What's the secret?

Hi,  its been a while hasn't it.   Turns out that starting a blog didn't immediately give me the motivation to get fit 'n fab,   or even write a few posts, I barely managed a handful of Instagram posts.  

But here we are,  I've just had my birthday and so I'm 3 years away from 50.   I have eaten cake today but I have done yoga and a cardio workout so it's at least a baby step forward. 

As I've been struggling to get started with the blog I thought I'd dive into the archives of my original blog, where I'd written several Slimming World related posts over the years,  including my 'story'.   The one that I'm going to share today is short, but I wrote it approaching my 40th birthday.    I did go onto to lose a couple of stone and stop smoking between then and now so I do have previous for actually doing what I say I'm going to.  

( I may have put the weight back on, but I haven't smoked for 6 years) 

What is the secret to losing weight?

The magic thing that means you decide you are going to, and then actually do it?

Of course there is no actual secret to losing weight,  in theory it couldn't be easier - eat less, move more, simple?

But it's not that easy, not anywhere near that easy!

There is a mindset that you have to get yourself in, and I can't remember how to get there.

I lost 4 stone in about 12 months back in 2006, going from just over 15 stone to 11 stone. I'd been overweight all my adult life (and much of my childhood)  I was focused and stuck to the plan almost every day. I literally exercised my butt off and I loved feeling the sense of achievement as the pounds dropped off.

I honestly believed that I was set for life then,  of course I knew I'd have to watch what I ate to a degree but I thought that as I knew what I was doing and being a size 10 /12 was amazing , that no cake would be worth giving up the skinny jeans for.  I thought I'd just carry on doing what I was doing with a little bit more leeway and a FEW more treats then when I was on the way down.

It was ok for a year, until pregnancy, and since then I've bounced up and down from 12 something back up to 14 again. I've now lost count of how many times I've rejoined Slimming World, when I really didn't think I'd ever have to after reaching target all those years ago.   I last went  to SW over a year ago,  I'd 'cheated' and changed my target, making it higher than I really wanted it to be in an attempt to get there and be able to stop working so hard.

This time last year I was feeling unfit and I spent several months 'thinking' about getting round to joining an exercise group of some sort.  I managed to procrastinate about the whole thing until just before the summer holidays when I told myself I should wait until the boys were back at school.

I eventually joined a local fitness class with their new Reflex class in September and I'm still loving it. It has helped with strength and flexibility since then, and gave me the confidence to finally try Zumba (which I had been kinda wanting to do for many years!)

Unfortunately it seems that somewhere along the line I decided it didn't matter what I was eating as I was now exercising - completely missing the point as usual!  I got on the scales at the weekend and was quite shocked.

So,  what is the secret?   What is it that made me get on it so seriously all those years ago, and how the hell can I get it back!

In a few weeks it will be hot again here, and I'll be swearing at my shorts and little dresses,  and getting out the bikinis again.

In 7 months I'm going to be 40........40!!!    If that's not time to get on with it I don't know what it,  I'd rather be fit and forty than fat and thirty so I guess I'd better get on with it!

Originally published on  A Matter of Choice blog.  April 2017

And so, here we go again..... let's do this thing!