I thought I'd give an introduction to this whole blog and why I've started it? Beware that this blog post is going to go into a lot of detail and will probably be very long. First off I will tell you a but about myself.

My name is Laura(as you can tell from the title of this blog). I'm 21 and I've been fat and unhealthy for as long as I can remember.

I don't remember when I started to gain weight. I have very little photos of me as a child. My aunts took them all and I haven't seen her in ages so I can't get them however i have managed to salvage and find a couple of pictures from primary school till when I was about 7 and I was quite a skinny child. 

I'm going to guess the weight started piling on at the end of primary school/ start of high school. I don't know why I started to pile it on, my guess is that I just ate out of bordem or something and was allowed to get away with it.

I have vague memories of being very scared starting high school. Worried I would be bigger than everyone else, which I was and worried I would make no friends. I didn't know anyone in high school as I chose not to go to the local high school near where I lived. High school wasn't bad, but the weight just kept creeping on. I was never bullied in high school which was a surprise to me but I was never acknowledged by the popular people. I remember seeing a picture a while back of me and my friends at the end of High school, I thought I looked HUGE then(i didnt save the picture but my first thought was to click away and never look at it again. Now i wish i had saved it for reference). I don't know whether I continued to gain weight after that, I think I did.

I went to college with very little self confidence, and doing a subject where most of the class was male didn't help. But I enjoyed college for the most part, I didn't go on any class trips to France and just mostly kept to myself and focused on my studies.

I finished college, did pretty well and went to university, again doing a male dominated subject but I really enjoyed it, I got along with everyone but still never got involved. I decided not to live in halls(BIG mistake, I think this would have helped me somewhat) and I didn't go out clubbing or to pubs like most of the other students. I just wasn't into that sort of stuff.. Or maybe it was my went and confidence telling me not to do it I case people look at me.

During most of college and university I spent my time on my computer, I was playing an online game called World of Warcraft, I'm sure someone has heard of it. It took up a lot of my time other than studying. I probably ate a lot sat at the computer too.

At the beginning of 2008, I was talking to a guy on this game a lot, we got friendly, it moved onto more, until eventually we decided to meet in person instead of talking through the screen. Everything was organised and he was starting his 4hr train journey to come and meet me. We never exchanged many photos of ourselves. I always objected to full length photos because of my size. That night when my dad came with me to pick him up from the train station, I remember feeling so sick with nerves, thinking he would take one look at me and never want to see me again after he left to go back home.

This wasn't the case, he was very nice, acted just as I'd known him online, was just as nervous as me. We got on very well, he was only meant to be staying a week and ended up staying longer than expected. This guy, who didn't care about what I looked like and just genuinely cared for me, is now my boyfriend of 4years, I've been living with him for nearly a year.

It was only after about a year and a half that I decided it was time to loose weight. Don't ask me why I didn't start before. I wanted to look good by his side and not worry about anything, not worry if people are looking at us because of me, I didn't want him to feel that pressure. So I started to eat healthier. Over the course of the next year, I tried various things to loose weight but I just wasn't coming off.

I went to the doctors for advice, had a thyroid check(which was all fine) and sorted out a plan for what i could do to loose weight. At this time, i weighed in at 18st 6lbs at 5" 6' and a size 22/24. Just before Christmas of 2010 I bought an Xbox and kinect and the biggest looser fitness game. Ate healthier and did exercise religiously everyday. The weight slowly but surely started to come off. In 2010, I went on holiday to Egypt with my boyfriend. I hated wearing a swimsuit but it was too hot to wear anything else to cover up. I avoided having my picture taken for the most part. I obviously kept the pictures for memory but hardly look at them.

In feb 2011 was when my weighloss really kicked in, i was steadily loosing about 2lbs a week. By our next holiday in 2011, I was down 18kg(almost 40lbs), still hated the way I looked up wasn't AS self conscious. Still didn't like having pictures taken but did them for memories. Looking at the comparison between my holiday in 2010 and my pictures in 2011 there was a big difference.

My boyfriend by this time had gained some weight since I first met him, after seeing my weight loss, he too started to loose weight in feb 2011 like me. In about 4-5 months he had lost about 5stone and has kept it off. He was then my inspiration, if he could do it, so could I and he's been so supportive the whole time.

It's now nearly the end of march. Just over 14months since I really started loosing weight in feb of last year. I'm currently at 12st exactly. I've lost 6st 6lbs in total so far, gone from a size 22/24 to a size 14 and still on my weight loss journey, still have a fair bit to lose and I am finally recording the rest of my journey. I wanted to d this from the start but never did. At least I'm starting it now I guess.

This log will be recording the rest of my journey and probably even after I've got to my goal weight and I'm maintaining, we will see. I don't know how often I'll blog, probably quie often we will see.

For anyone that decided to stay and read my whole life story(hah, it feels like it after I've just looked at how long it is), thank you.

I hope this can serve as some motivation or inspiration to someone who is on the journey to being a healthier person. If I can do it, so can you! Just keep believing you can do it.

Thanks for reading!

Laura