Finding our seats on the plane, I shifted uncomfortably. Flying to Cyprus on holiday with my husband Nick in August 2019,
I should have been looking forward to a few days in the sun. But as I tried to pull the seat belt over my waist, I felt embarrassed. After finally plugging the belt in, it dug into my stomach for the remainder of the flight. ‘You alright?’ asked Nick, noticing my discomfort. But the seatbelt was just another reminder of how unhappy I was with my body. Despite years of yo-yo dieting, I always seemed to end up back where I started – overweight and miserable.
As a child, I was always a little chubby. Averaging a size 12-14 throughout my teens, it wasn’t until I approached my 20s that my weight began to get out of control.
When I met Nick aged 20, I was a size 20, but he never commented on my size.
In 1988, I gave birth to our first child, Aaron. I loved being a mum, but had piled on the pounds in my pregnancy. I kept making excuses for it though. ‘I’m too busy to diet,’ I’d say, popping a ready meal in the oven.
When Aaron was seven months though, I decided enough was enough.
‘I’m fed up with being this size,’ I sighed to Nick, bouncing Aaron on my knee.
‘I think you’re lovely just as you are,’ he answered. He’d always preferred my fuller figure, but I was
having none of it. I joined a local weight loss class, paying a monthly subscription, in the hope that it would give me the discipline I needed to shed some of those extra pounds.
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