5th February, 2021
Well, that's January gone. How quickly time can pass, especially when you look back, even though at the time it seems to go soooooo slooooowly!
It's now two years since the doctor said that they were not happy with my weight of 20 stone and 4 pounds and how that weight was affecting my health, both physically and mentally. Some people say they are quite happy being overweight, for whatever reason, but I really wasn't. As I said in the past I did not like to have my picture taken, and didn't like to look in the mirror, or even look at our wedding photographs.
It's not always been an easy journey, but it's definitely been a different one this time compared to the times I have lost weight before.
Some times when something has taken a long time, you begin to forget how things were before and you become so bogged down in your life and your mind, that you need to remind yourself. It needs to be written down and documented. That's what I do, so I can see it in black and white. So here we have Jackie's “previously on my weight loss journey 100 from one”!
As I mentioned earlier, back in January 2019 my weight was 20 stone and 4 pounds. The heaviest I have ever been is 21 stone, but what was beginning to happen now was my health had started to deteriorate very quickly. I was in a lot of pain from the arthritis. I was depressed and unhappy because of the pain, my blood sugars were very high and because of how I was being treated. I felt very lost.
My G.P. put in a referral to the N.H.S. weight management team to see if they could help me. I didn't actually get to see them until October 2019 and I weighed in then at 19 stone, 5 pounds. So, in those months I had lost 13 pounds mainly, I think, by not eating as much because I was depressed. I started attending every four weeks and in the five months from October 2019 to March 2020 I lost 1 stone and 11 pounds, bringing my weight down to 17 stone 11 pounds. Then, of course, the Covid-19 lockdown happened and I was left on my own. I have covered in my earlier blogs what I did then, but by the time I saw the orthopaedic specialist in August I was now around 14 stone 12 pounds, so I had lost three stone all by myself with no input from a professional body. I did have some contact from the weight management team in November and they then rang me every four weeks to see how I was, but I have to remember that the achievement was all mine. They discharged me this Wednesday, 3rd February 2021 and my weight was recorded at 14 stone according to mt scales at home. So, that's a weight loss of 5 stone, 5 pounds since starting N.H.S. weight management, and a total weight loss of 6 stone 4 lbs since January 2019.
Apart from the little bit of advice I had from weight management in the first 5 monthly appointments, I have done this. I have to remind myself of just what I have achieved. I am 88 pounds smaller than I was, and this time I have learnt so much and my lifestyle has changed. The way I eat has become sustainable. It is not, and never has been this time, a “diet”. It is said so much that diets fail, but that is because they are so restricted and can not be kept to. Change your lifestyle and you stand a chance of keeping at the weight that is right for you. This is where you are now, Jackie. 6 stone, 4 pounds lighter and don't you ever forget what you have done and how things are so different. Yes, you are in so much pain and there are things you can't do, BUT there are things you CAN do, and you can once again look at yourself in the mirror without feeling bad :-)
On this beautiful February day, snow outside, but with a lovely blue sky overhead, I think “where do I go from here?” I am still waiting for surgery and I am not sure when it will happen, but it WILL happen, hopefully sooner rather than later.
I would like to lose another stone and a half from my weight and hopefully settle at 12 stone 7 pounds. It's not a weight that the N.H.S. would suggest – that's about 10 stone – but it's somewhere that I feel at the moment that would be comfortable for me. We will see, but I am so proud of myself, and that is not an easy thing to say. Whenever I start to feel down and forget what I have done, and it will happen now and then, I will read this blog and remind myself what an awesome person I am :-), not because of my size, but because I realised that I needed to be as healthy as I could and I did my best – my very best – to get there. The journey carries on...
Until next time,
Love to all,
Jackie
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment