Birthday blues

NYP: How did you discover The New You Plan?

Debbie: Through Facebook, I was just scrolling through Facebook. It was quite ironic actually because it was my birthday, and on my 30th birthday celebration, my friend has sent me a lot of pictures from the day. I was a little bit mortified by the way I looked. I was trying to lose weight before for ages but it just didn’t seem to click, to be honest. And I have seen The New You Plan coming up and I just thought well I might as well give it a go. It’s another one to try to see if it works.

NYP: How long have you been on the plan?

Debbie: I started on the 7th of June last year

NYP: And how much have you lost Debbie? Are you close to your goal?

Debbie: I am 2 pounds off of 5 stone! I went way past my goal though! So I started the plan on the 7th of June and I hoped to lose a stone or 2 by August because I had a family wedding to go to. It was people I haven’t seen in a while and my goal was just to lose a bit before the wedding just to feel better about myself. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go to the wedding due to my daughter having Covid. But at that point, I had already lost 2 stone and I just kept going and going. The next part of my goal is to get to my 5 stone mark and have a look at the SWITCH plan after to maintain it.

NYP: That’s amazing Debbie, can you please describe to me how you felt before starting the plan?

Debbie: I felt really emotional, ugly, fat and depressed. I have tried everything before, I have tried Weight Watchers, healthy eating, everything and nothing seemed to be clicking and I felt like they don’t work, I started to feel really disheartened.

NYP: What was your first impression of the plan, have you done anything like this before?

Debbie: No, I have never done a total food replacement diet before. I have done a high protein diet before, but nothing like this to be fair. My very first impression was when my order was coming through and I picked up my first packet which was the Cottage Pie. I was making it up and I was worried that it wouldn't fill me up, but to my surprise, they are very filling and it became my favourite meal.

NYP: What was your first week like? Do you remember your first weight loss?

Debbie: 6 pounds was my first weight loss since then I have been losing on average 3 pounds a week and I am happy with that.

NYP: Do you remember if it was hard for you to adjust your life to the plan?

Debbie: No, it was easy. It’s a very simple diet to follow. 4 packets and 4 litres of water. It really isn’t hard to manage your life around that. If I am out with my daughter I can take a bar with me or I can take a shake. It is quite easy to take the meals with you to whatever you do. It is an easy, simple, no-counting plan.

NYP: How did you find the water intake? We feel that a lot of our customer's struggle and worry about their water intake.

Debbie: I try to get at least 2.5 litres of water in before lunchtime, I feel like I struggle with it more after lunch. Altogether I manage about 3-3.5 litres of water a day

NYP: That’s great! We do say to customers that anything between 2.5-4 litres of water is perfect, we are all different and our bodies are all different, if you feel like 3 litres is what suits you then that's amazing! What are your favourite meals and snacks? Could you tell me a menu that you would have daily and what way do you have them?

Debbie: I do intermittent fasting in the mornings. I tend to have my first packet, depending on how busy work is, around 2.30-3pm. I would normally have a shake and then I would come home from work and have a 2 packet meal. My favourite is the Vegetable Risotto, which I make into a patty with Mexican Taco on top. I love the Chocolate Brownie for pudding, it’s amazing! My favourite snack would be the wafers, but I do also love the crisps as well (which I can have every day if I don’t have the wafer bars). For example today, I will have the Curry Daal which I will add some coriander and some fresh chilis with some chicken crisps. When I get home a bit later I will have the Cottage Pie. For pudding, I will have the Chocolate Orange Shake which I will make into a mousse with the Chocolate Brownie. What I also tend to do lately is split a shake into 2, so I would have half as a shake and the other half I would make it thicker and have it with my Chocolate Brownie.

NYP: That sounds great, what was your biggest non-scale victory?

Debbie: Fitting into size 8 jeans! Which are actually my daughter’s jeans.

NYP: Amazing! What was your biggest motivator for staying on the plan? Was it the wedding that you were supposed to go to in August?

Debbie: The constant results every week, whether it was weight loss or inch loss. The support group is also amazing. It doesn't matter if you have a good day or a bad day. I tend to be on the Secret Slimmer’s support group quite a lot, it helps me know that people are watching what I’m doing and making sure I am doing it right. But the constant results are what kept me on the plan. Also, people who are seeing my weight loss, people are seeing how much better I am feeling. I feel better about myself and my confidence is back, and my self-esteem is back. I feel like I am the old me again.

NYP: How has the plan changed your life, do you feel like your health has improved?

Debbie: Yes definitely, I am walking a lot more now, I don’t take the bus as often if I know it is only 4-5 stops away, I just leave 10 minutes earlier. I definitely feel better about myself. I have started doing trampolining now, which I would have never done before. Getting all the compliments from people I have not seen in a while, “You have lost a bit of weight, haven’t you?” My daughter's coach was off for maternity leave before Christmas and the first thing she said to me was “Debbie, where have you gone, you are so skinny!” That was lovely as well. I didn’t tell many people that I’m on the Plan, I just got on with it. I didn’t want many people to get involved. So there are a lot of people who don’t know what I am doing.

NYP: What advice would you give anyone thinking of starting the plan?

Debbie: Start it! Follow the plan and believe in it. Make sure you are on the Facebook Support Group, the support there is absolutely amazing. Just give it a go, if you lose a pound a week, you have to look at the bigger picture. Rome was not built in a day. Losing a pound a week or a couple of pounds a week is still a loss and it will all add up in the end! Make sure you measure yourself! This is quite important which I didn’t realize in the beginning how important it was to keep track of this regularly. I measure myself once a month and I can keep a track of these changes as well. Believe in yourself, believe in the Plan.

Once Debbie reached her initial goal, she was hooked on the success of it all that she just kept going, and we don't blame her. The fact that she can now fit into her daughter's clothes is super impressive.

We're so pleased with the results that Debbie has achieved and the changes she has been able to make in her life because of it. It's stories like this that make us here at New You HQ strive to keep doing what we're doing and helping people transform themselves and their lives.

If you have a transformation story to share, then we'd love to hear from you! Just contact our friendly customer service team.