8 years ago today I woke up, fed up with the way I looked. Fed up with the way I felt, fed up with the way people treated me in social environments, fed up with being on the same medication as my parents, fed up to the back teeth with my life that I was determined to change. This feeling was based on a picture that was taken of me at a New Years Eve party I attending in 2010. I had bought a new outfit, had my hair styled and make up done, but the picture did not show me the person I thought I looked like in my mind and at that point, I knew I wanted to do something about it and I wanted to change myself.
8 years later and I still can not believe that I made it! I lost just under 8 stone (50.8kg) and kept it off and actually, I feel and look fabulous…….if I don’t say so myself LOL.
Believe me, starting at 18 stone (114.3kg) and getting to 10 stone 3lbs (64.9kg) in 8 years has not been easy. There have been so many moments when I wanted to stop, eat and drink everything in sight through one thing or another and I am so so glad that I did not let those moments control me and stop me getting where I am today.
What I have learnt over the years is that losing weight can be done over night but if you want to stay healthy and keep your weight off the slower the pounds comes off the better. Over the past 30 odd years I have been on and off many fad diets. As soon as I stopped these various diet programmes I gained the weight all back on and more. With the regular yoyo dieting I expected to have excess skin and seeing it on my body, reminds me of how far I have come and what I have achieved. Don’t get me wrong, I would love not to have excess skin as I hate having to tuck them into my clothes LOL, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I would rather have the excess skin and be healthy and in shape than being out of shape, living an unhealthy lifestyle and taking various cocktails of medications.
The only thing that has worked for me was eating healthy and doing regular exercise……boring I know, but my food also changed. Over the 8 years my eating habits changed from eating take aways such as chinese and pizza, eating ready meals and processed foods to cooking with fresh ingredients, to being dairy, gluten and wheat free, becoming vegan and now a plant based clean eater…..I am feeling the best I have ever felt.
What’s next for me?…..Running a half marathon!! Well over the past year I started running more and have become a bit of a medal junkie. I completed a number of 10k runs in 2018 and I have bitten the bullet and booked a half marathon in February 2019. I am not looking at losing any more weight but as I train for these runs I am struggling to hold onto my weight…..something I never thought I would ever say LOL.
2019 is the I stay ‘Slim Lou’!!
