I cried with emotion on my Facebook live last week. You see, I’ve been working on my first book for almost a year – a true labour of love – and now my baby is about to go out into the big bad world!!

The book is called The Weight’s Over: Take Back Control and it’s on sale in March.

Now the massive self-doubt kicks in! Will it do well, or won’t it! I teach others to overcome self-doubt and do you think I can do this for myself right now?!

Writing a book is truly personal but I haven’t written it for myself, it’s for all those people who want to transform their lives by losing weight in a sustainable way.

I desperately want them to benefit from the book and for it to give them hope and belief, because that’s what perpetual dieting zaps from people.

The idea for The Weight’s Over: Take Back Control goes back 15 years when I was seeing people one-to-one in Harley Street. Most of the people visiting me for weight issues had huge psychological issues around food – mostly from years and years of yo-yo dieting.

This prevented them from losing weight sustainably but just as importantly, it was also a mental weight that was making them very unhappy.   When I saw I could help to unblock the problem and set them free, I decided to  started the Slimpod programme.

However, I could never find the right words to pour it all out in a book. Over the years, many publishers approached me but I never took the plunge!

This was partly because of my own self-esteem issues that I continue to battle with occasionally. I also didn’t know how to write a book that would serve all my lovely Slimpodders as well people who had never heard of us.

I wanted a book to inspire and motivate everyone, as well as give practical advice. I wanted Podders to get lots out if it and for it to be like a handbook accompanying the programme.

Something that could be on the coffee table to dip into when strategies were needed to overcome day to day issues.

Life is always a work in progress and we’re never ‘done’! But it can be an exciting adventure when you have the right tools to deal with things! 

So last April I had a brainwave and which helped me decide the time was right for a book: I would ask my special podding community to help me! And they didn’t disappoint!

I wanted to know what, as former dieters, they felt was the thing that gave them most heartache and stopped them from losing weight sustainably.

Almost 4,000 Slimpodders answered my survey and I was truly blown away by the amazing results. I had firsthand evidence of what goes so wrong when people try to lose weight and why so many go round and round in an endless cycle for years and years.

That was what I’d been waiting for. Now In just had to write the book!!! OMG I’ve never done anything so hard in my entire life!

So many people warned me against doing it because it’s a huge commitment  but Carolyn, my lovely publisher at Hodder and Stoughton, said: ‘Sandra the world needs this book’. So I did it. Nine months of concentrated effort and it was hugely stressful but it’s done!

As you read this, The Weight’s Over: Take Back Control is being printed. I really can’t believe it. Must admit, writing this email is making me a bit teary again!

Now I’d like all my lovely Slimpodders to get involved in the launch of the book because you’ve been part of it from the start!    So keep watching your inbox – an exciting email will be dropping soon!

– Sandra x