BIG Ambitions!

Here at Beyond Chocolate we have a vision… a dream… we want Weight Watchers and Slimming World to have some real competition. We want to know that women all over the country have an alternative. A real, affordable, enjoyable and effective alternative. We want to make sure that women up and down the country don’t have to be weighed and patronised and even bullied every single week. We want to see Beyond Chocolate groups in every city, every town, every village. That’s our dream. It’s ambitious, very ambitious. And slowly but surely, one step at a time we’re working towards it. In fact we haven’t stopped working towards it for the past ten years… And we’ll keep going til we get there. That’s how determined we are!

I went to my first WW meeting when I was about 20. Why did I choose WW? Because I was desperate and it was quite simply the only weight loss club I’d ever heard of. It was horrible, I didn’t enjoy any part of it. I didn’t enjoy the queue for the weigh-in, I didn’t enjoy sitting in a dingy plastic chair listening to some drivel about how to make a sandwich go further, I didn’t enjoy feeling like a failure when I didn’t lose a pound and no one clapped for me. It was all pretty grim really. I didn’t even speak to anyone. But I went. Every week. To be weighed and given my new plan. I bought the counters and the scales. I leafed through the WW cookery books, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.I know, they're not like that any more, no, it's not a diet now. But I'm confused... is it points or GI or GL? mmmm.... however many times they re-invent themselves, however much they spend on clever marketing or new systems, I don't think we are actually that gullible! Yes, you can go to WW or any slimming club and lose the weight if you follow the plan, probably won't be much fun and you won't learn anything you didn't already know... and then, when you've reached your target weight? Then what? WW for life??? Diets for ever? (OK I'm sorry, I know, I go on about this all the time and I wrote a whole blog about it last week... Rant over).

Beyond Chocolate and the Chocolate Fairies can do so much better! So, so much better. Imagine a welcoming, friendly place you could drop into every week or whenever you fancied to meet with like minded women and talk about what’s really going on for you with food and how you really feel about your body. Imagine a place where you could sit, maybe with a cup of tea, and learn something new each week, something interesting and useful about how to have a balanced and healthy approach to food, eating and body image. Imagine not just sitting there listening but being actively engaged, participating (since you have as much to offer as you have to learn). Imagine a leader who doesn’t purport to be a counsellor or a professional, who doesn’t pretend that she’s sorted and somehow better than you, who doesn’t try to sell you anything, who doesn't put you down or tut disapprovingly (since she won’t be weighing you!) Imagine a Chocolate Fairy...she’s just an ordinary woman, like you, who is so passionate about passing on what she’s learning that she has been on a training course, explored and worked on her own stuff and has the skills and tools to guide you, with kindness, compassion and gentleness, to get to where you want to be. Imagine an hour a week just for you, where you can focus on what really matters…

That’s what we want to create. And we can’t do it alone. We need women like you to be those Chocolate Fairies, to join our existing team of wonderful, committed, passionate Chocolate Fairies. It’s time we gave WW and SW a run for their money and more importantly it’s time that women had somewhere to go that was truly supportive and enjoyable.

Join us for the 2011 Chocolate Fairy Training. If you would like to know more about the training and what being a Chocolate Fairy is all about, listen to this MP3. I explain in detail about how it works and what you can expect, it's just 12 minutes long and by clicking on the words MP3 it will downland in seconds. To apply for the training just click here. We’re holding group telephone interviews over the next few weeks. We’d love to hear from you. You can help us make the dream a reality. It’s time!