The weight gain....

All now in our fifties.  As we get older, this is probably the one single thing that is likely to cause us serious health problems, side effects and ultimately send us on our way..... is being overweight..... obese..... morbidly obese.

I have been overweight since the age of about 9.  It's never really caused me any issues, apart from making it harder when I was younger to get school skirts that fitted,  My Mum would have to buy a larger size and then take it it.  Because of my disability, my lower limbs are shortened and my mobility is reduced as a consequence.  I was always made to do sports at school, but lets face it... someone who is still less than half way along the track as others finish the 100 metres is hardly going to be an athlete.

So I grew up accepting that I was not really the "athletic type".  My disability gave me an excuse to go easy on myself in terms of exercise.  In my twenties, I joined various aerobic classes in an effort to make myself thinner.  Exercise alone was never going to work though.

Into my thirties and suddenly I was bothered by my expanding size.  I grew quite quickly from a size 14 into a size 18, then 20...  By the time I became pregnant with my first baby in 1985, I was probably a size 20.  But thankfully during my pregnancy I didn't put on much additional weight.

At this time I was going to Slimming World weight loss classes every week.  I'd start off all enthusiastic and the weight losses were good.  But soon the loss had slowed down and my old eating habits returned, along with most of the weight I'd lost.

I soon just gave up worrying too much about it.  I learned to be happy with the body that I had.  My self-confidence was ok. It was a bit of a pain finding clothes to fit, but I settled for a uniform of black elasticated trousers and a smart blouse over the top.