This past month I have lost a grand total of 1.4lb
How amazing is that? 60 weeks on and I am still losing weight. Yes, it’s slow, but it’s still going. I can hardly remember the time before. I feel like a normal person now.
Normal? Yes, I feel normal. Or at least how I assume it feels to be ‘normal’.
No-one knows how it feels to be anyone else, we are all living in our own unique bubble of thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
As you know my profession and experience and area of expertise, is mindset. As a coach, NLP Master practitioner and author I have dedicated my career to helping people change their mindset and change their life.
People talk a lot about mental health and that one of the greatest challenges is that no-one can see your pain, you may well be smiling on the outside while going through torture in the inside.
I have just started reading a book by Matt Haig, “Reasons to stay alive” it tells his own personal story of living with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. He says that
Depression is invisible, you are walking around with your head on fire, and no-one can see the flames.
Being overweight is the opposite. It is very very visible.
Not only do other people see it but it is often the first thing that people see about you. This creates their first impression and often invites unsolicited opinions, stereotypes, and stigma, more than many invisible conditions do. This doesn’t make being overweight ‘worse’ but it makes the experience uniquely public.
It is with you wherever you go. When I was dressed up and feeling pretty good about myself, when I was feeling low, when I went to the doctors about something nothing at all to do with my weight, at networking events, in restaurants, on holiday. All the time.
There are few other conditions that are as blatantly obvious as being obese.
I have had to go to the hospital for a few tests these past few weeks, and even though it has not been pleasant, I am aware that a layer of discomfort has been removed.
When I walk into clothing stores, I do not have to consider that they may not even carry my size. I found myself in Hobbs (a shop I had never been inside before I lost the weight) and I was debating between the size 16 and 14 because it is weird to accept that a jacket feeling snug, and showing my shape, is a good thing, and I don’t have to settle for the one that simply does up.
I share my personal experience in the hope that I can help others, I do not want to become smug and forget how it was before I was ‘normal’. No-one is ‘normal’. We are all struggling with something, whether it is visible or not. So, let’s be kind and support each other.
Click here to buy My Skinny Jab Story https://amzn.eu/d/0BGWMnN
Click here to buy Matt Haig Reasons to Stay Alive https://amzn.eu/d/bjr0FMn