When I started my Healthy New Me journey in April 2022, I was told by my doctor and a lot of other people (friends, family, strangers, the media) that I was “too fat”. I would be told “ooo you’re so pretty if only you were a bit thinner” or “yeah you can’t be perimenopausal, you’re just depressed, itchy, in pain, and have brain fog because you are obese”. Anything that I was worried about medically was because of my weight and therefore dismissed until I had the right BMI, yet no one seemed to want to help me to lose weight in a way that supported me emotionally.
I won’t lie, the thing was, I ate a lot of takeaways and chocolate; I drank wine and caffeinated drinks and I felt so poorly that I believed I might die before I was 50. I wasn’t eating these things because of laziness or lack of knowledge, and I really did want to lose weight and feel better, but I was exhausted and experiencing horrible symptoms and so low in mood I couldn’t interact with anyone and didn’t have any will power or mental strength to start doing what I needed to do. I used food as an emotional crutch and I was miserable, but the mental health support was not offered, and I didn’t know how poorly I was emotionally until I got well again. The feel poorly, eat to feel better, end up feeling worse cycle was terrible.
When I went to see Katie at Beyond Nutrition, I was sick of being fat and feeling awful, and of being the plump one. I was literally at rock bottom. I poured my heart out to her about how utterly despairing I was that things would ever change, that I would ever have the will power and tenacity to do what I needed to do to get healthy, that I would ever stop using food as an emotional crutch or as a punishment. But this little nutrition club and 2 amazing women were game changers in my journey to a Healthy New Me. Katie and Tanya have both travelled their own weight loss journey for their own reasons and they totally got it. More importantly THEY GOT ME and were prepared to give me what I needed, consistent, frequent psychological support!!!
For the first time, I felt listened to, heard, and understood. Katie demanded commitment and I gave her that because that was all I had left to give. I attended club at 7am 5 days a week. I had my breakfast there and sat for at least 30 minutes every day just talking with the group. We shared our stories, we shared our hopes and fears about the weight loss journey, we shared frustrations over weight gains and celebrated each other’s weight losses. We fell, we were caught, and we were lifted again and along the way Katie and Tanya offered little drips of education to help us achieve better and more sustainable results. This psychological support for me was the most important thing in my journey.
Psychological support plays a crucial role in successful and sustainable weight loss. My journey and everyone else’s involves more than just a physical change; it requires a shift in mindset, behaviours and emotions. The psychological aspect of weight loss is often underestimated. Here is why psychological support is so important in the journey to health:
1) It helps the setting of realistic goals and offers motivation reminding people why they began in the first place and can keep them accountable.
2) Underlying behaviours which are sabotaging success, causing overeating, and encouraging sedentary lifestyles can be immediately addressed and worked through.
3) It can help identify emotional triggers and find new, healthier ways to deal with emotions and reduce the reliance on food for comfort.
4) People can be supported to see they are worthy of self-love, health, positive things and develop a healthier self-image, boosting self-esteem and confidence.
5) Support can help people through the setbacks and plateaus, the concerns (like eating out for the first-time off plan) and keep them feeling positive about any fluctuations in weight due to hormones, stress, or exercise.
6) Remaining at the peak of health, maintaining fat loss, building muscle, and not spiralling back into old habits can be even harder than losing the fat in the first place. Support extending beyond the fat loss period can help the person through the next phase to prevent relapse.
In the end fat loss, weight loss, and maintenance are all HARD. If it wasn’t no one would have any issues, but having a strong psychological foundation through my club greatly enhanced my successes and helped me to achieve and maintain my goals and for that I am eternally grateful to them.



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