Hi y'all!!!
"I love exercise!!" this is what I thought during my 11 minute hill climb in group cycling tonight. I never imagined that I would get to this stage in my life. When I was younger I was an active kid but I become the opposite during my teens. I had moved in with my dad and he let me eat and drink whatever I liked as long as I abided by his house rules. Mom was always the disciplinarian in our family (even for my dad, he can't help his sweet teeth!). Back then I didn't realise less activity, more food meant taking the path to obesity. I continued to buy clothes that fit my body without looking at the sizes.
Then I moved to Egypt and made new friends who were fixated on dieting and losing weight. I realised very quickly that I was 'the fat' girl in the group. On shopping trips I would watch them try pretty clothes and think 'I wish I could wear that'. After being repeatedly reminded how 'fat' I was, I jumped on the 'fad diets' bandwagon. I would manage to lose weight on those diets but as soon as I went back to normal, I would gain it all back. You might be thinking now 'so what's new?', well this was news to me. The information I was surrounded by 'informed' me that I needed to diet, because if I didn't do so; I don't belong here. How dare I not diet? What 'they' forgot to tell me was I should have taken up some form of exercise. However I can appreciate why I wasn't told this, I was living amongst naturally thin girls or serial dieters. None of them were even remotely interested in exercise or any sort of activity.
So after 5 years of 'yo-yo' dieting, I moved to the UK. Suddenly I was left to my own devices when it came to food and life in general. I taught myself to cook, I improved the recipes I already had by adding loads of vegetables and spices. My 'experiments' worked at times and not at times. I stayed in Bristol for the summer which made me realise that not only was I completely on my own, I didn't really have many hobbies to keep me entertained. I decided to join my local gym and went every evening during the week but kept my weekends free. I did very well for a couple of months, toned up and got into a size 10 trousers.
The whole time I never paid attention to body changes because I wasn't concentrating on losing weight, I was just passing time. I met my other half shortly after, we were happy together from day 1. So we celebrated every second celebrating; where eating and drinking increased and activity decreased. Is there a pattern emerging? Again I didn't realise my clothes were getting tighter, I simply bought bigger sizes. By august 2008, I was a size 14 and I moved to Dorset for my placement year. Alone again and living in a little town with very less to do and I didn't have a car to travel around (no excuses, I promise). To cut the story short I was at size 18 when I got back. I looked and felt absolutely terrible.
Since I have had my ups and downs. I took up going to the gym again but didn't get back the motivation I had before. I slimmed down to a size 14 and have been there since 2010. I was fed up and wanted instant results. I would start a 'crash diet' every Mon and fail by Tue evening. My other half always advised me to become active but I never listened. Despite my belligerence, he was always supportive of my decisions no matter how insane they were.
After hundreds of 'fat' pictures I finally understood that I needed to include exercise in my life. So that's how I started my journey, now I take full advantage of my local gym. I don't know what my current size is and frankly speaking I don't care anymore.
" I love exercise"
Thanks for reading. (a rather long entry for Juneathon).
Dauphin
x
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