
I’m not a great one for posting photos of myself online, but I am celebrating.
I am celebrating the fact that I have got rid of 34 pounds of excess weight since April. That’s one pound short of two and a half stone – nearly 16 kilos, or the average weight of a 3 year old child.
It has been fun buddying up with Lesley – we’ve been going to Weight Watchers together and she has done fantastically well too, shedding all the weight she gained after quitting smoking at the start of 2010.
I am 5ft 10 inches and Lesley is 6ft and we have both been told many times that it doesn’t show, we carry it well, you don’t look overweight, etc. Well thanks guys, but looking back at old photos, anyone who said that to me should get themselves down to Specsavers immediately. I did NOT carry it well, I had fat legs, fat arms, a huge bum and several chins. What I did seem to be fairly good at was accumulating the weight evenly over my entire body, so I never became an apple or pear shape, just bigger all over.
Back in 2009 I was given a diabetic warning which shocked me into making a few changes (click here to read about it). I was 17 stone at the time. With the stresses and traumas of the last couple of years, we have found it hard to stick to the healthy eating and I knew my weight had crept back up, I was 16 stone 8lb in April.

Me in 2009
Weight Watchers has been great, but it’s not enough on its own. If you turn up and expect it to be a magic wand you will just put the weight back on again. If you carry on eating what you normally eat, but substitute low fat or low calorie versions of foods, then you are not changing habits and again, you’ll eventually put it back on. WW has a lot of tools to help you, but my view is that to make it a permanent lifestyle change, you have to have the right mindset. You really have to be prepared to honour your body and treat it with respect.
I began this year with a resolution to look after my health more. I won’t tell you what that resolution has cost me in dental treatment, but you know, it doesn’t matter. I hadn’t been to the dentist for 8 years, so if I average it out, it’s cheap.
After losing about a stone in weight, I had a very painful flare up of endometriosis this summer, so I paused the ongoing dental work and spent the money on acupuncture instead. My acupuncturist has also studied nutrition and she gave me some great food advice. That problem seems to have settled down now, and I’m sure the extra weight loss has helped with that too.
My blood sugar is now perfectly normal and the diabetes alert has been removed from my records. I’ve dropped a shoe size, most of my old wardrobe has gone to the charity shops (including the size 22-24 jumper I found the other day) and I am loving the fact I accidentally came home with a size 12 jumper a few weeks ago and it fits!
Believe it or not, I am just over half way. The official guidelines for my height are between 10 stone and 12 stone 6 so I have another stone or so to lose. I will see how I feel because to be honest, I’m feeling pretty fantastic right now and I’m not going to aim for an unrealistic goal just for the sake of it.

So please forgive my self-congratulatory post, but Christmas is a time of celebration and I’m taking a little moment to celebrate my achievement. And the great thing is, I can pig out over Christmas and eat anything I want to. There is no diet, just a proper understanding of food and a lot of respect for how I treat my body.
So here’s wishing you all a very joyous Christmas Day and hoping that you too have something wonderful you can celebrate.

PS: Isn’t this great!
