Thanks for the kind words Ishbel!!! I wasn't overweight, I was fat, I'm still fat, but that's fine. I was firmly in the morbidly obese category and now I am right in the middle of the obese category!!! I can't wait to be overweight LOL.
I haven't really dieted insomuch as I have given up disordered eating. No more binges, no more comfort eating (my major downfall) no more overdoses of saturated fats. I still eat and eat well, and eat enormous amounts, in fact in volume more than when I ate badly.
And the biggest difference is exercise. I never thought I would be going to the gym six times a week. And swimming two miles a week as well. And weight training!!! I love weight training, well actually I don't love doing it, but I adore the results. I have bits that I never knew were there, like calf muscles, biceps and the most prominent collar bones!!!
And I can shop in normal stores. Ok the biggest sizes still, but I am out of the dedicated fat lady shops, and that's a good thing.
The key to successful healthy living isn't what you eat, or even how you move, it's how you think. The hardest battles for me haven't been at the refrigerator, the cupboard, the couch proscratinating about the next workout, they have been in my brain, arguing with my inner fat chick, who is worried about what this all means for her, who has been comfortable in this fat skin for so long that she wonders what the future holds and wouldn't it be better to just stay the way she is.