HELL YEAH!!!!!!!

LOSS: 8 POUNDS

Yes. You read that right. By some strange, unknown, Act-of-God miracle, I have somehow managed to lose 8 WHOLE POUNDS in a week.
Don't worry, I'm not going to scream and capitalise everything and shower this post with exclamation marks, I've already practially done that in real life! Might as well start from the beginning.

Well, as you know, last week I was in the complete depths of despair. Couldn't stop crying, yet another gain getting me down, totally on the brink of quitting, thinking I'd be destined to be fat forever.

But the cards and packages I got through the post - not mention the humiliating thought of MORE failure - inspired me to keep going, not to quit and scarf chocolate, but to rise up and cook healthy, delicious, FREE meals every night, with limited snacks. I cut crisps out of my diet completely, and stopped drinking "Slim-a-Soup" sachets every day (since I found out they were actually worth 3 Syns each). I made every last one of the recipes you've seen this week, put a complete embargo on takeaways (being skint helped) and refused my usual King Prawn korma when out with Joel's friends at a curry house on Saturday (opting for a 6-Syn Rogan Josh and plain rice instead).

And then tonight came around. Having some rare time off work meant that I made a whole batch of my favourite Cheesy Pasta recipe for lunch, (freezing some for later in the week) and making the concious decision to walk the full hour-and-a-half journey to Mum and Dad's from my house - instead of getting the tram from town. Which was quite enjoyable, until I texted Mum to tell her, prompting a panic (at me walking alone in the dark) and her zooming over to get me. Oh well, still managed to get a 45 minute Power walk out of it!
Once at Mum's, I had just enough time for a quick shower, a portion of Slimming World Chicken curry, and plenty of reassurance that "however I've done this week, at least it won't be as bad as last Monday." Jesus, and then some!

The weigh-in itself - excuse my French - was just absolutely un-f**king-BELIEVABLE. It was one of those moments practically big enough to knock you over and leave you dizzy. I stepped up to the scales, terrified that Friday's excursions on the vodka would come back to haunt me. Or, at the very least, a mere 1 pound loss. David (Joan's husband) really didn't help - doing the "daunting silence" thing he does when preparing to give you news of a gain - as I stared fixedly out the window. And then I heard; "Well, that can't be right." "Christ," I thought to myself, "it's gotten worse. I've had such a massive gain that he genuinely thinks the scales are broken. It's probably the most anyone's gained in a week." I felt myself go bright red and my eyes well up, waiting for him to say something, ANYTHING. Unable to bear it, I decided to speed things along and look down at the scales. I saw 16st 4,5lbs and dumbly thought to myself; "Holy shit, I've put on so much that I've gone right back up to 17 stone!" In my head, the scales had a 1 missing in front of that 4 - I just assumed that that's what had happened (despite that being impossible, as it would just say 17st 0.5lbs).

"Could you hop off a minute, Katie?" I heard David say. "I just want to check again. 'Cos according to this, you've lost 8 and a half pounds in a week."

Suddenly, the numbers seemed to jam into place in my brain. I heard gasps from the other women, standing nearby, which I normally HATE when getting weighed, but tonight it didn't seem to matter. My head swam and I jumped off, convinced it was a mistake, knowing I'd have to get re-weighed - but just wanting to enjoy the moment where it felt like I'd lost 8.5 pounds. I climbed back on, waiting for the inevitable "Oh, here we go...... yep, sorry, the scales seemed to have had a slight blip there - you've actually only lost 1 pound, sorry about that!" And I waited. And then, after a small intake of breath, David told me that he HAD made a mistake - I'd actually lost 8 pounds.

In a week.

It was like a bomb went off. Mum cheered, I shrieked "OH MY GOD!" and hugged the life out of David as people laughed. I practically fell off the scales and into Mum's arms, my hands shaking and my head swimming. I started crying as she shouted "I'm so proud, I'm so proud" over and over again - and through the midst of it all I heard David calmly inform me; "This means you've hit your first stone!"

It hadn't even occurred to me. In the midst of all the celebrating, my mind never once made the connection between the numbers 6 and 8 - and the second I stopped and thought about it - it made sense. 14 pounds. I had finally - after years of dieting and never losing a stone in my LIFE - finally made it. I ran to the bathroom to call Dad, and frantically texted Sean (my brother) - both saying the same thing; they were dead proud but now I just needed to KEEP GOING. And by God, will I.

The reactions from Group were amazing. Of course, I got the light-hearted teasing from some of the cockier members, but the look on Joan's face (and the whooping applause led by Mum!) as she handed out awards and realised the 1 stone award was for me, was just wonderful. Especially after I took her aside before my weigh-in and thanked her for my card with a huge hug. It just felt so worth it. Even better were the other Group members constantly asking how I did it, (even though I'm still not entirely sure) and our target-member Tim telling me "that's the biggest weight-loss in a week I've ever heard of that wasn't from a man or new starter!" - as men tend to lose more and quicker than women...... and the first week of a diet change always loses you the most weight.

Got home and surprised Joel with the news. Added the certificate and details to my wall charts and put the news on Facebook - within an hour I had 19 "Likes" and 5 comments. Not to mention Louise and Alex's reactions made everything totally worth it. And even more good news - since we all hit 1 stone by the end of November, as planned - we can treat ourselves with a girly day at the spa around Christmas! AND Alex's friend has got us all tickets to Rhianna (supported by DAVID FRICKING GUETTA!!) in London, next June!!! So we've vowed that when we go to that particular gig, we will be in slinky dresses and knock-out heels to boot!

I'm telling you - right now, I feel like I'm wired to the moon.

                

              

The Facebook photo!