My previous weight loss experiences and where I’m at now.

So, I thought in this post I should go into more detail about my previous weight loss experiences. I’ve spent the last half hour on my phone looking through four years of my life in pictures that I have not yet deleted, which had me going through a bunch of emotions from feeling disturbed about the eating habits I’ve slipped into again and again to feeling sad, to feeling proud of a progress picture or two.

My first time trying to lose weight was when I was with my now ex-boyfriend just after Christmas during my second year of university. I blogged during that time mostly because part of my course included generating content on various mediums, and so everyone on my course had to create a blog. This was mine.

My first measurements

Not entirely sure about my pose or very branded outfit, but there’s my ex gym buddy.

Having a gym buddy who knew what he was doing was helpful, but I only trained with him when I wasn’t doing cardio. I made a fair amount of progress here but once it was time to go back to my hometown it was pretty much game over.

My BFF and I riding off into the sunset together for our 10pm start (we worked at the same place, same shifts too!) Credit: My sister.

During that summer of 2016, though, all was not lost as I started a job in retail working nights… in another town. This meant that I was working 3 nights a week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (hello nights and unsociable hours premium!) and funnily enough I started my first shift being hungover and feeling sick, so that was good. At this moment in time I thought “What better way to start losing weight when I’m feeling sick, burning calories replenishing stock and don’t want to eat?”. I really wasn’t sure I wasn’t going to pass out on that shift, working on the beers, wines and spirits department. The long and short of it is that I cycled to work so burned calories and increased stamina, lifted heavy items and therefore gained muscle and I was so knackered afterwards that eating well or even thinking about what I was going to eat wasn’t a priority. I lost weight at pace, but my eating and sleeping was of poor quality.

Working nights in retail and successfully losing weight inspired my next move, taking place in November 2017 after I’d just moved back to Liverpool and wanted to feel confident again. This time I severely restricted my diet and most meals included eating pizza for dinner, which if I’m honest hasn’t changed an awful lot. But I was lazy back then so I didn’t give nutrition a second thought. This effort took me right down to 65kg, which was the most I’d ever lost. I looked good, but I didn’t feel it.

My second-to-last attempt to lose weight was at the beginning of this year, when, I weighed around 73kg to start with. I was working at a call centre with ridiculous hours (I could be up as early as 4am and arrive home as late as 11pm). I don’t remember what weight I finished at as my bathroom scales’ battery died and I didn’t bother to buy a new one. This experience in all honesty was a blur, and I think this was the time I fell in love with Pepsi Max. The reason for this weight-loss stint ending was because I was dating… eating pancakes and drinking freakshakes was genuinely a fab time, and I got lost in my love of sweet treats.

And this brings us up to now. I’ve taken a good few pictures of myself but I’m genuinely a bit terrified to post any of them. So, anyway, the reasons for this (hopefully final?) round of fat-fighting include a love of ASOS (online retailer known for fast fashion), wanting to look good (I haven’t updated my profile picture since December 2017), a fear of detriment to my health and wanting to feel my best.

Am I back in the weight loss game?

It’s been a while since I published some words… It’s now been two years since I graduated with a degree in journalism, which may mean I need to brush up on my writing skills. This post is bound to be at least a little rough around the edges, so please forgive me if something I’ve written doesn’t quite make sense.

There’s been a good few things that have happened since I last posted, such as moving in with my now ex-boyfriend, getting a job at a call centre and most recently being offered a leadership-type job in retail. Basically, some good life choices and some not-so-good life choices have been made and here I am: overweight once again.

I recently made the choice to get back into shape, or at least to lose a fair portion of my current weight for a multitude of reasons… One of them being my health. When I started my current job my colleagues noticed I was yawning a lot. It was actually something that was fed back to my manager, and boy was that an awkward and embarrassing conversation to have. “Do you get enough sleep?” “Do you have a medical condition?” “Do you feel exhausted quickly?” Honestly, at that point I was panicking and I had to explain to my manager that I hadn’t yet pinpointed the problem but moving out of a house-share and into a flat may be the reason why. And really, I knew that something needed to change.

So fast-forward three months later and we’re here staring at a number on the scale. I knew I’d put on weight, I wasn’t at all surprised that three years later I found myself at the same 78kg I was. I had a full-time job and when I wasn’t working I was snacking like there was no tomorrow. My now-boyfriend must have been horrified watching me pile calories upon calories into my mouth, especially when he can only eat low-FODMAP foods due to his little-known about medical condition. I felt like I had no self-control and being honest I am SO fed up at stopping and starting this healthy eating/dieting business. I need to make what I’m doing a lifestyle and a permanent change.

I decided on Friday 5th July that that day was the day of starting a new journey, weighing in at 78.8kg if my memory serves me right. Since then I joined the local gym, and have visited on a few occasions. I’ve also given up the sweets and chocolate and my daily calorific intake is around 1500kcal. I’m now, according to my weigh-in this morning, 74.8kg. It’s a massive change and it’s one that I’m fairly surprised about, given my lack of exercise the past few days.

Below is a chart of my progress. And I should probably mention that I’m 5′ 8″ so you can make some sense of the numbers.

I should probably mention that yes, that’s myself weighing in almost daily, which I know is frowned upon but apparently that’s what I’m doing at the moment, which is likely to change when I start strength training. Also, that major drop is likely to be an anomaly – I have no explanation for that. My body apparently just made the decision that today will be the day where I will be baffled.

And on that note it’s a goodnight from myself. I have work to look forward to tomorrow as I’ve now had my two consecutive days off (a rare occurrence given the job I have). I do plan on writing more in-depth, sharing a picture or two of myself at my heaviest just for future reference, but today was just an introduction and I’m sure we’ll find a consistent way of writing and posts with more structure.

If you made it this far I’m a tad surprised but perhaps you’ll want to follow this journey. It’d be nice to have some support :-).