My 45kg Weight-Loss Story - Chapter One...

In the Beginning…

I was 5 years old the first time a doctor told my mother to put me on a diet!

 

I was constantly being told that I would lose the ‘puppy fat’ when I grew up but instead my weight increased as I got older.

My school days were not fun times, I was different, I didn’t fit in, I was teased & mum had to make my school uniform because she couldn’t buy one in my size.

In EVERY school photo I am the overweight girl looking at the camera with sad eyes…

The comment I remember hearing the most when I was growing up was "you’ve got such a pretty face" – I guess this was a compliment of sorts but it screamed to me that my body was hideous; that I was different; that I wasn’t worthy…

As a child I didn’t know how to change the situation so I simply learned to accept it. I hadn't been taught about good nutrition simply because my parents didn’t know what to teach me!

I didn’t understand the benefits of being active - I certainly didn’t do any activity at school!

I was embarrassed by my size & there was NO WAY I was getting undressed in front of my peers.

I always had a note to excuse me from sport & PE for one reason of another…

 

I never weighed myself so I have no idea how much I weighed but when I turned 18 I was BIG!

I’d never had a boyfriend - or even a boy interested in me.  

As a teenager I had accepted that I was the BIG girl & that I would always be this way…

When I left school I desperately wanted to work in a bank so I applied to all the major banking corporation. I sailed through the aptitude tests only to fail at the interview. I was bewildered as to why they wouldn’t hire me. Then one day someone was honest enough to tell me. She said "you would be perfect for our organisation & we would love to have you on board but you wouldn’t pass the medical" - BOOM, there it was!

But I did get a job, not in a bank but in a local nursing home & I loved it as much as the patients loved me.

I started to lose weight - I didn’t go on a ‘diet’, I just made better choices about food & activity.

When I turned 21 I guess I was a normal size for my height. I still didn’t weigh myself but I’d estimate that I weighed about 75kg.

I realise now that 75 kg is a reasonably healthy weight for someone my height but at the time I thought I was ENORMOUS! I’d always been overweight & I couldn’t see myself any other way.

And so begins the mental & physical battle that will consume me for the next two decades…