Saturday 20 June 2015

Weight Loss Friends Meet Up!

As someone who does struggle from time to time on their weight loss plan, I do find that support from friends and family can be invaluable at times and I am a very lucky girl to have a small group of weight loss friends who I found on Twitter since I've been on my weight loss journey.

Although the majority of my WL buddies follow the
Slimming World plan, we do share the same goal together; losing weight and we all know what a hard journey it can be. It's great to be able to sound off frustrations online and receive support from a group of people who are either going through or have gone through the same experiences. We support each other through the gains and congratulate each other on our losses. We also share weight loss and exercise tips and recipes/meal pictures although we do sometimes share abit of naughty food porn of cakes and other treats!

Back in January one of the girls that I follow on Twitter suggested that we should have a group meet up as we had all been chatting together for a few months and followed the same group of people. We set a date for the end of May (which seemed sooo far away at the time!) but before we knew it, May was upon us and we were booking train tickets and a table for our lunch. We chose to meet in Birmingham as it was quite central for everyone, although it was quite far for me as most of my friends live up North!

Soon we were counting down the sleeps and the nerves and excitement was building for each of us. My sister kindly suggested that they all could be catfishes. Hmmmm.... There was 8 of us in total, that would be a massive co-incidence if we were all Catfishes!

The 29th of May dawned and by 9am I was power walking to the train station in my flatties with my heels, a magazine and my breakfast in my bag. Of course I was running late, that's what I do! But I made it to the station with 5 mins to spare before I hopped on the train to Birmingham. In 2.5 hours I had arrived in Birmingham New Street, feeling so incredibly nervous. Doing train journeys on my own don't faze me, but meeting 7 new people in the flesh? Something completely out of my comfort zone!! 
I know this sounds completely silly but I am anxious when I'm around people. I always feel that I'm being judged, I always feel like 'the fat girl' whoever I'm with; friends, colleagues, family. I feel that people are looking at me thinking 'Look at the fat girl, she's so big and ugly'. Completely stupid and negative right? But ye, that's how my mind works from years of being bullied at school for being overweight with ginger hair and glasses. But I'm hoping that this anxiety will lessen the more weight I lose and I become more confident in social situations.

Anyway, back to the meet. I was the last of our group to arrive, nerve wracking!! I alighted the train and set off to look for the meeting point we had arranged which was outside WHSmith. As I made my way towards it, I spotted my friends coming towards me through the bustle of people with big smiles on their faces. We quickly said our hello's and headed off for the nearest Wetherspoons! It was alittle weird finally seeing the group of fabulous people that I had been chatting to for months in real life but soon we were in the pub, drinking cocktails and laughing as if we had known each other for ages (well online we had!).

After a few drinks, we headed to the Restaurant that we had booked for lunch. And where did we go.... To an 'All You Can Eat' buffet of course! If you're going to have a cheat meal, you gota do it in style! We probably should have given them advance warning that a group of weight loss/dieters were going to be hitting their buffet though!
We went to a place called Jimmy Spices that did a selection of Mexican, Chinese, Indian and Mediterranean food. Although myself and another girl in the group were extremely disappointed that there was no prawn toast on the buffet menu though! But the chocolate fountain did kind of make up for it.

Once we had eaten our fill of buffet food and chocolate fountain we headed off to another Wetherspoons close by for more cocktails and a round of shots. By that time, 2 of the party had to make their way home so we said our goodbyes and the rest of us headed over to the nightclub Reflex. Albeit it was 5pm, clubs seem to open early in Birmingham for some reason! By 6pm we were burning off the buffet food by dancing our asses off to cheesy music although I had to give in and drink water by now. The last thing I wanted to do was miss my train or fall asleep and end up in Bournemouth! My train was due just gone 7 and before I knew it I had to say my goodbyes to the amazing people I had met and head home.

On the train home, I had time to reflect on the days events. I had met some truly inspirational and fantastic people who all shared the same up and down roller-coaster ride that comes with losing weight. We all got on famously well and we all had such a laugh together, my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much! We were all at different stages of our journey's but we all shared the same goals, the same dreams. To become happier, healthier people. 
On the way home, I wrote this which pretty much summed up the day:


We have already planned our next meet up for September and I can't wait!

Thank you to each and every one who came and for making it such a fabulous day. Bring on GateCrasher!!

Until next time

Much Love


Just Ems

Start Date: 7th October 2014
Highest Weight: 16 stone 2lbs - July 2014
Lowest Weight: 9 stone 12lbs - April 2009
Start Weight: 15 stone 8lbs - October 2014
Current Weight: Around 13 stone something
Total Weight Lost: 39lbs
Height 5'2

4 comments:

  1. So brave but great to hear you had a great time. Wetherspoon is always good hehe
    Mrsinlondon.co.uk

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    1. Thank you Mrs C for leaving a comment, Wetherspoons is always a good option for cheap cocktails!

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  2. What an awesome story and a great support team!

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    1. Aww thank you Rebecca! I've definitely found more support online than I have elsewhere

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