Links from Episode  3 – Nancy

Nancy on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nancys_odyssey/

Nancy’s Website – https://www.nancyfawehimi.co.uk/home

Roberto 0:03
Welcome to the secrets of weight loss podcast. If this is your first time listening, thanks for checking it out. where you been, this is Episode Three. I’m Roberto, hello, your host and a once morbidly obese guy. I lost 10 stone, and I’ve kept that weight off for over 10 years. And people always ask me, How did you do it? And when I tell them, their reaction is usually the same.

Roberto 0:21
Wow, I don’t think I could do that. And it always gets me thinking, well, how do other people lose weight, and that’s where the podcast came from the secret of weight loss. How do real everyday people lose weight and keep it off successfully. Thank you for your lovely feedback so far about the podcast. As we love hearing from you, you can get in touch with me on Instagram or Facebook, just search Roberto Presents. This week’s episode involves, in my mind, an extreme way of losing weight, we’re going to be chatting to Nancy, a mom of two from London, about her weight loss story. And it’s another incredible achievement. However, the way she lost weight won’t be for everyone. But it is a fascinating insight into what’s involved. And it might be something you’ve considered but weren’t sure about or something that’s never crossed your mind. The views and opinions expressed by Nancy are from her own personal experience. And not those of the secrets of weight loss podcast or myself. On the website thesecretsofweightloss.com, you’ll be able to read a fully transcribed version of this episode, along with links to Nancy’s website and social media. One last thing, don’t forget to subscribe. And that way you’ll never miss an episode. Let’s meet Nancy.

Roberto 1:31
So Nancy, let’s start as we always do with how much you weighed before you lost weight.

Nancy 1:36
Okay, so I was always kind of around the 17 and a half stone mark. And I had joined Slimming World a couple of times, which I do think is an amazing, amazing, amazing thing. And I did really well twice on slimming world, but I just kind of never kept it off. I couldn’t keep it off.

Roberto 1:57
So what was it about Slimming World then that you could lose weight whilst you’re on it, but then not keep it off.

Nancy 2:03
So I was always around the 17 and a half mark and I last four stone twice on it. But I think the only reason I achieved what I did was Slimming World is because at the time I was like a mom who had just moved to a new area, and my friends weren’t really around me. And really, I was just at home on my own and I could stick to the plan. The problem with slimming world, I think is when real life hits in, and you can’t stick to those 15 sins and things that, that I think reality is it doesn’t teach you anything about portion control. And obviously, those slimming world techniques that you learn if you’re at home are fantastic. But the minute you start eating out, you can’t factor those really into your life. So it definitely does work slimming world, but it will only work for a certain person at a certain time of their life. And as my life become busier and things that that and I made friends in my new area and excetera it kind of all went out the window and that weight went on with more, both times

Roberto 3:08
With more, so you were 17 and a half stone, you lost four stone. And then after coming off Slimming World, you went up to what 18 / 19 stone or

Nancy 3:14
19 stone to is my highest on the scales that I saw. But I do know I was bigger than that at a certain point. It was just I couldn’t raise the scales. Yeah. Didn’t want to see it.

Roberto 3:24
I know you mean, you get to a point where you just think I don’t want to know. How do you feel being that size, though?

Nancy 3:30
Well, it’s really funny actually. Because I have never actually been the kind of person that dislikes himself. I never was, I never looked in the mirror and hated myself every day, I was quite confident. And I always kind of did my hair and makeup make the best of the situation I was in it wasn’t until I went to a wedding in Cyprus. That holiday It was kind of like this young, fun holiday with loads of people that I knew and there was 100 young people and I was the fattest there by a long mile. And it made me feel so kind of rubbish about myself that I came home and I didn’t even really research what I was about to do or anything like that. That’s it. I’m having this gastric surgery, and I am going to get this weight off. It was kind of like a real weird moment in my life where I thought, wow, this is too big. You know, I’ve taken it a step further.

Roberto 4:23
So up until that point, you weren’t really bothered about your weight. You, you were quite happy as you say in who you were.

Nancy 4:29
No, I wouldn’t say that. It was a big thing. I knew I was overweight. I probably wish that I wasn’t as big. But it wasn’t something that consumed my everyday life. It wasn’t something that I sat at home and cried about every day. It was just kind of was what it was because I’ve never been thin so for me it wasn’t I’ve never been thin. I was a big child, a big teenager I was always big so it just kind of was what it was.

Roberto 4:54
I was gonna ask how you got big then was it just that you loved your food?

Nancy 4:58
I don’t know. Yeah, so that I’m guessing. So, I mean, I have always been overweight, probably from the age of about six. And there probably was a tipping point around 13 / 14, where it could have gone off as puppy fat. But it really went on from about 15 to 18. It was it was a big issue.

Roberto 5:27
When did you do the Slimming World then before the gastric surgery or after?

Nancy 5:32
Oh, there’s actually a funny thing to this 18 I had my first gastric surgery, which was a failed surgery, I never lost any weight. And that was the gastric band.

Roberto 5:41
So what is the gastric band? First of all,

Nancy 5:43
so a gastric band is something that I one thing I just want to say I wouldn’t recommend to anybody. It’s basically like an arm band, you know, when you go for your blood pressure check, and it tightens up and it’s pumped up and you can feel it tighten. That’s exactly what that is. It’s pumped up around your stomach to like, restrict what can go through your stomach. But it really like is not is problematic, very problematic.

Roberto 6:08
Is it quite a big operation? And because I suppose that they’ve got to cut inside your stomach and wrap something round it?

Nancy 6:13
Well, I suppose it Yes, it’s not a small operation. But as far as gastric surgeries go, it’s probably the most least invasive, because they’re not actually cutting your stomach or any of your actual organs. They’re just using this device to put around your stomach. Whereas with the actual bypass and the sleeve, they’re actually really cutting you’re in like your digestive system, your stomach, your intestines and everything like that.

Roberto 6:38
So you had this gastric band, and what age were you when you had this,

Nancy 6:41
I was 18. When I had that. And I was 18 and stone,

Roberto 6:45
you’re 18 and 18 stone and and what happened with the gastric band, it just didn’t work for you.

Nancy 6:50
It just made me really ill and you couldn’t swallow. I was sick all the time. And then when I got pregnant at 20, I kind of lived like that for a while just with these horrible side effects of air and thought this was my new normal. And then when I fell pregnant with my eldest son at 23, I couldn’t feed him wherever I wasn’t absorbing enough food. But it’s funny because even though I couldn’t absorb food properly, I never lost any weight because you end up eating things called slider, slider foods. So it’s things that are really easy to slide through like biscuits, crisps, chocolate, whereas the things at stake and things you can’t chew up into small pieces and protein, you can’t eat any of them. So you live off eating absolute rubbish, it was terrible.

Roberto 7:34
See, that just sounds so counterintuitive. You’ve got this band on to try and help you lose weight, but you’re eating crisps and chocolate. And that doesn’t sound right at all.

Nancy 7:41
Oh, it was honestly it was just it was again, it was something that I never really researched or ploughed into headfirst. And had I’ve done my homework, I probably would never have had that operation done. Because I don’t know. And I know a lot of people through what I now do, that have had this operation and I don’t actually know one person is successful for .

Roberto 8:01
that’s really interesting. So you had the gastric band, it didn’t work. What did you try after that?

Nancy 8:06
Then it was my slimming world journey. And I did that twice. And it was successful, but obviously, just for a certain amount of time or to a point, you know,

Roberto 8:14
and how long did it take you to lose the four stone with the Slimming World? You said you did that twice.

Nancy 8:18
Oh, 20 weeks. Yeah, it was 20, I just ploughed through it. And it was, it was like it was a one thing I will say about slimming world. That is also a really good thing. And I’m not saying people can’t keep it off for the long term because they can the support groups you get with that are amazing. I read some people don’t like the groups, but I loved the groups. I loved going in there and getting cheered and you know, getting your slimmer of the week award and slimmer of the month then reading all the new recipes in the support. I love all that. I think it’s brilliant. And actually that’s one of the reasons I’ve set up my Instagram for this because I think people need that support. I needed that support.

Roberto 8:37
I couldn’t agree with you more. I think the support is really important. I’ve spoken to other people about weight loss on the podcast and that they sometimes have a different experience cuz I think it’s probably great for you if you’re the one that’s getting those awards each week. Yeah. But if you’re going to a meeting each week, and you’re seeing other people getting these awards in a way, it’s not just coming off for you that can send you the other way.

Nancy 9:15
Yeah, definitely could.

Roberto 9:16
I said to one person, my gosh, if I was doing that every week, I just want to go home and eat a tub of ice cream and eat myself happy.

Nancy 9:21
Well actually, that probably did happen in the end to me because where I was falling off the waggon then you start not turning up to group and burying your head in the sound because once you were that champion and everyone knows your name, and then one minute you’re all next you didn’t lose this week and Oh gosh, she’s putting the pounds back. So then you bury your head in it and you don’t end up going to the group it like ever again.

Roberto 9:43
So you have that side to it too. I’d never thought of it like that. I’ve never done Slimming World. I’ve only heard people’s experiences and I’ve heard great experiences like yours and I’ve heard really bad ones from other people as well. So you did the Slimming World experience twice. And both occasions you put on weight and so did you try anything Before going for your next gastric surgery or at that point, you’re like, right, I need this way off.

Nancy 10:04
Urm, nothing really I’m not a big person that research loads of diets here. Obviously, I tried smoothie diets and things like that, you know, I’ll give it a week and I’m not going to eat anything. And then it got to day five. And I went and ate a kebab of Chinese in an Indian all in one day, because I’ve just let loose, you know, personally, why I still say Slimming World is the best. And if you can do it that way, it is a great way because it does give you variety, you can still eat the carbs, the meat, the pasta, but you’ve just got to learn to either portion control it cook it in better ways that you were cooking it before, you know, with a 5% mince instead of the 20% mince. And you know those little lifestyle changes, I think any diet that restricts you completely isn’t a diet at all.

Roberto 10:50
So you did the second gastric surgery, and this time it was a gastric bypass. Yes. And so run me through what that entails. I know you mentioned it earlier. But what exactly happens,

Nancy 10:59
they remove part of your stomach by making it smaller. So they would obviously over time, your stomach could stretch probably if you are overweight, so they make it very small. So you can only consume a certain amount of food. And they also remove some of your intestines, which is why it’s called the bypass because it bypasses a part of your stomach. So that part of your intestine is the bit that breaks down sugar and fat. I’m trying to make sure I get this right. And so some people with the bypass have trouble like digesting it, but I dont.

Roberto 11:35
It sounds like a huge operation.

Nancy 11:37
It is a very big operation. I can’t sugarcoat that, like it is a massive operation. And it has risks side effects consequences. It is a huge operation. But I mean, you got to do what you’ve got to do sometimes.

Roberto 11:51
Exactly. You’re at this point where you’re like, Alright, I’ve tried everything else. I’m going for this as well. And it’s worked. But we’ll get into that in a second. How long was the recovery time after having the surgery then,

Nancy 12:00
Urm, downtime was probably like a week where you have keyhole surgery, they pump your body up, and then you get the wind pain afterwards from where your body’s been. But I mean, the incisions are like a centimetre to two centimetres big. They’re not huge. So it wasn’t like you were recovering from some of the plastic surgeries I’ve now gone on to have, but it was still recovering. You know,

Roberto 12:22
and I presume you didn’t have this done on the NHS, you have to go privately, right?

Nancy 12:26
No, you can have it done on the NHS and people do but you really have to fit a criteria of your BMI would have to be obviously over a certain point where it’s causing you serious issues and you have to have severe health issues that could lead to I suppose your death.

Roberto 12:42
Do you mind me asking then you had it done privately? Are you able to give me a ballpark figure as to how much it costs?

Nancy 12:47
in this country? Anything from about nine to 12 depending on where you go, thousand.

Roberto 12:52
9 to 12,000 pound, wow.

Nancy 12:54
Yeah, it’s an expensive op.

Roberto 12:56
It really is. Well, its a big operation, isn’t it? So after you’ve had this operation you A week later you are feeling fine. What did you then eat? Did you have to change your diet? Did you carry on eating takeaways and stuff or what?

Nancy 13:08
So for the first kind of couple of weeks, your surgeon will give you like a guideline they will say to you right, I don’t want you to eat. You’ve got to be on soft foods for two weeks. So for the first week, you might be on shakes and soups and then you’ll go on to things like scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and beans, you know, like little things that you can digest easy and then obviously you’ll introduce your meats maybe at week four and things like that. So they’ll ease you in but once you’re raised in you know your body yourself like you can then start experiment and and see how it works.

Roberto 13:40
So did you notice an instant change in the amount of food you’re eating once you had it done? Because obviously the whole idea of this is to make your stomach smaller so you don’t eat so much.

Nancy 13:49
Oh, definitely at the beginning I was eating out of a ramekin you know like the little gu dessert pots.

Roberto 13:54
Yeah.

Nancy 13:54
What they come in I was eating mincemeat out of a gu dessert pot, and that would have been my little meal, I maybe would have had six of them a day.

Roberto 14:03
And would that have kind of filled you up? Would you have felt full at the end of that. I’m just trying to get how it feels having the surgery.

Nancy 14:09
It’s a really weird one. I wouldn’t say that you you will felt really full up. But I think a lot of it at the beginning is probably fear. You think, oh, if I eat too much my stomach could burst open. So you probably have this fear at the beginning. And also you haven’t got an appetite. It actually takes your whole appetite away. But don’t worry that appetite definitely comes back. And you will have and your portion sizes do get bigger. I’m not eating out of a ramekin now, you know so things do get normal again for the first kind of month, maybe six weeks. Yeah, it’s a bit strange and you’re eating small strange things but it normality comes back.

Roberto 14:46
Because obviously, your stomach can expand as well and you can make your stomach small on your own. But do you ever have that fear that you might undo all of this?

Nancy 14:53
I still have that fear. I could put on weight if I wanted to put on weight now. I mean old habits come in. And I don’t have any problems with eating chocolate and things like that it doesn’t make me feel ill, it doesn’t make me feel sick. And some people do get that side effects. So I still can eat less, there are a lot less than what I did, I could probably eat a children’s portion, if he was to go to a park or something like that a kid’s portion would be plenty for me, it’d be a nice sized meal, you know. And I would eat that, and I would be happy with that. But obviously, a few hours later, I could slip in a dessert and I could have a few glasses of wine and all these things do end up adding up. It’s just, I now I’m aware, I don’t want to be that girl that I was before. So I make the conscious decision now not to do that to myself.

Roberto 15:46
And I think that’s what a lot of it comes down to that conscious decision and your willpower as well.

Nancy 15:51
Course! A 100% I know people that have had the surgery and gained six stone back,

Roberto 15:57
really? so it can go the opposite way as well.

Nancy 15:59
Yeah! I know people that had at the same time as me that has gained a couple of stone over lockdown, I gained over half a stone in lockdown, I think you can definitely do. It’s not It’s not that this is a permanent thing that you won’t need to work on.

Roberto 16:14
I see I kind of thought and naive as this may sound that once you’d had that surgery, you wouldn’t have to worry about your weight anymore. You were done forevermore.

Nancy 16:23
Oh, no,

Roberto 16:23
you’ve actually got to work and keeping the weight.

Nancy 16:25
Oh, sure. I mean, they call it like the first year is your honeymoon period. And I completely agree with that I think you’ve got I think mine was not as big as a year because I lost majority of mine within like nine months. And I think you’d get that nine months where it flies off without you even having to try and then you might have like a stone left that you want to get off and it’s not coming off so easy. So then you’ve got to put in the work like a normal diet, you know, pick up the exercise or change what you’re eating a bit and things like that. And then after that it’s all about maintaining what you’ve lost. You know, if you, if I wanted to gain weight, I could gain weight.

Roberto 17:02
So you were what 19 Stone when you had this gastric surgery Is that about right?

Nancy 17:06
I was 19 two on the day of my op Yeah.

Roberto 17:09
And then what did you weigh nine months later,

Nancy 17:12
nine months later, I was about 12 something

Roberto 17:17
that’s impressive.

Nancy 17:18
And I remember I obviously was had a surgery to remove the loose skin on my legs coming up and I knew I wanted to get down to the a realistic way of what I wanted to be so that last stone was like a real push so by the end of May I was where I wanted to be but my other surgery in the January I think that now stone took me about four months to get off.

Roberto 17:42
It’s always always that last little bit that’s the hardest, isn’t it?

Nancy 17:45
Yeah,

Roberto 17:45
I struggled with that as well. Like the large majority of my weight came off super quick, super quick, within a year kind of thing. And then it’s fine tuning at the very end. Yeah, to get that last bit and it’s that last bit that could be so annoying. So you’d lost like seven stone in nine months. which is which is brilliant. What do you weigh now?

Nancy 18:03
I’m about I fluctuate. I have my like you know your weight with I like to be within half a stone. So anything over is like come on Nance, get yourself in gear. I’m a normally about 11 and a half stone that I let myself go up to about 11.10 and I like to be about 11 five, that’s kind of my ballpark. Yeah.

Roberto 18:23
So, during that nine months and after having the gastric surgery, did you do any exercise? Or was it all about your food?

Nancy 18:29
No, I went to a PT once that you will you’ll see on my Instagram page but no, I and I’m that actually not makes me sad but I want to love the gym, but I hate it and that’s the truth. I hate it

Roberto 18:43
I once I lost all my weight I qualified as a personal trainer because I wanted to help other people lose weight, and I get that same thing from so many people. I want to love the gym but I just don’t like the idea of it. I can’t stand it

Nancy 18:55
I hate

Roberto 18:56
Do you hate though because you don’t know what you’re doing or because of other people there or what you find it boring.

Nancy 19:02
I’ve had a lot of skin surgery, skin removal surgery now. And I think I hated the gym because I hated the gym anyway, but I really didn’t like it because I knew I would never see any results from it because I would have all this skin whereas now I haven’t got the skin. I’m hoping that I will be able to see things a lot quicker in the results because I haven’t got it all there anymore. Whereas I think I just thought well this is pointless. I’m never going to see Ab definitions and what’s the point because I’ve got this huge stung stomach of loose skin underneath you know

Roberto 19:34
How much loose skin did you have then after the surgery? Was that a big side effect of the surgery?

Nancy 19:39
Oh huge, like you can’t, you can’t lose in total about nine stone and walk out of there looking like a 17 year old runway model is never gonna happen. So my legs were really bad. They were the first thing I was I’m tackling those because they were really bad. You’d have to see my pictures but they were on my screen but I can only describe them we will offer hope this okay but like to ball sacks between my legs. That’s what it looked like.

Roberto 20:10
I love the visual image I’ve got that now

Nancy 20:13
its what it looked like. And it made me so self conscious, it was a no matter how well I done now that made me more self conscious and probably being big it was that you’ve done all of this and you will you know you were there. You’d made it but you hadn’t made it because you have this, you know,

Roberto 20:32
did you expect the loose skin? Did anyone warn you that was going to happen when you signed up for the gastric surgery?

Nancy 20:38
Yeah, I did. course I knew it would happen. But I think you don’t realise how much it actually can affect you mentally, every day unless you actually have it because even now, I’m not everyone is agreed with my plastic surgeries that I’ve gone on to have my family have been worried and not been supportive of it, some of them. And I think they and anybody else will not understand unless you live with it that weren’t that bad. Just cover it. But it’s that but I’m only 30 I could live till I’m 90 years old. Why should I live for the next 60 years, looking in the mirror, not liking what I’ve got in front of me. You know,

Roberto 21:19
you’ve got to be happy with yourself, haven’t you? And people will never understand that from a different point of view. Unless they’re living in your skin and that excess skin, they just won’t get it.

Nancy 21:28
Sure.

Roberto 21:29
So you’ve had your legs done? Yeah. What else have you had done to remove the excess skin?

Nancy 21:34
Well, I had a breast lift at the same time I have my legs down because obviously they were like two little deflated balloons very sad for them. And so I had no implants I literally just had to lift to make them appear better. And then I have recently several weeks ago had a tummy tuck as well.

Roberto 21:53
Did you have a 360? Is that? Is that what it’s called? Or is that a different?

Nancy 21:56
360 goes the whole way round your bum and everything. I didn’t have a 360 I just had the front. Luckily, actually, my stomach was it was I mean, it wasn’t great. But it wasn’t that bad that it required me going the whole way round. My body mind is just at the front section of my body. My back half hasn’t been tapped or touched

Roberto 22:17
Again, this surgery is quite big, isn’t it? It’s not. It’s not a small thing to do. What’s the recovery time for for having loose skin taken off?

Nancy 22:24
Well, big and I had problems I actually went down for my tummy tuck and woke up without it being done because I was really ill on the operating table and they had to stop my surgery so and then I went back under three weeks later, so I had to kind of mentally prepare for both. downtime is three weeks. Definitely I won’t driving for three weeks, it was a real kind of 10 days of pain and struggle. And then you know you get better every day. But you’re not back to normal probably for a month I’d say truthfully.

Roberto 22:58
And again, this is something, this is something you can’t get done on the NHS, you have to go private for right now.

Nancy 23:02
You can again get the NHS, yes, you can. But I know people that have had it on the NHS, some people unfortunately have really bad sores caught from loose skin. So the NHS would in some circumstances give someone a tummy tuck. But in my case, I would never have got one.

Roberto 23:20
All right. Can you give me a ballpark figure on how much a tummy tuck cost then?

Nancy 23:22
in this country? Anything from seven to 10.

Roberto 23:25
Wow. So a lot of money.

Nancy 23:27
Yeah.

Roberto 23:28
And, how do you feel now then? Is there anything else you want to get done?

Nancy 23:30
No, no, I’m good to go now.

Roberto 23:34
So let’s talk about what you eat then. What did you eat before you lost all the weight? Could you run me through a day? Do you remember what you might have?

Nancy 23:41
I secret definitely was a secret eater as well. So I was I’m a brilliant cook. I’m not blowing my own trumpet. I mean, this is it runs in my family. My mother actually won Britain’s best dish. We’re a family of cooks.

Roberto 23:56
So just going back then quickly here. You mentioned you were a big kid. Did you reckon it was because your mom was such a great cook or she just cooked amazing food and you just ate it?

Nancy 24:05
I mean, there is definitely finger pointing within the family.

Roberto 24:09
I’m not trying to point I’m not trying to do that.

Nancy 24:12
Definitely. Over the years fingers have been pointed at people within the family of the blame of Nancys weight gain. I do think it would I mean, there was things like that, but then I do remember there’s this story that my mum used to make pack lunches and our pack lunches and I’m known for it as well. Or not any like rubbish pack lunch my kid goes in with the salt beef sandwich and stuff with pickles in it as

Roberto 24:35
Wow.

Nancy 24:35
It’s my my mum used to make these brilliant lunches. And then at the end of the term, she had this bill, for school dinners and she was like, I don’t know this must be wrong because she has a packed lunch. And I had been eating my lunch and saying that I was on a school dinner card and racking up a tab as well.

Roberto 24:55
It’s all making sense. Now I get it. I think we solved the problem. So yeah, you say you eat very well and oh, you ate very well. Yeah. And you’re a great cook. So what did you eat before you got fat? And what do you eat now? Because obviously you still must love cooking. I love you. You must be aware more of what you’re putting in the food and what you’re putting in your body.

Nancy 25:13
Okay, so what was I eating before? I obviously got what to make me gain this way. which foods? Probably boredom. Like you said I had one of my children quite young. I moved to an area that I had no friends that I had a lot of time and cooking is something I love you know, I secret eating as well. I definitely did that I remember doing it. So it’s not that I left off takeaways, but I would make a sandwich while I was waiting for food to be cooked. You know, I’m sounding making the bolognese for dinner. But I’ll quickly rack up a little sandwich of salami and cheese or something like that. It was just mad stuff.

Roberto 25:51
Do you know why you were doing it though? Because obviously you had that food coming. But you also are now saying now just because you are hungry or because you’re bored or

Nancy 26:00
Greedy! And that is the, I know people sometimes dive down into why they’ve done this and why you’ve gained weight and I don’t think I need to I just think I was greedy. I honestly do. I like my food. I mean, nothing really traumatic has gone on in my life. I just think I was greedy. And that is the bottom line. I loved cooking and I’m greedy.

Roberto 26:22
So you since you’ve had the gastric surgery, then how has your eating habits changed? Obviously you eat smaller portions now but you’ve learned about food as well.

Nancy 26:29
Oh, sure. Like I actually learned a lot through my slimming world, slimming world, was, one thing It teaches you is actually what goes into things. So like someone would maybe go and grab a dolmio soup from Sainsbury’s, actually not knowing how much sugar is in that, like, I learned a lot through my slimming world days and I still use that and incorporate that in my everyday life. I would still make a slimming world bolognese. Why would I not? Why would I make a really fattening bolognese, when I can make a delicious, not fattening one, it doesn’t make any sense, you know. So I learned a lot through my slimming world, which is probably kind of why I’ve done so well with my gastric surgery because I’m combining the two, I’m eating less. But I’m still using some of those brilliant techniques that I learned from my days at Slimming World.

Nancy 27:14
You mentioned you send your kids off to school with a packed lunch. Are you are you wary of making them fat

Roberto 27:19
Very. It’s a really weird thing now and it shouldn’t but I do when I see or if I walk past a child that is not chubby, but are noticeably overweight. It really makes me sad, because I know what their future could be. So I’m really lucky. One of my kids is the pickiest little child in England. And my other child absolutely loves his grub, but he’s so sporty. And he literally does every sport every day that you can imagine from karate, to football to foot sound. So all these kinds of things he’s into. And I think if Denzel suddenly stopped doing all this sport, and I was sitting there thinking, Oh, well, I think this could lead in other directions. Everything that I give them is healthy, because I make it I would definitely think might Okay, without making a big deal of it, this needs to be curbed. I don’t want to highlight it, but I will curb it, you know, and I am very conscious about giving them home cooked nice food and making it good for them, you know, and what their portions are washed out.

Roberto 28:23
Do you do you educate them as to what goes in their food? Are they too young for that? Or

Nancy 28:27
Urm, Denzel is seven and a half and listen, they they see my pictures that they know what mommy looked like. And if they ever asked or something like that, Denzels obsessed is that my mom’s got a blue tick on Instagram and things like that. And he’s got it. And I’m like, because people want to see my journey, Denzel and I’ll say, you know, mommy didn’t look after herself and mommy ate too much and she wasn’t sporty like you and things like that. And I mean, Lenny hasn’t got a clue what’s going on but Denzel does, and he asked me questions and I always say to him, it’s so important to look after your body you only get one body like and I do educate them in a good way I do

Roberto 29:05
So, tell me what is the best thing then about losing all this weight

Nancy 29:08
There’s probably too many but it’s actually probably being a better mom I and being able to do things and I think that was probably one of the reasons as well I remember walking in Denzel and reception in September and I had the operation the October and I was the only fat mom in the playground and I was aware of that and I didn’t want my children to be embarrassed of me I was huge you know, like that. I didn’t want that for them. I didn’t want them to notice that you know,

Roberto 29:33
so So you not only did it for yourself, I suppose you did it for your kids as well.

Nancy 29:37
I did it for my kids. I couldn’t even I couldn’t even run with them if I was the kind of parent that my kids will want to go out on the bike so I’ll just take your iPads kids let’s just sit him because I didn’t want to go out you know it’s and so

Roberto 29:48
now you can go out on a bike with them or go and have fun with them and run around with them. Yeah,

Nancy 29:53
yes. completely changed our Sundays are spent outside. Yesterday we were over in Hackney in Victoria Park. Where we are all the time and got the bikes out and stuff like yeah, we we do fun outdoor stuff now as a family.

Roberto 30:07
So if someone was going to ask you for advice, like I know you do consultations and sessions through your website, what would you say to them about losing weight?

Nancy 30:18
You only have one body. And I abused my body for years and years and years and years. And I think you don’t realise actually the change that will come through losing weight. And I don’t think there is any time like now I’ll be honest, I wish I would have known about that gastric surgery sooner because I don’t believe I ever could have done it without it. Really, I believe. Yeah, no, I really don’t i don’t think it would I think I could have done it. But it would never have stayed off. Does that make sense?

Roberto 30:50
Yeah, it does make sense even though you knew everything from from your Slimming World days and and all the all the things you were learning there, you reckon you would have just yo yoed backwards and forwards Slimming World loose and wait 100%

Nancy 30:59
I have no doubt that this never would have stayed off without that gastric bypass. And I just wish I would have done it sooner.

Roberto 31:07
Do you think that’s a mental thing though, knowing that you’ve had something internally done to you and like you don’t want to undo what you’ve had done? Or is it something else?

Nancy 31:14
No, I think that that even now, I could sure I could want to be a bit bingi. But I can only been to a certain extent because obviously have this done. Sure. Whereas before I could have gone for gone on and on and on. I can’t do that anymore, you know, so I definitely just think there’s no time like now if you want to lose weight, lose the weight, and it will completely change your life in so many ways like it. I can’t tell you how many ways it’s changed my life.

Roberto 31:41
It’s fantastic to hear and you look amazing. So let’s wrap up then your one secret to weight loss would be from your experience gastric surgery

Nancy 31:49
100% I think you know, in yourself, whether you will lose it without one of these. And I think there’s people out there that just know it’s never gonna happen otherwise. And thats the truth.

Roberto 31:59
Nancy, thank you so much for talking to us today on the secrets of weightless podcast. Yeah, it’s been really good.

Nancy 32:05
Roberto, thank you

Roberto 32:05
Your story’s just incredible. So much to think about in there. Thank you for that. You can follow Nancy on Instagram. She’s always posting some brilliant stuff. She is Nancy’s underscore Odyssey. If you miss that or want to read a transcribed version of this episode, you can find all the details on our website. The secrets of weight loss.com Thank you for listening. Have a great week. I’ll catch you next Wednesday. Don’t forget to subscribe the secrets avoid loss. Find out more at the secrets of weight loss calm

Transcribed by https://otter.ai