I CHANGED MY LIFE WHILE I SLEPT

After losing her job during the pandemic, Rachael Buckett, 51, found an unusual method to lose weight

- ASHLEIGH PAGE, NILUFER ATIK

Standing at the bottom of the Munro, I stared up at the top of the Scottish mountain, and as I gritted my teeth, I began to walk. With each step, I felt more energized, more determined. And as I neared the top, I couldn't stop the grin spreading across my face. 'I used to weigh 19st, you know!" I said to the first person I saw. They probably thought it was the altitude that was making me so giddy, but the truth was I was just so happy and, for once, so full of pride. It was summer 2021 and having just climbed my first Munro, the changes I'd made to my lifestyle in just the past year still astounded me. I was fitter, slimmer and happier - truly the person I always felt I could be.

After the pandemic hit in March 2020, like many people, I started doing my admin job from home. Stuck indoors, I munched my way through tons of buttery bread, chocolate, chips, and bags of crisps. My husband Stephen, then 47, and I would take our dog out but with so little active time, coupled with my binge eating, it wasn't long before I started to put on weight.

With more time spent at home, I could no longer ignore that simply going upstairs left me out of puff, and even tying my shoelaces had started to feel like an uphill struggle. I ached all over, to the point where I convinced myself I had a serious medical condition. In reality, I wasn't ill, I was overweight.

I'd gone into lockdown big - at a size 28 but within a few months, I was squeezing into a size 30, and though I hadn't stepped on the scales in years, I knew my weight had climbed.

Then, in August, I lost my job. And while I was distraught, I grasped the opportunity to focus on myself. I didn't want my weight to hold me back any longer so I decided I was going to get my health under control.