Dieting!

I've always been overweight, ever since I can remember. As a teen I was a size 14, not huge but not skinny either. Once I got pregnant with my first child I piled on the pounds and it's just gone from bad to worse since.

Being an Aspie, I have huge problems with food. I get extremely anxious about trying new foods, foods which aren't on my 'safe' list. My diet is, therefore, quite limited. And those foods I do like tend mostly to be bad for me.

I've given up on the idea of ever being slim, it's not just meant to be and if I were to lose a lot of weight at my age, I would end up looking awful. I am of an age where I would just have lots of loose, saggy skin, not a good look. I would rather be overweight!

But... there's overweight, and there's overweight.

I lost several stone a couple of years ago, by eating better and exercising regularly. I felt fantastic. But then I became ill again with severe depression, stopped going out, gave up cycling and exercising and spent most of my time indoors. About the same time I had a prolapsed disc in my lower back. The disc presses on the sciatic nerves in both legs causing pain, pins & needles, numbness etc. So exercise is limited. Walking and standing causes the most pain.

I was put on a mood stabiliser for my depression (which worked wonders for me) but one of the side effects of those is weight gain. It seems to have been a never ending cycle of weight gain over the past 4 years or so. Getting motivated to try and lose it has been so difficult.

However, I have finally found some motivation. While exercise is still difficult, I have managed to gain control of my eating. My younger son was overweight but over the past year he has lost 5 1/2 stone! Amazing! He has inspired me to do something myself.

So, I have followed his lead and started dieting. I've used an online tool called a BMR Calculator. You put in your age, sex, height and weight, and it calculates how many calories you body uses each day if you were to just lay in bed all day, basically, how many calories it uses just living.

For me that's around 1700 calories a day. So, if I make sure I eat less than that, I'll lose weight - simple. It works too. Over the past 4 weeks I've lost 9lbs. A steady couple of pounds a week. I'm trying hard to eat better too, more vegetables and less of the 'bad stuff'. I do allow myself a little treat every day though - I need chocolate in my life!!! I keep a little box of Malteasters so I can dip in now and then and just have a couple, rather than a bag full or a whole bar of chocolate.

So... who fancies joining me?