Age: 21
Height: 5' 2"
Start Weight: 11st
Current Weight: 9st 2lb
Goal Weight: Somewhere between 8 and 8 ½ stone but I really
just want to be toned so I don't mind being heavier than that as long
as I'm firm
Weight Lost: 1st 12lb
Working to Rate of Loss: Started off at 2lb a week, gone down to
1lb
Dieting History
None really
Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?
When I left school and started college I lost about a stone
without doing anything. Because it wasn’t intentional I didn’t
really trust it though and sure enough my weight slowly started
creeping back up - and up and up and up, okay you get the
picture.
How being overweight has affected you…
I’ve been overweight for as long as I can remember, I have
always been just that little bit “chunky.” I don’t think I
really realised just how much it bothered me until I started
losing weight. I seemed to immediately become more confident and
outgoing. Before I would keep myself to myself quite a lot and
generally try to fade into the background, friends of friends
would forget they’d met me before when introduced (for the third
time). I didn’t even speak up very much in work and never felt
like I fit in, now I’m far more outspoken and jokey with my
colleagues.
I don’t think my weight really stopped me doing anything but
it did affect the clothes I would wear. Skirts were a bit of a
no-no (especially short ones), strappy tops were definitely out
because I had a thing about my arms, even just sleeveless tops
were a rarity. I hated summer and rarely went to the beach (and
I live right on the coast) because I didn’t want to have to wear
swimwear in front of people. I felt self conscious all the time.
I remember going out once and there being a girl out wearing the
same top as me and I just felt uncomfortable the whole night
because in my head everyone was looking at us and thinking I
looked like a big fat pig in it compared to her.
Motivation to Diet
I had a pair of trousers that I’d bought a size bigger
because they were meant to be quite fitted but I wanted them to
be baggy, and they’d started to fit me. A lot of my other
clothes were getting a bit too tight. I was in a sort of limbo
where a 14 was too small and a 16 was too big (but fitting
better all the time) so I had a choice and I really didn’t want
to have to go up a dress size. I’m a bit of a shrimp so I don’t
carry weight very well, it just didn’t suit me and I hated being
that big. I couldn’t stand looking at myself, I avoided mirrors
and cameras like they were actually something that could cause
physical pain.
It didn’t help that my boyfriend at the time was one of those
annoying skinny people that can eat what they like and not put
on any weight. The fact that I was fatter than him really got to
me, when we went anywhere I felt like people were looking at us
thinking “God look at them” when of course they weren’t.
I think the thing that gave me the final push was a friend I
hadn’t seen in a while losing about 4 stone. It was a “if she
can do it, I can do it” kind of thing and I just really didn’t
want to be “the fat one” – that makes me sound awful doesn’t it?
The thing that’s kept me going is how great I feel for losing
the weight, I feel so much more confident and attractive. The
comments and compliments when people start noticing always help
too and make it that little bit easier to resist the “bad” foods
(well most of the time anyway).
Discovering Weight Loss Resources
I’d decided that I was going to lose weight but was mainly
planning to do it by exercise. I thought I already ate fairly
healthily so I just wanted to find out how bad some of things I
eat were. I looked online to find out about calorie content in
certain foods and WLR came up. I signed up for the free trial
and thought it was so good that I became a full member before
the end of my first day.
How Weight Loss Resources Helps
I think WLR is so good because it’s not a diet, it’s a
re-education. It makes you aware of what you’re eating and you
find out that some things you thought were good for you really
aren’t. Weighing things also made me realise how much I was
eating, I was quite easily having double (maybe even more than
that) the recommended portion of pasta and my cereal bowl always
looks so empty now compared to what it used to - but it still
manages to fill me up. Finding out the amount of calories in a
jaffa cake was a bit of a shocker too. Just being more aware of
food and how much you’re eating makes a huge difference, really
makes you think twice before you bite into that cream cake. Even
when I’m treating myself now I always have a look at the
nutritional information before I buy something because even if
I’ve got loads of spare calories it just feels like such a waste
using most of them on one thing.
The support from other members is invaluable and without it I
think I may have given up a long time ago, knowing that other
people go through the same things that you do really helps and
stops things getting you down so much.
The Best of Weight Loss Resources
Initially I only really used the food and exercise diary’s
but I started using the message boards because of last years
Christmas challenge and now I’m completely hooked. I get
withdrawal if I can’t get on the boards, yep, I’m that sad! The
support from other member’s is great and I feel like I’ve made
some proper friends. If you have a question, need some advice or
just need to moan you can guarantee there will be someone there
to help or just to listen and let you know you’re not alone.
I’ve found that having a WLR “buddy” (or bully if you will)
really helps make me get my bum in gear and be good or do some
exercise.
Leigh's Dieting Tips
- Set yourself small goals and give yourself a treat when
you reach them (best not to choose a chocolate bar as your
treat though – unless you’ve got the calories of course)
- Exercise. I cannot recommend this enough, it
makes all the difference! It gives you more to eat and it just
has so many health benefits and of course there’s the toning
and we don’t really wanna be light but squidgey do
we? You’re also more likely to keep the weight off if you’ve
been doing exercise and have built up some muscle because it
burns more calories – so you can eat more, yay! My mum calls
me a born again exercise freak because I champion it so much
(and this is the girl that became an expert at forging her
mums signature to get out of PE at school). Now being fit is
almost as big a thing for me as being thin, I just couldn’t go
back to being how I was.
- Don’t deny yourself anything. If you want some chocolate,
have some chocolate. Just choose better - curly wurly’s are my
thing (117 calories - is it dreadful that I know that?) but
there are fun size bars and things like Freddo’s, chomps and
kit kats that are also quite low in calories. And if that’s not enough and you
need the hard stuff (sometimes only a big slab of dairy milk
will do) or your vice is the odd bottle, I mean glass, of wine
then you can do some exercise to get the calories – I have
been known to go running, do Tae Bo, go on the rowing machine
and jump around on my rebounder to try and make up for a night
out on the town.
- Go down a plate size. It really does help you have smaller
portions - or at least feel a bit less disappointed with the
one's you weighed out.
- Drink lots of water. It’s good for you and fills you up to
help stop you snacking.
- Make sure you take your measurements. There could be weeks
(or even months) where the scales don’t show a loss but you
could be losing inches so measure yourself or you could end up
getting disheartened for no reason.
- Routine helps. A lot of people struggle at the weekends
(myself included) but I’ve found that if I try and get into a
routine I’m a lot better on the food front and less likely to
just wander into the kitchen thinking “hmm, what can I eat?”
I think the most important bit of advice that I can give is
don’t look at this as a diet. Think of it more as a lifestyle
change, a way of living healthily for life. I think if you think
of it as a diet you’re more likely to feel deprived and cave. Small changes soon
add up to big changes and you soon don’t even notice – I now eat
and prefer wholewheat versions of most things, drink skimmed
milk and there are some fantastic “diet” foods (Skinny Cows to
be but one example) and I can’t imagine going back to full fat
things and white bread, pasta etc even if I knew I could without
ever gaining an ounce.
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