I’m sat on a sunbed in Turkey, i’ve just celebrated my 34th birthday and i’m in a bikini… not bad for a married, self employed mum of 3, hey?

The Turning Point

Well something needed to change, i was out celebrating my brothers birthday in Feb 2017, we had a curry, i ate starter, main, calorific chicken tikka masala, my absolute favourite with its rich creamy sauce, rice, naan bread, and then we went out drinking… pints of cider of course.

The next day, 4th Feb 2017 a photograph of me sat having a good time was put on facebook. Was that really me? It couldn’t be, could it? I’d looked in the mirror before I went out, I thought I looked nice, slim even (for me) who on earth was that person in that picture, I didn’t recognise myself.

Now usually with these stories there is some sad back story, a bad childhood, a break up, but for me it was just sheer over eating, eating the wrong things and putting everyone before myself.. mum to a 6, 4 and 1 year old and running my own business as a registered childminder.

This photo had to be the turning point, one of my cousins was getting married in just 6 months, no way was i going to be the fat cousin.

Mission Get Fit!

I dug out my trainers… you wouldn’t of thought I actually have a sports degree, how on earth had i fallen into the trap of buttered toast and TV rather than the gym, swim and clean living.

I went out, it was a sunday in february, a nip in the air but i walked 8k. Afew days later I went out again, I was on this… i could do it, no way was my 5’4’ frame ment to carry 14st 2lb…. I was clinically obese, oh the shame.

I remembered how I used to be able to jog on a treadmill, surly I could still jog abit, I tried and within a 100m I was struggling for breath. This was worse than I thought.

So after a month of going out powerwalking and loosing afew pounds.. reducing the biscuits and toast helped that one I downloaded the couch to 5k app.

I felt embarrassed so went out in the evenings to listen to the app, jog/walk and after afew weeks I was loosing inches and gaining fitness.

Joining Slimming World

End of April, 1 stone gone for good but still along way to go and wedding looming in 4 months. … a friend dragged me to slimming world, i really didn’t want to go, i didn’t want to sit with a group of ‘happy clappers’ .. those little britain images springing to mind.

But I went, I sat and listened to the talk, I could eat everything that I wanted to eat, I could have biscuits, cake, alcohol in moderation, but I was guaranteed to loose weight? What on earth was the catch?

I was told to read the book and follow what it said and i wouldn’t be hungry and i would loose weight, i thought, it can’t be that easy.

I stepped on the scales, what was the damage? 12st 13.5lb… wahoo I had lost over a stone by myself but flipping heck i was still hugely overweight.

I was still wearing a 16, i’d love to be 11st 7 and a size 12 I thought… i was that weight and size when i got married in 2009 to Simom, before i had 3 children.

I went away, read the book, and went back week after week and each weigh in i lost weight, i wasn’t hungry and as the weight melted away my fitness level increased. I soon started being able to run further and faster.

The Wedding

The Hen party was in July, I was 12 stone, i bought a size 12 top! I started wearing contact lenses as part of my transformation and also had some minor surgery, mole removal on my face that i’d been putting off as i’d been abit scared but this was a new me.. a new confident me!

Wedding day…. i’m a size 12 , 11st 7lb.. my initial target. I felt fabulous, i watched my cousin marry her partner and felt confident in the group photos and wasn’t worried about being snapped at a bad angle.

More Weight To Loose

But, I still had more weight to loose, i still had a muffin top and my fitness wasn’t at its peek so i kept on, plodding along.

I was doing something for me, I felt like I was in control for the first time in a long time, I had me time. I’d re ignited my interest in dancing which i’d done until I was 18 and going back to an adult class i realised that my body had changed but my muscle memory was still there.

Birthdays, weddings, christmas is no excuse to put on weight and let things go. I realised.

I was clean living again and with it changing other aspects of my life. Being more mindful of the world around me and the impact I had on it. I eat fresh, started reducing my families plastic waste, trying to go green, started keeping chickens.

Target

In June 2018, 14 months after starting my slimming world journey I reached my target.

and now here I am sitting on a Turkish sunbed, 9st 10lb and a size 8.

Follow me on instagram Mama’s Den