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If you ever want to know who your real friends are, don't eat for 7 months. Or turn up on their doorstep at 3am with a body wrapped in some carpet frantically mouthing the words 'Help.......it went wrong' with a length of hosepipe and some feathers sticking out of your pocket. Weight loss has generally brought about two responses at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Nobody has said 'meh'. It seems to be something people are genuinely interested in, either because they want to do something themselves, or that they are astounded when it actually works.

When I first started, I was really surprised by some of the responses I got, from people who I thought would be glad to support me. I realise a lot of it was through concern rather than malice but some of the gems were: 'you'll put it all back on again and more', 'it's unsustainable', 'gosh that sounds unhealthy', 'these diets never work, the weight always goes back on' Well, to that I say:

Yeah, I will, if I go back to the way I was eating and being non active.
Course it bloody isn't, but then neither is eating crap every day.
Less unhealthy than being 20 stone but you bloody kept quiet as my weight went up.
Diets always work. You go on a diet, you lose weight. That's what diets are meant to do. It's me that doesn't work if I fail to make choices afterwards to maintain the weightloss.

I had what I thought was an extremely close friend. A few weeks into the eating plan we went out for a drink. She gave me a guilt trip because I wasn't going to be drinking alcohol and was fairly moody when we arrived at the bar and I said I defo was sticking to the plan and not 'lapsing' that night. By this point I had perhaps lost 3 stone, so just getting to the stage of 'noticeably different'. She told me not to lose much more weight as it would change my face shape and I'd lose my prettiness. Instead of smashing the San Pellegrino bottle on the side of the table and thrusting the shards in her eyes, I excused myself to the ladies to arrrgghhh a bit. When I returned, ten minutes later a burgers and chips appeared in front of me. 'That's not mine' I said to the waitress. My friend piped up, 'Oh, I forgot about your diet thing....ah well I've paid for it now you may as well eat it'.

I didn't. We ended the evening awkwardly and I haven't seen her since. She was genuinely a close friend prior to that. On weightless forums, which I used to lurk on you'd see a lot of this sort of behaviour and the were lots of assumptions about people being jealous of weight loss success, and feeling threatened and aren't all skinny women bitches they just want fat friends to make them look good. I think there is some elements of that in some people, but in general I reckon it's just a whole fear of change thing - and they are right. Because here is the thing: I have changed a lot.


I am much more assertive. I quit my job a few weeks back because I was bloody fed up of being unhappy and just taking whatever life threw at me and putting up with it. Since I quit, I've been the happiest I have ever been. I have done things I have never done before and opened myself up to a lot of new experiences and meeting new people. I went out boozing in Hoxton on Friday night and felt like I belonged there and had a fab time instead of hiding in a corner feeling awkward. When I say belonged, I meant in terms of physically not feeling out of place, not that I'm a pretentious twonk who describes their job as being a 'creative'. I am more confident in saying 'screw it' and stopping doing things I don't want to do because it is expected of me by others. I have finally learnt to like myself and not care hugely whether other people like me and it has pretty much blown my mind, this shift in attitude. The attitude change wasn't gained through the plan but through the network of friends, family and random people off the Internet who are at the other end of the scale, the ones who helped me.

Some of you who read this are off of that there Twitter bollix. #wave. Facebook friends who read this that was # a hash tag and you won't get it and all my Twitter friends are cooler than you. Some of you are off of Facebook *like*. Twitter friends won't get that because they are all snarky and hate everything. Especially Justin Bieber. And Tesco. And Facebook. Some of you, and I am assuming that someone reads this other than my Mum, are strangers or have been friends for years. I want to say thank you to all of you. The congratulations and warm wishes you sent when I was banging on about losing a lb, the ones who when you saw me told me how great I was looking. (Oh, as an aside..... When you see an overweight person and say 'you're looking well' we aren't dumb, we know you mean we have put on more weight). The twitter one who reckons I look like Kirstie Allsopp and made me happier than a bunny in the grass. The work one that took my photo each week to help me track progress, every time saying how proud she was of me. The facebook one who when I posted pictures always put a *like* on it. The real life one, now on her own LighterLife journey who was the most supportive motivational mental friend ever. The woman from the LighterLife website who said I was her inspiration. So many more of you have been fabulous, so thank you again.

I'll buy you all a burger to say thank you one day.


Also, all you people that like Apple stuff, you are wrong. This has been the biggest pain in the non formatted arse ever writing this entry on an iPad.