Welcome to my blog ☺️
This was me 👇🏻
The picture above was me in July 2023, I went on a day trip and I didn’t realise that picture was being taken. When I saw this picture I genuinely wanted to jump off a bridge (common theme in my life tbh). I actually can’t believe I let myself get so big. I can use all of the excuses I want, they range from;
- I worked full time and didn’t have a lot of free time
- My dad died
- My mum was ill
- I have mental health issues
So on and so on, however, the truth is, I was lazy and I didn’t look after myself. Looking at this picture was a complete reality slap, right in the face.
I decided I had to do something, I had tickets booked to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, I knew I would never be able to physically cope with that concert and I knew I’d look and feel awful the whole time.
This picture sparked the beginning of my couch potato to Era’s Tour journey.
If we skip 2.5 years into the future, let me reintroduce myself.
That’s me 8 stone or 50kg or 112lbs (whichever metric suits you) lighter. I wont lie to you, it has been hard, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, heavy on the tears. In-fact if I had to rank them it’d go tears, sweat then blood (a 6kg ball to the face will do that).
Over the last 2.5 years I’ve had a lot of people ask me questions, watch my progress, cheer me on, drag me down and everything in-between. I started my public social media last year when people were telling me they were showing my posts to their friends and family, I thought if it could help anyone then why not share it.
And that is what has led us here. There is so much that goes into this process, it’s not just eating less food or going to the gym. It is a complete overhaul of your life, your habits, your friends and your mind. At no point did I think I would need to relearn how to sit down comfortably as my tail bone sticks out and it hurts to sit like I used to. Literally who could guess that!
I have always endeavoured to be as honest as possible when talking about weight loss, wellness – however you want to label it. It is never my intention to put anyone off, in-fact my intention is the exact opposite. You will gain nothing but good things from putting yourself first, it may initially cost you somethings you didn’t know you’d have to pay but inevitably you will gain so much more.
I can tell you, finding full length pictures of me pre-2024 is pretty difficult, I hid in the back of every photo or avoided them completely. I could not stand being the person that stood out for all of the wrong reasons. You couldn’t help but notice me because alongside my size I have a questionably outgoing personality. Which I can only assume is a mixture of overcompensating for what I look like and undiagnosed autism (tehe).
This process can be really lonely, you’ll meet so many great people in the gym but unless someone has gone through the same things, it’s so hard to explain. People mean well with their compliments and encouragement but it’s so hard to fight off the mentality of being who you used to be.
‘It doesn’t matter if you’re slow you did it’ well, actually it does matter because when you’ve always been last you desperately want to do better.
“You should want to be strong, not skinny’ well, when you’ve lived your whole life big, you do actually want to be small because there is trauma attached to being ‘big’.
I hope I can create a little community for people, like me, who are trying to be better but struggle to fit in. If that’s you:
Hi ✋🏻, my name’s Carol, it’s nice to meet you ♥️
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