Danielle C.

Background

I’ve done so many diets over the past 20 years and had reasonable success with Slimming World and then even more so with Weight Watchers where I lost 10 stone.

I even went on to become a Weight Watchers leader in 2011 for 2 years successfully coaching members how to follow the plan, but what I’ve realised over time in recent years is that the big problem with these more restrictive approaches to weight loss requiring you to count calories, points or syns, is that they just aren’t sustainable in the long term.

They’re just not flexible enough so they tend to go out of the window when life takes over!

In the past I was either ‘on’ or ‘off’ the plans and as soon as I was ‘off’ the plans, I would think ‘well I’ve ruined my day/week/month’ and go back to my old habits and even though I enjoy cooking healthier food, I would often find myself relying on quick, often processed food and craving comfort foods.

Once my weight started to creep up again, I felt bad and was comfort eating more and more, then would feel guilty every time and this cycle would just repeat, and repeat. I just couldn’t get out of this rut and get motivated again. I tried many times to go back to Weight Watchers, but just found that I was failing all the time and because all the leaders knew I had lost weight with them before, they would say things like “you’ve done it once, you know what you’re doing.” This really didn’t help me as I always felt a failure and couldn’t ever understand why I fell off plan so much. None of it made sense.

Why Gisèle so Well?

Vicky’s 80:20 lifestyle and completely flexible approach to healthy eating seemed much more sensible and with a big focus on mindset to work on improving my relationship with food and body image, I thought I’d give it a try.

I have a very demanding job as a healthcare manager and throughout 2020 juggling work, our two boys and home was taking it’s toll on my health, I also was poorly with COVID in April 2020 leaving me with long lasting fatigue and extreme pains in my head, which left me feeling weak and no energy to take care of myself. I know my unhealthy lifestyle choices did not help my fight against COVID. There just weren’t enough hours in the day for me but I thought the Autumn Reset would be ideal and help me focus on my health for the first time in a very long time!

What’s changed for you?

This was a totally refreshing approach to weight loss focusing on mindset as much as providing practical nutrition advice and small changes to live a healthier life. Each week online we learned more about self-care and how to eat better, such as how to manage portion sizes, create balanced plates for meals and make healthy snacks. I’ve never been very good at eating breakfast but loved the recipes, especially the smoothies, overnight oats and breakfast flapjacks.

 As I said In the past I have tried a lot of diets, but with the 90/10 approach, I never feel deprived and the whole family are enjoying more healthy, plant-based meals. It’s made my weeks feel more realistic and achievable and now. I don’t feel bad when having my Friday night glass of wine or a takeaway, I just enjoy it.

 I’m walking every day and doing yoga more regularly, my energy levels have improved and so far I’ve lost 16lbs. I know I might have lost more weight when doing other weight loss plans however I never found that it fitted into my family life or that I would be able to sustain a ridged plan like I have with the Gisèle so Well approach.

I’ve really never felt so empowered to make small changes for healthy goals and I think I’ve learnt to love myself more and not just think of the weight loss.