Hi Everyone!

I went into my local, regular coffee shop in town to enjoy a cake and a coffee with my husband.  There is a friendly barista there who regularly serves us, ever since we moved there.  When he saw me his draw dropped and he exclaimed – ‘you have lost so much weight! How did you do it?’  I replied – ‘exercise’ and his shoulders slumped, and with a groan he said ‘eurgh . . . exercise’.  It got me thinking.  We live in a very quick fix society don’t we – particularly in the west.  People want to hear about the magic bullet – a pill, a particular brand of cabbage soup, shake, magic berry or quick fix diet that will make you lose weight FAST – NOT exercise though, it sounds like too much hard work, too much commitment, it’s frightening.  

We got talking with the barista (as we always do – he is a very friendly nice man) – he’d tried, unsuccessfully to lose weight with many different diets. I gave him my opinion – ‘diets don’t work. Just eat sensibly, cut back on sweets and most importantly – exercise’. I think I convinced him to give it a go. Its the least I could do in exchange for him noticing that I’ve lost weight ;)

Seriously though. It depresses me, the amount of mixed messages we get about losing weight and the lack of help (in the UK at least) we get to sort through all the jargon and mixed messages and faulty promises from the media especially. At the beginning, I thought I really had tried absolutely everything I could to lose the weight – slim fast, atkins, calorie counting, getting a bit more active, but none of it worked and I just continued to get heavier – really depressing, and I felt pretty useless to be honest.  When I approached the doctor for advice, I was basically told to go away and lose weight! Oh Right, why didn’t I think of that before?! I mean seriously!

Eventually they started to take me seriously (they saw my distress) but only recommended pills to restrict my appetite, and had me starting to consider a gastric band. I was never referred to a nutritionist or recommended an exercise program (!!!!).

It was only when I decided that I was definitely NOT going to have surgery.  There HAD to be a way to lose and maintain a normal weight the natural way. So I saved up some money joined a gym and got a personal trainer – much better than a GP here in the UK!

But I’m living proof that you can lose weight the safe and natural way, without resorting to the latest fad diet, pill or surgery.  Even if you think you have done EVERYTHING possible there is still hope.

So take home message – be brave and please please please try exercising along with a HEALTHY eating plan.

Till next time :)

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