[ReluctantDieter]

I'm 21 years old and I've become increasingly overweight over the past 3.5 years (since coming to Uni and abandoning a healthy, home-cooked diet for the new-found joys of cheap takeaways, supersized portions and sugar-laden fizzy drinks). This unhealthy lifestyle has coincided with a general downward spiral, and I've seen myself go from being the an extroverted overachiever who attended a daily yoga class and climbed mountains in the summers holidays, to becoming a timid, anti-social and lethargic girl who is too unmotivated and tired to excel academically, thanks to my sedentary lifestyle and processed food diet.

This has led to an unfortunate vicious circle, where the more weight I gain, and the more depressed and solitary I become, the more I stay at home alone, seeking comfort in binge-eating. I’ve tried losing weight in the past few months, thanks to discovering that I have PCOD and need to make changes in order to prevent health complications further down the line. Sadly, these have mostly been half-hearted attempts, and I’ve only managed to shed a meagre few pounds in 6 months.

But I stumbled across my teenage diary yesterday, and it gave me a much needed jolt. Back in February 2010, I’d been an ambitious and confident eighteen year old, who had just received acceptance to a top university, and was full of plans and ideas for the future. My daily entries were filled with mentions of new friends, parties I’d attended, travel plans for the summers, and goals for university life. How had I changed so much in less than four years? It hit me that I’d just wasted what were supposed to be some of the best years of my life, as a University student, cultivating unhealthy habits and then wallowing in self-pity and insecurity.

I’d try to delude myself about weight loss, imagining that I was above such superficiality, but reading my diary yesterday has made me realize what a pervasive negative effect my current lifestyle has on me, and how much happier I will be when I meet my weight loss goals.

BMI: 27.3; Goal BMI: 22
Current Weight: 156 Lb; Goal Weight: 123 lb
I want to lose weight because:
• I have PCOD and stand very serious and scary health risks, if I don’t completely re-haul my lifestyle, diet and fitness habits
• I don’t enjoy having low self-esteem and being a loner due to my high insecurity. I want to meet old friends without feeling terrified that they will think I’ve become bloated, and go back to being the girl who was the life of the party.
• I want to have the confidence to find myself desirable and worthy of a relationship, so that I can attract somebody who will love and respect me.
• I want to enjoy shopping instead of being humiliated and frustrated at how little looks good on a size 16. I want to be able to wear lovely clothes, and to take pride in my appearance.
• I want to enjoy being fit, young and energetic, running marathons and going on adventurous holidays

I have to change and I have to do it now, so I need all the support I can get! Thank you for reading, and sorry for rambling on!

[Vex]

It's an important step that you've realized that you want a change now. Quite a few people go through that in college and never come out of it. You're already on the right path.

Do the yoga classes still interest you? Perhaps starting those again would get you out of the house and generally improve your mood.

You can't do anything about the past and dwelling on what should have been won't help you at all. Dwelling on what CAN be is what you want to hold on to.

Don't let your weight hold you back from anything. You don't want to spend the rest of your life missing out on it.

[ReluctantDieter]

Thanks for the encouragement Vex! Yes, you're right, I need to stop regretting the past and focus on the present. I'm not signing up for Yoga again, because I feel that it's not the optimal weight-loss excercize (unless you do an extreme version such as power or Bikram Yoga).

What I have done is signed up for a 5K run in 10 weeks time, and signed up for a gym membership. I'm going to follow the NHS Couch to 5K plan, and I think that given my current lethargic lifestyle, just being able to complete the 5K run will feel like a huge accomplishment and serve as a good motivation. If I'm successful, I'll probably sign up for a 10K as my next goal.