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Introduction Text Hello and welcome. I’ve been doing this Spark thing for about nine years now, which is quite a while. During that time I’ve lost weight, gained weight; started new gym regimes, given up on gym regimes; signed up for events, failed at events. It seemed that my weight rolled in and rolled out like the tide - a force of nature that I had no say in. That all changed last year on Christmas Day, when at the point where I should have been serving dinner I was being rushed into hospital. I had acute pancreatitis brought on by gall stones… which in turn had been brought on by the vast amounts of cheese and other lovely but ultimately terrible food I’d been eating. Being in pain and feeling so awful was one thing - watching the people I love most in the world being put through so much worry was far worse. Knowing I’d brought that on by the choices I’d made was the worst thing of all. As a result I’ve changed my diet completely. Its been easy and at the same time very difficult. Easy because I don’t really have a choice. Difficult because choice is still there, all around me. In the end it does come down to choice - in the past the choice between eating what I wanted to the point of nausea and fitting into a pair of trousers some time in a non-specified future was no choice at all - the cheese always won. Now its no longer about how I look and the clothes I can wear - its about how I feel and how healthy I am. If I look better and fit into clothes that’s a bonus, but its not the reason I’m here. Now I eat a plant-based, low fat diet. Its simple but its not easy. It takes a bit of planning. Its worth the effort. My plan is this: Eat well Exercise Drink plenty of water Sleep Follow the rules and don’t get hung up on the numbers Allow people to help me Its now the end of April - since Christmas Day I’ve lost a little over 50lb - although I did have an organ removed in the process, it was a gall bladder so it was only a small one. I am both completely the same person I was when I started with Spark People and totally different, I’ve been through a few metamorphoses, each time emerging as a different version. Sometimes I wonder if I’m still me at all - but then who else would I be I like the version of me I am at the moment - that hasn’t always been the case. Liking yourself is probably the most important thing I've learned from Spark People. You're stuck with yourself, you might as well like yourself, because being stuck with someone you don't like is a real drag

Take the opportunities that present themselves. Say "yes" to things that make me a bit nervous... Learn to say "no" - the world won't end Be grateful for the abundance in all things all around me

A plant-based, low-ish fat diet. Do the things I love - swimming, dancing, yoga - just don't call it exercise. Enjoy drinking the water Get up at the same time each day - the going to sleep time will take care of itself Allow people to help me Losing weight is hard; being overweight is hard; maintaining weightloss is hard. Choose your hard.

Always a rolly polly kind of child, I grew into a fat woman and have remained that way, with a few intermissions of the kind of thinness that just makes you dissatisfied with everything. I have probably lost my entire body weight two times over and two times over I've put it back on again, thereby proving I'm very good at losing weight and absolutely useless at it. But guess what? There's more to me than that and more to life. This time its about health.

I'm a 56 year old living in London. I have two grown-up children, a proper job, a house and a lot of the other accoutrements of being a proper adult. Luckily I'm not one.

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