where did it all start?

This didn't happen overnight.

My weight gain has been gradual over many years, but mainly I gained a lot of weight with my first pregnancy 14 years ago.  I gained over 4 stone and my size 8 frame went from being petite to HUGGGGE.  It wasn't diagnosed at the time, but the midwife with my second child thought that the rapid and unusal weight gain was due to pregnancy diabetes (the reason being that all of the weight gain came within the last 3 months and I was hardly eating anything at the time due to nausea!). 

But regardless of the reason, once the weight was on, it wouldn't bloody come off again and ever since then I have found it very, very difficult to lose even just a few pounds.  Because I couldn't lose the weight, I lost the motivation to exercise the way that I should, so walking the dog is currently the only real exercise that I get.  The more weight I put on, the harder it got to move at all and I scoffed carbs such as fizzy drinks, sweets and cakes to make myself feel better about life.  It didn't work.

In early 2000 and something, I lost a couple of stone but it was HARD.  I wasn't eating anywhere enough and I had to exercise like crazy.  Of course, as soon I started eating normally again the pounds gradually crept back up again.

So I find myself in December 2011 and this photo was the straw that broke the camels back.

I felt so ashamed of myself and I hate the way I looked.  My stomach is so big that I look pregnant!  Although my dad didn't purposely take this photo to make me feel bad, and my sister put it on facebook because it is actually a family photo of the kids opening Christmas presents ALL I COULD SEE WAS MY FAT BODY.

At the time I was a bit upset with them for doing it, especially my sister, but when I am at my goal weight, I will be thanking her for giving me the rocket up the arse that I needed.

I had been looking into diet options for some time, but just by chance I saw a book on Amazon about the Dukan diet and I started to look at reviews and also online elsewhere to see how people were doing on this diet.  I had a feeling that this could be the answer I was looking for, the Consolidation Phase was the thing that tipped it for me, because what's the point of losing lb's if you are going to put them back on again (and then some).

So, My Dukan Journey began.

I decided not to go in for the coaching as I am actually a trained Personal Development Coach and Hypnotherapist myself and I know a lot of people in the industry that will be able to help me if I need help down the line.  I'm in this for the long haul and although my target date is Sept 2012, I will not be off the consolidation phase for a further year!  I am actually happy about that because I really think it is what my body needs; to learn how to feel normal being thin again.  At the moment, it seems to think 'fat is normal'.