{"id":1103,"date":"2020-05-18T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slimmingworld.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2021-11-08T14:08:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T14:08:15","slug":"i-gave-up-my-dream-job-after-a-comment-about-my-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/i-gave-up-my-dream-job-after-a-comment-about-my-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"“I gave up my dream job after a comment about my weight”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWow, was that you?\u201d My cabin mate looked at the old photo of a much slimmer me, then looked me up and down. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure she didn\u2019t mean to be cruel, but I felt crushed and humiliated. I already felt out of place in my new job in a cruise ship\u2019s spa. I should\u2019ve been living the dream, but it was hard being surrounded by guests happily walking around in their swimwear, when I felt so uncomfortable in mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leaving school and entering the world of work had been the start of my weight struggles. My first job in a beauty salon meant working long hours and grabbing junk food to keep me going. There was a lot of chat about body size and weight loss, and I\u2019d get sucked into trying the latest fad diets \u2013 from diet shakes to cutting out entire food groups. None of these \u2018quick fixes\u2019 worked, of course. At 19, I was offered the cruise ship job, but I quickly realised that it wasn\u2019t the right environment for me. Within six weeks, I\u2019d quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back home, I didn\u2019t go out much. This worried my parents, but I didn\u2019t want to risk bumping into old school friends who\u2019d notice how much weight I\u2019d gained. If my friends invited me on a night out, I\u2019d sometimes agree \u2013 but when I started trying on outfits, I\u2019d feel so bad about the way I looked that I\u2019d convince myself not to go after all. I was constantly putting myself down, which made me feel even worse and led to me going out even less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My turning point came after a holiday with my dad when I was 21. Looking at the photos, I didn\u2019t recognise myself, and I even told myself that Dad must be ashamed to have me as a daughter. Obviously, this wasn\u2019t true, but the fact that my opinion of myself was so low showed me that I needed to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I resolved to lose weight and start feeling like myself again. With the support of my family, friends and boyfriend, Sam, I joined Slimming World and started Food Optimising. I quickly learnt that losing weight didn\u2019t have to mean depriving myself \u2013 no food was off limits. I could even have my usual weekend takeaway. I learnt in group which main meals were lower in Syns, then I made my own Slimming World-friendly noodles or egg fried rice to eat with them at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also started adding some activity to my week. Mum knew how my weight gain had zapped my confidence and, keen to support me, she started joining me for walks. To begin with, I struggled to keep up with her, but before long I was running and leaving Mum behind!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, my weight loss journey had some obstacles along the way. I\u2019d been going to group with a good friend but, after nine months, he moved away. I\u2019d lost 4st 3lbs and, as I was so close to target, I convinced myself I didn\u2019t need group any more. I stopped going, and very quickly slipped back into my old eating habits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realised that I needed the new meal ideas from fellow members, and the members\u2019 website, to stop me getting stuck in a food rut. I also needed the support from group to keep me going \u2013 even more so, now that my friend had moved away. Not wanting to undo everything I\u2019d achieved, I rejoined and started trying new food ideas. A few months later, I hit my 10st 6lb target!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spending time with the other members at group each week was the key to keeping me focused and confident. It really is a fantastic community. We laugh and cry, face challenges and celebrate achievements together. Being part of a supportive group makes it much easier to believe in yourself and each other. I definitely don\u2019t talk myself down any more. Instead, I feel so proud of how far I\u2019ve come. It\u2019s a long way from how I felt on that cruise ship \u2013  and even further away from thinking that my own dad must be ashamed of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted the old Olivia back and now she\u2019s here, ready to take on the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Olivia<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mind your language<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, Olivia isn\u2019t alone in getting into the habit of putting herself down. We know this is something many slimmers struggle with \u2013 and something that we strive to reverse by surrounding the member with genuine care, support and positivity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Slimming World Mind Your Language report<\/a> looks at our research into how negative comments from others, including friends, family and colleagues \u2013 as well as negative comments that we make about ourselves, can affect weight loss success. It really brought home the message that kindness \u2013 including being kind to yourself \u2013 is key to breaking that negative cycle. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is something that you struggle with, like Olivia did, you\u2019ll find so much support at your local Slimming World group <\/a>\u2013 or in our online Community for members of Slimming World Online<\/a>. We will help you find that sparkly Slimming World feeling<\/a> of self-confidence, pride and excitement for a fantastic feel-good future.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 has a kindness theme –
\nreminding us of the importance of being kind to ourselves and others. After an unkind comment led to quitting her job on a cruise ship, Olivia\u2019s confidence was at an all-time low. Slimming World support helped bring back her sparkle <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}