Welcome to my blog!

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Tina I am 42 years old and currently 5 stone overweight. I started to put on the weight in my mid twenties, until that time I was quite slim.

Just before I got married at the age of 30 I lost a lot of weight by just eating low fat foods but slowly over the years it crept back on. I have had success over the years with Weight Watchers and Slimming World but again as soon as I get bored of the diet and stop, the weight always goes back on. It has always been in me to overeat. I am an emotional eater which is quite important for you the reader to understand.

My current journey began back last December.  My husband, who is in the Navy was away on extended deployment and I was stressed with trying to plan & buy for Christmas on my own. I woke up one morning with back pain, it was awful! Apart from in pregnancy I had never suffered with a bad back so I thought that it would disappear as quickly as it came. I really hate going to the doctors so was reluctant to go unless I really had to. I thought that the doctor would just put it down to my weight anyway.

Fast forward to January 2014 my husband came home and saw how much pain I was in and demanded that I make a doctors appointment.  The doctor saw me and gave me pain killers along with a form for self referral to the Physiotherapist. I finally got an appointment through to see the Physiotherapist for late March 2014. I attended all the appointments up until the end of July when I was referred to the gym.  This is free for the first 5 weeks and then quite cheap after that. I was asked if I would be interested in doing something about my weight whilst I was there. I said yes to this because I will never get this opportunity again.

I went for my first appointment at the gym and was asked if I would be interested in seeing a Health
Advisor to see if she could help with my diet.  I agreed to this and got a phone call a few days later from a lady called Pauline and we arranged my first appointment.

That was back in September but this is the point from where I am going to start my blog. It is not going to be an easy ride. Diet and exercise fill me with dread. If you are going through the same sort of journey as me I hope that you will find my blog helpful and know that you are not alone. If you would like to ask a question, offer any advice please feel free to contact me.

I just wanted to add that the reason this blog is called Lifestyle V's Weight is because I have been told that this has to be a lifestyle change not just losing the weight then going back. Please bear this in mind when reading the journal section where I will be mentioning what food I ate that day. I do not have any intention of eating lettuce for the rest of my life. My diet change is going to be more portion size and healthier option approach. I will occasionally be having something like a bag of chips like I did when I lost a lot of weight with Weight Watchers. The occasional naughty meal is something I have to incorporate into my meals if this is going to be a lifestyle change.