My Struggle to Maintain my Healthy Weight

Stepping on the scales in Boots I daren't look at the screen as my weight flashed up in front of me. I knew I'd had a bad few months - with loads of meal reviews for New Girl in Toon, a Christmas of binge eating, an injured achillies and a dangerously relaxed attitude towards food - it was never going to be good news.

Glancing down at the screen I saw the numbers flash back at me.

Crap!

For the first time in years I was over my goal weight and officially in the "overweight" category of BMI.

Now I know that numbers aren't everything but I'd been feeling pretty rubbish in my own skin and knew that I needed a reality check.

Today is the five year anniversary of reaching my goal weight. That's five years of being happy and healthy and making a lifelong commitment to never let myself go back to the girl I used to be. So how on earth had I let myself get out of control?

Growing up with a weight problem it's pretty inevitable that you are going to have a problem for the rest of your life and this was something that I'd almost forgotten.  Lost in the world of size 10 clothes, I'd forgotten where I'd come from and felt invincible. Dangerously relaxed I took my eye off the ball and weight had crept back on.

This last year has been a real struggle for me and I have learnt many valuable lessons.  I could never sit here and tell you that battling obesity and staying healthy is easy. It doesn't matter if it's been a year, five years or 20 years - it will forever be difficult and something I have to think about every day for the rest of my life.

So how have I managed to get myself back on track?

I've stopped making excuses! My favourite excuses have been food blogging stopping me from eating healthily and my injury stopping me from running. We all have excuses ready to stop us from achieving something that is perhaps a little difficult, the hardest thing is breaking the cycle. Once I'd realised that I was being silly I made a conscious decision to defeat each obstacle that was holding me back.

My achillies injury may have stopped me running but I realised that I could easily start exercising again by forcing myself off my bum to go on walks. So every lunchtime I dragged myself out and did an hour long power walk and within a week I was already feeling so much better. It's amazing how some fresh air and exercise makes all the difference to your attitude.

The biggest hurdle for me when it came to getting myself back to goal was blogging. I'm very fortunate to be invited to a lot of meal reviews where I'm encouraged to eat as much as I possibly can whilst downing sugary cocktails. Believe me, tell a greedy person they can eat whatever they like and they will pretty much do that! So I've been trying to make more sensible decisions when I look at menus so I can share healthier menu options with my readers, and on days where I know that that wont be possible I make sure to do more exercise.

Admitting that I needed help was the biggest step in helping me regain my control. I've often commented that I got myself into the mess to start with because I have an unhealthy addiction to food. When you have an addiction like that it's important to have the help and support to tackle it. So every Monday I now join Simon at Weight Watchers to face the scales and chat to the group about the problems that I've faced that week.  I haven't point counted for a long time and at this point in my life don't feel like I need to, however knowing that I'm getting weighed and talking to other people with similar problems to mine has done me the world of good.

Maintaining my happy, healthy weight will never be easy.  Quite often the best things in life are the hardest to achieve but I'm here for the long haul and I am determined to never let myself get back to where I came from.

I'm very happy to tell you that today, on my 5th anniversary of reaching my goal, I am sitting here at my healthy weight and I feel so happy and lucky that I have made it this far.  Here's to the next hour, the next day, the next month and the next year - it'll be a challenge but happy, healthy Chloe is here to stay.

To read more blogs about my weight loss check out: I used to be Fat, How I lost 9 stone, Learning to Run and How I Maintain my Weight Loss