Weighty matters

As a child and as a young teenager I was, as my mother put it, “almost as thin as a whippet.” Unfortunately at about 16 or so I stopped growing in height and continued growing in width and girth. This problem was mitigated by the fact that I lead a fairly active lifestyle and had, for some years, also had a physically demanding occupation.

Eventually I married and settled in to married life and took up a mostly sedentary job until one day my wife said: “I can't get my arms around you! What on earth do you weigh, now?”

We decided to find out and it was with horror that I discovered that I was weighing a little over 19 stone. We realised that something must be done.

But what?

I decided that the first step I should take to address this issue was to analyse my lifestyle. There were too may snacks. A cake shop that sold yesterday's still delicious cakes and rolls at a large bag for only a Pound was one culprit, another one was a discount shop that sold everything from packs of crisps to tins of beans at remarkably low prices was another. Actually, that's not true. The only culprit was my inability to somehow understand that no matter how cheap something is, it still contains just as many calories as when it was at full price!

A bag of chips at only a Pound a bag might have seemed like a delicious and cheap lunch but they, too, piled on the pounds, whilst saving on the Pounds. My wife is also an exceptionally good cook.

Crisps, chips and sweets were, I decided, not good and so were dropped from my diet.

My wife decided that an increase in the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables we consumed would be a good idea. For some reason I had never been a big eater of fresh fruit, but this was changed as part of our healthy eating campaign. We vastly boosted the amount of fresh vegetables (which I love) so this was not much of a problem. And if one shops carefully, the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables one can purchase is considerable.

I also took the decision to walk to and from our home to my office, which is two miles away. So from only walking at weekends when we went out together I found myself walking four miles a day, or 20 miles a week. My wife has a part time job in the evenings, so I decided to walk to meet her from work every evening, another two miles a day, bringing my daily total to six miles a day, or 30 miles a week.

Within several weeks my wife noticed a difference and over a period of several years my weight fell from a little over 19 stone to 14.5 stone.

There have, of course, been relapses. The odd bag of crisps here, the odd chocolate bar there. The bakery and cake shop owner retired, his premises became a traditional sweet shop, something ele to be avoided, and the discount shop is still filled with bargains, but, on the whole, I have stuck to my resolve and am now looking forward to shedding a further several stone in weight.