My Fat Plan

My worst skin issue is Hidradenitis Supprativa (HS) which developed when I was 8 or 9.  This is a skin condition that causes boils or abscesses around areas with sweat glands.  It is actually an inflamatory condition completely unrelated to hygiene or diet which causes inflammatory skin lesions which unfortunately can then become infected. There is often a hormonal component to it for ladies and some people see flares around their period, which I did.  My HS started before puberty and worsened when I reached puberty.  I started using a Mirena IUD in my 30s, which includes progesterone and stopped my periods.  I have found that since using this, my HS has decreased in severity.  I used to have multiple boils, linked by cavities in the skin called sinus tracts and they would leave awful bright pink scars.  Now though, my HS is largely blackheads and smaller lumps and generally I only have one larger lesion at a time and sometimes I have no larger lesio...

I really didn't find the NHS Active 10 app very helpful when I first downloaded it but I have come to really appreciate it.  The problem was, at the beginning my walks were pretty slow and short.  Just getting out of the house for a walk was huge and doing it by myself was even bigger.  To start, it was mostly just a walk up the road to the shops and I wasn't walking quick enough to get any Active 10 minutes.  I knew how hard I was working so it was a little disheartening, but I didn't delete the app. That's one of the lovely things about Active 10, it works away in the background using your fitness data.  You don't need to tell it when you are walking, or when you stop.  You don't even have to look at it every day.  After my initial disappointment, and realisation I just wasn't going to get anything from it, I just left it alone for quite some time... In June 2024, no active 10 minutes but it logged 506 minutes of walking. In July 2204, it logged four...

This post is an update on where I am at with letting go of different types of clothes.  It's probably a bit of a ramble through my thoughts I quickly realised that a size 32 evening dress brought for a 40th birthday holiday was not going to get worn again.  I am currently a size 24 up top and a size 28 down below.  I don't have any posh occasions due that require such clothing and if I did, I would want something that fitted...  Those were some of the easiest things to let go (but also the slowest to sell).  Most had only been worn a very few times, once or twice in reality.  There also were not huge numbers of them. After that were the smart tops, the ones worn for more routine nice occasions or just when I wanted to look nice.  Some of these were much harder to part with.  My favourites had been part of my life for so long.  Some of them had matching pieces of jewellery I had made especially to go with them.  I am still in the proc...

Anyone who loses a substantial amount of weight is going to have to deal with letting clothes go at some point or another and it's not easy.  I had accumulated a lot of clothes.  I had been buying a size 32 for a very long time and had some lovely clothes.  Larger size clothing is not cheap and I think Joe Browns tops became a bit like rings in a tree trunk.  I have huge appreciation for what Joe Browns did for my wardrobe as a larger person.  They really were a trailblazer in giving larger women the choice to look fun.  I really loved all those tops, every single one of them made me feel good and had good memories attached, some of them over many years. Not having clothing that fits is definitely an anxiety trigger for me.  I felt it as I got larger and reached a point where the supermarkets no longer had clothing that fit me and I didn't know where to buy anything.  Shopping online was a blessing I embraced.  As much as this anxiety had b...

About 1 year and 9 months ago I began a journey to lose weight and become healthier.  I decided to start this blog to organise my thoughts on my journey.  My thoughts churn around in my head as if I am speaking to an invisible audience and to be honest, this is the best way to quieten those thoughts, to let them out.  So I am not writing this blog for anyone but myself...  but I am aware that there may be others who might find my experiences and perspectives helpful, even if it's just to know others are on the journey too.  As such there will be no photos of me, ever.  I want to remain completely anonymous so I can talk more freely. I am in my late 40s and have increasing chronic health issues.  Nothing dreadfully serious that can not be treated, but I have always known the direction my health was pointed in.  My mother had type 2 diabetes, underactive thyroid and hypertension and was also overweight.  She however didn't start to have some of...