LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF...

BEVERLY CURRY

AGE 58

TOP WEIGHT 17ST 2LBS

This was me! 2012, this was me!

New Year's Eve 2011/2012 there I am singing away as the new year dawned. I was 'morbidly obese', as the charts call it and could hardly walk as I had arthritis in my left knee and right hip and the weight I was putting on these joints made them swell and made walking very painful. I couldn't get into the car without a lot of pain and it took a long time as lowering myself at that angle was not easy. We were looking into mobility allowance as we thought a car which sat higher off the ground would be the answer.

My husband adored me! He always has and always will no matter what my size, as long as I was happy he was happy and this is still the case. But we were both concerned with my health and mobility.

I LOVE food! 

If you look through the postings on my other blog: 'Currys in Cape Town' curryhouseza.blogspot.com you will see evidence of that! I even wrote a whole blog in praise of Lurpak butter once!

So I had resigned myself to the fact that I had always been overweight and I would always be overweight so I'd cook and bake what I liked, eat as much of whatever I liked as I  wanted to and I'd stop worrying about my size just enjoy life...was going to be my motto! Be happy! Be the jolly, fat lady who is happy whatever!

Mmm.?

Happy while I'm preparing and eating the food. 

Happy while I'm sitting on the sofa in the comfort of my own home not having to move or do anything. 

Happy until.....I was invited to a wedding, a party, a get together! Then it was:'What am I going to wear? What on earth will I look like?!' 

Happy until...the sun shines and it's hot and I can no longer 'hide' it all beneath a big baggy jumper! (It never was hidden, I know that now!)

I HATED shopping for clothes. Well, to be precise, I loved the shopping and I loved the clothes but I hated the fact that they either didn't come in my size and if they did they looked awful! 

Bottom line...face it Beverly...you aren't happy carrying so much weight. You never have been, you never will be so what are you going to do about it? It was in my hands, only I could do anything and I needed to want to enough to be successful.

The temptation was to think: 'Well...I'm 56, I may as well let go and just enjoy my food.....'

NO! I'm ONLY 56 and I could have 20, 30 years ahead of me...and do I REALLY enjoy my food? The Food and Fitness mentor Rosemary Conley once stated: "Nothing tastes as good as being slim feels!" and I now have to say that she is absolutely right!

What brought things to a head for me, what finally gave me the resolve to do it was a casual comment that came my way last May: 'Oh well, it comes to us all...' that, together with the offer of a walking stick that was surplus to requirements!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That evening I looked up my nearest Rosemary Conley class, phoned a good friend who I knew also wanted to lose weight and we planned to join the class the following night.

We joined. I was weighed. I was shocked. I was resolved and determined.

Jill, the class leader said, 'You're going to do it, I know!' and she was right! 

18 months later and 6 stones lighter my life is completely different. 

This is me... 

...running 5K on the hottest day of the year last year in the 'Race for Life'

This is me! The me that has always been in there but was previously so well covered up!

I begin this blog as I would like to be able to help anyone else who feels like I did and who may be encouraged by my story, by what I have to share in the following posts. The things that helped me, the difficulties and how I overcome them, how maintaining my weight is actually my new lifestyle, not a diet! If I can help anyone who is walking under the cloud that I walked under for so many years then I want to. I see people walking around, carrying such weight, and I'm not only referring to the excess pounds. I want to convince them that they CAN do something about it. You're never too old, never too heavy!

 And if no one is inspired or helped...well, it will do me good to remind myself and keep myself on track!