My Fitness Story... - Fay

Today's guest post really made me feel humble when I first read it. I've read it through a few times now and that feeling has not diminished one bit. It's written by Fay, who blogs at Glass Half Full, which is a particularly apt name. Fay has remained incredibly positive throughout this year despite being diagnosed with cancer. In this post, she tells how she struggled with her weight in the past, how the extra weight may have contributed to her illness, through to her recovery and weight loss. 

This is my story which has beginning and a middle but no end yet; that has still to be written.

My Fitness Story... - Emma

Welcome back to the My Fitness Story... series of posts. This week's story, by Emma who blogs about her life in Cyprus at A matter of choice, is her tale of how she overcame an almost lifelong struggle with her weight and changed her habits for good to finally lose the extra pounds. 

As far back as I can remember, I was overweight. I was always told I was not fat, I was ‘big boned’ and I suppose from that over the years, I assumed that there was nothing I could do about it.

Before

At age 12, I was 12 stone, and as I got older, it gradually increased. When I left home, I ate junk and drank beer and did no exercise at all. I thought I was being good by eating ‘healthy’ ready meals. Once, I joined a gym but left after just a couple of sessions. It felt like a pointless activity and I ‘knew’ that I could never be a size 12. I started a new job in 2001 and they had to order me a special uniform in a size 20 but even then I didn’t do anything. I even got married at that size and didn’t even think of trying to lose weight beforehand.

There was no ‘lightbulb” moment for me. My Dad, in a bid to encourage a friend, had started going to our local Slimming World group and I was so surprised. I thought if he could do it, then maybe it was worth a try, maybe I could lose a few pounds.

I started going in January 2006, I had no target in mind at all. My ideal weight was so far from where I was, I felt there was no way I could lose that much. In the first week I lost 2.5lb, in the second 5lb. I was stunned – I had lost weight and not only that I had lost over ½ stone!

Still with no final target in mind, I just kept going, doing pretty much the same thing and averaging one or two pound loss each week.  It totally changed my eating habits and it taught me to cook as well. For the first time, I was eating fruit and fresh vegetables, I was cooking from scratch rather than buying ready meals and I felt so much better for it.

After

I also started exercising, it was hard at first having never done it, apart from being forced to at school but slowly it got easier, and to my surprise I actually ended up enjoying it!

A year later, I felt it was time to set a target weight and in September 2008, I reached it; I had lost just over four stone. It’s no exaggeration to say it changed my life, I felt so much healthier and confident. I had thought that losing weight would be impossible so now I had done that I realized that I could do anything if I really set my mind to it.

There were several amazing moments but one day I was walking past a shop window and saw my reflection and thought it was someone else – I stopped dead in the middle of the high street and stared in amazement.  The other was being nominated by my group for “Woman of the Year” and coming second in the regional finals. I was featured in our local paper and a national newspaper too – not bad for a girl once called “Emma the elephant” at school!

At the Woman of the Year regional finals

The Slimming World plan (and I do think of it as a plan not a ‘diet’) is brilliant, obviously it is designed to help you lose weight but it taught me so much more than that. It is not a ‘quick fix’ but about changing your eating habits for the better. There is nothing you can’t eat but it does teach you to eat more of the ‘good things and less of the bad.  Because of the change it had brought about in my diet, I am confident that I can bring my son up knowing the importance of healthy eating. It was always a worry of mine that I would have a ‘fat kid’ like I had been and I wouldn’t be able to help.

When I got pregnant in 2009, I obviously put on weight but the day I was to be induced I stepped on the scales and I was still lighter than I had been at my heaviest. I still have about a stone to lose to get back to my ‘new target’ I am not aiming for the lowest I have been as I don’t feel like it would be an easy weight to maintain, my goal is to fit back into my old clothes but mainly to feel as fit and healthy as I did before.

Although I know the Slimming World plan inside out, it is much harder without the support of going to a weekly group, as I moved to Cyprus a year ago and  had to leave my group behind. Fortunately, Slimming World has just reached us out here and a group has opened in my area. I will soon be attending to give me the added motivation for this last little bit.

Even now, I am still stunned and amazed that I did it, and although it sounds like a bit of a cliché, if I can do it anyone can. I just now need to remind myself that if I did it once, I can do it again, and get back to my target weight.

Thank you, Emma, for telling your story today. Don't you agree that she looks fantastic? I realise this is the second post in as many weeks that have seen success with Slimming World but I can promise you that this is a coincidence and that no-one has been paid to write these posts. These are personal experiences and it has obviously worked for them. As Emma points out in the post, it's a longer term change to eating habits and leading a healthy lifestyle more than it is a diet, so it has a better chance of long term success. 

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.

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.