Guest Post - Gem from FromGemWithLove

Today's guest blog was written by Gem from FromGemWithLove

When I was a little girl my aunt would always say "You're so skinny, put on some weight, do you even eat!?" Which always used to bother me, because no offence to her and my cousins, but they were always bigger than me, and why was that my fault? Just because I was a slimmer girl doesn't mean I never ate, in fact I ate a lot, I ate whatever I wanted, maybe that's what annoyed them so much, because they couldn't? But I was young, and ran around always, I have always been tall and slim...well that was until last year.

I went from being the girl that could eat anything, to recognising that I was in fact a 24 year old woman, who now had hips and what is this, a belly?? You can imagine how this sort of shocked me, but I went through a phase where I just didn't care about it at all, I wasn't un-healthy, so what if I wasn't a size 10 anymore, it's not the end of the world, right? I used to comment on blogs, telling people who were worried about eating an extra piece of cake, to go ahead and eat the damn cake, life is too short. That all changed when I could no longer fit in to my size 12 jeans, jeans suck anyway I have decided, but that is all I lived in, my size 12 skinny, Primark jeans, what was I going to do? I started doing what I always do, I moaned and moaned and MOANED, but I would still eat a whole bag of Doritos and dip to myself (not that much fat actually I have now found, BONUS!)

But it was when my Mom got ill with Pancreatitis that everything changed, she was rushed to hospital, and they told her she would have to eat a low fat diet for the rest of her life. Something that was a big change for her, not because she was overweight, but because she loved all of the nice foods, paté, cake, CHEESE. So I moved in with her, to hep her convalesce, and had to cook her lots of healthy food, then one day I was getting un-dressed to try on a new outfit and she uttered those dreaded words "You need to lose some weight Gem" What?? I had been quite happy with my denial up until that point, my Mom had always told me that I looked good with a bit of weight on me, but she said, kindly mind, that I had put on a bit too much, "All those lovely meals out with Dale!" she said, true. I never believed that phrase 'it's contentment' but I think it's most certainly true now, but the thing is with my boyfriend, he would love me if I was 22 stone, and he would never tell me to lose weight, he would never call me...fat. But isn't there a point where you would want your boyfriend to have a little word? You know it could be when you are about to eat your fourth pork pie...or scraping the bottom of your salsa jar *hides in shame* if someone that close wouldn't/can't tell you, who is going to? Maybe it hits a nerve with Dale, because it was only two/three years ago that he was quite overweight, all of our friendship consisted of Dale consuming buckets of KFC. Now he is all slim and I'm the one crying in to my fry up. How did he do it? Smaller portions, he honestly believes that you can still eat all the things you like if you change the size of your plate.

So this is the option I have adopted, there will be no rivita in my house anytime soon, I have no patience to diet, so I see this as my better option. I am also joining the gym next week, I know a lot of people might think that a size 14 isn't big at all, because well it's not is it, it's an incredibly healthy size. I just don't like those bits that wobble and don't fit in to my jeans anymore, and deep down if I don't change something now at 24, what will I be like at 34? I want to be a healthy adult, not the woman who has the Chinese on speed dial. Now I will leave you all with a good luck and go back to my tortellini...on my small plate.