My Fitness Story... - Welsh Mum

This week, I have a post by fellow blogger, Welsh Mum. Her story will be one familiar to many of you - she struggled with almost constant dieting throughout her adult life until she found the one diet that worked for her following the birth of her children. So, I'll now hand over to her to tell her story, which she has entitled:

Dieting, the good, the bad and the ugly

Dieting or fitness regimes, whatever you want to call them - I have tried them all! For me, the one thing that has lead me along this path has always been weight loss and to generally feel better about myself.

Photo credit: lockstockb

I was actually quite young when I first started watching my weight, probably 13 or 14 years old, when your height stabilises and you start to realise that you can no longer eat anything you want. My first venture into losing weight was via counting calories and although I always lost weight, I would practically starve myself and ended up living on vegetables. Without fail, the boredom would eventually kick in as I would begin to get tired of eating the same things. You get to know the exact calorie content of familiar foods and the fear of moving onto other unknown foods is too great. This causes a complete veer from the path and you end up back where you started!

After the birth of my second child, I decided I wanted to lose weight as I had put on an incredible 2 stone, so after some gentle encouragement from my sister, I joined Slimming World. For 4 weeks, I lost absolutely nothing as my body started to get used to the new regime. If it wasn’t for my supportive sister, I would have given in and got even fatter. However this diet has changed my life; I reached my target weight about 2 years ago and I am now able to maintain it within a couple of pounds. I still follow the regime during the week and then just relax it a little at the weekends.

It has been successful for me because you can eat as much as you want of the right foods and are never left starving. For me, I know my weight is something that I will always have to monitor so as soon as I learnt to live with this fact, my life and my weight has been more constant – no more yo yo dieting for me! If you look around at all those that are slim, they don’t have this ‘magic metabolism’- they too still have to watch it!

The hardest, or should I say the saddest, thing for me is that even though I am a lot happier and I have managed to be more or less a constant weight for the last 2 years, with 2 small children I cannot afford to buy the lovely clothes that I know I could now fit into!

However, I am confident my time will come…

Thanks to Welsh Mum for sharing her story. I think it's really important to find what works for you. Personally, counting calories works for me but I accept it might not be for everyone. Another important point she makes is that slim people don't have a magic metabolism. They have to ensure they eat the right amount for their size too. That's why a longer term lifestyle change is more effective than a short sharp fad diet, after which the dieter goes back to their old habits and eating patterns, because if you start eating like you were when you were heavier again, you'll soon be that size all over again. 


Please share any experiences you have in the comments below. Alternatively, if you have a fitness story to tell, then get in touch with me on Twitter or via the email address on the About me page. I will link back to any blog you write if you wish, or you can remain either partly or fully anonymous.