Before the Diet....

It is a fact universally acknowledged that I'm fat. It's a harsh, blunt self criticism but true and I only speak what everyone else thinks. Okay, so there are people fatter BUT in terms of my own self esteem and confidence - I don't need that to be me.

After years of battling with fluctuating weight, mainly upwards, and years of starting and stopping diets realising I'm just too addicted to food - at the age of 25 and with a family history of health related problems caused by obesity - things have to change - and they have to change quickly.

My weight gain has been entirely self inflicted. I love eating out, when I socialise I suggest meals out, I have a hectic working life which means food on the go - McDonald's etc. Pizza is my favourite food and if I've had a crap day, I'll happily order one as soon as I get home without thinking of the consequences. After years and years of this pattern of behaviour there was only ever going to be one outcome - I was going to get fat.

I've tried Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Atkins ... you get the picture, none of them worked (as anyone that knows me can see!) Then, something new came along which basically involved quitting food.

Now, I'm no health expert but I was pretty sure quitting food altogether wasn't really an option. My food addiction may have sometimes been comparable to a crack addicts issues, in that I would sometimes quite happily consider injecting melted dairy milk through my veins - but surely going cold turkey on food wasn't the option. Apparently, it is.

For the last few months I have watched with admiration at my friend Ian's weight plummeting, each week I would see the facebook status update ... "-11Ib" ... "-18Ib" .... "-22Ib" and of course, I'm sure like many others, I sat and thought "how wonderful but he will put it all back on again because he is loosing it too quickly!" I assumed that my diet of eating a healthy salad for lunch followed by pizza for dinner would surely put me in better stead...clearly, my reputation of dieting leaves little to be desired.

So, last week approx 6 weeks after has finished his diet - we play badminton and Ian looks great - he has lost 3.5 stone in 8 weeks on a diet he calls "Lipotrim" ... I've never heard of it and I'm skeptical BUT I'm only human, and instinct is telling me to find out more because if he can do - surely I can do it.

With a Q&A session with Ian on the badminton court, and a reassurance over facebook that I wouldn't suffer irregular bowel movements and implode whilst on this diet - I took the plunge and booked my appointment at the chemist the very next day to start the diet. For me, healthy eating and regular exercise wasn't going to be an option - I had been there, tried it and it wasn't for me. I needed a rapid solution - and I had it - this was going to be EASY PEASY!