{"id":12334,"date":"2025-04-09T14:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T13:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12334"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:18:39","slug":"matthew-paul-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/matthew-paul-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cVideo games and junk food caused my weight to spiral out of control…\u201d\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s the London Marathon on Sunday 27th April, and as that colourful crowd of runners streams over the capital\u2019s iconic Tower Bridge, you might just spot some of our amazing Slimming World team.     <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Paul, 26, has lost 5st 8lbs (35kg) with Slimming World, and will be running to raise money for Alzheimer\u2019s Research UK. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d been overweight for most of my life. When I was younger, I was in a cycle of eating whatever pre-packaged food I could get my hands on and playing video games \u2013 I had a very sedentary lifestyle. While I felt horrible about myself a lot of the time, I didn\u2019t have the willpower to make changes that would improve my life and help me to lose weight. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"feel<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Looking back, being overweight affected me in a lot of ways, but I didn\u2019t recognise it at the time. I\u2019d struggle to do physical tasks, and at school I would stay inside while the other kids played games at lunchtime as I knew I couldn\u2019t keep up. During my teenage years, my confidence was through the floor, so I spent all my time playing video games instead of having fun with my friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d previously been a Slimming World<\/a> member and reached my target weight, but I put the weight back on and then some after I returned to university and then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. I rejoined with my mum after seeing photos of myself on a family holiday in Orlando and realising how much I\u2019d let myself go. I needed to find my motivation again.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Race<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

My Consultant, Donna, welcomed us to group, and I could tell from the very first morning that my mindset had shifted \u2013 I knew I was going to lose weight and keep it off this time. With this determination and the encouragement from my fellow group members, I gave it my all.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slimming World\u2019s healthy eating plan, Food Optimising<\/a>, was easy to understand and really kept me motivated throughout my weight loss journey. I\u2019ve swapped my lunchtime pastries and muffins for leftover home-cooked meals from the night before, and my regular takeaways for Slimming World fakeaways like chicken korma or burgers with wedges and salad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always loved watching sports, but I used to focus on my lack of ability and how I\u2019d never be able to play competitively rather than joining in for fun. When I heard about Slimming World\u2019s activity support programme, Body Magic,<\/a> I knew I wanted to get involved and find an activity perfect for me. It helped me to realise that being active isn\u2019t about being the best at everything; it\u2019s about doing what you love and gradually building on it. Now I can\u2019t imagine a life without doing some form of physical activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll be running the London Marathon in aid of Alzheimer\u2019s Research UK, a charity which does brilliant work in the treatment and prevention of dementia. Every three minutes dementia steals a happily ever after, and I want to do everything I can to help everyone affected by this condition.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew attends the Glenrothes Baptist Church Slimming World group in Glenrothes Fife, run by Consultant Donna Graham.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re feeling inspired to give running a go, you\u2019ll find a step-by-step training plan on our exclusive member website and app. Start today<\/a> and you could join us running Race for Life this summer!<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slimming World\u2019s activity support programme helped Matthew switch his sedentary lifestyle for an active one \u2013 and build it up gradually <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25,14,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334"}],"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=12334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15852,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334\/revisions\/15852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}