My Journey To Overcome Obesity

Let’s talk about how I overcame obesity.

I was certainly obese. Weighing 20 stone and 5 feet, 4 inches tall; I was struggling to get into size 26 clothes. My joints killed me to walk.

The turning point came when my knee started to get painful and swollen and I was awake at night in agony. So, I made an appointment to see the local GP and the first one told me to take pain killers and sent me on my merry way. Doctors and I do not get on well, but the pain got increasingly worse, by this time I was having to walk with crutches, each step was agony. In fact, even sitting down and resting was painful.

I decided enough was enough and went back to the Doctors, by this stage I did not care what they did I just wanted to be pain-free. This Doctor sent me off for a series of x-rays. I then had to wait a week for the results to get back. When I phoned the surgery for the results, I was told the GP wanted to see me.

I began to worry about the impending news. What had they found?

Imagine my surprise when he informed me that I had arthritis and the weight I was carrying around was making my condition worse.
I had to do something. My lifestyle had to change.

You see, I had cared for my mother for 6 years before she lost her battle for life. After she died, I became addicted to chocolate cakes and biscuits. I also used to bake cakes, decorate and eat some too. My husband would often say “you seem to be putting on weight yet you’re eating the same as me”. He simply couldn’t understand why my clothes would be getting tighter. How could I be honest with him, I was not even honest with myself? I had become a secret eater.

I became very defensive and insisted that I couldn’t understand it either. However, I was comfort eating. We would buy multi-packs of chocolate bars or cakes for the week and I would eat the pack then have to go to the shops to replace them.
I was eating 7 cakes or packs of chocolate biscuits in a week, on a good week.

Following the diagnosis from my doctor, I joined weight loss groups, but they never got to the root cause of why this had happened. You see, I needed to deal with the void, my lack of confidence, low self-esteem and that little voice that told me I was no good. Food had become my comfort blanket. Hence why so many people put the weight back on again. Not dealing with the underlying issues.

Introducing NLP

It was at this time that I was introduced to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). Whilst on my NLP course, we did an exercise called ‘like to dislike’. This was a game-changer. Previously, I would happily eat chocolate biscuits or cakes but if the only food available to eat was a banana I would not eat it. I’m not a fan of bananas. This simple exercise taught me to re-programme my thinking so that mentally I told myself that those biscuits or cakes will taste like banana. It worked.

I’m still on my journey of weight loss and I understand the pitfalls of negative self-talk. However, I now look in the mirror and say yes! You look great! Believe me, that is a major win for me.

I am going to let you into a secret, after getting down to a size 20 and still losing, I feel great, and my knee pain has gone.
In fact, mentally I have turned the clock back to 18 even though I’m the other side of 50.

I’m a work in progress and continue to use my yes voice daily to show others how to overcome self-limiting doubt.

You can achieve what you want in life. Let me show you how. Contact me today to find out more.