Losing weight , diets and fitness.

This is a post which i have had quite a few people ask me to do about how i lost weight. If you are not interested then feel free to not read this. I am not in anyway an expert in weight loss  but i can tell you what works for me. How i gained weight and how i lost it.
The photo that prompted most of the questions. was this one :

I was only about 18 here and although i know i look a lot bigger i was a size 14 that was my biggest but as i am 5ft2 it really was too big for my frame. I put on a lot of weight because i yoyo dieted all the time from about the age of 14.
When i was younger it was just me and my mum most of the time and my mum was constantly on a diet.So from quite a young age i think i decided i wanted to be thinner.
Looking back now there was nothing wrong with my figure, i was a size 10  at school but  i had a lot of puppy fat on my face and i had size D boobs at 13 which i always tried to cover by wearing baggy clothes. My body confidence was very low and when i felt depressed i would eat.

Me at 14. Boys would always say look at her boobs and i always felt paranoid about it. I was only a size 10 here i'm just wearing a massive jumper which hung off me and made me look a lot bigger.
Unfortunately this started a cycle of many years of dieting, starving myself one day then binging the next.
That is why i put on so much weight as i binged more than i dieted.
I always managed to lose weight in one way or another but my weight would come back on and i would fluctuate so much. I could easily be half a stone heavier in a week if i ate a lot. I tried every possible diet going, diet pills, exercise classes, gym you name it i tried it.
I really had a very unhealthy obsession with weight but on the outside you wouldnt know. People would tell me i looked lovely but i just felt fat and unhappy.

When i was down i would buy a carton of hagan daz ice cream and eat the whole tub to myself then i'd feel guilty. I would diet and lose a stone then reward myself by eating something nice and once i started i couldnt stop.
This continued until i got excepted into a dance college in London at the age of 25, i had a love for dance since being a child and one day i just decided i would go and audition. I really never thought i would get accepted but i did.
Suddenly i was surrounded by  girls who were skinny. Some naturally slim girls and some who were shockingly starving there bodies, making themselves sick, taking diet pills.
I was definitely one of the biggest in my class at a size 12. I really became aware of my body in a way that i had never done before. Everyday i had to wear a leotard and stand in front of mirrors and see my body at every angle possible.
I couldn't binge or starve myself because my body was physically working so hard that if i didn't eat properly i would feel ill.
Also seeing and hearing the other girls talk about food in such a disturbing way made me think about my own eating disorder.
As i exercised more i could see my body changing in front of my eyes and although my diet was still not fantastic it was a lot healthier than it had been in the past.
I also started taking supplements, eating lots of pasta for energy and tuna for protein, fruits and lots of water. I lost weight and my body was really toned. It happened quite slowly but i was down to a size 10 and feeling a lot more confident in myself.
I think i just became to like myself and gained respect for my body and decided that i had to make a change.

Then a big bombshell dropped i found out i was pregnant. Aaaaaagh the doctors had told me i would never be able to have children so obviously this was a big shock to me. It was a very difficult time as I was on my own, worrying that i would had to leave my dream course, worrying that my body was going to get huge again and my eating out of control but most of all worrying about how i was going to bring up a baby on my own with no job, no partner, no money but i also knew that i had the chance to be a mommy and that something amazing was coming into my life and i would cope.

I had to leave my dance course so i went from dancing for 7 hrs a day to nothing.
I decided i might as well eat what i want during pregnancy. I was worried that if i tried to limit what i had then i might go back to binging so i just thought, this baby needs to be healthy, my body is going to change there is nothing i can do about it so just relax about food.
I put on 3 and a half stone while pregnant and i ate whatever i wanted. I knew though that i would lose the weight again after i had had my little bambino and i did.
I lost weight afterwards by eating  healthily and going  to the gym 3 times a  week and it took a while but soon i was back to a healthy weight.

When i was trying to lose weight i would diet mon-fri and then have weekends off. This way i never felt like i was missing out. I would be quite strict in the week and then have a takeaway at the weekend and i never felt guilty. I think this helped break the binging cycle as although i would let myself have whatever i wanted at the weekend i never felt the need to binge. I don't really think about food as much these days, i am not overly focused on it anymore.
If i feel i have put a bit of weight back on, i go back to dieting in the week for a few weeks but that's about it really. I eat everything in moderation now and it seems to work.

Here is how i lost the  weight.

1. Walking. I walk a lot. I don't get the bus unless its really far. I walk into town which is about a 20 min walk most days and back. Although its not a lot it soon adds up. I don't have time to go to the gym so any kind of exercise is a bonus.

2. Drink plenty of water, water just makes you feel fuller and flushes out those nasty toxins.

3. Be prepared. Make sure you have something ready to eat in the fridge that is healthy. 99% of the time i would eat something rubbish just because i was hungry and couldn't find anything to hand that was healthy and filling. Things like Pasta with tuna, fresh fruit salad, chicken breast.

4. Protein. Eat more protein it fills you up quicker and for longer. Eat less carbs. If you usually have chicken and rice put more chicken and less rice etc. Do not cut out carbs altogether, you will feel crappy.

5. Protein shakes are not just for body builders. 
This one thing is an absolute necessity for me when dieting. I have 1 protein shake a day either for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are filling, contain loads of vitamins and very low calorie. At the moment i am having Diet fuel in chocolate which is really tasty. I have these even when I'm not trying to lose weight as they are convenient and healthy.

6. Never skip breakfast and don't eat after 6pm.

7. Try and eat as many non processed foods as possible. Your body can break down non processed foods a lot easier than junk food.

So that is about it really, it works for me.
At the weekends i will usually have a takeaway and  will have some chocolate or dessert of some kind. This way i don't feel like I'm missing out and it seems to stop me craving for things all week.
I don't drink a lot of alcohol either as i cant handle my drink too well and its just empty calories in my opinion, I would much rather have a slice of cheesecake than a bottle of wine.

I am not at my skinniest but i am content with my body considering i am 35 and have 2 children.
One of my friends is a professional dancer and she said to me, its amazing how people just walk around and have no awareness there own bodies. She said we all have just 1 body we fill it with crap and expect it to perform perfectly. She said we should treat our bodies like a child. Would you feed your child crisps and chocolate all day? Would you keep them sat on the sofa all day watching TV getting no exercise? No so why do we do this to ourselves?
 I do not think there is anything wrong in being bigger but for me i am not comfortable when i am over weight.
I think i have done well as i don't  binge anymore and my weight has been stable really for the past 5 years except pregnancy of course. I cannot say i will stay this size and not put any weight back on but i know that if i do put weight on i can easily lose it again.

I put 3 and a half stone on at each pregnancy.

Me on holiday in Jamaica about 4 years ago i got in shape by drinking protein shakes instead of lunch and eating lots of fish and veg. I also trained at a gym 3 times a week for a few months. I was at my slimmest here.

One of my favourite photos of my holiday in Jamaica where i confronted  my fear of heights by going on the trapeze. I had split up from a relationship and went away to clear my head i came home feeling like a new woman. It's surprising what you can achieve if you push yourself.

Me when rocco who is now 2 and a half was just a few weeks old. I had a lot of weight to lose. But loved being a mummy again, i took it slowly as i didn't want to start the vicious cycle of binging again. I am lucky that my husband still told me i was beautiful everyday which made me feel a lot lot better about myself.

I think its so unfair that a lot of women feel the presure to get thin straight away after having a baby, those first few weeks should be spent getting to know your little one snuggling up on the sofa in a dressing gown having lots of cuddles and relaxing. I'm not suggesting to do this forever but our bodies need to recover from giving birth the last thing we need to be told is get to the gym ???
Oh yes i nearly forgot breast feeding, burns so many calories and great for babys. Obviously a very personal choice but for me an obvious one. This really helped me lose weight without trying in the first few months.

Me and some friends just out partying. Life is far too short to be constantly worrying about dieting, go out have fun, party, love, laugh and be happy no matter what the scales say.