A new phase of the journey

So, some of you may have come across this page through my instagram, @slimmingworld_becca , some of you may be new. However you got here, hi, and welcome!

For those of you that don't know me, I guess I'd better introduce myself - I'm Becca, 24 years old, from London and, over the past 50 weeks, I've lost over 9 stone (130lbs) through following the Slimming World plan, and exercising.

Over that time, I've gained an AMAZING amount of support, inspiration and encouragement through the Slimming World community on instagram, and, I'm really proud to say that others say that I have inspired them. So I thought it was about time that I started a new phase in my journey, and started this blog! This will be a place for me to post the food I eat, record my progress and hopefully provide some useful diet and excercise tips, whether you're a fellow Slimming Worlder or not! I'd love to find out what you'd like to see from me, so, if there's anything you'd like me to post about, please do fire away in the comments section below...

For now though, I wanted to cover, for my first post, what brought me to start this weight loss journey in the first place.

For as long as I can remember, I've used food as a source of comfort. From as early as aged 11, whenever I was sad, unhappy, alone, or, just about any negative emotion you can name, I'd sneak foods like chocolate, crisps, cake and biscuits up to my room, and eat them, alone, to numb the pain. As I got older, this pattern became more and more regular, and the weight piled on. By the time I arrived at university, aged 18, I was over 16 stone.

Although my time at university was one of the happiest times of my life in places, it was also one of the bleakest. I continued to gain weight and my binging spiralled out of control - it wasn't uncommon for me to eat family sized bags of crisps and entire tubs of ice cream in one sitting, and this was happening practically every day. I hated how I looked, how I felt different to everyone else, and how I always felt as if I was 'the fat one' in every social situation.

As the years went by, my cripplingly low self esteem and feelings of unhappiness led to me being diagnosed with anxiety and depression, as well as binge eating disorder. Although I had counselling, was admitted to an eating disorder unit and tried several different anti-depressents, nothing could stop me on my path to self destruction - I was still binging.

Everything came to a head in Autumn 2014 - I'd reached 21 stone and life at that weight was getting harder and harder - I despised how I looked, I was seriously unfit - even running for a train left me gasping for breath, and, even when I got on the train to work, I couldn't fit into the seats. Something HAD to change.

So, on the 4th November 2014, I walked into my Slimming World group. It was just about the only diet I hadn't tried before, and, it turns out, that it was the one that has worked for me. I discovered that no food is off limits - I could eat unlimited amounts of lean meat, fruit, vegetables and even *whisper* carbs! Even 'treats' like crisps and chocolate could be portioned out and eaten in smaller quantities using my daily 'syns'. I think it's this feeling that I could still eat what I wanted, that I wasn't restricted is what made Slimming World different for me.

Since that day, in less than a year, I have lost over 9 stone. I have found a strength, a determination and a love for myself that I never knew I had. It hasn't been easy, and, 10lbs away from my target weight, it still isn't, but I know that I can do it.

So there it is, my story. I'll be posting further about how Slimming World has worked for me, what kept me motivated and what I've eaten, but I hope that this has been a good introduction!