Let me introduce myself. I am a very happily married woman with two beautiful very teenagery teenagers and am currently what I like to refer to as a ‘homemaker’. A cereal dieter (any diet you could possibly think of!), I have struggled with my weight all my life. I remember being put on diets as a youngster - but I’m not going to bore you to tears with the soap opera that was my childhood. I am going to begin in 2012. This was the year when after many visits to the doctors I was told that all my ailments were due to being overweight.
So I sorted it out. I ate healthily most of the time and I joined the gym and went religiously. I went from 13.5 stone to somewhere between 11.7 and 12 stone depending on the day. I still had a couple of stone to lose on a bad day, but I was happy in my skin and I felt good about myself as I was nicely toned and had loads of lovely endorphins rushing around my brain thanks to all the exercise - so those last couple of stone didn’t bother me at all.
In July of 2014 at the tender age of 37 I found out that I had a massive cancerous tumour growing on my kidney (errrr, yes, those ailments weren’t down to my being a hypochondriac at all but lets not get into that - I have a tendency to rant when I go there), so in September of the same year I had a radical nephrectomy, and my surgeon warned me that due to the size of the tumour which had been squashing my stomach and a combination of something to do with cortisol and adrenalin (connected of course to the removal of the kidney and adrenal gland - I really don’t understand how it all works) I would more than likely pick up a couple
of stone within a year. So, with that fabulous news, I spent the year following surgery trying numerous diets - you name it, if I hadn’t done it in the last year I would have done it prior to 2012!!

Now by trying the diets, what I mean is hearing about someone losing a lot of weight, finding out how they did it - starting the diet in the morning and then shoving anything I can lay my hands on that doesn’t relate to said diet into my face at an alarming rate come lunch time.

You will be surprised to hear that I have not lost any weight this way. Combine this with not going to the gym (along with healing, I have moved further away from any gym and really had a lot on….excuses, excuses amiright!?), and I have picked up a grand total of (cue fanfare) 2 STONE!! I have inadvertently caused exactly what I have tried to avoid! At the risk of sounding like a terrible cliche…I cannot wait for the new me to emerge in the new year - here I go on a journey. I cannot be fat AND 40!! No more ‘dieting’. That doesn’t work for me. Just eating right and exercising. That’s what I will be doing.

Post 1

Christmas is just about upon us and as I sit here typing I am aware of my belly looming up in front of me. Not a good look. A year ago to the day of me writing this I was actually two stone lighter - just thinking about it makes me feel like a disgusting blob of a thing (medical reasons aside as they don’t make me feel any better about how I feel that I look, and what I see in the mirror). My friends tell
me they can’t see that I have actually picked up this much weight - but they’re my FRIENDS!! They're not exactly going to tell me how it is - and if Im honest, I doubt I would be able to hear the truth spoken out of anyone else’s mouth without dissolving into a puddle of tears and face-planting into something sickly sweet, and enough of it to feed a family of twelve with it. As much as I know what
the truth is - and I know they know I know… I guess that’s just how I cope with it.
I want to lose three stone. Now I know I can do this…its just actually doing it that seems to be the problem. I find myself to be the kind of person who seems to pick up more weight the more I think about losing it. Its like I have this self destruct button which flicks on the moment the dreaded ‘D’ word is uttered. I have spent an entire year whinging to my friends and my poor long suffering husband about how rubbish I feel, starting diets and giving up almost instantaneously. I have not visited my gym nearly enough, and not done much exercise at home either. Not helping myself am I?
I have toyed with the idea of beginning my weightless journey today, right now!
Some people to whom I have spoken think that it’s silly to wait and start later, especially since there is a chance of picking up even more weight over the festive season, but you see this is the type of thing I would usually do - just dive in NOW - and that really hasn’t worked for me. I took a step back and I had a think. I really don’t think that starting right now would be the best of ideas. With all the
parties, dinners and drinks we are attending. With all the Christmas delicacies there to tempt me, I just don’t think it will be feasible for me to start right now, I really couldn’t resist .
What I have decided to do is just this - I shall enjoy my Christmas. I shall not over indulge too much! I shall pop over to the gym if any spare time crops up between now and the new year (even at my fittest I couldn’t go much around this time of year, but that can get me started). And when all the celebrations are over, on January the third, when I have enjoyed myself with my friends and family, I
shall empty my house of all the junk that’s left over and fill it with fine, healthy and delicious REAL food. And so it shall be.

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