Slimming World helped me lose 4.5lbs in a week – Elise Brewerton

It is not very often I make a prediction and it comes true. But, fortunately, this time I’ve been proved right. 

If you flick back through last week’s column – you’ve saved it, surely? – you’ll see that I foretold putting on weight would actually give me the kick up the rump I needed to lose those last few stubborn pounds. 

So, rather than loosely sticking to the Slimming World plan, I stuck to it rigidly and tripped off the scales 4.5lbs lighter at last week’s weigh-in. But I was so delighted it could have been 4.5st.

I went to sleep that night with a grin on my face. 

Body positivity, no matter what size or shape you are, is a wonderful thing.

And you absolutely should love yourself and your curves – or lack of them – just the way you are. Fat, thin, it doesn’t matter, as long as you are happy. 

I tell my stepdaughters that all the time.

They are gorgeous, sylphlike young things just starting to worry about body image.

At the moment they spend their time doing back-flips, headstands and cartwheels, full of enough energy to burn off the mountains of chocolate they consume, within minutes. 

But I’m afraid I can’t help feeling troubled by my extra pounds, even though I know it’s pure vanity. I’m not obese, I just want to look like me again. I want my old clothes to fit, I don’t want to be floored if I go for a run, and I don’t want to look older than my years. I’m too close to 40 for my liking anyway. 

I know I should be embracing my curves but I would just like to have a little less to embrace. And I’ve got just three more weeks to do it.