Exercise and Healthy Eating... Who Knew??!!

I've previously mentioned how I spent about 12 years of my life yo-yo dieting and how miserable it made me.  At the age of 27 I finally learnt what I needed to do to keep the weight off... eat healthily and exercise!  Whodafunkit??!!

This still didn't mean that life managing my weight was easy. Hell no! I lived with a man who didn't care about putting on weight and constantly brought home 'naughty' food. I could've said no, I could've let him eat it all but I didn't.

*dribbles*

I put on about a stone within the first few years of our relationship and then decided that I had to go back to watching what I ate. I turned to calorie counting and it made me miserable, moody and I was starving most of the time. It turns out that the things I like to eat are high in calories. I wasn't exercising either so that didn't help. Finally I lost the weight!

Wooooooo hooooooo!

The weight stayed off and became a lot easier to manage once I ended my marriage and moved into my own house. I started running and yoga and weighing myself every Friday morning just to keep an eye on it. I think I've finally cracked it! My body shape is improving and I'm getting stronger every week... I feel great and can actually look in the mirror now without feeling physically sick.

I really NEED this t-shirt!

I was watching the movie Eat Pray Love a few months ago and Julia Roberts' character said a couple of things while talking to a new friend in Italy that really hit home.  They were sat eating pizza and the friend declined to eat any more, Julia says to the friend:

"I’m sick of spending my time analysing how many calories I have eaten just so I know how much self loathing I need to take into the shower with me!"

and then adds:

"Has a man ever asked me to leave when I’ve taken my clothes off?  No!  That's because he doesn't care, he's got a naked girl in front of him so he thinks he's won the lottery."

Mmmmmmmm pizza!

I keep these in mind and it makes me happy to know that I'm not a slave to a diet any more as long as I keep up the exercise and healthy-ish eating.

Every now and then I catch a glimpse of myself in a shop window and I'm surprised at my reflection. In my head I'm still the girl who is 3 & 1/2 stone overweight so it always gives me a great feeling of achievement when I remember how far I've come. One day I will get used to it and I hope that I keep the weight off permanently *crosses fingers*

#PushingBackHarder