Spot the Difference

The photo on the left was taken eighteen months ago the one on the right shows me as I am today. I've gone from 16 stone to 12.5 stone... a total loss to date of 3.5 stone!

I had been overweight from childhood and have been on many diets to try and shift the weight, but none of them ever seemed to get any long lasting results. Often, one diet would completely contradict another leaving me even more confused than before. So in the end I gave up and my weight ballooned to 18 stone. How you may ask did I manage to get that heavy? Quite simply I taking in far too many calories with what I eating (see a typical day below) and I wasn't burning anything off as I couldn't be bothered to exercise. The result was that my body stored the excess calories as fat.

Bowl of Cereal & Milk
Can of Drink, Chocolate Bar & Packet of Crisps
Sandwich & Apple
Muffin & Flapjack
Burger & Chips & Can of Drink
Shortbread & Chocolate Bar
Can of Drink & Packet of Crisps
Ready Meal
Packet of Biscuits
Shepherds Pie & Vegetables

Believe it or not I didn't enjoy eating all that food, it didn't make me feel happy, but I was an emotional eater and nothing anybody said or did made a difference. I would go to bed every night promising myself I would do better the next day, but I had formed a habit that I found impossible to break.

When I went to University I found it easier to control what I ate as I was in charge of my shopping, and as I didn't have a car I was cycling everywhere. This enabled me to lose a stone without a huge amount of effort. However when I left University I stopped exercising and my weight stabilised, but hen I changed jobs and was able to start attending military fitness classes.

My body tolerated my new fitness regime for a couple of years, which was quite amazing really considering the additional stress being placed on my joints by the excess weight I was carrying. Then my back decided it had finally had enough and I ended up seeking help from a physiotherapist.

The enforced break from military fitness due to my back injury made me realise that although I had lost some weight and become fitter, I hadn't actually addressed my eating habits and needed help to combat my random eating patterns. So I contacted a nutritionist who analysed my food consumption and proposed a new eating plan, which I found remarkably easy to follow and has given me a steady weight loss over the last 18 months.

Now I'm a completely different person, I love exercise and eat healthily without finding it a chore. It doesn't mean that I'm completely over the emotional eating thing, but I'm getting there and for the most part I make good choices. The decision to change was mine, but I couldn't have followed through with my decision without support from family, friends and professionals who were able to give me sound advice.

So I'd like to extend a huge thanks to my nutritionist Gill who revolutionised my eating, my physios Alex and Carl who are keeping me on the road to recovery, and of course to my trainer Chris, who never lets me stay in my comfort zone but enables me to prove to myself that I can do more than I think I can.

Thought for the day: One thing that really helped me was to substitute water for sugary drinks, it keeps my body properly hydrated and I don't get the sugar rush that sends me off on a food binge!

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