So anyone who’s been following me on face book, or who know me personally, knows that I have been banging on about weight loss and healthy eating stuff. For those of you who are over it, sorry.

I have not always been so health conscious, my parents had reasonable eating habits, but I was the kind of kid who would keep my thoughts and emotions to myself, and chow down on some sugary food when no one was around, pinching loose change so I could head off to the shops to grab a sweet fix. Although I ended up being one to two sizes than the kids in my year, my size and my activity levels did not escape my parents’ notice. I played hockey in the winter (I ended up being the back/goalie, as I was never a great runner, and never will be) and softball in the summer, but my parents felt that I could do more to become more active, although when I took up an interest in tennis that made me become a nuisance..so I let it drop.

Fast forward to adulthood, food became a celebratory thing, I became quite skilled at baking (except with pastries) and was eager to try anything. But all that yummy fod stuff had to go somewhere, I steadily grew out of the mainstream sizes, after becoming frustrated with living in a small country town where if you were over a size 14, “big ladies” clothes was the next option. I remember thinking, “what the hell, might as well join the big girls club..” Somehow I felt that I didn’t look too bad at a larger size, but when I look back at photos from back then, they tell a different story. But with my upcoming wedding, I got the motivation to drop some weight with diet and my choice of exercise Tae Kwond do and bicycling. I dropped a substantial enough amount of weight to look decent in my wedding dress, we got married, and moved to a quiet town where Mr Westy had work. Country life and me being unemployed did not help, I felt bored and isolated, and it went back on again until I’d been working for a couple of years in Sydney.

I then joined Weight Watchers, weighing in at 115 kg.  That’s a size 22-24 in case you’re wondering. Shortly after, without having the pressures of kids on our budget, I joined up with a gym, as although I would have loved to rejoin martial arts, I was at a loss as where to join. Bike riding for a country chick in Sydney?? Are you kidding??? I could just envisage myself getting wiped out on the mad traffic. I ended up losing 20kg, until I fell pregnant with my daughter. I was able to lose a little weight, then I fell pregnant with number two, then lost a little less weight than I had with my daughter, then I was pregnant with number three.

I pretty much gave up the healthy eating plans between pregnancy in between intermittent attempts at dieting. Anyone remember the kick start plan? Yep, I’ve tried that, but failed miserably, as the pressure of not having carbohydrates really got at me. So I ballooned to a size 20, then started walking catalogs, which helped me drop a couple of sizes. But thanks to genetics, my knees couldn’t handle all that walking, so I quit at 90kg, with my bad eating habits and ballooned back up to 110kg, size 22-24.

What have I to blame for these habits? The fact that our finances are tight and I can’t afford the gym? I have three kids, close together in age? One of my kids is autisistic?? My family lives far away and I don’t have a relief on hand? Maybe it’s all in my genes….or I know, it’s about my STAR SIGN!! Oh yep, I’ve used them all and convinced myself it doesn’t matter.

Then some health issues started popping up, for some of my family members, and I started thinking. I started thinking about my paternal Nan who died from bowel cancer, as a complication from living with diabetes, which my paternal Uncle also has It was a long miserable journey for her until she died, and it robbed her of the chance to meet my daughter. Not long after that my maternal Uncle had bowel cancer, although he was lucky enough to recover after his bowel being removed. His waste now goes into a bag. It’s been a big lifestyle change for him now. Not long after I had my third child, my maternal grandmother passed away, her health not being helped with having an unhealthy bowel. Then there were knees, my father had sore knees as I was growing up as a child as did his sister and my mother.  Oh, and I was facing that magic age number that shall not be mentioned!

My families’ health issue created so much stress, pain and discomfort I started to think about what I could be facing, what could I inherit? So, what could I do to avoid this. The first answer any doctor tells an overweight patient is to lose weight, lose that unnecessary strain those extra kilos add.

So I started with zumba, thinking well, it will help me be a bit more coordinated (I’m a klutz) and tae bo, which i love as there’s that martial arts element there, which I was happy to do in my own home. I was able to sweat off a considerable amount of weight, which has stayed off, but since I’ve started working, I’ve found that those knees just won’t let me work and do those exercises, (for now I hope)

Instead of being defeated I looked around to see what else I could do to exercise my weight off and decided that going to my local pool to swimming would be a good option, I could do it while the kids are at school, when I wasn’t working, as it’s good for my core, and it’s not to bad an idea to practice at swimming, as I’d learn enough about swimming so not to drown. I started off at swimming 800 metres, then 1000metres  in 40 minutes and nowadays I can do 2500 metres in an hour. Today I wandered down to the pool, after doing my work, then racing off to the RTA to renew my license, which had expired the day before, to find the pool swarming with kids, they’d booked lessons for that same hour that I’d turned up. The other funny thing was that my kids’ instructor from last year who I’d dubbed as “Eric the Eel” was in the lane next to me! To my embarrassment I managed to swallow some water on my last lap, something I hadn’t done since I first started swimming regularly two months ago..oops.

To this point, I’ve lost 30kgs, lost some dress sizes, but still have to buy a variety of sizes thanks to the erratic clothing size standards in Australia, and I’m 15 kilos to my goal. Life will keep trying to get in my way but I won’t let that stop me now, even when I have to drink my two litres of water in one hit! I’m feeling too good about myself