Today’s guest post is from Tracey who has a page over on Facebook, Ramblings of a Slimming Mummy. She shares about her journey from Slimming World member to consultant! (You might need a cuppa!).


Hi guys! I’m Tracey, and the lovely Stacey has asked me to write a guest post, to talk about my weight loss journey with Slimming World. I’m very open with my journey, as I hope to inspire people to do what I have done, and change your life forever.

I’ve had a problem with food ever since I was 14, I can still remember the first time I’d ever had a binge, I can tell you exactly why, and near enough what I ate. I remember cramming cake after cake, packet of crisps, and chocolate down until the hurt disappeared, and it seemed to really disappear, it was almost as though it had made all of my problems go away, one chunk of chocolate at a time. I remember the taste of the food being irrelevant (but always calorific!).

Of course this obsessive behaviour wasn’t the only problem with my binges, it took a good couple of years but inevitably then came along the weight problem, by this time I was just turning 19, and was naive to how all the binge eating I had done would affect my adult life. I laughed off the fact that my college had to up the order of crisps because I ate so many of them. I used to challenge people to eating competitions and always win, and in a sick way I was proud of my self because it was something I was good at!

I’d always make the jokes before other people did, that way they couldn’t hurt me. Everyone thought I was the bubbly one with the big boobs because I was clever, but at the time I had little self esteem and even less confidence, not that anyone could tell because I hid it so well. I got called the fat lady by a small child, bullied by people, and even heckled about my weight from a passing car, all this not to mention the fact I was always tired and I couldn’t go shopping with the girls without going to my own section!

Ok, so I will fast forward a few years now, as there is only so much you all want to read about my eating habits, we all know what a binge is! So it’s the year 2009 now and I’d had several years of this binge eating which continued into my working/adult life and got worse when I had started binge drinking too. I had met my fiance (now husband) and was getting married in November.

Sounds amazing you’d think, that I’d met the man of my dreams and I was going to have my perfect day, only it wasn’t going to be my perfect day. I didn’t have the chance other girls had to go and try all the dresses in the shop because I’d convinced myself I was too fat, and the shops would never have any dresses in size 24, which is what I had unknowingly become! I got my dress from eBay so I didn’t have to go through the ordeal of having to go to a wedding dress shop only to be told I was too big to get into the pretty dresses, so I stuck to the safe option.

I was working in a factory at the time with another girl, and we’d got into a conversation about Slimming World. Now I’m not going to lie, at this stage I was still adamant that if my fiance wanted to marry me, he could have me the size I was! I was convincing myself I was happy being overweight! Anyway, this girl who will remain nameless, nagged and nagged me to join Slimming World. She made it sound amazing with all the foods she was allowed to eat, she could still have pasta, rice, bread, and above all chocolate! Now that sounded like my kind of diet!

So that was it, I decided on my next day off I was going to join a group. Hubby was supportive all the way, and decided to come with me so we could both lose weight for our wedding day.

I still to this day remember walking down the road to the church hall where the group was held, looking for every excuse in the book not to go inside, I was terrified! I didn’t know what I weighed, I didn’t care to! I’d even convinced myself the scales wouldn’t fit me, and that I’d be the only ‘big’ one there! I remember walking in and being spoken to by a couple of the lovely group members and then I met my consultant, who from the week I met her, I knew she was pretty awesome! Little did I know that day changed my life forever! I listened intently whilst being told about the plan and took everything on board, then listened to the group. One guy had lost 7 stone; my jaw literally dropped, I had no idea how anyone could lose that much weight!

My first weigh in came along and I’d lost half a stone in a week! I was gobsmacked, and weirdly hooked at the same time! Weight loss is addictive, the feeling is fantastic, if I could bottle that feeling I would! Time went on and I had lost 4 stone for the wedding; I had gone from a size 24 to a size 14-16 and couldn’t be happier! I even went to a real wedding dress shop and tried on several beautiful dresses, my confidence was much higher too with all the complements coming in, life was good.

So, I got what I wanted, I got married a size 14, blog post over right? Only no, sadly this was only the beginning of my battle with my weight loss; people call it a journey, well mine really was. Only I had got lost in the middle massively which resulted in having a baby and a massive 5.5 stone gain over the course of about 2 years! I’d gone right back to where I had started, only this time with a new baby; my beautiful boy, that’s when I knew things had to change.

I didn’t want to be Ethan’s fat mummy at the school gates and I knew I had a lot of work to do before I would be happy, so in January 2012 I re-joined Slimming World for the last time and never looked back. I’m not going to lie, weight loss after a baby was tough, really tough, but I stuck with it. I had massively hard times; I had been the girl sat wanting to cry all the way through group, and I’d also smiled my way through, when after time the weight I was losing was getting more and more noticeable.

It took time, it took what seemed like forever, but finally in November 2014 I had hit my weight loss goal; I was finally size 12/14 and happy! That day felt like the best day of my whole life; I had worked so hard to lose it, and now all my hard work had paid off – I had lost 6 stone and was so proud!

It was around about this time that I had started toying with the idea of becoming a consultant as mine had changed my life for ever and doing the weighing at the group I attend had given me a taste for it. It became something I could really visualise me doing, something the old me would have never considered doing, but now I had all this new found confidence I dared to dream!

I stayed at my target comfortably until the new year which I was proud of, then I needed a new challenge. So I decided to aim for under the 12 stone bracket which in a couple of weeks I had achieved. The months were going on and I was getting more weeks at target under my belt. It was this time I started seriously thinking about becoming a consultant so I went along to an evening to find out more about the amazing opportunities I could have, if I were brave enough! The outcome of that evening was the beginning of the roller coaster I am currently living (and loving!). Two interviews later and I’d been accepted to be a consultant, I couldn’t have been prouder. That was it, I was on the roller coaster that is being a Slimming World consultant!

In turn, due to being so busy, nervous, and excited my weight was affected again and it dropped off, so I changed my target again which meant I could aim for my 7 stone award!

Every time I get nervous to the point I tell myself I can’t do this, I remind myself of what I’ve achieved already and I know I can do anything now.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be given this opportunity to change people’s lives the same way as my consultant did for me 6 and a half years ago.

This weekend my training has made me realise how far I have come in my journey, and now I have a very brand new one beginning and I’m going to love every second of it, all thanks to the day I joined Slimming World!