A Girl on her Journey: Pickers Wear Bigger Knickers

Now to let you into another aspect of my life.

As much as I love fitness and exercise now, it's only really been part of my life for 2 or so years, and before then I'd never really given my health much thought.

I was raised in quite a healthy family, my parents always cooked fresh, wholesome meals and I was taught everything in moderation. That being said, I've always been a chocolate fiend and while my parents weren't around, I wouldn't think twice about eating two or three bars a day. It got worse when I went to uni, I knew because I was independent I could eat whatever I wanted, cue no fruit or vegetables, snacking exclusively on chocolate and crisps and chips with tea. Every. Single. Day. I did join the gym at uni, but I hadn't yet discovered the joys of muscle work outs, so I stuck to cardio, lasting about 40 minutes on the treadmill/cross trainer before getting bored and giving up. I also fell into the 'I've done ten minutes of exercise so I can eat pizza/chocolate/the entire sub-continent of Asia' trap.

At my biggest, I think I was about 10st 7, and at 5ft 6.5, I was hardly a heifer, I don't think I was even overweight, but for me it was a confidence thing, I hated having a podgy belly and I felt sluggish and had no energy. The turning point came during my third year when I had one of my final performance projects, I was in a dance piece called 'Twelve Dancing Princesses' based on the fairy tale and as the title may suggest I was in a primarily female group. I was one of the only girls that was over a size eight, and having to spend all day with (and get undressed in front of) a group of skinny, pretty girls really knocked my confidence. My daily lunch of pizza and chips also didn't help my stamina when it came to the eight hour rehearsals. I loved the girls I worked with (writing this is bringing back all the lovely memories) but I had the niggling self confidence hanging over me and I was really frustrated as I knew I only had myself to blame. I decided I didn't want to look and feel that way anymore.

I upped my boring cardio workouts and incorporated fruit and veg back into my diet for probably the first time in about two years. A bit of the weight shifted, but it wasn't until I came home, I began to see the real results.

I joined a brand new local gym in Formby called Viking fitness, it was a steal at £20 a month, the gym floor itself is a bit basic, but the pull for me was the unlimited classes. They have a massive range including kettlebells, insanity, spinning, tabatta etc, the choice, the amount of classes they have a week (about 30) and partial unemployment meant the weight fell off.

I LOVE the way exercise makes me look and feel. I'm now around 8st 11 (the lightest I've been in my adult life), a size 8, and the healthiest I've even been. I've still got a bit more to go, not to lose weight but to tone up a bit more as I'd love to rock some abs!