New Year, New Me?

This is my story of the battle of the bulge. I'm 33 and have been overweight all my adult life. I'm very happily married and we have a little boy, who is our pride and joy. He's 20 months old and full of energy. In an ideal world I'd like to lose a total of 8 stones. But I'm setting myself smaller goals of 2 stones at a time.

This is not a blog about my past battles, but my journey to finally become the person I've dreamt about.

Since having my son I knew that I needed to lose weight and become fitter if I want to keep up with him. So in the last 20 months I've tried weight watchers a few times and failed. I would love to have another baby but at the moment I haven't lost all the weight I gained through pregnancy (and then some).

On New Years Eve we stayed with friends. Just before midnight we were having a conversation. One of my friends started saying that people in general don't make the most of their time. It got me thinking. He was so right. Every night my husband and I sit in front of the tv and don't move. We were your typical couch potatoes. When he was working lates, I'd find lots of fattening foods, take them to the sofa. Then I would watch tv and eat...and eat. I avoided exercise at all costs and we'd get takeaways when I couldn't be bothered to cook.

On 2nd January I started watching a series on Sky 1 called 'Obese: A year to save my life'. A personal trainer, specialising in extreme weight loss, called Jessie Pavelka has come to the UK to mentor 9 morbidly obese people and help them save their lives. The first episode featured a lady who was 24 stones. The programme was so inspirational that I knew that 2012 was going to be that I was going to make a big change.

I decided that I didn't want to join a club. I have the support of family and good friends, one friend in particular who has been amazing. I knew I would have to break a lot of habits and make changes. I think the biggest change for me is the exercise. I'm trying to do a minimum of 30 mins, 5 days a week.

Overall I'm following a few basic rules.

1) smaller & appropriate portions
2) don't finish of my sons food
3) 3 meals a day
4) no snacks, but if really need something then fruit or vegetables.
5) eat a variety of foods throughout the week
6) eat all food groups in a day
7) more fruit & veg
8) drink more no added sugar squash & water (cut down on fizzy drinks)
9) move more than I did before
10) don't stick to one type of exercise - don't want to get bored
11) no food is banned - it's all about moderation.
12) be honest & talk
13) have fun & be positive

So this is hopefully the key to my success... As they say 'watch this space'.