149lbs or Ten Stone 9lbs down - TARGET!

10 stone 9lbs down, I’ve lost more than half my body weight and reached target in just shy of two years. Just amazing.

The before and after photo isn’t even up to date, cos I think I’m a stone or a stone and a half lighter than there

I wish I had magical words of wisdom, but everything just clicked together at the right time for me. As we left lockdowns, I decided I wanted to work away from home a lot less frequently than I used to. That made food choices far easier. I decided to reclaim that time to get back to the gym (mainly zumba) and back to long distance hiking, rather than getting back on the hamster wheel of 18 hour working days that had become normal, in the previous 7/8 years. I finally gave myself permission to indulge in what I enjoyed - working from home instead of living out of a suitcase, and throwing myself into activities that used to be a big feature in my life, before No Books Were Harmed.co.uk.

•

Sudden illness in the family meant that just 4 weeks after re-joining the gym and slimming world, I was braced for a phone call needing me to drive at any point in the day/night, so I all but stopped drinking (I wasn’t a heavy drinker, but definitely had a few pints a week, usually late in the evening, to stop me folding, and I'd switch to catching up on admin, with a can or two). I think I could have gone either way at that point, just a month in. I could have said it wasn’t the right time for me to focus on my diet and exercise, when it was a very scary period of life, or, what I think I subconsciously did, was take full control of the one thing that only I could control.

•

The weight started to fall off like it never had before, and the more I lost, the harder I worked out, and the harder I worked out, the more I lost, and before I knew it, I was in size 16s instead of size 24s, and I was genuinely delighted if not another pound came off. But it kept coming off, week after week, with only a small handful of maintains/gains, and I kept setting soft targets, that my body just soared through, until I had to go the other way, and choose a number that I didn’t want to go any lower than…and that happened this morning Now in size 10s and even 8s (wtf?!) I am wearing clothes that would have literally not have fitted on one leg, a couple of years back.

•

I’ve averaged 1.5lbs off a week, which is proof that consistency soon adds up to big things. If you “only” lose 1lb a week, you’ll be four stone lighter next summer, and most of you don’t need to lose that much in the first place Don’t think about how long it might take you to lose what you want, cos, y’know what, the time will pass anyway, so might as well be lighter at the end of it And also remember that whilst I’ve lost a shit load of weight, the real winners are everyone who didn’t pile on a surplus ten stone in the first place!

•

Be kind to yourself and kind to your body. It’s the only one you’ll ever have, don’t waste time hating it, when you could invest time in loving and supporting it. It’s amazing what these things can do, if we just let them do what they want to, instead of holding them back. Oh, and I get asked about loose skin quite a lot. Honestly, I’ve been very lucky. Yeah, my bingo wings are there, and I’m a little self conscious about my turkey neck/ex-double chin area, but for having lost an entire human, there’s nothing that extreme, and nothing that can’t be disguised with some spanx haha I’m happy to show anyone my wrinkly bits in person, they ARE there, but it’s nothing like the unfortunate cases you see on telly/magazines, so don’t let that thought stop you from chasing your target!

•

Again, huge thanks to everyone who’s cheered for me along the way. I've shared my milestones on my instagram, and I know lots of you are following with interest ♥

• 

Stick a fork in me - I AM DONE!