My weight gain story begins with a cliché beginning… When I was young I was as skinny as a rake and it seemed I could eat almost anything without gaining weight, in fact I stayed skinny even after having three children.
The beginning might have been stereotypical, but I can tell you Snow White didn’t get to keep her figure so what happened?
My weight increase never made any sense to me. I never ate fast food or take out, I don’t fry everything I cook in lard, I don’t drink alcohol or even smoke, I can turn down sugary treats and I exercised regularly
So how the bloody hell did I keep putting on weight?
Why am I Putting on Weight?
Simple answer ‘greed!’ It wasn’t deliberate, it was more like sleep walking into a fat person, I didn’t realize I was doing it, but there’s no disguising it was greed.
I was eating far more food in a day than my body needed and ‘Boy’ my waist line certainly noticed it.
Symptoms of Obesity – The Blame Game
Now I could partially blame the food industry since they do have some responsibility for people getting fat through a modern diet, they are the ones that came up with super sizing everything we buy and filling it full of sugar and fat to gain more profits.
Food comes in much bigger standard sizes than it used to years ago, muffins are twice the size they were when I was a child and are now treated as part of the weekly shop and daily diet.
When I was a kid the food we now consider as part of our daily diet were treats you’d have a couple of times a year. If I was out to blame someone. the food industry would be a good start.
But at the end of the day I’m an intelligent human being and I can make a choice on what to eat, how often and how much.
House Hold Income – Reason For Weight Gain
It all kicked off when our household income increased
When our income increased we could buy treats like chocolate, crisps, cakes, soda and biscuits you get the idea :) more frequently for our children than we had been unable to buy when our budget was tight.
My hubby and I were eating as much as we wanted, when we wanted it. As food became more plentiful we inadvertently ate more food. With that much extra sugar and fat in our diet it was inevitable we were going to put on weight and become obese.
Eating junk foods between meals and then having big portion sizes of food at meal times was too much. It didn’t matter that I exercised, didn’t drink alcohol and never ate fast food I was gaining weight just fine without them.
What Causes Belly Fat – Big Portion Sizes
I ran by a very simple equation when I was dividing up the food at meal times. Dad had the biggest amount, mum had a bit less, the kids had smaller portion than mum. In my mind because I was an adult I needed more on my plate than my children.
Big mistake! The amount of food I was eating was the problem, man sized portions for a tiny woman is not good. I’m only 5’2″ which is roughly the size of an 11-12 year old, yet I was giving myself a food portion far more than I needed. I would never have done that to my kids. I saw it as normal for a parent to eat more than a child.
How Much Are You Eating?
If my husband had 4 sausages I would eat 3, if he had 5 I would have 4 – plus extra of everything else on my plate, you can see how this would escalate, the equation didn’t work. I was over indulging because ‘I was an adult!’ which makes no sense every one has a target of 2,000 calories a day for an average woman and 2,500 for an average man.
Luckily my crazy mindset didn’t affect my children’s weight. They were outside my illogical logic, I fed them according to their age and was ever mindful about how much I gave them. They’ve always been slim, phew…
Obese Through Greed
At the time I didn’t view what I was doing as being greedy. Greedy is what people who sit around all day stuffing their face with junk food and never exercising, right? Greedy people need a forked lift truck to get them out of the house… Wrong!
The proof was in my size. I was greedy no excuses it was greed. It may well have been naive greed or a lack of education, but it is what it is.
Junk Food Diet
I was mindlessly following a typical modern day lifestyle of eating processed fatty and sugary foods day in day out. Junk food is there for the taking 24 hours a day, dripping and oozing with sugar and fat, abundant and plentiful, temping you with sweet smells and flirtatiously whispering in your ear that this is a treat you deserve. I was being a zombie consumer just like the food and supermarket chains want. Over time it resulted in me being fat, contrary to what I thought back then, our diet wasn’t good in anyway, now I know better.
I’m not going to give myself any excuses for my actions in the past, as the saying goes ‘You Live and You Learn’
I was eating too much on my plate at meal times and stuffing my face between meals with food I did not need. Content with eating sweet and fatty things in manufactured jumbo sizes in front of the telly.
That’s what made me fat, me, my actions.
The result – I had gone from a skinny size 10-12 UK dress size after having THREE kids to an 18-20. When a size 20 pair of pants started to feel tight the realization of being an obese 22-24 prompted me to take action, those big pants motivated my weight loss diet.
Weight Loss Worked – Size Eight and Feel Great
Now after 3 years from when I started my weight loss plan I’m a size 8-10 and feel great. I can move around much easier, I look great in clothes and I don’t find it hard to put my socks on any more :)
Marie xxx
