A background summary.

My name is Sara, I'm 24 and I am a recovering food-a-holic.


Seems simple, right? The first step to changing your life is admitting that a problem exists. Sounds pretentious and twatty, but incredibly true! This realisation took place two years ago, completely by accident.

By the way, the reason I write this (and have even started this blog), is because I bought the latest issue of Cosmo last night, which came free with a "first hand experience" Diet Book that pissed me off no end for the following reasons:

i.) I have never seen anything similar to "my story" with food, and sod it, there must be people similar to me who feel the same!
ii.) It was yet another proposed diet that suggests cutting out whole groups of food for weeks and reintroducing them. I WILL NOT DENY MYSELF ANY GROUP OF NOMS. Fact.
iii.) It suggested (like other diet books) that fat is a feminist issue, and I totally don't think this is the case anymore (I've got a handful of male friends who have been on a diet or Weight Watchers, and I think they'd disagree too).

Anyway, digression over. For now.

Let me explain, in January 2009, one of my closest friends asked me if I'd like to start Weight Watchers with her so she wouldn't have to go alone (if you were to meet this girl, she's one of the last people you think would need to lose weight!). I agreed, I had no other plans for a Tuesday evening and it seemed like an interesting thing to do and I could offer moral support. A bit before, we'd started doing pole dancing lessons together (really fun by the way! But I'll get on to that later), and I enjoyed getting out there and doing things (is it terribly obvious I was single at the time?).

Going to the meeting, I stepped on the scales and it said:


17st 4lbs at 5ft 2 inches.


..... pardon?


I'd never really thought about my weight as a problem before, and I know this may sound stupid, but I suddenly thought "Wow, that's a lot isn't it?"

Now I will digress (again), this is where it began. For as long as I can remember, despite being born a month premature and a small 6lbs, I have always been chubby. I was the chubby girl at infant school, this escalated to the rotund girl in junior school.

I was the fat girl at secondary school...

.... and the obese girl at university.

My relationship with food has always been and will always be that I love it. That will never change. At times I have hated myself for loving it so much, but I never take that out on food. If I could, I would make a shrine to my favourite foods.

Throughout my late teens and early twenties, I'd always been between a size 18 and size 22. The smallest I could ever remember being was a size 14 when I was around 12.

It had never really bothered me (apart from between the ages of 12 and 17, which I will undoubtedly explain later). I'd always had boyfriends, enjoyed an active social life, had a blast at university and had a wonderful group of friends (although I agree, when you're growing up overweight, you develop an outgoing personality and a self depricating sense of humour to cover for other insecurites, which I still do to this day).

Despite a lifetime of having people make subtle suggestions that I should lose weight (or my Nan's less subtle "So how's the diet going?"), the occassional insult from a narrow minded prick and sometimes being "the fat friend" to a boy who I wanted as more than a friend, I never felt my weight was an issue. I was me, I was fat, people liked me, therefore, people liked me and my fatness.

At the age of 22, I came to a fork in the road. I could either continue my life being overweight, affecting my health (I'd suffered from asthma when I was younger and high blood pressure) and continuing with what I knew and what was safe, or I could take a risk, take a chance on losing weight and a new way of life.

Stay in ignorance and take the blue pill, face the harsh reality and take the red pill.

I chose the red pill.


Two years on, I am now 12st 3lbs, having lost 5st 1lb. I'm a size 10 on top, and a size 12/14 on bottom.

Upon doing this, I realise that I haven't had a proper full body photo take in about 5 or 6 months. I will rectify at some point.

The point of me doing this is, I want to prove to people it can be done, and I am by far one of the greediest, laziest people you will ever meet. In my upcoming posts, I will give a greater covering of what I did, what I recommend, what diet products I've tried, what has worked, what hasn't worked, why I was big to begin with and so on.

I hope this provides someone, or anyone with that extra oomph they need.


It can be done, you've just got to take that red pill.