Introducing... Rosie

Hello I'm Rosie. The last time I remember being happy with my weight was when I was about 17.  I was probably about a size 10 (not that I took much notice of clothes sizes back then) and all of my friends lived in the next village from us - a couple of miles away - so I seemed to spend my life on my bike or walking to friends’ houses.  Eating was what I did in between cycling to work, working (running around keeping shelves stocked in a supermarket), doing karate (I left just before I got my black belt. Don’t piss me off, yeah?) or going to college.  Then two things happened; I went away to University, and I got comfortable in a long term relationship.  These proved catastrophic for my waistline as my lack of cooking skills meant my plat du jour was waffles with beans and cheese and my active lifestyle became a distant memory; choosing instead to spend my evenings in watching movies with buckets of popcorn or pringles.  I have spent the subsequent 10 years trying to find that flat stomach that now exists only as a distant memory, and to rediscover the motivation I once had to go out and do things in the evenings rather than flop on the sofa.

I started this year as a size 12-14, I was 11 stone which can often be a healthy weight but as I’m only 5’3” doesn’t sit right on me.  My problem is my belly as I have fairly slim arms and legs but all my fat sits around my waist meaning I’ve been the recipient of innocent “When’s bundle of joy arriving?” enquiries in the past (they were not forewarned I was a Karate expert.  Bad choice.)  My protruding belly used to just get me down because of how I looked next to all my skinny friends but having had my Grandad die of a heart attack and my Gran die of a stroke in the last twelve months has made me realise how much of a health risk it is too, and I’m now determined to get in shape.  My proud news is that I did a few months of Jenny Craig at the beginning of the year and lost almost a stone, taking me down to 10 stone.  As much I don’t particularly rate the BMI calculator as a good judge of whether you’re a healthy weight I’m now bang on the line between ‘healthy weight’ and ‘overweight’ and my goal is to put myself firmly in the former category.

Now I’ve come off Jenny Craig I’ll be doing this by using via my new catchphrase ‘eat less, eat better, move more.’  I’ll be cooking with fresher, healthier foods, cutting down on sugar-y treats, converting my grazing on chocolate and crisps at work to an opportunity to eat more fruit and nuts (Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut does not count) and generally trying to swap bad choices for good ones.  I’m also about to start a new job which means I’ll have extra time in the evening to get something back for the £30 I pay to an establishment a few miles away that apparently has a gym and a pool in it.  I’ll be writing all about this and sharing recipes, workout tips and more and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of Where Are My Knees.