's just, it's honestly been, uh, fabulous hearing the, the transformation. And, and I, I particularly love the bit about, um, the weight's gone from here as well as and, and because that, that's the whole idea, uh, you know, when we're weighted down by what's going on in our heads, uh, we can't take back control. And actually, on the take back control part of it, because that's what my book's called, uh, The Weight's Over: Take Back Control, um, how would you say that you have taken back control?

Now I, I put me first. Um, as I say, as a mum, a carer, I was a teacher. Um, everybody came first, and I, I still care for everybody, but if I'm not at my best, I can't do my best for those people. So I do put me first now. Um, I can't say I don't feel a bit selfish about that. Um, because that's, that's the inner me. But actually, I do see that I'm the most important person in my life. And if I don't take control and take care of me, I'm not going to be here to take care of everyone else, so I put me first. Amazing, amazing.

I mean, yeah, it's, um, it's this whole, um, external locus of control and internal locus of control. When you've got an internal locus of control, that's exactly, um, where you are now. So it's It's fabulous.

I don't know what's to come. None of us do. No. And it's a good job we don't know. But, you know, I've lost too many people. We've had people pass away since I've joined here. And We were expecting two of them, but one was very, very sudden at the age of 46. And you know, we are only here for a very short space of time and we've got to make the most of it. And dwelling on the past is not good for us in here. Looking forward to the future is what we've got to do.

Lovely.

That's the only thing we can change.

It is indeed. Thanks, Tanya. Uh, it's just been fabulous. Thank you.