From yo-yo dieting to finally finding something I could stick to. If you’re wondering whether you can really change your life… Let me tell you, I know first-hand exactly how it feels to believe you’ve tried everything.
For years, I was always “starting again on Monday.” I’d have moments where I felt completely motivated, convinced this time would be different, only to find myself back where I’d started a few weeks later. Every new diet promised to be the one that would finally change my life, and every time I ended up feeling like I’d failed yet again. Sometimes I would lose weight only to pile it all back on again and more!
Looking back, I really don’t think I was failing because I wasn’t trying hard enough. I honestly was giving my all to these fads. I was failing because I was looking for the quickest route instead of one I could actually live with. The sustainable option that was actually achievable.
If you’re here reading this because you’re desperate to lose weight, struggling with food noise, considering medications like Mounjaro, or simply wondering whether lasting weight loss is possible, I want you to know something –
It is.
I’m not special. I’m not someone with endless willpower or perfect motivation. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I’m just an ordinary mum of two who spent more than twenty years battling with my weight before finally discovering what worked for me and if you care to hear it I am going to bare all about my journey in this blog.
As always, before undertaking any kind of weight loss or lifestyle change, it is always best to speak to a medical professional or registered dietician who is best suited to give personalised advice on your individual health needs and health issues. This blog post has been researched to the best of my ability, and the information posted is accurate at the time of publication. Soph-obsessed is not affiliated in any way with any weight loss plan.
Since January 2024, I’ve lost over 7 stone. I’ve completely changed my relationship with food, discovered a love for exercise that I never thought I’d have – I mean I was the person at school always trying to get out of PE! Most importantly, I’ve stopped letting my weight control my happiness and completely overtake my thoughts.
This isn’t a story about perfection. It isn’t a story to brag or show off.
It’s a story about consistency.
And if my journey helps even one person realise they don’t have to keep starting over every Monday, then sharing it will have been worth it!
My Life Before Weight Loss
For as long as I can remember, my weight occupied far more space in my mind than it ever should have. I always make the joke that I came out of the womb on a diet! My weight consumed my whole life. I’d wake up promising myself today would be different. I’d eat “perfectly” all morning, maybe even all afternoon, and then something would happen. Stress. Tiredness. A bad day. A celebration. An argument. Before I knew it, I’d convinced myself I’d ruined everything and might as well start again next week. I mean, let’s face it, what’s one more day when you’ve spent your whole life obese?
It became a cycle that felt impossible to escape.
Over the years, I tried more diets than I can fully remember. Slimming World, Weight Watchers, restrictive eating plans, intermittent fasting, cutting out entire food groups…
Now, honestly, sometimes I would lose weight.
Sometimes I’d even lose quite a lot.
But sooner or later, I’d always end up back where I started and it was mostly sooner.
Every time the weight returned, it chipped away a little more of my confidence. I genuinely began to believe that maybe I was just one of those people who would always struggle with their weight. Maybe I wasn’t able to lose weight.
I did that classic thing and compared myself to everyone else. I’d see people who seemed to be able to eat whatever they wanted and stay slim, while I felt as though I only had to look at a slice of cake and I’d gain weight. Rationally, I know that’s not how our bodies work, but when you’ve spent years feeling trapped in that cycle, logic often goes out of the window.
The hardest part wasn’t actually being overweight. It was carrying around the constant mental load that came with it.
Food was always on my mind.
What should I eat?
What shouldn’t I eat?
Had I ruined today already?
Should I start again tomorrow?
Could I have that biscuit?
Should I skip lunch because I’d eaten too much yesterday?
It was exhausting. I didn’t just want to lose weight. I wanted to stop thinking about it every minute of every day.
At the time, I didn’t know there was a name for what I was experiencing. I just assumed everyone lived with the same constant internal conversation around food. Now I know many people call it food noise. And for years, it felt like someone had turned the volume all the way up.
The Moment Everything Changed
I wish I could tell you there was one dramatic moment where everything suddenly clicked. But honestly, there really wasn’t. There wasn’t a shocking photo, a difficult conversation or a doctor telling me I had to lose weight. I had spent years being ridiculed for my weight, so it was actually much quieter than that.
I was simply tired.
Tired of constantly thinking about food. Tired of promising myself I’d start tomorrow. Tired of feeling uncomfortable in my own body. Tired of buying clothes because they fit rather than because I actually like them. Most of all, I was tired of believing that losing weight was something everyone else could do but I couldn’t.
I was the lowest I had ever been and something had to change.
In January 2024, I made a decision that, looking back now, completely changed my life. I wasn’t going on another diet. I wasn’t looking for a quick fix. I wasn’t setting myself impossible rules that I knew I’d never stick to. Instead, I was going to learn how to lose weight in a way that I could actually live with.
That mindset changed everything. For the first time, I stopped asking, “How can I lose weight as quickly as possible?”Instead, I started asking, “Could I still be doing this a year from now?”
If the answer was no, I wasn’t interested.
That one question became my filter for every decision I made.
Could I eat chocolate sometimes?
Yes.
Could I still enjoy meals out with my family?
Absolutely.
Could I go on holiday without undoing all my hard work?
Of course.
Could I still bake sourdough and enjoy a slice without feeling guilty?
Definitely.
For years, I’d believed that successful weight loss meant saying no to everything you enjoyed. Punishment for being overweight. No treats, no life and no happiness.
What I eventually realised was the complete opposite. The people who maintain their weight aren’t usually the ones with the strictest diets. They’re the ones who’ve built habits they don’t have to escape from.
That was the biggest lightbulb moment for me.
What I Did Differently This Time
People often ask me what diet I followed. Was it low carb? Fat free? Keto? The truth is, there wasn’t one. I didn’t cut out carbohydrates. I didn’t ban sugar. I didn’t survive solely on salads. I didn’t spend hundreds of pounds on meal replacement shakes.
Instead, I focused on one simple principle.
A sustainable calorie deficit.
I learned that if I consistently ate fewer calories than my body used, I would lose weight over time. It wasn’t glamorous, and it certainly wasn’t a trendy new discovery, but it worked.
More importantly, it gave me freedom.
Instead of foods being “good” or “bad”, they simply became foods that fitted into my calorie budget. That meant I could still enjoy meals with my family. I could still have dessert if I wanted it. I could still go out for dinner.
Literally nothing was off limits.
Ironically, once nothing was forbidden, I found myself obsessing over food less than I ever had before. It’s like the minute you ban sugar, all you crave is sugar. Once everything was on the table and the cravings were reduced.
Alongside tracking my calories, I gradually became more active. At first, that simply meant walking more. Then those walks became longer. Eventually, I started strength training. Later, I discovered I actually enjoyed running!
Today you’ll often find me in the gym, swimming lengths, hitting my daily step goal or working on getting stronger. If you’d told the old version of me that exercise would become something I genuinely looked forward to, I’d have laughed. Now it’s simply part of who I am.
Not because I have to do it. Because I enjoy how it makes me feel.
Looking back, none of these changes were particularly complicated. The magic wasn’t in any single habit. It was in repeating those habits, day after day, even when motivation wasn’t there. And let me tell you, motivation wasn’t always there.
That’s something I wish more people talked about. Motivation is wonderful when it shows up. But consistency is what changes your life.
The Biggest Lessons Losing 7 Stone Taught Me
When people see a before and after photo, they often assume the biggest transformation is physical. For me, it wasn’t. Of course, losing 7 stone completely changed the way I looked, but the biggest changes happened in my mindset in ways I never expected.
If I could sit down with the version of me who was desperately searching for another diet all those years ago, these are the things I’d tell her.
Consistency Will Always Beat Perfection
This was probably the hardest and longest lesson for me to learn. For years, I believed I had to eat perfectly. One biscuit became, “Well, I’ve ruined today. “One takeaway became, ‘I’ll start again on Monday.”One holiday became, “I’ve completely fallen off the wagon.” The problem was, there was no wagon.
Life happens.
Birthdays happen.
Christmas happens.
Weekends away happen.
None of those things undoes months of consistent choices. Life is also really short, and we shouldn’t sacrifice these moments, but more importantly, we don’t have to. The only thing that really derails your progress is deciding that one less-than-perfect day means giving up altogether. I stopped chasing perfect days and started aiming for good enough.
Ironically, that’s when I finally became consistent and started seeing results.
Motivation Comes and Goes
People often ask me how I stay motivated. The honest answer?
I don’t.
Some mornings I wake up excited to train. Other mornings I’d much rather stay in bed. Some days I really fancy a healthy, protein-packed meal. Other days I’d happily eat biscuits all afternoon.
The difference now is that I don’t wait for motivation before I take action. I know that motivation is temporary, but habits are reliable. The more I repeated those healthy habits, the less I had to think about them.
Eventually, they simply became part of my daily life.
The Scales Don’t Tell the Whole Story
There were weeks when I’d done everything “right” and the scales barely moved or worse, they moved in the wrong direction.
A year earlier, that would have been enough to make me quit. Instead, I learned to look at the bigger picture. My clothes were fitting differently. My progress photos were changing. I was getting stronger in the gym. Walking felt easier. I had more energy. I was sleeping better. The scales are one tool. They’re not the only measure of success.
In fact, some of my biggest mindset breakthroughs happened during weeks where my weight barely changed at all!
Food Doesn’t Have to Control Your Life
One of the biggest gifts this journey has given me isn’t the weight I’ve lost. It’s the mental freedom. Food no longer dominates every waking thought. I don’t spend hours planning my next meal while I’m still eating the current one. I don’t panic if I have a slice of birthday cake. I don’t believe I’ve failed because I enjoyed a meal out. That’s not to say I never think about food.
Of course I do.
But it no longer controls me. After spending years feeling trapped by food noise, that freedom is honestly priceless.
Small Changes Really Do Add Up
When you’re trying to lose a large amount of weight, the finish line can feel impossibly far away. Seven stone sounded enormous. The road seemed long and as if I would never get there.
If I’d focused on losing all of that at once, I probably would have given up before I’d even started. Instead, I focused on today.
Drink my water.
Hit my step goal.
Track my food honestly.
Make the next choice a good one.
Repeat tomorrow.
Those tiny decisions didn’t feel life-changing at the time. But repeated hundreds of times, they completely transformed my life. Looking back now, I realise weight loss was never about one perfect day. It was about hundreds of ordinary days where I simply kept going.
What Nobody Tells You About Losing 7 Stone
Losing weight changes your body. What surprised me most was how much it changes your mind too.
People often imagine that once you’ve reached your goal weight, everything suddenly falls into place. You wake up feeling confident every day, you never worry about food again and you instantly see yourself as the slimmer person you’ve worked so hard to become.
At least, that’s what I thought would happen. The reality was a little more complicated.
Sometimes Your Mind Takes Longer to Catch Up
Even now, there are moments when I catch a glimpse of myself in a shop window and do a double take. Not because I don’t recognise myself, but because my brain still expects to see the old version of me. For years, I saw myself as the overweight woman who struggled with her confidence. Losing the weight didn’t instantly erase that image. In many ways, your body changes much faster than your mind does.
That’s something I wish more people talked about because, if it happens to you, you’re not imagining it and you’re certainly not alone.
Reaching Your Goal Isn’t the Finish Line
For years, I thought the hardest part would be losing the weight. In reality, maintaining it brings its own challenges. You stop chasing a number on the scales and start building a lifestyle that allows you to stay there. That means accepting that your weight will naturally fluctuate from time to time.Some mornings you’ll weigh a little more. Some mornings a little less.
That’s normal. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
One of the biggest mindset shifts I’ve made is no longer allowing a single weigh-in to dictate how I feel about myself for the rest of the day.
Confidence Doesn’t Arrive Overnight
People often assume losing weight automatically fixes your confidence. It certainly helped mine, but confidence isn’t something the scales can give you. Real confidence came from keeping promises to myself, from showing up when I didn’t feel like it, from proving, day after day, that I was capable of doing difficult things.
The weight loss was simply the result of those choices.
The confidence came from becoming someone I could rely on.
Life Doesn’t Suddenly Become Perfect
Losing weight didn’t magically solve every problem in my life. I still have stressful days. I still get tired – I’m literally exhausted as I write this! I still have moments where I’d happily eat an entire packet of biscuits if I wasn’t paying attention and there have been times I have!
The difference now is that one difficult day doesn’t become a difficult week. I’ve learned that setbacks are part of life. You don’t need to start again. You simply make your next choice a good one. That mindset has probably been one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to keep the weight off.
The Journey Changed More Than My Body
Looking back, losing 7 stone gave me far more than a different reflection in the mirror. It gave me confidence to try things I would once have talked myself out of. It helped me discover a genuine love of strength training, running and swimming. It gave me the belief that I could build something from my own experience. Most importantly, it showed me that lasting change doesn’t come from being perfect.
It comes from showing up for yourself, over and over again, even when progress feels slow. If there’s one thing I hope anyone reading this takes away from my story, it’s this. You don’t have to become a completely different person to lose weight. You simply have to keep becoming a slightly better version of yourself than you were yesterday. Those tiny improvements may not feel like much in the moment.
Given enough time, they can completely change your life.
My Advice If You’re Just Starting Your Own Weight Loss Journey
If you’re at the beginning of your journey, wondering whether you’ll ever reach your goal, here’s what I’d love you to know.
Stop waiting for the perfect Monday.
Stop believing you have to be perfect.
Stop comparing your Chapter One to somebody else’s Chapter Twenty.
You don’t need to lose 7 stone today.
You don’t even need to lose a stone this month.
You simply need to make your next choice a little better than your last one.
Go for the walk.
Track your food honestly.
Drink the water.
Celebrate the small wins.
Then wake up tomorrow and do it again.
The days will pass whether you start or not.
A year from now, you’ll wish you’d started today.
Final Thoughts
If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d lose 7 stone, enjoy exercising, and spend my days encouraging other people to believe in themselves, I honestly wouldn’t have believed them. Back then, I genuinely thought I was destined to spend the rest of my life stuck in the same cycle of dieting and starting over.
I’m so grateful I was wrong.
Losing weight hasn’t made my life perfect. I’m still a busy mum. I still have stressful days. I still face challenges like everyone else. But what it has given me is freedom.
Freedom from constantly thinking about food.
Freedom to enjoy being active.
Freedom to feel more comfortable in my own skin.
Freedom to believe that I really can achieve difficult things if I keep showing up.
If you’re reading this because you’re where I once was, please don’t give up on yourself. You are capable of far more than you think. You don’t need a perfect plan. You don’t need perfect motivation. You just need to keep going.
One decision.
One meal.
One walk.
One day at a time.
Because that’s exactly how I lost 7 stone.
And if I can do it after spending more than twenty years believing I couldn’t…
I truly believe there’s hope for you too.
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Love as always!
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