I have been maintaining for a while but since I completed my 2nd half marathon in 2:15 I think its about time I posted here.

I was never a fat child, I was always active, you couldn't get me inside the house for love nor money! Although my parents both worked, and even though they meant well, my mum admits she probably didn't give us the healthiest diet.

I probably started gaining weight when I was 14 or so. My parents split up when I was 11, it was nasty and bitter and they still dislike each other. I was also being bullied at school around the same time. So what I did was eat. I did it secretly. I would hide food packets in my room, binge on chocolate that I would buy on my way home from school, and I became expert at bunking off of P.E. classes. So I gradually gained weight.

It all came to a head when I went to University. It was clear from the outset that it was not the right course, or university for me. I had fallen for a guy who loved himself and basically strung me along as long as he got what he wanted. He was a lot of firsts for me, so I kept on with it. I fell back on my old 'friend' food. I would stay in my room, not studying, not seeing my friends and would eat, I would eat everything, and I discovered alcohol at the same time.

I eventually stopped coping and failed my course. I dropped out and came home. My mum was devastated as she'd had no idea I'd gotten so bad. But gradually I built myself back up. I lost a bit of weight, got a job (where I'm now a supervisor) I lost even more weight. I met my wonderful boyfriend of 3yrs who I live with, I now study with The Open University and hope to become a social worker in Adult Social Care. I gradually introduced exercise, the bf likes to keep fit so I joined his gym, and found a love for running. I am now 150lbs and I have completed 2 half marathons and I hope to run the London Marathon in 2016.

I have to say though, that I've been maintaining for about 18mths now, and my head has only just caught up with my body, it's taken a long, long time for me to stop feeling like a 'fat girl' I still can't believe it's me when I look in mirrors. My friends have to tell me to stop checking myself out!fat 3.jpg

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This is QUITE IMPRESSIVE - I struggle to (repeatedly) work up to 5K...

WELL DONE!

That's funny. Checking yourself out! Lol. Quite a great transformation.

Congrats on the new half time and yay for your transformation!

Congratulations!!

Truly incredible! You've worked so hard and have really turned your life around and become so successful. Most important though, you learned to love yourself. Very inspiring

Congrats, You look great

Wow!!! lookin' good... Congrats!!

Nice work!!!

Awesome! You look fantastic! Congratulations!

WTG!! You're looking great!!

Hey girl! Your story is really inspiring and you look incredible!! Congrats, hope it only gets better!

What a beautiful picture and inspiring story. I love the happy ending because of the reality of it. Your story sounds alot like mine, though I gained my weight with having kids as an excuse. I am not a petite gal bone structure wise. The doctor said medium. So I will never be a 110lbs 5'4'' woman, it took me a while to figure that one out. I can say that I saw myself as fat even when I wasn't overweight because of the comparison I made with my friends who are all pretty much petite.

Now that I am a grown woman of 53, I know the value of loving myself and even my 40 extra pounds. My body has taken me thus far, I can only apllaud it and do the work to lose them for good.

KUDOS IsobelRose, you are truly a winner.

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for all your kind words. It's nice when people understand the journey you go through. It's not just about the physical weight loss, it's about completely pre-existing yourself about food and fitness and tearing down the mental blocks that you face. Good luck to you all, you'll all smash it