My Story

Like many many people I struggle with my weight. As of the 26th April 2013 I weigh 114kg - which is a lot when I am only 164cm tall.
I spent my childhood a skinny and super athletic girl, but once I turned into a teenager I became critical of my curves and thought I was fat. At 16 years old I weighed 54kg and though I was fat. I lost a few kilograms and was comfortable with  myself but in order to maintain the 49kg frame I pretty much gave up eating more than 1 meal a day. That meal could be anything from cereal to McDonalds, but it was always just the 1 meal per day. I suppose it could be classed as an eating disorder of sorts, and as I look back on my life now I can see that this is part of the problem I have today.
I grew up eating farm fresh fruit and vegetables, rarely ate sweets or junk food and never had any form of take away. I didn't feel deprived, I just became really good at cooking cakes and other treats. This was all ok, as I had an extremely active lifestyle and thought life was good.
When I moved to city in my late teens I had access to all of the junk food I'd been deprived of. I didn't go crazy and eat it all the time, but I did make it my mission to try as much as I could. By age 18 I weighed about 60kg and felt again, fat. I researched all I could on weight control and went on a calorie restricted diet, cutting out fat and doing exercise. I lost a few kgs and a lot of centimetres. By the age of 20 I had just give birth to a healthy child, but to a world of health problems. The day after I gave birth I weigh in at 78kg.
My partner at the time was junk food obsessed. We ate more junk food than normal food and even though I was aware of how bad this was I continued to make the same, foolish choices. Seven months after the birth of my 1st child I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and told by my gyneacologist that I had 40+ cysts on my ovaries. At 20 years old that is a scary thing to hear. I took the medication given to me, my period returned but my weight continued to climb. By February of 1997 I weighed 92kgs and joined a woman's gym.
The staff were lovely and gave me all the diet advise and motivation I needed. I went to the gym about 30 times ate well for a couple of months and lost NO weight. I lost a few centimetres around my waist and gained some fitness but lost no weight at all.
So then I gave up. By this time I was a single parent ...