I have never been what you would describe as thin. Even as a teenager as someone who is tall and has a reasonably large frame I wasn’t your size 8 model type (I am talking UK sizes here). But as a young person I was never over weight in real terms. I have always liked my food, my mum gave us good home cooking and I learned both from her and at school how to cook meals from scratch. As a young wife I experimented through my cookery books cooking all kinds of lovely dishes, my tastes are more in the savoury than sweet; I am no chocoholic. As a young nurse I did a pretty physical job, there was no need for nor did I have the inclination for exercise for exercise sake (you will never seem me out running for example). I am a nurse, I understand about nutrition and what is more I am an educated individual with reasonable common sense, yet earlier this year I found myself at least 3 stone over weight and needing to wear size 18 clothes.

If I am to believe the latest report on obesity though it is not my fault. The problem lies with modern lifestyles and the fact our bodies can’t cope with the way in which our meals are presented to us, with the use of the car rather than our two feet etc. There is no escaping the obesity problem that faces us in the first world. Rates are rising alarmingly, indeed locally 30% of children are already overweight when they arrive at school at 5 years old. There are people out there who either don’t know how or don’t want to prepare good healthy meals, who are unable or unwilling to take exercise on a regular basis, there are children who are not allowed out to play by their parents for fear that they will be abducted but who are equally not given the chance to exercise properly by those same parents. But I am not in that category. The responsibility for the size I was on August 1st lay with me. It was due to over eating, over drinking and a lack of useful exercise. At 45 years old I was a recipe for heart disease and diabetes waiting to happen (thank heavens I am not a smoker)!

Since August I have lost 14lb (a little more than that I hope, as I am due to get weighed at slimming world), and I am on the way to a slimmer and healthier me. I have increased my level of exercise and I have begun to look closely at what and how much I put into my mouth. I actually do not need crisps and cakes every day, I actually do not feel hungry between breakfast and lunch because my fruit and yoghurt breakfast fills me up. I do not need a plateful of food and because of that I can eat most kinds of foods and still lose weight. It is a struggle. It is easier to just eat what is readily available, but who said life had to be easy. What I am clear about though is that just as being over weight is down to me, so is being slimmer. This may come as a shock, but obesity in middle classed people is not the fault of the government!