Life Circle - TGROW and Week 6

Topic - My goal to be a size 12 by Christmas


Goal - to work through my lack of progress

Reality - I have lost weight before. I know I can do it. I am just one of these people who has to have their head in the right place to do it successfully. At the same time, it is frustrating as a little part of me does want to do it. I also think I'm out of the routine on keeping my food intake in check. I know that it might take a few weeks of living through a bit of hunger first to adjust and get back into it. Which is worrying as that will take me into December and only a couple of weeks before my target date. Because of this, I am beginning to think that this is now not an achievable goal at all.

Options - (Remember all options are presented here, even if I know they are slightly mad) 1. Crash diet 2. Surgery (them's the unrealistic ones). 3. Join a group like Slimming World or Weight Watchers. This is an option but I have never really been into the group dynamic before, although I know it works for a lot of people and they find it very successful. 4. Start to record food intake and exercise again in My Fitness Pal, which I've used before. 5. Give up and start again after Christmas. Whilst this is an attractive option, I am scared to do this in case I put too much weight on.

On reflection, I feel that the best option is to take option 4 but also readjust the target date of my goal. I don't think a dress size before Christmas is achievable now.

Will / Wrap up - After some reflection, I've decided to commit to recording my food intake for at least 5 days out of 7 over the next fortnight in MyFitnessPal - by the end of which, I should be more into it and be ready to continue doing the same. I think I need to give myself 3 months to get down to a size 12 but with Christmas in the middle, I need to add a fortnight to that. All this means my new target date needs to be 1st March.

Action agreed - record food intake and exercise for 5 days a week over the next fortnight.

How did you get on with this? I realise this is quite a tough task on you, partly because it can mean admitting faults about yourself and we don't like doing that. If you need some support in this task, do feel free to get in touch and we can chat about it.

Because I've been quite tough on you this week, I want to set a lighter task for next week. We're going to be Celebrating Success!

What I want you to do is to look back over the time since we started the Life Circle and I want you to reflect on the positives - what you have achieved in that time, what things you have done that you had hoped to get out of it; or even that you hadn't expected. How do you feel about the process? How has doing Life Circle helped you mentally? How has your mindset changed for the good? And what differences, if any, have others noticed about you? These are only a few questions you could ask yourself - whatever positive things you can say about how you've changed because of Life Circle, make sure you include them. If you're not feeling positive, do try. Why? Because the more positive you act, the easier it becomes. Even if you don't totally believe them, you gradually become more positive. This is the theory behind affirmations - having positive personal statements that describe the person you want to be, even if you are not totally that person right now. And don't forget to tell us how you intend to celebrate your success so far. Think about how you can celebrate success in future - maybe set yourself some rewards that can help you achieve your goals. How would you celebrate achieving them?

Write your post, then come back and link up next Thursday. If the option to post a link has disappeared, then do by all means leave a link in the comments. Don't forget when writing your post to include the badge or a link back to the Life Circle page on the blog so that your readers can find the other posts - and possibly join in too.

By the way, I'm thinking of relaunching Life Circle in January to fit in with the New Year, New You vibe that happens then. This may mean we revisit some of the tasks we've done before - although some are meant for revisiting from time to time. However, if I feel you might not want to repeat a task, I'll provide an option for the class of 2011. Don't worry, there will be room for all of us!

Best of luck. Get celebrating!

My Fitness Story... - Dave

Today's guest poster is Dave, who answered my plea for posts. Dave's take on weight loss is probably one familiar to many people - losing weight in the face of temptation of foods that aren't any good for you. His battle with himself appears to be the hardest of all. 

So weight loss. Its no easy thing. Going from a shocking 44inch waist to a 31inch waist in around 2 years might sound like a long time....but when your love of sweets, cakes, pizza and beer is as big as mine, it's tough. When I first started living on my own, it was take aways and pints every night or a trip to my local pub where you get pizza 2 for 1 and beer at the same time. Then I found it.....a love of hill walking and a tough other half who makes me hit the gym 3 or 4 times a week.

Ahhh the gym.....a place where folk in spandex make you feel bad by looking so good in it...and that’s just the guys. I try to hide myself away in a corner in my baggy shorts and XXL t-shirts to hide my smaller but still there gut.

A down side to this weight loss. Finding lumps under my skin, apparently a downside to being large and getting slim. They are merely lumps of fat left over that will be the last to go during my extreme slimming but upon feeling one on my what were rather large breasts, panic hit and I ran, nae sprinted, to my GP. Left feeling like a plonker with some antibiotics.

Weight loss is an uphill battle. The temptation of food, beer and sweets is far too much for me some days and I give in which results in feeling bad and having to work extra hard the next day to take it all off again.

So, yeah, I'm the man in your spin class that sweats too much and pants a lot...next time you see him, give him some respect; it's taking him more energy to drag his fat ass about trying to do something about it.

So moral of the story is “A big mountain of sugar is too much for one man. I can see now why God portions it out in those little packets.”

Thanks very much to Dave for taking the time to write this post. What I think this post demonstrates is the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". We all want to do the right thing, we WANT to do the right thing, but can we do it? Not always! 

Please do share experiences in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. Do please join in - or ask your friends if you know someone has a story to tell, even if they don't blog.

I'll have a new episode in the My Fitness Story... series next week.

My Fitness Story... - Dave

This week's story is a bit different. I put out a general plea on twitter last week for more posts and Dave got in touch. He outlined the nature of his story and I was intrigued. I wasn't disappointed when Dave emailed me this post. Y'see, Dave had a serious problem with an addiction - to crisps. In his post, he tells how giving them up changed his approach to healthy living. Over now to Dave...

My Fitness Story... - Annie

Hello, it's My Fitness Story time again. I didn't think I was going to have a post this week but I put out a plea on Tuesday and I was deluged by offers so I'm pleased to say I've got a few posts lined up for August now. Please don't let that stop you submitting your own - you can never have too many posts lined up, I've found! 

My Fitness Story... - Penny

My guest post contributor today is Penny, who describes herself as "writer, blogger, vlogger, mother, wife and arts practitioner in residence at AlexanderResidence. My background is in teaching drama and film. My blog is a creative filing cabinet to reflect on the ups and downs of life with small children, and where life permits, life beyond them." Penny promised to write me her story. It's not a tale of a huge loss, but it's familiar to many - the story of an amount of weight that seems to creep back again and again. Here, she tells how she tackled and finally got to trips with it, thanks to something that has been creating a bit of a stir in the blogging world for a few months, the Slimpod. 

Enough of me, here's Penny's post which she has chosen to call:

My Fitness Story... - Rachel

The post today in My Fitness Story... is by Rachel, who blogs at Tales from Lewis Lodge. Rachel has lost an astonishing 100lbs (that's just over 7 stone) since last November on the Cambridge weight plan, which is largely a meal replacement plan, although it has progressed considerably from its launch in the 1980s. Rachel's driver to lose weight was being diagnosed as suffering from sleep apnoea, a condition that often affects overweight people. The diagnosis - and the machine she was given to help her deal with her condition - made her realise that she did need to lose weight to resolve the problem. So, here's Rachel to tell her story. 

The last twenty years of my life has been about repeated attempts to lose weight. Some attempts were more successful than others but for most of the last ten years, I have been somewhere between 17 and 18.5 stone (240-260lbs). Did I want to lose weight? Every day. Could I do it? Could I heck!

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... - Sarah

My guest poster today is Sarah, who blogs at The World According to Sog. Since the start of 2011, Sarah has lost an incredible 50lb, or around 3.5 stone if you think in those terms and so today, Sarah is telling her story of how she lost her baby weight and reached her goal. Sarah has chosen to call this post...

Inspired to run

Ever since I gave birth to my daughter in 2007 I've been trying to lose the "baby weight" I gained while pregnant. My motivation received a kickstart after my son (then age 3) told me very innocently that I was fat. I started going to aerobics with a friend once a week, and 6 months after that I began a weekly circuit training class. I began to tone up in my arms and my stamina increased slightly, but I never lost any weight because I wasn't dieting and I was drinking a lot of alcohol too.

Around September 2010, I got hooked on The Biggest Loser. It's a TV show from the USA where very obese individuals are given the chance to turn their lives around, with professionals overseeing intensive exercise routines and giving excellent nutritional advice. I was inspired: seeing these people who could hardly walk become lean, fit, and diet-aware individuals was amazing. I was determined to make changes to my lifestyle and finally shift my excess weight. "If they can do it, so can I!"

A friend suggested I join the local running club. I was hesitant and postponed joining for several months. I "didn't think I could run", although actually I was kidding myself (I had run years previously and loved it). I worked freelance in the evenings so didn't think I could spare the time. Then, it was "too cold"! I was just scared of failure.

So, with New Year approaching I made my resolutions: to join the local running club and go every week; and to eat healthily. (I might as well make the pain of running count by dieting properly!). I weighed myself and was ashamed that I was over 13 stone, with a BMI that put me in the obese range.

My first ever run was 2.5 miles, a mix of 5 min running and 1 min walking. I was elated! The diet kicked in too: I cut out bread, cheese, alcohol, chocolate, and unhealthy snacks. That first week I lost 7 lb!

By the end of January, I was running (with short 1 min walks every 10 min) twice a week, just a couple of miles each time. The weight loss was continuing well, giving me much needed visual reward for my hard work: I was seeing losses of 2-4 lb every week. Finally, my resolutions were working!

By March, I had lost 21 lb and was running four times a week, distances of 3-5 miles (still with a walk every now and then). I felt confident in my body and with my abilities, so I made a big decision: I entered a 10K race! It was tough, and I admit now, I was terrified. But, I completed the race in under an hour and I was so pleased (and relieved!). I'd run 6.6 miles with no walking breaks and achieved a time I could only have dreamt of in January.

Where am I now? With respect to my weight, I've lost 50 lb and reached my goal (under 10 stone with a BMI in the healthy range). I'm very aware of what I eat, I try to keep portion sizes small and avoid eating carbohydrates such as pasta or potato in the evening. I do drink alcohol, but very infrequently, and I sometimes eat bread (although not too much).

And, I'm still running four times a week; I usually run 4-5 miles with the local club and then go for one long run (7-9 miles currently) on my own at the weekend. You see, I'm in training for another race: a half marathon at the end of August! I think I might be addicted to running!

Thanks go to Sarah for contributing to My Fitness Story... this week. It's certainly an amazing tale and demonstrates what can be achieved in a relatively short time. I'm glad that she has found the thing that works for her - running is not for everyone but finding the regime - whether it is exercise or diet - that works for you and your lifestyle - seems to be the key factor in success. There seems, to me anyway, little point in enduring a diet that doesn't work for your lifestyle and that you don't enjoy - because it's not sustainable in the longer term and you're more likely to go back to old habits. 

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. I am particularly short of posts at the moment. Do please join in - or ask your friends if you know someone has a story to tell, even if they don't blog.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My Fitness Story... - Tracy

I'm very grateful today to my guest poster because she wrote this for me whilst away from home. I had no post lined up until I put out a request on Twitter on Monday for some new contributions - or the series would have had to take an enforced holiday. I know Tracy has been thinking of submitting her story for a while to me, and I'm glad she took the time to write all down for me. Tracy struggled with her weight after having children, suffering the cumulative effect of weight gain that successive pregnancies can bring, until she resolved to lose the weight for good last year. In total, she lost 5 stone in 8 months, which is pretty incredible - especially as she did it all by myself and all for herself, which is great. This story cannot fail to inspire you if you're struggling in any way with a diet or fitness programme. Over now to Tracy to take up her tale. 

My “struggle” with my weight goes back to my early twenties. I had been a size 8 – 10 and put on weight after university having money, driving a car and eating out. I increased to a size 14. When I look back, this seems like nothing, but I felt bad about myself. My self-esteem has always been related to my size, and I didn’t feel good. So I read a book, “Stop the Insanity” by Susan Powter and I followed it. It was a way of thinking about food and exercise. It motivated me and I stuck to it. It was mainly about watching the percentage fat content of food and increasing your exercise. I became obsessed, both with food and exercise, until I lost lots of weight and got down to a size 8. I felt great about myself, but I couldn’t maintain it. I was exercising before work, running for 40 minutes, then swimming 30 lengths, and doing classes after work. In all honesty, I got too thin and I don’t think I am meant to be that size. My weight started to increase again, but stabilised at a size 10 – 12. I still felt good about myself at this weight.

Me in 2007

I was this size when I met my husband, 11 years ago. I was just under 10 stone when we got together. We met and married in the space of 10 months, but in that time I went from a size 10 – 12 to a size 16. My wedding dress was a size 16. A couple of months after the wedding, I became pregnant. I saw this as an excuse to eat, and put on 4 stone during the pregnancy. I had a difficult and traumatic delivery with my son and it took me a long time to recover, physically and emotionally. It wasn’t until he was 3 years old that I felt able to do anything about the weight. But, in 2004, I got a new job and decided I wanted to make a new start so I began the Atkins diet. Once again, I was obsessed. I followed the diet to the exact letter. It worked. I lost weight, and fast. Within 3 months I had lost over 4 stone and I felt good again. The feeling I got when everyone asked how I had done it, commented on how good I looked and complimented me on my achievement was wonderful. But it didn’t last for long.

Christmas Day 2009

I maintained for 4 months but became pregnant with my second child. I immediately started eating whatever I wanted again, and of course the weight started to pile back on. I put 3 stone back on during the pregnancy, and 8 months after the birth of my second child, I was pregnant again! This time, there was no time for weight loss and I just carried on eating, putting on another 2 stone. I was now a size 22 and 15 1/2 stone. I did not know what to do. I lacked motivation to do anything about my weight and suffered from post natal depression. It wasn’t until I resolved some of the issues relating to the birth of my children through counselling that I felt I was in a place where I could do something to tackle the weight again.

Christmas 2010

I was at work New Year’s Eve 2009, wearing my size 22 uniform and could not do up the trousers. I made a New Year’s resolution. In 2010, I was going to lose the weight. I was determined. I had been given a Wii Fit for Christmas and I intended on using this to keep me on track and hopefully be a fun way of exercising. On New Year’s Day, I stepped onto the Wii Fit for the first time. My BMI was right at the top of obese. I was mortified. I weighed 15 stone 8 lb. However, instead of feeling depressed, this motivated me, I had to do something! I started doing Wii Fit every day. For the first time, I was able to exercise with the children around because they enjoyed watching me do it, which resolved a major issue for me. I had found it very difficult to exercise. I couldn’t fit it in during the day, and was too exhausted by night. The Wii Fit resolved this. I know it is very low impact, but I was so unfit and lethargic, it got me moving more than I had done in years. I started to follow my own diet plan. Not as radical as I had been before, but combining things I had learnt in the past. I had porridge and juice for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch, fish and vegetables for dinner. It was low carb again, but not in the extreme way that I had been with Atkins. I had “bad” days, particularly around my period, when I would lapse and have chocolate and wine! But this time, instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on. Pretty quickly, I saw results. The weight started coming off and my BMI started coming down. I carried on wearing baggy clothes and didn’t talk about what I was doing to anyone because I was doing this for myself. By August, I had lost 5 stone and my BMI was 24.6. I was thrilled. I started dressing completely differently and my work uniform was no longer the size 22 that wouldn’t fasten, but a size 12 that was a bit baggy. I felt so much better about myself.

After my 10K

I set myself a new target and entered a 10K race. This was my next challenge. I had lost the weight - now I wanted to improve my fitness. I had never done any running before, but I entered the Tatton Park 10k in September 2010 to raise funds for the Bobby Moore Fund for bowel cancer research. I enjoyed training - it gave me a real sense of motivation, having something to aim for. As a complete beginner with asthma, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I tried to follow a training schedule and enjoyed going out from my front door for an hour, exploring the local area doing run/walks. I did the route in 1 hr 16 minutes but the time wasn’t important, it was just doing it. My children looked so proud, and I felt a real sense of achievement. I couldn’t have imagined, only 9 months before, that I would’ve been able to run for a bus, let alone a 10K.

9 months later and so far, I have managed to maintain. I fluctuate a bit, and I have to watch what I eat, but I still feel good about myself. I am a size 12 – 14, and I am OK with that. I know, if I pushed myself, I could get down to being a 10 – 12 again but in my heart of hearts I don’t think this is where my natural weight should be. I am stable where I am, I don’t want to get big again, and I am happy to maintain where I am now. As I sit here, I am on holiday, and I have a glass of wine. I am planning on getting back to “sensible” eating again next week, after my holiday. Until then, I will not be worrying about it. The next challenge? Who knows. Maybe a marathon for my 40^th birthday next year?!

What a great story. I'm sure lots of mums (including myself) went through similar experiences after they had children. I think Tracy's success can be summed up in this sentence: "instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on". We all have bad days - it's just how you react to them that decides if you succeed in the long run. I think it's an important lesson for us all - failure on a diet/healthy eating plan is not about one day. 

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it. If you want to read previous posts in this series, click on the My Fitness Story... tab above and they are all linked on that page.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My Fitness Story... - Side Effects

When today's poster first got in touch with me, I hadn't yet published this story. When she outlined her experience, I was struck by the similarities in the two situations and how much of a coincidence - because there was no way they could have known about the other person's experience. When she sent her story through, I realised that despite the similarities, the two stories are actually quite different but nonetheless, relevant to the nature of this series of posts. 

Like the previous poster, today's guest contributor has decided to remain anonymous. You will see from the story she tells that weight loss was the side effect of taking drugs, rather than the main motivation for taking them. She tells her story powerfully about the negative impact it had on her life and also how she overcame it. It is a personal experience of weight loss, which is what My Fitness Story... is all about. Please read it with an open mind, as I hand you over to her to begin her tale.

The first time I took cocaine was April 2005. It was my friends’ 21^st birthday, we were going out with and her much older boyfriend and his mate, and they had got a couple of grams for the four of us to share. Up until that point, the strongest drug I’d ever taken was marijuana, and was not just anti-drug, but actually petrified of what drugs could do to me. But for some reason, something just ‘clicked’ and I decided that now was the time.  I don’t remember much of that night apart from spending all night snogging my friends, her boyfriend going home in a strop and then having sex with her in the taxi home and getting a free fare.

Skip forward a couple of months and I met my then boyfriend. He was heavily into the drugs scene and took just about any powder or pills he could get his hands on.  I started indulging in drugs every weekend, and didn’t even notice I’d lost weight until my favourite jeans literally fell off me. I’d never been slim before, hovering at about a size 16 since I left school, and it was a new thrill. I spent a lot of time admiring my new figure in the mirror. The drug taking got worse and I can’t begin to imagine what my workmates at the time thought of me, when I dragged into work after a heavy night doing lines of coke, still shaking and looking wide-eyed.

My life got more and more complicated, and after an abortion and splitting from my boyfriend, when a friend offered me a chance to move in with her and her boyfriend, I jumped at the chance. They were equally as embroiled with drugs and we’d have hedonistic parties, or spend all evening getting ready to go out, taking line after line of coke as we went. As my appetite for cocaine increased, my appetite for food curled up and died. I’d live on black coffee and actually remember congratulating myself one day as I’d only had one solid meal in the last week. To be honest, at this point, I couldn’t have afforded to eat anyway as I’d spend the month existing until payday (to which we referred as ‘Coke Day’), when I’d pay my rent, buy as much coke as I could afford, my monthly train ticket and spend the rest on clothes. For the first time in my life, buying clothes was a thrill as I’d be buying a smaller size each time I went shopping. In no time, my size 10 trousers were hanging off of me. I’m 5’4” and have a very large chest, broad shoulders and have always had hips, but looking back, I think I’d gone too far.

The last time I took cocaine was New Years Eve, 2005. In eight short months I’d gone from a healthy, reliable, kind human being, to a person fuelled by drugs, obsessed with image and who’d step over her sick grandmother to get the next line. Something in my brain seemed to click, in the same way that it had when it all started, and I knew I’d never take cocaine again. About a month later, I met my husband. It was love at first sight and we were married 6 months later. He’d already been there and done that, and had no intention of touching drugs. His attitude and together-headedness is what kept me resolute in my avoidance of drugs, though there were times at the beginning that I could have happily indulged. I think my wedding pictures are the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever looked, and even though I was a size 14, I look at them and wish for that figure, not the size 10 one.

Five years later, I’m bigger than I’ve ever been. I’m extremely unhappy with my weight; I don’t look in mirrors, hate buying clothes, and worry that I’m going to be an embarrassment to my daughter when she starts school. But I know that, this time, I need to do it right. I may have been slim, but I was never healthy. I’ve still never known what it’s like to put in a good, hard slog to lose weight, but this is what I need to do now. It’ll be hard, but at least I know I’ll never be that person again. Because, actually, I hated that person.

Huge thanks to my guest poster for recounting her experience so bravely and honestly. I think it took huge amounts of courage to recognise how drugs were blighting her life and just to stop outright. I wish her the very best of luck with losing weight the right way. I'm sure she is and will be an inspiration to her daughter, whatever she does. 

As usual, please do comment to show your support or share similar experiences below. If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My tips for starting a diet

Back in January, I wrote a post passing on tips for starting a New Year fitness regime, which was well received. Nearly 4 months on, I hope you're all exercising madly and have progressed well. (Of course you have!)

Photo credit: elvinstar

At this time of year, thoughts turn to summer and baring parts of your body that have been covered up for a long time and so the summer diets begin. I've seen a few tweets about it sailing past in recent weeks and it struck me that I had never done a follow-up diet tips post. Then I got into a discussion with someone who wants to lose weight following the birth of her baby earlier this year, who said she had no clue where to start. Again, these are my tips and I'm not qualified in any way so please remember that.

1. Try not to get hung up on the scale. It is very easy to get obsessed by it but it is a number that can be affected by so many things. Drink a pint of water and you'll put a pound on; but you know it's not real weight gain. Knowing your weight is handy for working out calorie requirements but you don't need to weigh yourself that regularly. Try to focus on your measurements - record them at the start and do them about every 2-3 weeks. After all, would you care if you were 10 stone or 12 if you were still a size 10? It's size, not weight, that really matters. If you really must weigh yourself, do it no more than once a week, do it at the same time of day and preferably first thing.

2. Be realistic. Aim for an average loss of 1lb per week, although you may lose more than this in the first couple of weeks. Crash dieting will make you feel rubbish and the chances are you will fall off the wagon more spectacularly. It also messes with your metabolism for reasons I won't go into here. Aim to eat only about 500 calories per day less than you need. In some cases, some people find that their weight loss stalls if they eat too little.

3. Keep your fluids up. It's particularly important in the early days when you're hungry. Apparently, lots of people think they are hungry when they are actually thirsty. Drinking water in particular will help you over the early hunger when you get started and you're adjusting to having less food in your stomach.

4. Plan. Having a plan of what to eat will mean you have something to turn to when you're tired or don't want to think too hard. Consider forthcoming events that might involve challenges to your diet - like parties or social occasions - so you can plan ahead. Consider when you're going to start to get off to the best start - Mondays seem a good idea but it can be a hard day to get started so if it doesn't work for you, choose another day when you're in a more positive mood.

5. View this as a permanent change to your lifestyle, not a temporary stopgap to achieve your goal.

6. Try to build in as many unprocessed foods into your diet as you can. Processed foods have fewer nutrients in it, so when you eat, you get hungry and crave more food. Eating more healthy foods will make you feel bett

7. Write down everything you eat. Seeing it written down in black and white makes your food intake more real and you can see where you're going wrong. There are various websites - some with associated smartphone apps - that allow you to do this electronically.

8. Watch your portion sizes. Start by weighing everything. I remember seeing a programme a couple of years ago when a woman complained she ate heathily but couldn't lose weight. Then they showed the fruit salad she ate for breakfast. It was enormous and contained tons of calories. It also took her hours to eat! If you eat too much of anything, even "healthy food", you won't lose weight.

9. Banning foods makes you crave them. If you have a food nemesis, try to eat less of it or less often rather than cutting it out altogether - unless you have an allergy or intolerance to something of course.

10. Eat regularly, but make it work for you. Some diets say not to eat late - but if that's when you can eat, plan your food around it. You don't put on weight or fail to lose weight by eating late. It's just that you are less likely to make good food choices because of tiredness and more likely to eat something quick that is not so good for your diet. And whatever you do, do not skip meals - when you are really hungry, you're more likely to wreck your diet too.

11. Give yourself treats along the way regularly. It can be a day off, a treat meal, or more regular small treats that fit into your diet - whatever is best for you and keeps you going. This is where planning ahead will help you.

12. If you have a bad day, don't just give up. Be kind to yourself, accept that they happen and start again. One day will not undo everything, so don't let it drag you down. If you're looking at several months of dieting, then one day doesn't make a huge amount of difference.

13. Finally, be in the right frame of mind to start a diet. It's almost better not to start if you don't have the motivation to change and keep going. When I was talking about this on Twitter, Wendy from The MuTu System said this - the first step is to believe you deserve it. I couldn't agree more.

That's it. For more information, try looking at my friend Jo's site, in particular this post about diet and fitness myths and this one about very low calorie diets. Feel free to add your tips in the comments below.

My Fitness Story - Laura S

Hello and welcome back to My Fitness Story... , my weekly guest post slot where people share their stories about fitness, diet, weight gain, and weight loss. This week's story is about the last of those - but it's not just about one person's battle with weight loss, it's about two people. Laura, who blogs at cakeandteablog, has agreed to tell the story of how both her and her husband lost weight (over 15 stone between them), their slide back down the slippery slope when a baby came into their lives (when doesn't it?) and how they have overcome it by fitting a healthy lifestyle around a baby. It's a really inspiring story, so please do settle down to have a good read as Laura takes up the tale.

David and I met in 2001, when I was 18 and he was 21. We were both morbidly obese, and had been heavy right through our childhoods. Through the next few years, we talked a lot about losing weight. We started diets for a couple of weeks at a time before getting bored and even had a couple of lapsed gym memberships. But nothing ever really stuck- life got in the way, motivation faltered, and somehow we just couldn’t get the momentum going to make any real lasting changes.

We got engaged in 2005, and set a date for our wedding in 2008. Finally, in August 2007, something clicked. With just under a year to go until our wedding, we both joined a gym. Coincidentally, our jobs were both changing around the same time. David was a salesman, on the road every day and living on junk food from service stations, but he was becoming more office based. I was leaving my prestigious, high pressure graduate training scheme which had me staying in random hotels for weeks on end, to work locally in a job with much more sensible hours. Suddenly, we had the time and the motivation to really do something.

This is us the month before we started out:

Looking back, I think it’s fair to say that we were both blinkered to how big we actually were. I was a dress size 26, David was struggling with size XXXL. We had fooled ourselves for a long time that everything was fine. It wasn’t.

We started slowly at the gym, beginning with some gentle cardio sessions, and upping the intensity gradually. David found the weight fell off him to start with, I found it came off slowly and steadily, which was frustrating because it felt like I was lagging behind! But the more we did it, the more it became part of our routine. We didn’t do anything special with our diet to begin with, we just started making healthier choices, and these eventually became normal for us.

By the time our wedding came around, I had lost 4 stone and David had lost 6. We looked and felt like different people. And when we got back home, we kept going. We started to do WeightWatchers online, which gave our weight loss a boost, and we looked for new fitness challenges to keep us interested, and started to run together.

To start with, that little voice in my head that said I would never run. It told me that people as big as me didn’t run. Eventually, I told the voice to shove it. So, here we are the start line of the Silverstone half marathon in March 2009. 18 months after starting to lose weight, I am about 7 stone lighter than the first picture, and David is almost 8 stone lighter.

And this is us in May 2009. Just before I got pregnant, and it all went a bit wrong! This is the lowest weight that either of us have ever achieved (so far!) in our adult lives.

When I got pregnant, very little changed at first. We didn’t change our diets too much, and I kept an eye on my heart rate when I worked out. Then I started making excuses... oh, I’ll just have this one takeaway, this one packet of Maltesers, this bucket of crisps, because I’m pregnant. That had an effect on David, who would help me with said takeaway/Maltesers/crisps. Then, as I eased off the exercise, so did he, because we just weren’t pushing each other anymore. Then it got even worse- I spent the last 2 months of my pregnancy going in and out of hospital with gallstones. I couldn’t really eat anything during that period, but David was stress eating- going back to an empty house with a convenient kebab, and worrying.

Just after I gave birth, I weighed 3 ½ stone more than at my lowest weight, and David had put on about the same. But of course, the last thing you can cope with through the sleeplessness and mayhem is of the newborn period is thinking about diet and exercise- thinking about basic personal hygiene was enough of a challenge! Plus, I had to wait three months to have my gall bladder removed, then it took weeks to recover from surgery enough to exercise.

We each had a few goes at losing weight at different times, but parenthood brought a new set of challenges. Every time we got some momentum up, something would happen, usually teething or a bug, that would disrupt sleep to the point that healthy living went out of the window. And where we’d always taken so much strength from exercising together, we now had to do it separately, so that there was always someone at home looking after the little one. With so much more to juggle, it was just harder.

Finally, we made New Year’s resolutions to start again in 2011. This time, it’s working. I have lost 1st 8lb since 1st January, and have 12lb to go to get to my pre baby weight, then another 2 stone to reach my ideal weight. David has lost 1st 11lb so far, with a stone and a half to go to his target weight. It’s slow, and it’s hard, but we are determined to get to the goals that we didn’t quite reach the first time around!

We make time for exercise - and sometimes that involves planning our evenings with military precision so that we both get to do what we need to. It’s tiring, but we are both happier, more confident, and healthier for it. We have learnt to stop making excuses and make time for ourselves, even when life is hectic. We have learned that losing weight is a long and frustrating process, but success will always come, as long as you never give up. And we have learned that getting fit alone is a hard and lonely battle - we need each other. Even if we can’t exercise together much anymore, the support is still there, and we keep each other going.

We have our son to set an example for now  - and if he has good role models, enjoys a healthy, active lifestyle, and never has to battle with weight like mum and dad, then it’s all been worth it.

Thanks to Laura for telling their fitness story today. Both David and her should be really proud of their achievements, even with their slip ups along the way. They have learned that slip ups happen, but the key is not to let it destroy your progress but to get back into it as soon as possible. As ever, and this is a common theme with the successful dieters who've written for me, they have made their regimes work for them, and found a way to build healthy eating and exercise into the lifestyle they have. I wish Laura - and David - the very best of luck in achieving their ideal weights. I'm sure that will happen very soon. 

As usual, please do comment to show your support or share similar experiences in the comments below. If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My Fitness Story... - Laura W

This week's story is a bit hot off the press! On Tuesday night, one of my Twitter friends, Laura, tweeted about her weight loss. I don't think it was just me that said "Wow!" when she said she'd lost ten stone. Laura then sent me a DM to tell me how she did it and I told her she should write her story. She was a bit reticent to do so but I talked her into it.

The reason for her reticence is that she had gastric band surgery which has helped her to lose weight. This is a controversial area; many people think that it is the lazy route to weight loss and she was worried of the reaction to her story. I hope that her story, which takes her from a weight of 301lbs and BMI of 42.14 to a weight of 160lbs and BMI of 22.40, demonstrates that it is far from an easy option, and you will give her your full support because it is an incredible achievement whichever way you look at it. 

Before - side view

Last night was the first time that I had weighed myself in a year. Sheer stupidity forced me to tweet about my weight loss but after a little natter with the lovely Kate, I agreed to share my story and dark secret…

At 28 years old, a mother of three, 6ft and weighing 300lbs, I was often referred to as 'the big one', ‘Hagrid’, 'fatty', 'gibblet' and 'her that looks like a rugby player’. At the age of 16, I thought I was sexy and had confidence in my body. I was never skinny but I was toned from playing football and had a great shape. However, this all buggered off when, aged 16, I became pregnant. I couldn’t decide what was worse; no football, getting fat, or both!

After my son was born, I managed to stick at Slimming World for many years, my weight yo-yoing up and down until I got married in 2004. After the wedding, I gave up; child number two came along and before long, number three too. I ignored what I looked like and never looked in the mirror. My confidence was low and paranoia developed every time I left the house. I tried to look for a new job to be closer to home but I felt that I was being penalised at interview for being fat. My husband suggested I speak to the GP about weight loss surgery, he had been reading up on it. The GP recommended the local Spire hospital as a good starting point. My hubby decided to foot the bill (he wanted a sexy wife, he said) and next thing you know, I was in for a consultation.

Before - front view 

The consultant wanted me to opt for a gastric bypass, but hearing so many horror stories, I opted for the gastric band. If Anne Diamond and Sharon Osbourne could do it, then so could I. I started the pre-op diet pretty quickly, which consisted of drinking Bovril, Bovril and oh, more Bovril for 14 days. The band was fitted under general anaesthetic using keyhole surgery so they had to ensure that the fat around the liver was non-existent, hence a liquid pre-op diet.

On 19th April 2008, I went into the Spire at Macclesfield not knowing what to expect. I was a scared young girl who just wanted to be thin. I awoke, still a fat person who wanted to be thin, with the additional bonus of being in absolute agony. I didn’t realise that they ‘jack’ your liver up out of the way while they stitch the band to your stomach. Gas is also used to inflate the chest cavity…painful. For days, I was walking like Nelson Mandela through pain and burping for Britain from the gas. Since the pre-op diet started, I had lost 16 pounds but I was still a fat person wanting to be thin. Two weeks after having the band fitted, I had lost 2 stone!I felt amazing, clothes were falling off me and I felt so confident and sexy; even at meal times when eating my baby food tubs of puree chicken and veg.

Since then, I have lost a whopping ten stone. Trust me, this was not easy. There have been days where I have cried over food, days where I have been so sick with every mouthful and days where I have just refused to eat. I guess the key to having a gastric band is to not rely on it to do the work for you. It took me over a year to work this out, maybe longer. Instead of building my repertoire of foods up from puree to more solid balanced meals, I was eating rice pudding, melted chocolate and angel delight. Well it was sloppy wasn’t it - the band won’t stop those foods getting through!

I went for regular band fills at the hospital and lied to the dietitian about the band not working. I wanted it tighter and tighter. Each time, they would pump more saline solution in to tighten it up (through a port under my skin) and each time, I would complain that it wasn’t working. It was only when I realised that I was cheating myself and not them that I kicked myself into gear and started eating a healthier, more ‘solid’ meal.

Doing the midnight walk

I also began to exercise. That first day when I mounted my new bike, I felt so proud. That was until I rode off the drive, big grin on my face, got past next door's drive then collapsed in a heap from exhaustion, turned around and hid the bike away. I told myself off. £300 on a bike and I wasn’t going to use it. The next day, I cycled for 5 whole minutes! The day after, 15! Two weeks later, I was cycling nearly 20 miles a day and loving being on the open road, the baby behind me in his seat and the biggest grin on my face ever.

If I couldn’t cycle, I would walk. I entered myself into the St Luke's Hospice Midnight Walk in June 2009 which was 13.1miles through Crewe and Nantwich starting at midnight. I could do that. I remember training for it, tweeting my friend Richard as I was walking through town night after night. I was so proud of myself. I raised over £400 and walked the 13.1 miles in under 2 hours (1hour 59 to be precise!). Unfortunately, due to illness, I couldn’t do the walk last year but I have signed up again this June. I’ve been advised to take it steady so I won’t be breaking the 2 hour barrier this time.

You see, it’s not that band that does the work. It’s the person inside. Mind over matter. Some days, I still cry when food makes me sick. I get angry when I’ve cooked Christmas dinner and can’t eat a forkful of it without dashing to the toilet to bring it back up. But what I remember is that at least I am eating ‘something’ and that ‘something’ is healthy (shhhh, don’t tell Kate I’m eating a Twix right now). I have days where I eat chocolate and nothing else, I am still human after all. But those days, I get up and get out and, rain or shine, I will walk the dog briskly or hop on the bike. I even bought myself a cross trainer last year that is fantastic for hanging clothes on (though I do use it at times).

After

Another thing I keep in mind is that everyone is different and that goes for band wearers too. I had a lovely message from Anne Diamond once (I was a regular on her website) telling me to stick with it and not give up. She said that what works for her might not work for me. It was these words from Anne that snapped me back into shape last year when I became ill. I couldn’t exercise as much as I wanted to and the weight was piling back on. If I wasn’t starving myself, I was making myself sick after every bite of food. It wasn’t good. I remembered Anne’s words and not only do I still believe that we are all different, but I also believe that for a band wearer, every day is different. Yesterday, I ate a party sized sausage roll; tonight, I tried one and it made me sick. Last week, an apple made me sick; today, it went down fine. It’s trial and error, like weaning really. Just stay relaxed and don’t worry if you have excess food left over - you can always feed it to the dog!

I've stopped fighting against food now and just accept that I can only eat what I can eat without making myself sick. If my children want a McDonalds, I no longer look longingly at the cheeseburger, instead I take a bite and feel satisfied that I've had a bite. OK, perhaps it's not the way that we've been taught to live with the band but it's worked for me - sometimes that bite is enough for my lunch and that suits me fine.

I'll leave you with my golden rules, none of which are any massive secrets.

- don’t drink for at least half an hour after eating
- chew food thoroughly
- drink plenty of water
- don’t skip breakfast

I hope you'll agree that Laura has been brave and honest in writing this post. I think that it demonstrates that it's not just a case of getting a gastric band and you'll be slim without effort. Like everything, you need to learn how to make it work for you. And work at it, you will - it still demands a healthy lifestyle to get the best results. 

Whatever you think of gastric bands and other forms of weight loss surgery, and whether it's for you or not, Laura's achievement is incredible. She's worked hard and is still recovering from illness, whilst trying to complete a degree as well as being a wife and mother. I wish her all the best with her recovery and at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. If you're interested, Laura has recently started a blog called Daydreams and Diaries, which is worth a visit too. 

As usual, please do comment to show your support or share similar experiences in the comments below. If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated and do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story. 

Thanks for reading and do come back for another guest post next week. 

My Fitness Story… - Desperate Measures

When I was first contacted by this week’s guest poster, I didn't appreciate the scale of the tale that she had to tell. She outlined her story and admitted she was nervous about telling it. Having reassured her that she could remain completely anonymous, she said she’d write the post when she felt ready. Imagine my surprise when the post arrived in my inbox the following morning.

And then I read her story. I was totally blown away. I understood then why she had been so nervous about reliving this part of her life. She has been, and is, incredibly brave. For this poster took drugs to help her lose weight. Not just "slimming aids", illegal drugs. 

This post is longer than usual, but I urge you to read it and give the poster your full support in the comments. I know she is nervous about the publication of this post and has told me she is unlikely to read the comments, but you're generally very supportive and I'm sure lots of helpful comments will encourage her to read them. (Abuse will just get removed by me anyway). This post is not written to justify her actions because she is ashamed of them. It's written to explain how she came to take drugs to help her lose weight and the effects it had on her and her life. It is a cautionary tale, it is shocking, it is powerful but it's also uplifting.

So, now, I hand you over to my anonymous contributor, who will tell you her fitness story about the desperate measures she took to lose weight. 

Ah. I’d had a bottle of wine when I offered to do this guest post, and I’m already unsure as to whether or not I can pull it off, but I’ll give it a try. I can’t possibly fit the entire story of my battle here, so I’ll try to cut it down to the weight-based bits for the purpose of the post...

Freshly single and working in the pub industry, I suddenly became acutely aware of my weight. Well, not so much my weight but my size. I was 22, 5’2” tall and weighed around 13 stone. My dress size was 16 and I’d never been as big as I was then. Working in the pub wasn’t my only job, so I was tired too and had little time to make new friends. I was lonely.

One day, I was moaning to my flatmate about how knackered/fat/fed up I was when he suggested I do what he did and take a bit of speed at weekends.

I was horrified! It’d never crossed my mind to take such drastic action. He explained to me how if I just took a small amount on a Saturday morning, I’d feel much more energetic and the weight would surely start disappearing. I had no boyfriend, no kids and no real responsibilities back then, so I decided to give it a try and had some the next morning.

It was great! I felt so full of energy and my housework was done in no time! Now what? Oooohh yes, we should go for a walk. We walked for hours, my flatmate and I, until I had finished the 1.5ltr bottle of water I’d taken with me and desperately needed a wee, so we went back. Being this full of energy, I thought, I’d lose weight in no time at all!

And lose weight I did. I didn’t want to wait for months to look great though, so rather than having speed at weekends, I immediately started having some EVERY morning. Even the ones where I went to work at the office. That wasn’t a total disaster either – I was completing the workload of two people every day. The weight just ‘fell off’ (I hate it when people say that now) and within the first week, I’d lost a full stone. I was thrilled! I very quickly became less about the energy and so, so much more about the weight for me. I was taking this stuff every day because it was really helping me.

Four months later, I was a size 10, I had a very busy social life, worked both jobs comfortably and was happy - sort of. I was paranoid, I avoided my family and I was obsessed with not eating. I could live with that though, because I was slowly but surely creeping towards that never-worn-before size 8. Once I got into a size 8 dress, I would definitely stop taking it. Or at least cut down – because I did have some days where I didn’t have any speed and ate like a horse all day (so it wasn’t like I was starving myself, right?) Food became my nemesis – I so desperately craved it but looking at it made me feel fat, I felt like a failure if I ate it. I didn’t do much shopping – most of the meals I did have were from a take-away because they were almost always an impromptu and knee-jerk reaction to a sudden, overwhelming urge for food. Disgusted by what I’d eaten, I’d then eat nothing for at least two days to balance things out.

By the time I met the man who would be my husband, I had reached my goal – I went on my first date with him in a size 8 denim dress from Topshop. I’ll never forget that dress. He wanted to take me out for meals, call at KFC and eat it in the car overlooking a beautiful view, and have McDonalds’ hangover breakfasts. It was brilliant. I didn’t take any drugs for the first few weeks with him and although I missed the feeling of being in control of my hunger, I was having such a great time getting to know him I didn’t really care. At least I didn’t really care until THAT dress stopped fitting me. I only took about 3 weeks to happen, and I didn’t like it. I had eaten too much – what a fat, greedy pig. He would never want me if I was fat so I had to go back to taking speed. I figured I had no choice. It was no real problem though because I’d just have it in the week and see him on the weekends – problem solved! Whatever I did, I couldn’t risk getting fat again because then I would be unhappy.

I couldn’t keep it up. I missed him when he wasn’t there, but couldn’t phone him because I’d talk forever or become furious for no reason and I didn’t want him to think I was a cow. I really wanted this relationship to work, and so one day I made what was a huge decision for me. I told my boyfriend all about it, warts and all.

It sounds like such a cliché, but he saved my life. By the time I started to see things properly, I realised just how much of a mess my life had become. I didn’t have friends at all – only people who used my house to chill out in. (Don’t picture some kind of crack den when you read that – I didn’t have a large group of ‘drug friends’.) I might’ve been thin but I was desperately unhappy – I’d started and dropped out of a degree course because I couldn’t do the work required. I’d had other, more pressing matters to attend to. One evening for example, before an assignment was due, I spent 6 hours rearranging my CD collection.

I asked my flat mate to move out (after he’d stolen my car and I scolded the policeman who pulled him over) and began to get my life in order. It was incredibly hard going for both of us. Panic attacks, paranoia, sleep paralysis and totally unforgivably irrational behaviour towards my boyfriend were just the tip of the iceberg. I was so very depressed, too. I’m not sure I will ever truly get over the depression really. If anyone was going to help me through this though, it was this man. He has been so, so patient with me over this whole thing and for that I will never, ever be able to tell him just how grateful I am.

Now I look back, and I feel lots of things. Shame, sadness, disgust. Worry that my children will one day inevitably be offered drugs. Hope that they will be a stronger person than me and say no.

Most of all though, I look back at those old photos and feel so very lucky to have been ‘found’. I honestly have no idea where I would be now without my husband, although I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a great place. I may have been thin, I may have worn designer clothes and looked great (in my eyes) but now, 6 years on and back to my original size 16, I realise that I was never, ever, happy. Yes, I complain regularly about my thunder thighs, my baby belly and my bingo wings, but if I’m truly honest I don’t do much about it because I can’t be bothered. It’s been 6 years and the thought of writing this post still woke me at 4am, filled with dread.

I made some terrible decisions when I was younger, with some consequences that will be with me forever. The most important one though was the best one I ever made, and so as I finish this post to go and eat left over Chinese food for breakfast, all I can really tell you is that I would far rather be fat and happy than thin and ... lonely? Homeless? Unemployed? Unloved? Paranoid?

Dead?

The first reaction I had when I read this was "Wow". I've read it several times since and I say "Wow" every time. Thank you so much for writing this post and for telling your story so powerfully. I really hope writing this helped you in some way, but I also hope that this post helps others who might consider such a course of action, as it shows that what might seem like a simple solution is actually nothing of the sort. There were huge repercussions, which impact on your life to this day. What I think this shows is there is no such thing as a magic bullet, no easy way. Losing weight is a lifestyle change and it can't just be solved by taking drugs.

Do you have any similar experiences that you'd like to share? If so, please leave a comment below. Even if you don't, leave some supportive comments for my guest poster. She has been so very brave in coming forward.

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. Don't forget you can read all the previous posts in the series by clicking on the My Fitness Story... tab above. 

My Fitness Story... - Garry

Welcome to the My Fitness Story... series, which has now become a regular Thursday feature on this blog. Today's contribution is by Garry AKA Him Up North, who is a good Twitter friend and blogs at The Blog Up North, which is always a fantastic read. Garry also designed the badge for this series as he has the ability I lack in design! I knew he had a fitness story to tell, so I asked him if he would write a post for this series. He took a bit of persuading that his story was worth telling but, as I have said before, this series encompasses the full range of experiences that people have with diet and fitness. The fact that he has a personal experience means he has a story to tell, so he wrote it, and as always, it's a great read. Garry had to lose weight for medical reasons, having never been on a diet in his life so he had to work out how to lose the weight. Here is his story. 

Two years ago, a doctor told me to lose weight. I had a health problem which was being exacerbated by carrying a bit too much timber. “A stone or a stone and a half,” he said.

Okay, I thought. Which limb do I cut off...? Seriously, I was at a complete loss.

I’d never tried to lose weight. I wasn’t a gym type. My story, like many men, was one of gradual middle-age spread (ie my age was spreading to my middle). But my choice was clear. Lose the weight or face surgery and quite possibly pain. Lots of pain.

So I assessed my lifestyle and realised I was doing many things wrong:

• I was eating the wrong things, often at the wrong times. Working shifts meant I was relying on convenience foods (so called because they belong in a convenience) and eating at odd times of the day.
• I was far too sedentary. I drove everywhere, even short journeys such as the school run, and got virtually no exercise. Because my job is a) desk based and b) has no long break that also reduced scope for activity.

As Gandhi would have it, I had to be the change I wanted to see. Pretty obvious, really.

So my plan was a simple one.

My diet became more virtuous. I cut out bread altogether because up to that point, what I ate had been something of a yeast feast. I reduced my calorific intake by cutting out snack foods and sweet things.

It was bloody hard – I was a grazer – and the lure of the biscuit barrel was great. But I had my motivation – threat of pain – and gradually “educated my appetite”. I could eat little without feeling hungry.

My lifestyle became more active. I left the car behind for any trips around town. Much to the kids’ chagrin, we started walking to and from school (which just happens to be up a steep hill – cue much redness and sucking of air in the early days).

Okay, I didn’t take up trampolining or orienteering. But I did start walking just for the exercise; a four and a half mile route with hills and stuff became my workout.

Because my target was a statistical one, I weighed myself regularly. To my astonished delight I found I was actually losing weight. It was slow and gradual. There were times when I lost nothing or actually went back up. I realised my metabolism meant it was a high wire act with very little margin for failure.

But I had my target and I knew my changed habits could work. I was down to my target weight in about ten months. My regime, such as it was, had become normal. By the time I saw my consultant, my weight was no longer a contributing factor and I avoided the surgeon’s scalpel. Phew.

However, with the threat went the motivation. I played fast and loose on that high wire, choosing to dive into the safety net too often (or the crisps stash as it’s known). Some of the weight is back and I’m verging on disliking it all again.

I realise getting fitter and losing weight was and is very much a journey without end. Just a series of signposts. It may be time to embark upon it again.

Many thanks to Garry for telling his story. I'm sure men can end up feeling a bit inadequate when they see magazines like Men's Fitness which show men with bulging six packs (in the right way!) that give the impression that you have to do lots of exercise in order to get and stay fit. It doesn't have to be that way if it's not for you - simple changes that you build into your lifestyle are more effective for many as they are easier to keep doing when they become part of your normal routine. 

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... - 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.