Tools, Tools, Tools.

I like to think that as an girly girl, I love an accessory and being a girly geeky girl, I love a high tech accessory. Luckily for me the weight loss industry is full of snazzy (and not so snazzy) gadgets.

As I decide to embark on this journey of lard eradication, it felt only right that I dropped some cash on items supposed to make it easier.

So after much research these are the gadgets & goodies that made the cut (which in turn will hopefully make me cut):

Fitbit Flex

I loved the idea of the nike fuel band, but when I actually got one I was really underwelmed by its usability and in all honesty its way of measuring (inaccurately most of the time) pretty much nothing. So when I read about the fitbit, I was really intrigued and decided to take the plunge.

Now I will do a full review on the fitbit (maybe even a video one) once I have really given it a good try, but so far I'm pretty impressed. It works out how many steps you have taken, over how many miles, how many calories you have burnt as well as how many you should spend to reach your target weight loss and even how well you are sleeping.

What I love most is that it syncs with my fitness pal, and therefore is extremely user friendly. I have really high hopes for this piece of kit.

Fitbit Aura Scale

In all honesty I bought this in a moment of amazon recommendation madness, it was only once I clicked the buy button I realised that I had spent a hundred quid on a set of bloody scales. Although pretty and space aged looking, these have got a lot to prove to be worth the price. Again they do sync up with the flex and my fitness pal, its also pretty cool how it can recognised who is stepping on the scale and send the data to the right profile.  They also measure body fat ratio, and can have unique profiles for up to five users.

Fitbook

Now gadgets are great, but sometimes old school rules and in this case it really does. The fitbook is a specially formatted 12 week food and exercise diary, that allows you to log everything as well as your goals and targets for that period of time.

I still believe that writing something down, really does help to cement it and it really does make you think twice before you put something that you shouldn't into your mouth. I read an interesting article in the guardian a little while ago, it said that it is better to separate large challenges into 12 week blocks. Those who did found the most success and as somebody who has over 8 stone to lose, this seems like a pretty good idea to stop me from becoming overwhelmed.

My Fitness Pal

The only thing on this list that  didn't have to pay for. My fitness pal is such a fantastic app, and I really cant understand how it can be free. I could imagine that weight watchers are pretty pissed off with it, as it really does give their program and app a run for its money. It works out how many calories you should be eating to lose weight, logs all your food, exercise and have a great social aspect that connects you with other users. What I like best is the page you get every time you finish your diary for the day that tells you "if you had a day like this everyday for five weeks, you would weigh this much". I find that pretty motivating and hopefully this will spur me on.

Now these gadgets are brilliant, but I still need to be doing more and putting less in my mouth to be seeing the numbers go down on that scale. I hope that these can give me that little more incentive to keep going and keeping on that wagon to health. I will keep updating my reviews on these items as i progress.

In the beginning

Now I know that there are many weight loss blogs out there, but I personally don't believe that we are over saturated because they are inspiring and give a real sense of community to those who are dealing with the same issues. Having a weight problem can be extremely ostracizing, even though there are millions of those with the same affliction (so statistics would have us believe). The Internet gives an inspiring voice (and a kick up the arse) for those (like me) who want to change.

I am not into "fat shaming", if you are happy with yourself and feel beautiful then feel free to work it no matter what your size is. But my truth is that I'm not happy and feel far from beautiful. Now before I start to sound like I'm throwing a full scale pity party, the other areas of my life are amazing; I'm confident and healthy, I have a stunning and supportive husband, a great career and a seriously fantastic shoe collection. The only gap is not being able to look like the person I am outside that I feel I am on the inside.

Now I didn't just wake up at age 10 and *boom* size 22! It took a good few years to pile on the pounds. Truth is I'm pretty lazy on the exercise, during P.E I was usually found smoking behind the math block (a habit I have long since replaced with bread) and I never really felt the love for team sports, it just took too much effort.

I also have a completely foodie family, we celebrate over it, we commiserate with it and most of all we like the pile it into our gobs. For us food isn't about fuel, it's about the pleasure that goes with it and unfortunately when pleasure is combined with an inactive lifestyle you are on route to a serious problem.

I have pretty much been on some kind of diet since the age of eleven, it wasn't that the diets didn't work; the problems lie with my lack of control. Fast forward to now and I'm teetering on the edge of a serious health problem.

They say you have a moment and my wake up call came when I started getting tingles in my hands, headaches and a constant feeling of fatigue. After weeks of blood tests and many doctors appointments it turned out that I had seriously low iron and foliate levels, all related to my yoyo dieting. I have a pattern of feast or famine when it comes to my eating habits. Quite simply my body was pissed off and it had a right to be. I now have to take such strong supplements everyday that can make me sick and make visiting the bathroom after me an extremely unpleasant experience, I also have to have blood tests every four weeks to make sure that I don't keel over from anemia.

It isn't all bad though, around the same time I found out that there was actually a physical activity I enjoyed! I had been seduced by all the very cute and uber stylish retro bikes that had been popping up around where I work in East London. When I decided to buy one, I did in the back of my mind half believe that it would be a passing phase and would end up rusting in the shed or on eBay but when I actually started pedaling I completely fell in love. So in love in fact that when I hooked up my heart monitor, it showed I was going further than I thought and really burning up the calories! That was my light bulb moment, maybe I could lose the lard and still really enjoy myself.

So That takes us back to why I am writing this blog, I not only want to document the process but also to prove that being healthy doesn't have to be about spandex and counting points. I might regret writing this, but maybe it could actually be...fun?