Struggling with My Weight: The Early Years

I grew up in a home where food was a big part of life—home-cooked meals, family gatherings, and eating out regularly. We ate well, but we ate a lot. I was always a little bigger than my friends at school.

I learned to eat for comfort after a bad riding accident, and when I was home alone and bored during school holidays, I would bake cakes or make creamy, cheesy pasta dishes just to pass the time.

At university, I lost weight easily. Life was exciting, full of adventure, and I was constantly on the move. I met my future husband, fell in love, and felt truly free in my body.

Then life changed.

Weight Gain, Motherhood, and Dieting Cycles

Marriage, work, buying our first home, studying, and saving money—life was good, but it was also hard work. Without exciting things to look forward to, I fell into a routine of bingeing on unhealthy snacks while watching rented videos from Blockbuster.

Over the years, my weight fluctuated—gaining, losing, gaining again.

• I lost weight easily at 21.
• Gained a little after marriage.
• Lost and gained again during my pregnancies.
• Lost 4 stone on a very low-calorie shake diet—but as soon as I returned to ‘normal eating,’ the weight piled back on.
• A few years later, I was 5½ stone heavier than ever before.

By then, I hated social occasions, shopping, photos, beach holidays, and even hot weather—anything that forced me to confront my body.

I desperately sought answers.

I read weight loss success stories, looking for that one defining moment that would change everything.
A health scare? A post-holiday photo? A rock-bottom moment?

I waited.

But no grand wake-up call came.

Instead, I found myself thinking…

💭 "Maybe this is just my fate. Some people are just meant to be overweight."
💭 "My metabolism is broken after years of dieting."
💭 "My dad’s overweight. My grandma was overweight. It’s in my genes."

So, I gave up.

I stopped trying to lose weight and focused on my kids, my family, my work.
And oddly, something shifted.

The Moment Everything Changed

During this time, I noticed a small but powerful change:

❌ I stopped being so cruel to myself.
❌ I stopped obsessively planning ‘the next diet’.
❌ I stopped living in an all-or-nothing cycle of restriction and bingeing.

I wasn’t actively trying to lose weight, but for the first time, I wasn’t constantly failing either.

And then—I discovered something that changed my life.

The Missing Piece: Mindset and Emotional Freedom

I stumbled upon a different approach.

One that wasn’t about meal plans, calorie counting, or willpower.
One that wasn’t about restriction or punishment.

Instead, I learned to work with my mind and emotions, not against them.

✨ I realised that weight loss is easier when you’re kind to yourself.
✨ I discovered that I had more energy when I didn’t overeat.
✨ I saw that I didn’t need food to cope with stress.
✨ I noticed that food was no longer the highlight of my day.
✨ I learned how to reduce my desire for food—without deprivation.

And for the first time in my life…

✅ I lost weight without obsessing over food.
✅ I stopped feeling like I needed to ‘be good’ or ‘start over on Monday.’
✅ I developed total freedom around food.

What I Learned—and How I Can Help You

This transformation wasn’t magic. It wasn’t a fad diet or a ‘perfect’ plan.

It was a complete shift in the way I thought about food, my body, and myself and my life.

I got rid of the negative, habitual thoughts I’d carried since my teens and replaced them with new, empowering beliefs.

That’s why I created TheBestYou.Coach.

I help women in midlife break free from emotional eating, ditch the diet mentality, and build a relationship with food, themselves, and their life that feels great.

If you resonate with my story, I want you to know:

💡 You are not broken. You do not need more willpower. You just need to break free from default thought patterns and habits and embrace more of yourself. 

Let me show you how. ❤️