Custodian Fitness: How I Got Here

Age 16, I weighed 68kg. ‘Friendly’ ridicule by family and friends constantly chipped away at me. I was insecure, I hated salad, wasn’t much of a fruit fan and ate away my feelings.  I tried to do fasts and would break with large plates of curry and rice. A minute amount of weight would shift but would pile right back on in less than a week.

One day I made one of the best decisions of my life, I decided to ‘live healthy’- I had no idea what that really meant, but I knew I’d have to swap Coco Pops for Bran Flakes, stop putting sugar in my Weetabix, have some salad with my roast, stop eating chocolate toasties right before playing hockey, cut out the nightly meal of instant noodles from my diet, drink water instead of two cans of soda daily and also run a minimum of 1km daily. Slow and steady wins the race I thought. Anything too drastic would have been unsustainable so I was kind to myself- Until, I started getting compliments. I loved it, for the first time I was accepted so I punished myself more. At a point I lived on 4 Weetabix biscuits and a bowl of sweet corn a day and I would burn at least 500 calories in the gym every day. My body was a frenzy, at my slimmest I was a US size zero on the top and size 6 on the bottom, yet I was so unhappy- I had stopped loving myself and respecting my body. It goes without saying that the lifestyle was unsustainable, I wanted to lose MORE weight but I had hit my plateau so I just stopped eating and managed to reach 53kg and then I tried the Cayenne and Lemon diet- safe to say I had lost control. My weight controlled my emotions, thoughts, my day- If I ‘felt fat’ I stayed in and wore tracksuits and hoodies.

The summer when I left school I met an incredible lifestyle expert Noel Gueye who became my trainer and nutritionist. Noel taught me much of what I know now. Truthfully, the journey wasn’t easy,  unlearning bad habits and quick fixes has taken a while- I still battle with it now.

I would hate for anyone to go down the path I did, so I’ll be sharing my lifestyle, join in, ask questions, give advise [still learning too]- hopefully we’ll have fun. I’m 5’3, 57kg [the ability to disclose this shows how far I’ve come, lol], UK 6 on the top and UK8/10 on the bottom depending on the store. This information is only to give a clearer picture, i.e. my calorie consumption and exercise regime is tailored to my physique.

Stay tuned and let’s take custody with a healthy lifestyle!