I have always had a difficult relationship with food. In my teens, I barely ate and lived off meal replacement drinks to maintain a size six figure. In my early twenties, I moved to London and quickly gained upwards of 20 kilos and struggled with portion control.
One thing was consistent through these contrasting times: food itself was always the enemy.
In my mid to late twenties, realising my weight gain had gotten out of control, I started to diet. You name it, I tried it. Everything from home delivered diet meals to cabbage soup to 5:2, and nothing seemed to work.
After visiting several doctors who seemed set on weight shaming me, I finally found one that listened to me. I told her how no amount of dieting or exercise seemed to shift the weight and after a few tests it became clear I had insulin resistance, often called pre-diabetes, which makes it extremely difficult to lose weight.
It was now more important than ever to lose weight because insulin resistance can easily develop into type two diabetes or latent autoimmune diabetes.
Losing weight was no longer a want, it was a need. I jumped back on the diet merry-go-round and still nothing seemed to work, so when the opportunity to try the new Weight Watchers Program Your Way came up at work, I figured I may as well give it a go. I’d tried everything so what did I have to lose?
The Program had recently been reimagined and was far more holistic than ever before. The fact that fitness and feeling were ranked alongside food, is what really convinced me to give it a try. It wasn’t just my relationship with food that I needed to change, I needed to change my whole lifestyle.
I dubiously started a week before Christmas. Given my insulin resistance and the importance of losing weight I thought I ate pretty well and expected Weight Watchers would reaffirm that for me. I was wrong.
