My recent Mrs Mummypenny Podcast interview with Faith Archer, on How to Live Well for Longer brought up a lot of ‘Oh ****’ moments.
My emotional eating, or emotional spending, and how they intertwine. My recognition that health really is wealth and I have to focus on keeping my weight and size in check. And that the average age women get to before needing serious medical intervention is 62.
I have a lot of genetic baggage to deal with, both my parents died at 58, mum and 63 dad. Both heart attacks. Both brother and sister have had heart attacks in their 60s, albeit recently and survived. I am NOT GOING THAT WAY.
The reality is, no matter how much we glamorise body positivity, being overweight and being obese is bad for your health. It leads to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And I don’t want any of these, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to be healthy, outlive my parents and enjoy life as a fit and healthy older person.
As a teenager, I was of a normal size, looking back, but the weight did start to pile on after the sudden death of my mum. I spent some time looking after my dad, with the weekly shop, cooking dinner, and doing the laundry. I would ensure I had some money from the weekly budget left over to get myself some treat food. I think this is where the secret bingeing started.
I have spent my adult years going up and down in weight over and over again. I remember being at my unhappiest when I got pregnant with my first child. I had a bout of depression and couldn’t face going to work. But I was the breadwinner and was feeling the pressure. There were financial struggles with a secret loan uncovered, and I thought lets make everything a whole lot more complicated and let’s get pregnant. Babies are not a sticking plaster for relationship issues, I promise you.
My weight spiralled, I remember the scales hitting 16 stone, on my 5’5 frame this was big. A size 18 and feelings of hatred towards myself. I ended that pregnancy weighing less than when I first got pregnant through healthy pregnancy living.
I feel like I’ve tried every diet under the sun: Slimming World, Weight Watchers, clean eating, and Slimfast. Sometimes I have the strength of mind to not give in to the food noise. But then it goes, and I just think, f@@@ it, just eat what you want, and the weight piles on.
In March 2025, I was done, turning 48 meant I had ten years before my mum’s death year. Age 58 is going to be a tough year for me. A few friends had started taking weightloss injections and I thought why not give it a go and see how I get on.
I took Mounjaro for three months from March until June. It was fairly easy; it started working straight away, all food noise switched off, you literally need to force yourself to eat. There were side effects of constipation, but these can be alleviated with a lot of water and senna. The weight fell off. My weight started at 95kg or 15 stone, and by June, this had dropped to 80kg or 12.5 stone.
I came off the jabs for the summer holidays and fun where I didn’t want to be restricted, but my eating habits had changed. The hunger noise had gone, and I was making healthy food decisions, eating protein first, above sugar that had previously been an empty calorie go to. By Dec 2025 my weight had dropped a further 5 kg to 75 kg or 11 stone 10. Still me classed as BMI over weight, but I knew that was an amazing place for my weight and I felt good a size 12. I felt very confident in my gym gear and even underwear.
There was a recent article in the British Medical Journal saying that most people put the weight back on after stopping taking weightloss jabs. But maybe these are the people who didn’t learn about different eating strategies. Fasting for me works, I often won’t eat anything until dinner, and I’ll always prioritise salmon, fish, eggs and chicken. Protein absolutely fills you up for longer.
I feel like I am an anomoly but I welcome it and Im not far away being a weight where I am happy for the longest time in my life. I have survived my worst months (Oct to Dec) without putting on weight.
This is me in Dec, finally full-length pictures are allowed. Versus me at a much bigger size. I struggle to look at pictures that of myself.
