Have you decided this new year that you want to shed a few pounds? If so, maybe we can help.
Mary Watkins runs the Slimming World groups at All Saints Church Hall in Crowborough. But in the world of weight loss, she’s also a bit of a star. She has been Slimming World’s Top Target Consultant and her story has been shared in national newspapers, magazines and Slimming World’s digital platforms. In October she was asked by The Sun newspaper to answer reader questions as a weight loss expert. So, we asked her to share a few tips…
Mary joined Slimming World as a member in June 2016. As the mum of two small children she felt she needed to get in control of her weight to best keep up with them. She said: “Freddie was about to start school. He never noticed my size but I worried that other children would and might tease him about it.
“I was 17stone when I joined Slimming World. I’d tried lots of way to lose weight in the past, all of them left me feeling hungry and miserable until I eventually gave up and inevitably regained the weight. I had an unhealthy relationship with weight loss until I found Slimming World. I thought feeling hungry and lightheaded meant that it would be working.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the group, but walking through those doors to a warm, welcoming group changed my life. I found a way to eat and drink the foods I loved without going hungry, feed my family and achieve my weight loss goals at the same time. It was amazing.”
Within a year Mary lost seven stone and has now maintained that weight loss for nearly nine years.
She became a consultant in 2017 in order to help other people in the community lose weight in healthy, supported and sustainable ways. In 2024 she was named as Slimming World’s Top Target Consultant and as well as being featured in national newspapers and magazines, she has also appeared as a guest on BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey.
Here are some of Mary’s Top Tips for successful weight loss
To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit, that’s just science. You need to be eating less calories than you are burning each day. But that doesn’t mean you need to eat less, be hungry or feel deprived. You can actually eat lots more! But eat more of the right things. Food Optimising, Slimming World’s healthy eating plan, teaches you which foods you can eat as much of as you like. They are bulky, filling, healthy choices which you can safely fill up on and be getting the calorie deficit which supports weight loss. It also teaches you which foods you need to limit, and by how much. You don’t need to cut them out completely, because a little of what you fancy is a good thing. But too much high calorie foods/drinks will cause weight gain. It teaches you what a healthy, balanced diet really looks like.
So here are some ideas:
- Fill at least a third of your plate with vegetables at every meal. They are your lowest calorie, lowest energy density foods, but bulky and filling and a great source of nutrition.
- Get a good amount of protein into your meals. It keeps you fuller for longer and helps your lean muscle mass too. Meat, poultry, beans, lentils, Quorn, tofu, eggs and yoghurt are great sources of protein. Trim the fat off your meat, remove the skin from poultry and choose fat free, natural yoghurt.
- Try to get 3 good meals a day. Then choose fruit or vegetables as snacks in between meals. Often the foods that are causing weight gain are the things we consume in between meals.
- Get a good variety of food, especially plant based and wholegrain foods. Not only do they fill you up for fewer calories, but the variety is really good for your gut health which helps your whole digestive system work well.
- Move a bit more. Just adding in an extra 5 minutes a day makes a difference. And find something you enjoy. One of the things I love about my role as a consultant is supporting members to become more active. The things they start doing that they would never have dreamed of doing before, participating where once they might have watched from the sidelines. It is so rewarding.
- Get some support. Lasting weight loss success takes long term habit changes and changing the way we think and feel about certain foods and drinks. That’s not easy and takes support. Any weight loss programme will work as long as we keep following it, but our motivation and commitment can dip. That’s what can stop us losing weight. If we haven’t worked on the habits that caused us to be overweight in the first place, then it can result in us putting the weight back on. That is where a group like Slimming World can be an absolute game changer. Having the support of a consultant and like-minded people to help us with the trickier times, identify unhelpful habits and build new lifelong healthy habits to successfully maintain our weight loss for good.
Mary runs award winning Slimming World groups at All Saints Church Parish Halls Thursdays 9.30am, 11am, 5.30pm and 7pm. Fridays 9.30am and 11am. For more information contact Mary on 07738 014528, or just come along to a group if you would like her help.