Nothing Like a Health Scare to Kick Start Your Fitness Regime

When I was younger, I was pretty active - At school I was part of the Gymnastics, Trampolining and Athletics clubs (surprisingly I was great at High Jump - I'm 5'2"!) and I have a lovely collection of fun run medals from my teen years. I danced until I was about 24 - My feet regularly bounced the halls of Ludus, Danceworks, Pineapple and the Central School of Ballet along with being a semi professional sports dancer (aka pompomless cheerleader) where I danced on football pitches in the middle of winter wearing seasonally inappropriate clothing in front of 36,000 people - actually it was probably only the 4 people watching who didn't go to the bathroom or buy a pie during half time.

Up until having children I was fairly active and petite - I was short and a dress size 8.

Obviously I put on weight during my first baby but lost some after but then I had my second baby and somewhere, somehow I became fat without really realising. I'm not exaggerating here or looking for reassurance, its just as simple as that - I'm now fat - I fall into obese and my BMI is over 29. I weigh over 3.5 stone more now than I did before children - I actually weigh more now than I did when pregnant which is pretty scary.

Que the health scare, I get sporadic and crippling pain that suggested Gall Stones, I had an ultra sound which came back clear - it was suggested that perhaps I had passed a stone or two. My GP also suggested that perhaps its a return of IBS (something I had in the past but with different symptoms) or possibly liver issues or food intolerances. I have few things that fall into the vague category of "autoimmune diseases" likely to be lactose intolerant, possibly have gluten issues, slightly anaemic and I had a blood test to check my thyroid function - which luckily came back clear. I was asked a lot about things like tiredness - well I'm a mum of two small people so of course I'm utterly exhausted all the time - that's just motherhood!

It was suggested that some weightloss is needed - I already know that - I've already been trying (although not as hard as I could) so I'm now officially trying to shift some!

I'm a month into some dietary changes and I walk a lot, and do 2 rounds of youtube fitness a week - I'm looking into Gym memberships and figuring out a plan to actually be able to go to the gym (I think this will be easier in September when both kids will be in school) the frustrating part is that I'd have thought after a month I'd have seen some sort of improvement but that is yet to happen!

Emma in Bromley x