My Ureka moment - losing weight quickly and safely

2012.

The year London will host the Olympics, or so I thought, looking down at the big red digits of my bathroom scale. My weight was 2012.

20 stones and 12 pounds.

I shrieked and ran to the living room, curling up on the generous 6 foot long sofa which had warmed me and comforted me through another long cold lonely winter. I grabbed my food diary to see what I had done to myself that I had reached 20 stones and 12 pounds, the heaviest I had ever weighed in my whole 40 year old life.

In green bic pen I saw the evidence - toffee popcorn, whole tubs of ice cream, fizzy drinks, champagne lunches, the usual culprits. I was in denial regarding what was going into my mouth and body.

I turned the pages back to January last year and although Ihad started the year off well with salads for lunch, brown rice or vegetables and grilled fish for supper,  I noticed in the journal that there was a clear pattern of emotional eating at weekends; stemming from a previous failed relationship.

One which had me crossing the Atlantic ocean on a jumbo jet sooner than you could say pass the bacon and ketchup roll, please.

In 40 years I have never ever eaten ‘’normally’’ - I’m a classic in denial eat-til-you feel-nauseous, emotional eater, food restricter, food combiner, raw- food-meets-all- you- can-eat-curry-buffets-on-Sundays kind of person.

 As a baby, my Mother saw fit to feed me until I stopped crying, which was never, so I grew up being the only overweight child in a large family, and became an overweight adult.

Now I feel I have had enough to eat and would like to be slim now please.

First stop was my doctor’s to check it was alright to start an exercise plan.

I walked into the doctor’s surgery to report feeling dizzy earlier in the day at my desk as well as to ask about exercising safely. One of my 3 high blood pressure pills had run ou that morning. The doctor took one look at me when I walked into the consulting room which told me all I needed to know.

He says my blood pressure is still dangerously high despite 3 tablets, and asks does he give you one more tablet or am I going to lose weight now?

I give him a look that says what do you think I’ve been trying to do since I was 7 years old? Lose weight, of course.

Over the years, I’ve lost over 12 stones and 2 pounds in weight on a very good ‘diet’ where you have red days or green days, and eat so much that you feel full, then you have to wash it all down with 4 litres of water.

I‘ve calorie counted and calorie restricted, done the milk shake thing and the nothing but eggs and bacon and steak thing, counting points thing - nothing works for me in the long term.

In the past, when stopping a diet I’ve regained more weight on top of the original amount lost.

Three times in 40 years.

I’ve exercised in front of the television to countless celebrity fitness dvd’s, but the moment always comes when I either lose interest in exercise, grow impatient with waiting to see results, or rediscover a love of fatty greasy food, or binge on high fat carb-laden foods.

The doctor was already printing my blood pressure prescription, unconvinced I would make any effort to lose weight and resigns me to 4 pills a day, all of which have side effects in my kidneys and liver, and could contribute to countless problems with my health in general in the future if I remain so overweight.

Just as he is about to print off the prescription he asks me if I have ever used diet pills to lose weight. I say I have not, and he gives me a prescription for weight loss pills for one month and asks me to come back and weigh myself in front of him.

The month passed slowly and I continued to take my blood pressure medication correctly but did not take the pills to lose weight. I made the decision to join a gym near my office, signed up for a week with a personal trainer, who gave me nutritional advice and held my hand as I sweated and pumped iron and edged nearer to my fitness goal.

Two weeks into my routine I had lost 12 pounds and my energy levels were so high I no longer had cravings for sugary cakes and foods with a high fat content, and I am finally getting some decent sleep at last.