Tuesday 30 July 2013

It all started with a picture...

Most stories about people deciding to get fit and healthy start with a realisation/'Eureka' moment...
Mine was thanks, predictably enough, to a dodgy picture.

I've never felt huge - well massively huge. I knew there was extra weight on me and many a time I despaired when trying on a beautiful outfit and no way was it getting up past my hips or down across my boobs but I was always (in denial??) happy enough to go on as I was.

I always found some clothes to fit me, I've an amazing boyfriend who has never made me feel anything but gorgeous (and as I am attached I haven't had to worry about the whole hassle of looking a certain way to attract another half) and, like most females, had perfected the best angles suited me for photos (hello drunk duckface!)!!

It was a photo I wasn't aware of being taken (and thus could not contort hand on hip to look decent) that was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back...

Bumps and bulges in places I hadn't realised I had them, on show for everyone to see, like something was trying to crawl out from my top. My pretty outfit overshadowed by what lies beneath...
I'm too morto to put the offending pic up here at the moment but will eventually I hope... The camera never lies eh?
Rebecca

"Embarrassment is a villian to be crushed"
Robert B. Cialdini

Saturday 27 July 2013

Some background...

I've always been a 'strong' girl, I was never overweight in primary school but I went into sixth class and *boom* puberty hit and all of a sudden I had boobies and growing curves elsewhere - at 11/12 years old! I was the first in the class for this to noticeably happen to and didn't see this as an exciting change which was part of growing up, I saw it as something which made me stand out from the others yet again (I was already the tallest in the class at that stage). I was wearing a size 10/12 as a young teen when other girls my age hadn't even started to bloom and it just crept up from there...

I can't pinpoint one reason exactly why the weight crept up and up slowly but surely as opposed to maintaining at one figure or ever going down (naturally) but all of the female members of my father's family are very curvy naturally and while I did stay relatively active in my teenage years, I wasn't the most diligent in watching what I ate either. I enjoyed (and still do!) my food and I never felt I had to think too much about what kinds of foods I was taking in. I'm not making excuses. just trying to figure out myself why I have ended up here.

It was college when the weight really shot up. Looking back now at pictures from that time, I can see how round my face got and how much weight I was beginning to carry around the middle - hello Muffin Top!
Snacking in the evenings and while watching tv at night and enjoying rich foods is a habit I got into at this time and has continued since.

Even now, the majority of my weight is around my middle, the classic 'apple' body shape. When I do manage to lose weight, it goes from my face and boobs first and then elsewhere, so I know I really have a battle on my hands in order to shift the mass around my middle section.

I am now at the heaviest I have ever been, or very close to it anyway, and this makes me feel terribly disheartened but at the same time I suppose where else is there to go but upwards from here!!?!! I try to stay positive in life in general and am intending to do so with this journey so while there may be some 'sad' posts, I hope this blog will be an inspiring (for myself if no-one else) and sometimes witty account of whatever happens.
Rebecca

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. 
We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake.”
Francis Bacon, Sr.


Friday 26 July 2013

Introduction

What better a place to begin than the start!

Welcome to my new blog and thanks for taking time out of your no-doubt hectic life to join me on my journey.

This blog is intended to be a multitude of things:
First and foremost, a written record of my weight-loss journey; a factual account of what happens. 
Secondly, a compelling reason for me to keep up with my hopes and wishes for this journey - what better a reason to keep up the (hopefully!) good work than by documenting it and seeing the progress (while also       being afraid to stop and leave gaps in posting and having to explain why!)
Thirdly, I am the kind of person who has easily put off big plans for weight loss in the past (for reasons I'm sure I will analyse another time) or has abandoned plans-in-progress so I am hoping that by having to 
make myself accountable for my actions in a public forum, it will encourage me to carry on. 
Lastly, I have a keen interest in writing and while I did have a blog previously, I felt it lacked direction and     am looking forward to writing a blog with a purpose.

It is going to be a long journey, I am not kidding myself about that at all, but I really am determined to see it through this time.

I will explain in following posts what inspired me to go down the weight loss route but I felt it was important - for myself and for the blog - to set out from the offset the reasons for this blog's being.

I'm not doing this for attention and I most certainly do not hope to attract any negative comments or anything like that - I couldn't think of anything more demoralising at the moment to be be frank - so I hope if anyone does read this blog, that you enjoy the posts and are as inspired as I am by my (fingers crossed) progress.

Rebecca 
"A dream doesn't become reality through magic;
it takes sweat, determination and hard work"
Colin Powell