288: Make A Pledge To Yourself

Introduction

0:00Hello, welcome to Slimmole Podcast. We are delighted to have you with us. I am Claire of the Savory and joining me is... Anna Mangan. Good evening, good afternoon, good morning. I never know what to say, good day, because you could be listening to this at four

0:31o'clock in the morning, couldn't you? Equally at one o'clock in the afternoon. Yes, it could be. Thanks for covering all bases there, Anna, making this fair and applicable to all situations.

Summer Challenges

0:42Good, don't want to leave anyone out. Now then, we're coming up to an important time of the year and the next few weeks, we're going to be talking about the S word, which no, it's not SWIPs, it's not sins, if you know what those were. It is actually summer. And summer, for some people, can be where things slightly go awry. Am I right, Anna? Yeah, it's when sometimes we can just think,

1:14well, it's summer holidays, I'll pick it up in September, I'll see what happens. I'm off on my holidays, the kids are off, we've got people visiting. And it can be that subconscious sabotage that happens in summer. But also, when you think about it, there is a lot going on for a lot of people, you may have guests, you may have days out, you may have different food and alcohol choices. And you know, when the sun shines, it brings out a different type of slimmer in me, it really does, as opposed to when it's raining. So yes, summer can be a really testing time. But the good news is we

1:44can get through it totally unscathed, still losing weight, we just need a good plan, don't we? Yeah. And actually, in our members episode next week, we're going to go through some of those classic holiday strategies, we're going to be looking at tips, tricks, strategies for how you can actually stay food optimising through summer and still have a great time. That's the important part. Yeah, you don't have to have a summer filled with just feeling annoyed, fed up and FOMO, where you can absolutely have the best of both worlds. Yeah, now then, we do also have a guest

Guest Introduction

2:20with us. Because we kind of thought with the subject, we also need a little bit of inspiration, a bit of motivation, even me and Anna do, you know, and we find it fascinating when we get to peer under the carpet of so many different people's lives, so many semi-world members lives, I should add. And we finally, finally made our diaries align, logistics, satellites sync up to connect with Scotland, all the way up north, to have Claire Kane with us. Claire, your Slimming

2:56Worlds Woman of the Year title holder. Congratulations and welcome to the podcast. Well, thank you so much, Claire and Anna, for having me. It's an amazing thing to actually come on and do. I've never, I've always, I've been a long-time listener. There you are. Yeah. Right, well, you know what you've let yourself in for then, because we, let's be honest, I mean, a few weeks ago, I asked someone if they like wearing clothes, and then he proceeded to tell me that he likes spreadsheets. So, we don't know what way this

3:29conversation can go. I'm going to keep focused on Claire's amazing story. That is the plan.

Making a Pledge

3:35That is, yeah. Exactly. Now, there was something in your write-up of your success story, which is what they called on the Slimming Worlds members site, that really stood out to me. And I thought, how topical for this point of year. And that phrase was, make a pledge to yourself. I don't know if that was the writers that pulled, you know, that highlight out of your story, but there was something about how you really wanted to do things differently in your most recent weight loss journey

4:10and making a promise to yourself, making that commitment. Can we start there? What does that look like to you? Or what did it look like to you? So, for me, it was making sure that this journey was completed. So, in my previous journeys, whenever I'd been on Slimming Worlds before,

4:33I guess when you listen to my story, you'll see that I was probably derailed by getting pregnant with either of my children. But that wasn't the only reason that I kind of fell away from group, fell away from plan. It was because I never really completed my journey, whereas this time, I had to make that commitment to myself to really focus. And also, something that was highlighted to me at some point throughout this journey was that you have to make time for

5:05yourself. You're just as important as everyone else in your life. There's 168 hours in a week. You can take one just for you. Anyone is deserved of one hour in a week where they can just focus on themselves and make a plan, make sure that they truly reflect on what's happened so that they can move forward and build a better life, which is what Slimming Worlds helped me do.

5:35I mean, and you have transformed your life, haven't you? I mean, you've lost over half your body weight, haven't you? You've literally transformed your health, your well-being. I mean, take us back there. You said it was derailed by pregnancy, but you kind of started it with that hope of becoming pregnant, didn't you? Yeah. So when I initially joined Slimming Worlds back in 2015, I'd been overweight all my life. Like, I've always been big. I just thought that was just the way I was. And then I

6:10kind of plodded through life and got married. And then we tried to start for a family. Like, we never got pregnant. So we went to the doctors to find out why. And they did lots of tests and things.

6:24And then they turned around and said, well, if you ever want a shot at IBF, you're going to have to lose weight. You don't qualify. And kind of gave you a diet sheet and off you went. And I genuinely did try everything. And nothing seemed to work until I, one night my mum said, well, why don't you give Slimming Worlds try? There's one in our local area. So I popped along. And it was just the fact that it was real food that you could buy in any shop. It wasn't about restriction. It wasn't about magic

6:56pills or magic jabs that they were going to, you know, transform you overnight. It was just about being realistic with yourself, having a healthy diet, learning about yourself and about your own habits, your own triggers and things like that. That's what resonated with me. So it kind of fell into easy everyday life for me. In nine months, I lost eight and a half stone. And then I fell pregnant with my first wee girl, naturally, which was an amazing day. But I thought at the time,

7:34oh, this is great. You know, I got what I came for. I'm now pregnant. And then we sadly lost my dad. And I just generally couldn't handle everything all at once. Like my hormones were all over the place. I'd gotten what I'd came for, which was to get pregnant. And I genuinely thought at the time that I would just stay that weight continuously. But obviously, that's not realistic. That didn't happen. So over time, I put that weight that I'd lost back on and a little bit more

8:04until I found myself sitting in a chair playing with Olivia at my feet when she was a toddler because the thought of getting down on my hands and knees on the floor and crawling about was just too painful. So I started back on plan. I knew what to do. And I knew that I enjoyed group. I knew that I enjoyed playing on plan and the control it gave me over my own life. So I went back to group 18 months. I lost 11 and a half stone. And then I fell pregnant with Sophie.

8:37But that time I was determined that nothing was going to derail the progress that I'd made because it felt harder the second time, probably because I had a toddler watching me the whole time. So I stayed on plan all the way through my pregnancy with Sophie. And then I went off to have her. And then three weeks after she was born, COVID hit. And we all suddenly found ourselves locked inside. I had a brand new baby. I had a toddler whose life had just kind of stopped. And I stopped it all off. I had a key worker husband who had to go to work every day. So I was kind

9:11of stuck in the house. And soon all of those bad habits crept back in. And the fact that groups closed, I mean, I know it went online, but I knew I'd lied to myself. In all honesty, I knew that I would pretend that the scales said a different number than what they actually did. So I didn't go back to group. And by the time groups reopened, it completely snowballed out of my control. Until in August 2023, when I decided that no, enough was enough. I needed

9:44to come back, come back home. And we joined group. And that's what I did. So this journey was to make sure that I could finally get to my, my goal, complete the journey. And boy, have you completed the journey. Yeah. Do you know what I hear though, and Clara and I talk about this so often, that need for community, that need for strength, that need for support, and especially this time of year

10:15as well, or any time of year, it's, it's knowing you've got your people who get it, who will support you, inspire you and motivate you. And to lose as much weight as you have, I'm guessing you've had to really lean on them for that weekly kind of motivation to keep you going. Well, 100%. You know, I share every week in group, all my stresses. They saw me crying, they saw me laughing, they saw me about to tear my hair out, my head, most unlikely. It's

10:45been a bad week. But they've seen me every week, because I need to go. Like, I know that that's, that's my reset time. That's my time to draw a line in the sand, maybe reflect on what's happened that week. But draw the line so I can move forward. Whenever you've had a bad week, that's any tip that I'd ever give to anyone who's first starting out in their journey is you have to draw that line, because you'll never know how good you've been the next week. If you don't really know where you're starting from. Because it's so easy

11:20to miss a week. It's so easy to make an excuse. But you do need time for yourself, you need to reflect. And for me, it's just a reset. And group really does help me do that every single week. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. In fact, I had a friend who had just had a few weeks where life had got really busy, and came back to group last week, and was really in that kind of headspace of like, Oh, my God, I think I've totally gone AWOL. I don't know what's happened. Just that feeling of dread. And actually, then when she stepped on the scales, she was like,

11:56Oh, actually, this is manageable. I can do something about this. And by the end of the group session, she had a plan. She had a shopping list. She had three new recipes. She had a new healthy extra idea. And she was back out there. Do you know what I mean? Ready to like, just, I don't know, take back control and grab the reins again, rather than freewheeling of like that hope. Um, and I think what's really good, um, from a summer world point of view is that for 52 weeks of the year, Slimming World groups are open. Do you know? And, and so even through

12:31summer, just because it's a summer holiday or Christmas or something, there is still a group that people can go to wherever you may be. Um, sorry, the only thing that ever got in the way our way was COVID. We have been open, rain, shine, whatever. And do you know what? I think it is that both of you really are very similar in the way you both made that commitment. You're going to be at group every single week. Yeah. Claire did it going to any group she possibly could as a, you know, a shift worker in radio and, and you making that commitment, you're going to be

13:01there. And I think the moment you make that commitment that you're going to be there every single week, you take the pressure off yourself. Does that make sense? Like you just know I'm tipping up. This is what I do. You know, you never regret coming out of group. Do you, you regret not going because I left group. It was one week. And then before I knew it, I was five and a half stone heavier. Yeah. Regretted walking through the door. So the fact that we are open Claire, like you say, 52 weeks of the year is for that very reason, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? Because we know if we close

13:31and just said, Oh, come back six months time, none of us would lose weight, would we? No. And also the fact that you come in and are there every week, it does, it makes any, any gain that you've had. I've had plenty along my journey, trust me. And I've never took any shame from it because it lets you just draw the line. It's completely normal. When you go every week, you'll see that people have ups and downs, everybody, whether you're a target, whether

14:02you start the journey, whether you're at the end of your journey, everybody has up and down weeks. It's a, it's completely normal. And I think normalizing that does help the kind of the mental aspect of a gain. So you don't feel shame from it. You know, you said something in your story that really as a consultant really struck a chord with me that you were worried when you were going to join, like you're the biggest person in the room and people are going to judge you and look at you and you know, it's going to feel a certain way. And you didn't feel that and you felt welcomed and you

14:35felt supported. And I think my, my biggest want as a Slimmingwell consultant is to know that anybody that's terrified, cause you know, I sat in the car park of sixth grade, so scared, is that what you're going to face when you come in, honestly, is going to be absolutely zero judgment and just love and support. And I think as a culture, as a society, we, we're used to being judged for the way we look for our way, aren't we? I mean, how in your head, you'd built that up, you were scared. How did you feel that night when you walked in at the end of the night? Did you feel like I've made

15:06the right choice? Oh, a hundred percent. As soon as I walked in, there was no, there was no shame. There was no judgment. There was, everyone was there for the exact same reason. No one was there to judge you because if they were judging you, they were judging themselves. They were there for the exact same reason that you were. Even your consultant has been on their own journey themselves. So they know how it feels. They know what that want of to lose weight, to, to get to an ideal place in your life where you're

15:39happy with the way that your body is, the way that your, your weight is, and you no longer have the restrictions of the past. You know, it's about letting that go. And I'd built it up so many times in my head, especially the third time coming back. I thought to myself, oh, my consultant's going to feel so ashamed of me. And I'm so embarrassed that I'd put it all back on again. I mean, I'd put on a living and a half stone and more, but walking in those doors that night, it completely changed.

16:11There was no judgment at all. It was just love, caring, kindness, acceptance. Acceptance is the biggest one for me. Like they accept you no, no matter what, what weight you are, whether you've got seven pounds to lose, seven stone to lose, 17 stone to lose. There's no judgment at all. My members think I'm like a giddy puppy when they come back in, if they maybe haven't seen them, because the way I get so excited, give them a big squeeze, because do you know what? I would

16:41never be disappointed in them. I'm exceptionally proud that anybody ever has the courage to walk back in. So they just hear my squeal as I'm jumping on their lap with excitement. So, you know, if anybody sat there listening, thinking, oh, my God, all you're going to get is a crazy Slimming World consultant jumping on you, in my experience. But it's us having the courage to walk back in, isn't it? Because we're judging ourselves, aren't we? We definitely are. And that's something that actually I was saying to someone the other day was, although I held all that shame, that embarrassment walking in that door that night,

17:18I actually can't be any prouder of the person who walked back in those doors that night than I am. Like, that person saved my life. That person took the hardest steps. That person made the decision to actually commit to the journey and went back on plan, changed all of their habits. That person gave me the life that I've got now. And I couldn't be more thankful of that version of myself than I truly am.

Habit Change

17:49Oh, and carried your children, you know, all of that amazing stuff. Wow. Talk to us, talk to us about habit change, because, you know, if there's one thing that comes from making a pledge to yourself is being willing to maybe make some different choices. What did different choices look like for you to get this loss? What did that look like? So before my plates were very beige coloured.

18:25Oh, yeah. Yeah. We did that. We were covered in breadcrumbs or battered or, yeah, it was pretty much beige and boring. I had a lot of food phobias before I started Slimming World. A lot of food phobias. I still have a couple now. I don't like wet food. I've still got a thing about wet food. I can't touch soup. I wish I could, because it genuinely smells lovely when I make it for the kids, but I just can't touch it. Yeah.

18:56I understand that. But Slimming World has taught me that so many things taste absolutely incredible. And it's the taster nights that do that for me. Like, anyone who joins in a taster night really does need to just get stuck in and try the different things, because you'll be absolutely amazed at different. Like, I didn't ever think that I would like pasta. That was a texture thing for me. But actually, once I'd tried it, I was like, actually, this is quite nice. Like,

19:28you can flavour it up and make sure it's tasty. My plates are no longer beige and boring. They're more colourful and vibrant. And they look a lot more enticing than they did before. Right. That's so sure. But it was also about making sure that I wasn't just sitting mindlessly eating. Like, instead of just sitting in front of the TV, eating a Barry Crest, and then you suddenly look down and it's all gone. But your brain's not actually registered that you've read anything, because it's been mindlessly eating away. Actually focusing on what I was

20:04having, writing it down in the beginning, making sure that my brain did register that actually I had a meal, or actually I did have a snack and what it was, and actually made me feel a lot fuller, because it was recognising that I was having those things. So those were the biggest changes for me.

20:25Did you feel like you kind of explored food in a way? Because Claire and I talk about this, like, I look at Claire when you go to Claire's kitchen, and I'm like, the woman? Claire has become this, like, we were recording a couple of Christmases ago, and I was sat in her spice cupboard, right? This is the girl that literally, when I met her, we would get her to try a new fruit. Like, she's just done a 360 in terms of the cooking and stuff. Would you say that that's something that's happened for you, like the cooking and the not using the processed

20:56food and kind of really create, learning how to create meals? Yeah, like, um, my spice, I used to probably have about three spices, and one of them would be salt. Whereas now, I've got a full box full of spices that I kind of have to root through, um, whenever I'm cooking something. And I mean, when you actually look at a lot of recipes, a lot of them have the same ingredients, basic ingredients, it's just about how you flavour them. And they can taste so differently. Like, you could make something that's got chicken

21:31and onions and peppers in it. But if you flavour it with, you know, like Indian spices, it would taste like an Indian takeaway versus if you made it, you know, with, um, with Chinese five spice. Yeah, it could be like a hunter's recipe or something like that. Um, I mean, there's so many different things you can do with different ones. But yeah, we have a lot of spices. I've got a cupboard that's just for them, like a big box.

22:02I see, I love that. I mean, that one of the pledges that I made to myself was to just be curious and really expand the food, the amount of food I was eating, though there was a variety, I should say. Um, but also increase my recipes. So I remember once I was like, right, I'm just going to hone in on lunches and spend the next month coming up with loads of different lunch ideas. And then another month I was like, let's work on breakfast. Cause I was very similar to you. I went from get it out of the freezer, stick it in the oven and put it in my mouth

22:36in about 20 minutes time on a baking tray, the single baking tray that got washed up probably like seven times a week. And, and there was no, not a saucepan in sight, let alone a fridge. Um, the only thing in the fridge was alcohol and yogurt. But, um, but the thing for me was like, I didn't quite know how to go from that kind of whole food, cook my own recipes to get there. And I needed to break it down very slowly. And I think what was really helpful again about

23:07the group really, and also the digital service that Simworld offers, whether you're an online member or a group member gets access to the app, which has thousands of recipes, thousands of features, cook along, um, videos as well. Obviously there's also the things like Iceland range and Slimming World Kitchen, which are other things to help you, the recipe books that you can get in, in group. That for me, just allow me to just start small. And then like Anna said, take this, I've got on this three 60 of what I'm actually able to offer, you know, in terms of a

23:43menu now, I think some of that comes from like confidence. And, you know, for some people that, that make that pledge to themselves, it might be that maybe their pledge is activity to move more. You know, we've talked about that in recent weeks for some people, it might be, let's just start building a bigger menu list that I can work with. There's obviously, um, the No Fuss Meals book, which is out in groups as well. So make sure you have a flick through that, but that, and for some

24:15people, I think it can be, no, I've got a certificate or a weight loss goal that I'm really working towards. Um, I mean, how, how do you kind of work things now, Claire, you know, with summer holidays happening? Um, Scotland obviously break up a little bit earlier than England. So, you know, you're going to be right in the thick of things, I imagine. What's your approach for summer holidays

Summer Holidays

24:37as a Slim and World member out of interest? So for us, um, I kind of have a couple of routes that we normally do. So if I, if I'm abroad and we're on our big family holiday, like we've just been, well, I don't think about food when I'm away. It's all kind of free flowing. We're abroad. It's not real life to me. I kind of go into holiday mode, but when we're at home and having like staycations, because we have our own caravan,

25:08do we go away to the week at the weekends too? Um, or if we are having days out, um, or if we're just out for the day to the park or whatever, a lot of the time we'll pack a picnic. My kids love a picnic. Um, and I'll make sure that I'm prepared for the week ahead. Staying in group does really help me do that because you get lots of different hints into the way that we kind of have our days out is I tell my kids, you can either have all the days out that you want or all the extras because you

25:44can't really have both. You can't go out for meals every single day of the summer holidays because mum doesn't have enough money for it. So you can either have more days out, more fun, but have a picnic for your lunch. And my kids are normally fine with that. So we have a lot of picnics. Do you find, you know, when you were just saying about when you go on holiday, do you find you naturally now make different choices though? Like you gravitate to different options and stuff. Because I know when I look at a menu, there are things I just wouldn't look at now. They're just

26:18not in my repertoire. Whereas 20 years ago, they would have been the first port of call. Do you feel like your actual habits like that have changed? They definitely do. I mean, I still like a sweet treat. I'm a very sweet tooth. Um, much like my youngest as well. She's the same as me. Um, but yeah, I mean, I find that on holiday, we kind of got to day three and I was like, no, I need a salad. Like I can't do any more hot dogs. Let's go inside for the lunch instead of to the snack bar. Um, or we had like roast chicken

26:51and with veg, but yeah, I did definitely for, for certainly my meals in the bulk of, of my diet when we were away was kind of healthier options like vegetables. Um, they even had big potatoes and tuna. I kind of convinced my kids a few days to have some big potatoes instead of a hot dog or a burger at the snack bar. Um, but no, it does because that, that, that's your normal everyday life. It's, it's not a fad diet. It's a completely normal way of eating. And a lot of people don't

27:27understand that, especially when they first start group, it's not a diet. It's, it's a healthy way of eating for the rest of your life. Yep. That's a great way to perhaps, uh, bring this to a close. I think that's a food for thought there as, um, people would say. Um, wow. Okay. So summer holiday, getting to group, thinking of this as like real everyday lifestyle, I suppose. Um, wow. And look

27:58at all the, the doors this has opened up to you by making that commitment to yourself, um, and losing the weight. Well, I think there were things that we did on holiday that I would never have been able to do three years ago. Like we went, so we went to Salus, we went to Port of Ventura and went on every ride in Port of Ventura with my, my nine year old. My five, my six year old wasn't tall enough to get on the big ones, which was much to her disappointment. But Mimi and Olivia did, you know,

28:30Red Force. We did, um, Shambhala. We did Dragon Can multiple times. Um, but yeah, I would, I just wouldn't be able to do any of that and not in that type of heat, um, three years ago at all. Great memories. Incredible, isn't it? You, yeah. You're making memories, not watching other people make memories, which is just astounding, isn't it? Exactly. Now that I get to join in and not watch from the sidelines. Well, Claire, we hope you enjoy the, the next

29:01few months as, um, woman of the year and all the trimmings that that comes with, the glitter, the sparkles, the balls, the more balls, everything. I've got a wardrobe full of sequins now.

29:17Yes, exactly. Exactly. Thank you so much for coming on and talk to us and we hope you have a great summer. Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed it. So next week, um, if you are a member, then this is an episode that you won't want to miss. This idea about staying on track in summer. We're going to get a little bit more practical next week. Just me and Anna, uh, continuing our grand tour of, uh, Nutsford. Find out where we end up walking next week.

29:47Uh, that's all to come. Uh, members get our episodes on Fridays, just in case you didn't know, on the Slimming World app. And, uh, we're back with another public episode in a couple of weeks. And, uh, next time we're talking to Jo Diamond. Wow. Jo has had an amazing award, a gold consultant, a group of the year for Slimming World, but actually her own story as a member is one that you won't want to miss. The episode is called This Time I've Done

30:20It. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, then make sure you pop that one in the diary not to miss. Other than that, enjoy the hot weather and, uh, we'll see you in a bit. Bye for now.

30:36Where do we stop? Where do we stop? Where stop? She can never find the stop button.