Helen's SW & Infertility Journey

HelenFS

Member
Hi there :sign0144:

I'm Helen, I'm 31 and I live in Yorkshire. I've recently rejoined SW after steadily putting back on weight that I'd lost through my own healthy lifestyle regime :cry:
In the past (since the age of 16) I've done WW and SW and had a fair bit of success. I've lost a lot of weight twice before (4 stones +) once was in my late teens and last time was a few years ago but I am determined that this time it will go and stay off forever!

I started putting the weight back on about 18 months ago when it was found that myself and my husband needed fertility treatment in order to conceive. I also had tons of tests at the time and it also emerged that I also had an overactive thyroid (it was my understanding that people with this lose weight! :mad: ) so I was put on medication to control this. The combination of the drugs suppressing my thyroid, 1 x IVF treatment and 2 x Frozen IVF treatments with a bumper batch of steroids to treat other immunological issues that were found (sound healthy don't I?!?:rolleyes: ) and me just thinking 'what the hell, I might as well just eat' have meant that the 4 stones all went back on (and I didn't get pregnant).

Anyway, I have decided that enough is enough! I'm back at Slimming World with my best friend and I've made the decision that I'm not having anymore fertility treatment until I'm at a decent weight. We don't get any funding for IVF in North Yorkshire currently so each cycle is costing thousands and thousands of pounds and it could be down to my weight that it has been unsuccessful...who knows? It is quite hard to have made the decision that I'm not having treatment until I have lost the weight but it's also a massive form of motivation too.

I don't know how I'll update this diary - whether it'll be a daily diary sharing food etc. or something different. All I know is that everyone seems very supportive here and I'd like to be part of that.

Tomorrow night is my 7th week of weigh ins so wish me luck! I've lost 17 lbs so far and I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to lose 2lbs this week as I'd like to do that until Christmas ideally.

Helen x
 
hi Helen, welcome to the forum, sound like you've had a great start to the plan.

Everyone is really friendly and helpful on here so keep posting. Good luck with your weight loss and for your future plans for fertility treatment.
 
i was a bit like u been over weight for most my life started trying for fam and then after lots of time and tests was told i had more chance winning lottery than falling preg only chance was ivf and i made a decision that i would not have fam started planning for this and that mostly holidays lost a good bit of weight then found out i was preg and 5 years after that lost weight again and what u think happened yes preg again and now i hope it dont happen again lol but then it would not be the end of the world if it did

Follow this link for instructions on how to add the awards :)

http://www.minimins.com/slimming-world/115729-sw-weight-loss-stickers.html
 
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Thanks evethewitch for your help with the stickers. I can only get one on at the moment because I don't have full posting priviledges as a newbie.
Wow your story is inspirational. While I don't think this will happen to me as there are fertility problems with both me and my husband, you never know! I'm going to lose the weight as there will be a much better success rate for the treatment if I'm lighter.
 
Well today is the dreaded WI! I go to a lovely group on the outskirts of my town. I'm sure it has been said before but there are always some real characters at SW meetings and I feel like I could write a book about some of the things they have said. :p

I know quite a few people at my group; as I said before, I go with my best friend, Katie, who I've known since we were 14. She has a lot of weight to lose too so we're are in it together. I also have another good friend, Rebecca, who has also done SW in the past, going. She works so hard doing shift work and has two young boys so I barely get to see her so knowing I'll see her at SW every week is brilliant. In addition to these friends I also have 3 mums from my school (oh the shame!). I'm a Primary School Teacher and I have taught all three of their children so when I first turned up 7 weeks ago we were all saying 'oh no how embarrassing' but it has actually been really good. One of the mums had already told me that she had had IVF treatment to have her twins (I taught one as a Year 5 and they are both such lovely children) as all the parents and staff at my school know. Apparently after my first week she had told the twins that I was at her group and they wanted to come along to see me as they've moved onto High School now - I thought this was so cute :D. The rest I see in school as they are in the PTA etc. so we catch up on how bad/good we are doing!

But, as yet, I've not shared the fact that I'm losing weight for IVF with the rest of the group at SW. I will do as it's not something I'm bothered about hiding.

Today is my Mum's 65th birthday :candle1: and after group we are going out for a meal. I'm mostly following EE so I'll probably have steak, potatoes and veg or something similar.

Fingers crossed for tonight for weigh in I need to get a good one to stay on track for my 2lbs a week till Christmas because this week is a fairly heavy week being half term. I'm going out with friends from school (that always sounds weird - colleagues!) and it'll involve quite a lot of drinking but maybe I can counteract this with a bit of dancing! :party0023: (I just really wanted to use this smilie!)

Helen x
 
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Just got back from my Mum's birthday meal and, of course, my WI!
I lost 4 lbs! :woohoo::bliss:
I'm chuffed with that! I've said that I wouldn't mind STS next week after meals out/nights out this week but in reality I'd like 2lbs to get my Club 10. Time will tell!


Helen xxx

Editing because in my excitement I forgot to add that I also got Slimmer of the Week and Slimmer of the Month (so that means I have got both Sept & Oct) and I got my 1 1/2 stone award! Very happy...
 
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Thanks evethewitch. I'm really hoping I can get the Club 10 award despite this week being a tough week as far as drinking is concerned! :break_diet:
I feel like the Club 10 award is something really tangible and the health benefits are good too!
Thanks for the support! Hope you are doing ok?
Helen x
 
Well done that is so fab. Hope everything goes well for you and that in no time at all you'll be going through the IVF and enjoying it. xxxx
 
well done on your weight loss so far:) I'm also on half term and it makes it a bit harder to stick to plan when i'm at home.

Hope you get your 2 lb loss this week:)
 
First of all thanks to Bayside and Pinktiger for your words of encouragement :)

Half term is proving to be a disaster! :cry:Well, not entirely as I was having a lovely week off although not really doing so well with my diet as I think I must have drank the equivalent of 60 syns in cocktails on Wednesday night.

On Thursday night the plan was I was having a quiet one...my youngest sister Eleanor came round and we had a bit of a girlie night playing wii sports and catching up. My OH was meant to be going out for a few drinks but he comes home after work with pain in his stomach. I'll just fast forward the next 12 hours as it involves me being all cross with him for sneakily restarting taking that alli 'wonderdrug' :mad: and me blaming that! Anyway, by Friday morning the pain was horrific so I took him to casualty where it was decided he had appendicitis (I felt very guilty :() and he had it removed last night at 6pm poor bloke. I got home last night about 11pm having eaten nothing all day but a few Percy Pigs from a pick n mix selection I'd taken in for him so of course I literally attacked the fridge. :break_diet:


There is no way I will get Club 10 on Tuesday now but these things happen. More importantly, Jamie is fine and is apparently chomping his way through a tub M & S biscuits (is it just me or do others buy really bad things for other people as a way of compensating for not being able to eat them?!) and watching the Grand Prix. I still think the alli tablets were in someway to blame...if he wants to lose any more weight when he is fully recovered then he will be joining me on SW!

I'm heading off to the hospital so bye for now :D

xxx
 
Aww bless, I hope you are both feeling better soon. I wouldn't take "Alli" if it was the last resort after taking Xenical for about 2 months a few years back as it can really mess with your system and you may be right with it having something to do with him ending up in hospital. Why are men hell bent on loosing weight by cheating?

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you xx
 
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