Growing up, I was always slim. There have been points when I’ve been downright skinny. It didn’t matter how much I ate, I was still the same weight roughly, never gaining any pounds. This was fine, I ate a balanced diet: a reasonably healthy diet and junk food – just as anyone would. This remained the same throughout my teenage years until this year.
I gained over a stone and this might not seem like a big deal – but it felt drastically different to me. I have a naturally small frame and this added weight did not suit me at ALL. I couldn’t run as well as I used to and of course, none of my clothes fitted quite right. Maybe people have noticed, maybe they haven’t. But I certainly did!
How did it all happen? Very simple: pizza. This is my Achilles heel, my weak point. I live in Limerick for the better part of the year because I attend the University of Limerick and of course, all the takeaways are nearby. I reached for pizza more than once because my living situation wasn't ideal and two because I didn’t think it would affect my weight. IT DID.
As a blogger, a lot of things are public. Your social media is, your blog is. People like to see the person behind the blog and I ignored this aspect of blogging for years and years. Until now. I’ve been trying to build up the confidence to take more photos of myself and post them. Again, this might not seem like something that’s huge – but to me it is. I rarely appear in photos or post selfies. I could very well carry on like this – but I don’t want to. So, don’t expect a lot of selfies but I’m hoping to post more than I do!
I want to be more comfortable with my own face. It’s the only one I’ve got! I want to have photos of myself with friends and family so that I can preserve memories for years to come. I also want to be fit, not necessarily to have the fittest body out there, but just to be able to jog around without wanting to collapse! I wanted to include a photo of myself in this post, but of course, a giant spot decided to appear on my face the day before I took photos for this post (next time, I promise!)
I’ve haven't been extremely consistent with my exercising. I can be very lazy when I want to be and cycling the same route day after day can get extremely boring after a while. I am NOT a gym girl, I don’t think I ever will be and that’s okay. I have plans to continue my walks once I go back to university, also to make use of the swimming pool. I love swimming, it’s easy, fun and something you can do with friends. If you do want to properly exercise, my one tip is to build it up. Don't destroy yourself, build up the amount of intensity and frequency of your exercises and it'll pay off.
DIET – I don’t mean cutting back on food drastically like some diets I see out there. I mean what you eat. I was told by a friend that your diet does more for you than exercise and it’s so true. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. So, if you can introduce more fruit and vegetables in your life, do. Your skin and body will thank you!
CALORIE APPS – In my opinion, don’t go near them. I made the mistake of downloading one and within two days I found myself starting to obsess over how many kilocalories were in everything I ate and I kept panicking if I ate anything, wondering how much it was. So, I deleted it and just focused on eating as healthily as possible, with the odd snack from time to time. I feel so much better not focusing on calories.
WEIGHING YOURSELF – Sure, from time to time check how you’re progressing. Just don’t do it every day, your weight naturally fluctuates and changes according to the time of day, so once or twice a week is what I try to do. It’s not all about numbers.
Nobody’s body is perfect. It’s not supposed to be. I don’t always follow what I’ve said in this post and that’s okay. Take it as it comes. Be nicer to yourself and try not to beat yourself up over everything. There’s more to life than numbers.
Thank you for reading!