Hello, welcome to Slim and World podcast to this the very first podcast of 2025. Hope you have had a spiffing new year. Spiffing you here. Welcome. I'm Anna and this is the gorgeous Claire and we are the Slim and World podcast, as Claire said.
Yeah, so Anna, consultant of many years experience. 15 years this year, Claire. Been a member for 26. It's cut me in half and it does say Slim and World all the way down. And I remember as well. So we are here to talk about the support side of Slim and World. And as you can tell, we are in my kitchen. We're kind of doing a filming tour. Is that what we're calling this podcast?
I don't know. It is what we are now. We're a podcast film on tour. So over the next few weeks, you get to get the choice really of watching us or listening to us. If you're on Apple, podcasts, Spotify, you can listen to us on your car drives, on your dog walks, pounding it at the gym, whenever you want, or you can sit back, get a cup of tea and watch us on your big telly on YouTube.
love this. There is somewhere that you can get us anywhere on the go or in your home so do tune in and keep watching.
Okay, so today, a really exciting subject in that we're kind of peeling the onion layers of what Slimming World is about. And today, something that not everybody knows about what Slimming World is about, the support and the community side. So for those people who have never been to Slimming World, what do we mean when we talk about community support? This word group that people talk about.
So we run weekly groups for our members and they are scattered across the country, Ireland, Cyprus and each week we have sessions for our members to come along and attend and learn about the ways to change their habits, learn about different ways to cook and get that emotional support to make long-term habit change and they really do become that kind of centre stone of your journey because I always think the support structure is so important on those good weeks but also on those weeks that we know are inevitable, those hard weeks, those weeks where it does feel tough.
So these sessions are tailored to each member individually, but we come together as a big collective to inspire and motivate each other. Yeah, and the other suppose the thing is that so many of us have made great friends. We've almost got our Slimming World family. Exactly. Yeah, all those years ago, you walked into my group as a member and now look, was that a kitchen counter? Again, those relationships that are established, that are
the support system that get you through that those those times which without the group you wouldn't make it through your weight loss journey and we have a good old laugh and we learn and we we discover new things about ourselves and other people yeah so that's the kind of idea of what the group is about and the community but
We're really excited because actually today as we announce this podcast, there is some hot new research out from Slimming World. And it talks about this feeling that new members go through by the time they finish their very first group. So we're going to bring in our guest Laura Holloway researcher. I've got to get this right at Slimming World's nutrition research and health team. How are you?
I am great. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you for coming to our kitchen. So Laura, tell us about this. You've been keeping this under your hat for a year. When you started exploring this kind of feeling that new members go through, what were the initial ideas of what you were hoping to see or what you were starting out looking at?
So we, as you say, it was exactly a year ago, we did the survey. Throughout January, 2024, we asked members to complete the survey, new members, and we wanted to understand how people feel when they come to Slim and World Group, you know, right before they walk through those doors.
and we wanted to know how they feel straight after when they leave their first slim and world group and also everything that happens in between of that what is happening to their confidence the confidence in themselves their motivation their self-belief
must have been so exciting to see all these things we've probably anticipated, but I bet there's a few things that you uncovered that you had no idea you were going to uncover when you started this research. Absolutely. It was a real mixed bag. We found that when people come to a group for the first time, they come and you walk through those doors and you're feeling
exhausted, fed up, desperate even, and you're feeling out of control. Members told us that they were worried for their health, you know, they had aches, pains, they were feeling low, anxious even and stressed, and they didn't like the way they looked. And they told us that they really did not believe that they could ever lose weight. And
They didn't think that Slim and World would work for them. But despite all of this, they still, they took that massive step and came to group. And we found such a big change happen in just those 90 minutes. And it was fascinating to see people left that group feeling confident for the first time in a long time that they could actually lose weight. And they knew that Slim and World would be there to help them every step of the way.
I don't know if it resonated with you, but you've just described every feeling I had as a new member. I sat in the car park of six groups because I was so terrified of the way I felt and what I was going to encounter. And just to know in 90 minutes, such a profound change has felt. So how did people feel after the 90 minutes?
So they left that group feeling confident, confident for the first time in a long time. They felt confident in themselves that they could lose the weight, but also confident in slimming world. They, after hearing about how it works, after seeing the support, they believed that slimming world would help them get to their dream weight.
And they felt motivated. It was one thing that as we all know, you know, it can be hard to get the motivation to take that first step and to make those healthy changes. Yet when they left their first group, they did. They felt motivated and they were full of inspiration. And for the first time, they were feeling positive about their weight and their journey moving forward.
Yeah, and you look at this time of year, isn't it? It does present that fresh start, that chance to draw a line and just really see where am I now? And the thing is, exactly what you were saying, Anna, you're talking there about feeling fed up and worried and often I would think, am I not normal? I thought I could fix this myself. I'd spent years struggling and years, not even talking about it with anybody, just privately battling with myself.
And you know it wasn't that I wanted like almost like a quick fix like I want to lose the weight and be done. I wanted to find a way that I could make my my weight work with me and my lifestyle. I wanted to find a way that it would fit in with me.
because you know my life can be up and down and it's busy and it's different and sometimes you feel that if you could want to go on a weight loss journey that you have to give it all your attention and you know it can be quite exhausting and you know you hit that wall which is where I got to when I was on my own and then I don't know where to go and this idea I think that you know with the research it talks about helping people navigate life's natural up and down
and often I would be doing really great for a while and I'd hit that first hurdle and I wouldn't know how to like navigate that and that I think was really key if for me understanding why I needed the support because I'll be honest I didn't really realise that I knew I needed support. I didn't yeah and to be it's that very thing if I could only get so far on my own until I activated that support because you can feel like this is another stressor if you haven't got that support but being able to be around people who get it
because I felt lonely, isolated, no one had ever been cheating like I'd been cheating, no one had ever been the way I'd ever been. So I am feeling a sense of like, okay, they get it. And that's a really reassuring feeling, but like you said, no one needed that until I got it.
Well, I would say, you know, if you're watching or listening to this, maybe hit pause at this moment and grab your journal, because I'm going to throw a couple of questions at you, just to challenge you and see if you can capture what your answers would be. Because we'll talk about what the research says and what common answers were. But I want to throw this to you to think about where you're at. And, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're a member or you're not a member, you've never had a slimmer world before. You can do this. We love doing journal exercises. Best way to start a new year, new journal, new pen.
you pen? Yeah, but you don't want to knew a pen because you need a pen that you know how it's going to work. Yeah, you need to know that muscle memory of your pen. Okay, hopefully you've got your journal now. So here's a couple of questions, okay? For those who have been a part of the Sunwell community for a while, what difference has being supported by the Sunwell community meant for you and your weight loss journey?
Are there people? Are there moments that you had be that in group or conversations or recipes or situations that you worked through that you finally had that breakthrough moment? Just take a bit of time to capture that. And the other one, you know, potentially you could be in this situation right now, you know, thinking back to before you came to group.
before you remember a slimming world, what words would you use to describe how you were feeling at the time? I think that is really, sometimes it can be difficult for us to go back into some of those emotions, but that's the only way that we really start to recognize our progress or our journey and sometimes it can just start with, I think you say, don't you, being 1% better?
Yeah and I think recognising how you feel right now even if it is really low or sad or terrified as you won't feel like that once you've kind of ripped that plaster off but it can be so many of those feelings that stop you doing it and as you were saying it I was just remembering back to how sad I felt, how broken I felt, how
A shame I felt and actually that burden being lifted. I'm a totally different person now because that burden's been lifted and I don't think you always recognise what you're carrying on your shoulders when you struggle with your weight, when you're burdened with that because you have this learnt response to life, don't you?
And I was just thinking about what the changes that group gave to me, it made me able to live again in a way that felt a little bit freer, a little bit like I was owning my life rather than my weight was dictating it. So it's quite a humbling experience to go back and look at how you maybe you felt before and how you feel now. Cause we're, you know, we've lost our weight, haven't we? And now we're on the kind of part of maintaining that. And that's a different feeling, but you forget how far you've come sometimes, don't you?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, the other question that you asked as part of the research, Laura, was you asked members, if you could tell your old self one thing, what would it be? And I was like, oh, that's another good journal question, isn't it? Because it's so personalised. You know, what you would tell your old self might not work for me, but there definitely were some themes that you spotted in your research.
there were some really clear themes actually so many members said that they would tell their old selves to go sooner and they were it was almost like they were arguing with themselves and asking themself why didn't you go sooner why didn't you just do it and we know what that's like that you know it is taking that final push to get there and
members felt so much better when they when they did get there when they got through those doors. Another thing that they said they'd tell themselves is it's not at all what you'd expect and I think we've all heard things about slimming clubs and we've seen the sketch shows you know when they were telling themselves it's nothing like that you know you walk into that room and there is no judgement
There's no humiliation and there's no put downs and they were saying all there is is just genuine support with a bunch of friendly like-minded people that are all in it together all going through the same thing.
Yeah, it's funny. We interviewed Samuil's man of the year 2024, Matt Flanagan a few weeks ago, didn't we? And if you want to listen to that episode, it's called the ripple effect. And I mean, he's lost an incredible amount of weight, wasn't it? Like 15, 16 stone. But he talked about how we was breaking his journey down into smaller goals. But the key thing that really stood out for him in that interview for me was how he talked about, we said how we were sharing things with some of our
like mates and group that probably we hadn't actually told our family or friends. I see that week in week out in group people sharing the most personal thoughts and feelings because they feel so safe and amongst people that understand because I think what Matt was saying was that there are so many people in his life that didn't understand his struggles with his weight but he came into Slimming World and they all got it and again a thing that stopped me was my thought process of what's this gonna be like I was scared and I remember this feeling of relief
Wow, these people are just normal, they're just like me and they're having a good time. I remember really seeing that, the laughter, the joy in their achievements and that wasn't what I'd kind of let be led to believe in my head I think.
yeah and it's funny you say the word safe there that was something that really came out in the research that members did say they felt so safe you know they they walked through the door and they said instantly they felt a connection with the other people in the group which is lovely to think that that can happen that quickly and they said you know it felt like everyone's we're all in it together and
They felt that the members truly understood them and they could relate to the other members. And so many said these new members were inspired by the other members. They loved hearing about their advice, the advice they'd give, the tips. They loved watching them get the rewards, reach the milestones, all these things that were building their confidence.
And what was really lovely was they said that they could tell that those other members in the group were rooting for them. They were wanting them to do well and that they would be behind them supporting them the whole way.
Do you know what, also I think it's really key that you see in group is that it's not a straight line. I think that's what really helped me seeing people, how they struggled if they'd had a bump in the road or it wasn't going so well and how the other people around them offered the support and the ideas and the consultant helped facilitate change. Because I think we often have a preconceived notion that it's got to be like, we've got to be perfect and we often talk about this, don't we? That it's got to be straight down the line and the pounds have got to fall off every single week and sometimes it just doesn't work like that. So I think seeing in a group that
People are there on the good weeks and the bad weeks is a really important thing, isn't it? Yeah, I think as well. The research showed us that before they came to Slim & World, members, the people, they didn't even feel like they could, would ever get that control.
And they didn't feel like they could manage those things that got in the way. And straight after that first group, all of a sudden they felt like they could manage those things. And that, as you say, that's down to the tips that come from the other members and the advice.
I think for me, it was hearing about food. Like, I'm a food, we're foodies, aren't we, Claire? Like eating, hearing about the food that we could eat, the things that we could enjoy, the fact that you could still be with your friends and go out, the fact that you could, you know, still have a roast with your family. That can be a burden that's lifted because I know I've done many different things to lose weight over the years and restriction and things that didn't fit in with my lifestyle, the only way I felt I could lose weight. And I can imagine for new members hearing all that luscious food that we get to eat, that must have been quite a reassuring feeling.
Yeah, absolutely. And that was, we asked new members, when did they feel they noticed a change in their self-belief and their self-confidence? And actually, the key moment to come out of that was listening to their consultant talk through the plan and listening to how Slim & World works.
You know, they were amazed that they can eat real food and they can still eat the food they love and they're not going to have to go hungry and they can actually lose weight. That was such a key moment for them. Yeah, I mean, the other point that people were saying was, you know, telling the old self that your theme that came out was,
you know get to know the plan and embrace it. I remember reading that in the research and and that's I think also another thing that can help with the support is getting these tips of what do you do for breakfast and what are you doing for tea and when you go out with your family for meals what do you do what do you pick on the menu and you know the pack that comes with similar world is one thing but also the app
With the recipes, the barcode scanner, there's all that support online, I think, which also helps, whether you're a group member or you're an online member. That's also included in your membership, so there's plenty to get in there. I mean, I actually love, in my spare time, when I'm trying to avoid doing work.
Don't let my boss watch this. I am the boss. Yeah, but I often do quizzes on the app. Yeah, I thought you were like sculling because my favorite thing when I've got 10 minutes. No, I like going to a shop and be like, yes, the number is in a free food. That's what I like.
With that knowledge, I think, you know, you take in initially, there is obviously quite a lot to get your head around, I suppose, with the plan. We have to be honest about that. And having your consultant there, if you're a group member, is really good support. But there's plenty of other things to read, list to. I mean, we have got like, gosh, probably like 300 and something podcasts. So you can always find something in our podcast back catalogue.
But what do they mean by getting to know the plant embrace? Can you expand upon what people were telling you about that?
so yeah they were really telling themselves don't rush into this as you say there is so much to get your head around and go home take that people were saying read through your books you know don't try and rush through this understand it plan your days you know get to know what your sin allowance is and and what foods you like what foods you might want to swap and
It was really just practical advice to help them get through those initial first few weeks, really. I think they were concerned at the start that they might not be able to follow it, as I said.
actually hearing it and you know being able to really embrace it and really take the time to understand what they're doing just then made their journey so much easier from then out. I think you get the new member talk don't you and you hear it if you're an online member and then what you see in Group and on the online community is it come to life because it's like me giving you this list in this book and then you hear people how they are you know still making their favourite curry how they're still going out how they've incorporated you know activity in their life and
It's knowing that you've got all the support there. All you've got to do is just utilise it, haven't you? And that kind of midweek support from the app and the website, the activity videos, you, I remember you very clearly as a member being such a diligent member. You would read the book, you'd use the app and actually, and I love that, that's what I mean. But I find that that's been so important in your success because you've never sat on your lower, you've utilised every bit of support that has been for you so that you never got bored, you never got stale and you've always asked for help as well.
I think the key thing where I'd got stuck previously was I thought I had that diet mentality of I can only eat this and I don't know I'd put on with these kind of restrictions on my mind and there was so much that I'd never tried and never eaten and when you look at the pack and see
You know, we went into a little bit more detail last week with our real food episode. If you want to listen to that about the food optimizing plan, but just the variety of what we call free food, which you can eat, you know, as much as you want. The free food was where it unlocked a level for me. I mean, even the other week, Matt bought home. What was it? A papaya. A papaya. Yeah.
I was like, what's that? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit? Can I eat a skit?
yeah maybe an apple but I just thought fruit wasn't for me and I just deleted it and then as an adult I was reintroducing it and so when are we first started well I was going to your group wasn't it and we was like became a sing word Claire tries a new fruit it was like a bush duck a trial on a Saturday but then this face of a light cheap but I think what you got from the light cheap looks weird probably honest but you got from the group that she's
she hasn't tried these things let's help her broaden her horizons like your eye remember very clearly the cooking that you've started to do how you've branched out like but you've learned those things in group but you've been very open to receive that information as well and ask which i've loved to watch it a hundred percent that when i joined slimwell i don't think i really knew how to cook no and so many people don't and i think yeah yeah and i that as a consultant is a beautiful thing to see people who come in with very little confidence
don't know where to start. And actually, with things like some more kitchen, things like our ranger Iceland, they kind of try new things and they get the recipes and they adapt it and they change it. And now you go around to Clairs and you don't know what gourmet meal. I mean, I'm sat in a cupboard right now and the spices that are wafting from this cupboard, you wouldn't have had six years ago. But I really think you've learned so many different things through that, haven't you? I mean, I love it. And it was listening to this on all day. They're now picturing Anna sat in a cupboard. Well, I am. I'm not that mean to you.
It's just my thighs were too big not to be in the cupboard. That's where we went. But look at your cupboards. You would have never have had them six years ago. Yeah, I've got a spice rack now. I mean, that is the epitome of adulting. I've got kitchen roll and a spice rack. That's how you know you've grown up.
So that's just kind of maybe round this off with the most powerful bit, I think, of the advice that most members have said. So if you could tell your old self one thing, what would it be? This bit, I think, was key. Stick with it, don't give up.
I mean, how many times could we look and tell ourselves that? Because I was there. I was that yo-yo dighter for years. I'd get on it, then I'd lose it, and I'd get on it, and I'd lose it. And I think the most powerful thing that I've got over the last five or six years is finding that steady consistency. And consistency, I've realized, that's success for me.
Definitely. Yeah. And it's interesting because those that were saying stick with it, because the people who completed the survey, we had brand new members that had never been to Slim and Well before, but we also had members who had been with us before. And, you know, when they were really looking back at their old selves, where they hadn't carried it on as long as they would have wanted, and they were saying, no, this time you must stick with it because you've got the support to get you there and just keep on going. And
you will learn to manage those things that you are struggling with and those people in the group you can sort and will help you get there. That's a really good spot. It's you don't feel like you can change your behavior and if someone had told size 22 and a binge eating Anna that I'd be where I am today I wouldn't have believed her but it was my group and my consultant that allowed me the space and the time to make those changes at my pace and it's having that belief and that because you always want to carry on and I say this as someone who rejoined so many times but
your fear gets in the way your self-limiting beliefs get in the way but if you can see it through is where you get to the point where you continually kind of happy in where you want to be.
Yeah. Oh my god. Well, I mean, this is brilliant research. It's going to be on the Slimmerworld website if people want to read that. We'll probably be on the blog as well, I imagine. Laura, thank you so much for coming to my kitchen. No, thank you for having me. I loved it. Right. We will be back next week. We're doing another film one. The film tour continues and guess where we'll be in your kitchen, probably.
I feel like I need a son for that. Amy, kick his chin. Yeah, we need no jingle. Yeah, next week, we are talking real results. Yes. We have got, I mean, when I say a flurry of listener comments, I mean a flurry. We love hearing from the listeners. And again, what you're going to hear is really inspirational stuff. Yeah. We're looking at that question. Another one for your journal of, aside from the scales, what have you got out of your slim and world journey or your weight loss journey?
And I think that really take away the numbers. Think about how losing weight can really impact your life. It's incredibly powerful. Some amazing stories to share. So do join us on that. You can hit subscribe on YouTube if you're watching us on there. Follow us in all the other places and we look forward to seeing you. Come and have a look at our behind the scenes footage as well. We'll share some.
on our Instagram at Slim and World podcast and we may even sprinkle a little bit if they think that we've been good on the main Slim and World channel. We're off to top the coffee, you crack on and enjoy the rest of your strange week, whether that be back at work at school or just enjoying another cup of tea on you so far. Take care. Bye for now.
