New Year, New Me

Happy New Year all! Hope you had a great one. Mine was very quiet, curled up on the sofa with my gorgeous boyfriend, a glass of bubbly, some home-made Szechuan cuisine and Jools Holland on the telly.

So here we are three weeks on from my procedure and I’m now starting my new healthy eating plan that Katie the dietician has created for me. She recommends that I eat 1500 Kcals a day which is perfect for weight loss. The plan looks incredibly easy to follow and more importantly, very nutritious, balanced and healthy. There are no crazy fad foods or any recommendations to take any wild supplements, just a good quality multi-vitamin. Katie is lovely and very supportive so I’m looking forward to working with her over the next few months as I will doing a weekly food diary for her to assess.

A few things to note since Christmas: 1) I really can’t drink alcohol anymore. My glass of bubbly at New Years and red wine over Christmas gave me horrible stomach cramps. 2) It never ceases to amaze me that the tiny portions of food I’m eating now are enough to satisfy me. My brain just doesn’t get it yet and wills me to eat more but my stomach says no. So far, stomach is winning. 3) I’m starting to feel a bit better about myself as I see the weight come off, although I’m not getting too over-excited about it as I have a long way to go yet.

My weight loss so far is around the 12lb mark but I’ve stopped weighing myself for the moment because I was getting a little obsessed – I was weighing myself up to three times a day at one point, which is ridiculous. Naturally, weight loss has slowed right down since going back on solid food but I’m confident it will continue at a steady and sensible rate over the next few months. You just need to look at my portion sizes to know that. They are honestly a quarter of the size that I used to eat. Dinner generally gets eaten off a kid’s size plate or side plate.

I had my first gym session yesterday since my procedure. I was a little worried beforehand because I hadn’t trained for three weeks. I was pretty fit for a fat chick. I started my warm up with a five minute run to kind of test the waters and amazingly it was great. I felt lighter on my feet and less puffed out. Amazing. I then had a personal training session with the legend that is Anita Albrecht. She has been a constant, reliable and supportive presence in my life over the last two years and I’m happy to say she is now a friend and confidante. Anita went a bit easy on me but I still managed to do an hour’s worth of weighted resistance exercises on her new piece of equipment called ‘the Wave’, which provides an unstable surface a bit like a Bosu ball. She also wants me to fit in two jogs and two half hour power walks before next Tuesday’s session in order to get my fitness back up.

I'm really excited about what the year ahead will bring. Not just in terms of weight loss but in my personal life and career. Things are just wonderful living in my gorgeous little country cottage with the love of life. I've figured out that life is just too short to be miserable and sad when you have so many positive things that I once took for granted. We're also off to a wedding on 29th April (not the Royal one) which is exciting because it'll be my first proper social event of the year and I can't wait to shop for a new outfit for it. We're also going on holiday to Spain in May with out best friends which again is exciting because there will be a beach and I'm determined that I'm going lie on that beach in my bikini, feeling great. I'm also planning to have lots of dinner parties with all my friends and family with lots of laughter and joy. Career-wise, I've always wanted to go into TV but I always thought it would never happen because of my weight but now I know I want to make this happen.

I think I should also note to any readers out there that I appreciate that I am really privileged and lucky to be able to have had a private procedure like the balloon, have access to a dietician and a personal trainer. I know that this isn’t possible for many people out there. I think people who able to turn their lives around with just their own sheer grit and determination should be very proud of themselves and I honestly admire people who can do that.