Busy, Busy Bees!

Heya folks, we have all been busy, busy bees in my household recently.

We have all been doing well, except for my sleeping but that is always off so no big news there. I have had some fantastic news today about my Type II diabetes….. I have it managed and under control with NO MEDICATION! This is coming from a guy who, at the beginning of this year, thought he was going to have a heart attack in the next year or so (as my doctors informed me) and was at higher risk of cancer, stroke, heart problems etc.

Top right – 315 lbs, top middle – 308 lbs top right – 301 lbs
Bottom right – 301 lbs, Bottom Right – 294 lbs

I truly started my weight loss journey properly at the beginning of this year in January when a new Slimming World class opened up in my area. I decided to go to the classes just to keep me focused and motivated at first, but even before that I had been desperately trying to lose weight. I am 5 feet and 8 inches tall (a shorty for a guy I know) and at my heaviest I weighed a whopping 315lbs….yes I shock myself now when I think of it! This was through a combination of back problems, pain, inability to do exercise and also some pretty lame excuses really. I never used to pig out on food anymore since I got my binges under control but by then the damage was already done. I did eat the wrong foods when my emotions got on top of me and that was really hard to break away from. I have always used food for ‘comfort’ eating which again, was another habit I found hard to break.

I can say now VERY HAPPILY as well I might add, that I am a massive 78lbs lighter than my heaviest weight and I have lost a whopping 16 inches from my waist! My sister came around the other day and I grabbed my suit I wore last year and put it on and showed her. I was lost in it and I think she got a bit of a shock from it as well. It felt great to be able to ‘show off’ how well I have done but I still find it hard to accept the credit……yet. I don’t want to get too complacent because I still have a fair bit more weight to lose to be at a healthy weight for myself. I don’t want to think that I can sit back and relax and not keep striving for that ultimate goal. In two years time it will be my 15th wedding anniversary and I would love to be able to renew our wedding vows looking like a million dollars. Zanna has been doing fantastically well in losing herself but she really shines at helping me with my loss. She puts up with the grouchy, sleepless monster that waits to lynch her in the mornings sometimes and she puts up with the indecisive, picky, annoying, stressed hubby when he cant figure out what to eat for dinner. It is just another way in which she makes my life a brighter place and I would not be anywhere without her.

So, what else has been going on? Well I have been tapping away at the keyboard loads writing creatively for university and I am having so much fun and I have been reading books, plays, poems etc. like they are going out of fashion. I will hopefully get chance this week to write the piece for Natalie from turkishtravelblog.com after she gave me the words yearning, historic and masterpiece.

We have also been doing a bit of work with Addison Street Carers Association who organise events for the children who use the local short break care unit that our daughter, Pretzel, uses. We have had a spooky Halloween party, we had some of the members in Newcastle Keep doing a sponsored ghost hunt, we have the Christmas fair and Christmas party coming up this week as well. It should be a great time and we always have a good laugh and a lot of fun with the kids and staff from Addison Street as well.

We are also meeting up again with some of our lovely SWAN North East buddies at the Alan Shearer Centre in Newcastle this Sunday which will be fabulous. It is so nice to meet up with other families who can fully understand how intense and tiring caring for an undiagnosed child can be and just how little help is given to us because our children don’t fit a check box. There is no judgements, no comparisons and no prejudices in the group, just a lot of kids and adults getting together and enjoying a good old chin wag!

So by the time we get all that out of the way we should be heading towards Christmas Day itself and then into the New Year. I am starting to think now about New Year’s resolutions after the success of my weight loss one this year. Obviously I will be keeping that one carrying on but it would be nice to challenge myself with something else as well. Maybe write a novel by this time next year? Maybe to get more involved with SWAN UK? Maybe to do more exercise and have more family time together? Who knows, there are so many!

Have you thought about resolutions or goals you want to set yourself for the upcoming year? Tell me about them because you never know we may be able to do it together and spur each other on!

Okie dokies, until next time folks,

Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!