My motivation for losing weight is because I need major abdominal surgery and was told I needed to get my BMI down from 35 to 30. But, working for the NHS, I didn’t think healthwise that was low enough, so I’m aiming for 25. Being on TotalFast from the end of October 2023 until April 2024 means I’ve lost 3st 1lb.
My medication interferes with ketosis, which is why my weight loss is slower than for some people. But my surgeons are absolutely thrilled with my BMI and I’m currently doing a period of Management to get ready for my major surgery. As of July 2024, my BMI is 26. Once I can restart my weight loss, post-op, I’ll go back on to LighterLife in some form to get to my target weight of 9st / 57kg.
Why did I choose LighterLife?
I’ve been dieting since my 20s (I’m 62 now) and have done just about every plan going, every fad and newfangled idea, counting calories, counting protein, no carbs, low fat. Most only worked in the very short term.
Looking back, I didn’t need to diet but I always thought I was fat because my brothers and sisters are lean, taller, and built differently to me. I’m also shorter, which makes the contrast so much more obvious.
I’d had 6 major operations in 7 years when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, which had already spread to my lymph nodes, so I had a mastectomy and axillary clearance. Complications with chemotherapy ruptured my bowel, which resulted in a colostomy for a year and then a reversal 18 months later. My dogs also knocked me off my feet and smashed my ankle.
My health was now in a bit of a mess, I was piling on the weight, and reached an all time high of 13st 12lbs or 88kg. Although I’d started to change my diet, I realised I wouldn’t be able to keep it up so I joined LighterLIfe on 6th June 2022, when I weighed 13st 3lbs / 84kg. My Mentor, Jodie, held regular Zoom meetings and being able to order my Foodpacks online as well made everything a lot easier for me.
I got to 10st 10lb / 67.9kg but then ran out of money as I’d given up work, so I stopped attending the Zoom meetings on 26th December 2022. Having got to grips with TotalFast, I couldn’t then plan for Management as I had no idea how it worked, which really frustrated me.
The first time I tried LighterLife back in 2022 was because I’d tried everything else! By 2023, it had become essential to lose weight for my operation and I‘d reached a point where I couldn’t continue being so overweight for my height and health and therefore my life.
Following the plan
I’m an evening snacker and I know I need to have enough packs for later in the day or I become grumpy. I hadn’t realised how much I consume whilst preparing a meal, so my husband said he’d prepare his own meals to stop the temptation!
By adjusting when I had my first pack of the day, I always have something later for the evening. It was trial and error to start with but it’s something I’ve learned about myself, and so I can control it.
While I’ve never minded counting calories, having done it enough times in the past, I’ve found having a set amount of food (4 Foodpacks a day) makes following the plan easier. I won’t say it was always easy, and some days were hangry days, but the first week was always OK and the weight loss made it all worthwhile.
In the past I’d go through a difficult patch about 9-10 weeks in. I think I always felt hard done by, that I was missing out, and I’d usually give up any diet at this point.
Now, I realise it was my attitude to food that caused that. Nice food or sweet things were a treat and I deserved it, didn’t I? I’d been good dieting for so long! Now, I realise how destructive that thinking is, and I know I can do without it and treat myself if I need to with other things.
I’ve found the Pink Grapefruit drink flavouring the easiest to drink in quantity. I dilute one sachet in a 2 litre bottle of fizzy water. Plain water, I find, is like drinking water with pebbles in, really hard and uncomfortable. I’ve also learned to have tea and coffee without sugar and milk.
Alongside the Pink Grapefruit flavouring, my favourite Foodpacks are the Jerk Noodle Fastpot, Chocolate Mug Cake, Blueberry Pancakes, and Toffee Bar.
Of course I couldn’t manage to sustain my weight loss without really learning what my triggers were so, after most of the weight had piled back on during 2023, I reached out to Jodie again on 31st October 2023, weighing 12 st 8 lbs / 79.9kg.
She sent me some information on the Management plan, so I was able to plan for it, and what a difference it’s made. I‘ve got back and beyond my first goal and have been following Management since the end of April 2024. I’m working out my triggers and if my weight goes up a bit, I readjust and it comes back down. This means I have control. At the time of writing, 3rd July, I’m 10 st 2 lbs / 64.4kg.
I ordered the ‘Stone in a Box’ offer and immediately started my first 3 month subscription. I then started a second 3 month subscription when the first one had ended, so I had a month of stock already lined up and could use some of the second subscription to choose my packs for my Management plan.
It takes me a bit longer than some people to lose weight as my medication really interferes with ketosis. But I reckoned if it was coming off, and I could learn to keep it off, I was still winning.
Mentoring, Mindfulness, and Group Support.
My Mentor, Jodie, is lovely. I chose her as I wanted someone roughly from my area, just in case LighterLife restarted having meetings in person rather than online via Zoom. I do think you have to LIKE your Mentor and I do, so I feel I chose well. She’ll always answer any questions and, if she’s not sure of the answer, she’ll find out for us.
She’s active in her WhatsApp group and on her Facebook page, and we have a small, but great group of very similar women from all over the country, including Northern Ireland, who meet on a Monday morning and so get on very well.
If we can’t make the morning meeting, there’s another meeting in the evening. Jodie makes sure our Zoom meetings stay on track as it’s easy to wander off topic, and she encourages our participation.
To be honest, sometimes I do wonder about the mindfulness topics and their relevance at first, but as we discuss them it becomes clear. I think we need deeper questions to get us to delve more deeply into why we have bad habits, and then own them so we can change them.
The group support is fabulous. No-one is judgemental and we enjoy each other’s company. If someone is having a bad day, we rally round to make them feel better, share tips on how to resolve situations, or how to use the Foodpacks with hacks, and so on, encouraging them that they can do it. Jodie checks in with me regularly, privately, and I’m sure she does with the others too.
My ongoing complicated health issues and frequent hospital admissions will continue as they are until I have my operation, and then we shall have to see if it works or not. I will continue to attend Zoom meetings though, as they do keep me on the straight and narrow.
My friends and work colleagues have been great. They’ve supported me throughout and accommodated me when we had get-togethers so I could stay on plan.
And my family has always supported and encouraged me. My lovely (second) husband, Svend, has had to put up with me when I’ve been grumpy or hangry, and couldn’t find something to wear as my clothes became baggier, or still didn’t fit. He pushed me to buy clothes to fit at each stage, knowing I would get smaller and have to get more. He is very tolerant but really loves the new me (or old me again).
What’s changed for me now that I’ve lost my weight?
Well, I’ve gone from a size 20 to a 14, so I have vast amounts of clothes in my wardrobe that are size 12 to 22. I’ve been hoarding most of them for years, just in case I could fit into them again, so a lot are out of fashion now.
My wardrobe could say a lot about the old me. I have suitcases of stuff I wore when I was 28 (over 30 years ago) and I’m going to have fun trying them all on and putting them into piles – one for me and one for charity.
Plus, I’ve discovered Vinted and have bought some beautiful dresses that I can wear without tights as my thighs don’t rub together any more.
And I can wear fitted clothes now instead of the tent-like tops I thought made me look thinner but in fact just billowed like a ship in full sail. I was once told I looked like that by my very ex husband!! Oh, and my shoe size has gone down to a 5 from a 5.5-6 – who knew I had fat feet!
Walking for any length of time used to be painful and difficult with my injured ankle and carrying the extra weight. Now I’ve lost weight, it doesn’t swell so readily, I can walk for longer, and it hurts less. I also can reach my feet to put on my shoes and tie my laces. My husband had to do that for me before as it put too much pressure on my abdomen.
As I can now do most of the jobs around the house and garden again, it feels like we have an equal partnership again. I can also get down on the floor and back up again without needing help but the biggest thing is I can get out of the bath on my own again!
I’ve got my confidence back which makes me and my husband happier. I feel sexier too and more like the old me. I realise I hid in the background when I was very overweight as I felt uncomfortable, whereas now I’m up front and centre. My children are proud of me.
Every year we have a family photo and I was the fat one for as long as I can remember now. It’s something I’ve dreaded each year but this year I’m going to enjoy it. And previously I wouldn’t have considered going camping again, I’d have stayed in a nearby Travelodge, but we went on our annual family camping trip in July and I loved it.
Looking at old photos compared to now, I’m shocked at the difference. My friend and old business partner, whom I hadn’t seen for years, said she couldn’t get her head around who the large woman was as she visually didn’t recognise her friend in her. She can see ME again now I’ve lost weight and I look like the person she used to hang out with.
I suffer with lymphoedema in my arm due to the axillary clearance during my mastectomy. This means it’s swollen but not in the usual sense of water retention just in the tissues. The fluid retained also ends up in the fat cells over a period of time, which means that even with wearing elasticated arm sleeves day and night it will never go away.
However, following my recent weight loss, my arm measurements have greatly reduced and I‘ve had to have a smaller sleeve fitted. It’s a complicated subject and not managed well across the world in general but it’s improving. And weight loss for those overweight with lymphoedema is massively beneficial.
What have I learned?
That I eat too fast! I never drank enough fluids and I ate foods I should have avoided. I also learned that food should not be used as a reward, and everything in moderation, I don’t have to finish my plate. And I should eat from a smaller plate with less on it, and not finish anyone else’s meal, like my grandchildren’s!
If I take control then I will keep the extra weight off.
What else? Oh yes, to drink, drink, drink, even after finishing TotalFast. And attend the weekly Zoom meetings – my group and Mentor are very important.
I’ve learned my triggers, how to avoid them, and how to make sensible choices in the future. I’m going to continue with the Management plan until my choices become habits.
What I’d say to anyone thinking about starting LighterLife.
Drinking 2-3 litres a day is essential. Make full use of your Mentor and/or their WhatsApp group if you’re struggling.
Plan ahead for events, days out, etc and let your friends and family know about your diet so they can help rather than hinder. Don’t let other people’s negativity influence you to give up.
LighterLife TotalFast works, but plan for Management afterwards as that’s the most important part of it all. Learning to eat sensibly, and making the right choices to keep the weight off and stay in control.
