Dear all,

I’m in a good place right now. For anyone that knows me, you’ll know my struggles with morbid obesity. I’ve probably lost the same 100 lbs several times over but never managed to get below 200 lbs (14st 3 lbs) in the last 25 years. To me getting below 200 lbs by eating healthily (for me that is plant based, wholefoods) and increasing my exercise would, I feel, increase my physical health and life expectancy.

I’ll be 53 in January and in recent months I’d lost control of my eating and succumbed to large quantities of sugars, oils, fats and cheese, loads of cheese…. I’d recently gone for an eye test and the optician saw changes which could indicate high cholesterol. I dug out my ‘Thriva Baseline Test’ from last year with my Lipid Profile on and thought to myself I’ve GOT to do something about this NOW! Despite being a vegetarian, a lot of my diet included high salt, high sugar, saturated fats mostly from cheese and cake baking, and I’d been using oil for stir-frying veg. This definitely showed in the blood test results.

I’ve gone ahead and booked another baseline test, this time I am also getting my active B12, Thyroid, CRP (C-Reactive Protein – used to measure inflammation in the body for auto-immune diseases, heart inflammation etc) and a full blood count in addition to my baseline test which measures Cholesterol, Iron, Liver Function and Vitamin D.

The way I look at it is I do have the ability to change my health around, I’ve got to try and take responsibility.

People have asked me about the THRIVA home blood tests. They are much cheaper than home tests from private clinics. You should also be able to get these tests FREE via your GP if they feel they are warranted. I’m doing this because I like to have my results and explanation in front of me to refer to often.

This link gives you 50% off your test (UK) https://thriva.co/i/CEWPGS

To get to the nitty-gritty I weighed in on September 10th at 299.7lbs (21st 5lbs) and I’ve basically given up nearly all processed foods (a little bit of salad cream here and there and an occasional yogurt), cut out cheese, fats, sugar and salt. Most of my diet this past month has been porridge oats and fruit for breakfast, a massive mixed colourful salad with kidney beans for lunch, a lb of cooked veg (lots of green leaf veg such as kale and cruciferous veg) for dinner with a small amount of starchy veg such as sweet potato. I’m eating 4 pieces of fruit a day and 1-2 oz of nuts such as walnuts and at the end of the day I enjoy a toasted pitta bread topped with 100% peanut butter and a plant milk, hot milky coffee. Supplements include Omega 3 Algae oil with DHA + EPA, Nutritional Yeast sprinkled on food for B12, Vit D 3, Magnesium and Zinc. My daily protein levels are between 70-80g which is perfectly adequate.

My first weigh-in was October 10th and without counting calories I had lost 18.1 lbs (1st 4 lbs) which means my weight is now 281.6lbs (20 stone 1.6 lbs).

Although I’ve had to give up baking for now because of the fat, sugar and flour but I’m OK with this. My focus has to be getting through the next few months in a way I KNOW is the best for me. So many people say to me just have a little of what you fancy. I just can’t do this…for now it’s doing without. I’ve removed all trigger foods from my cupboards. EVERYTHING is healthy and nutritious. HOWEVER I have enjoyed a couple of nights out which involved “normal” food and alcohol and I’ve counted those as occasional treats.

Thank you all for continuing to check out my blog.

I’m going to be focusing on re-creating some autumn/winter WW2 soups over the coming weeks so please check back.

Much love to all.

C xxxx