At the end of last week, I was all set to write this, coinciding with my last session of the Healthier You course. I was, quite rightly, feeling rather pleased with myself. Sadly over the course of the long weekend, my food intake has been rather shocking, characterised by way too much cake and chocolate and I felt bad promoting how I’ve smashed healthy eating when I’m still struggling to exercise moderation at times. And it felt wrong to bang my own drum.

Hopefully this weekend’s blip will not hinder too much my general downward trend in the body mass department and I’ll be back on it tomorrow. And hopefully smashing out some gym workouts too this week.

So a few facts and figures from my Healthier You journey since October 2021; I have lost 12.4kg in weight (that’s less than a lb off 2 stone for those who still work in imperial weights), my BMI has reduced from 42.1 to 37.4, I have gone down 2 dress sizes, my bra size has reduced from a 46H to a 42F, my activity level is up, regularly exercising for an hour at least 3 times a week, because my weight is down my mobility is improving, meaning I can walk further, and as a consequence of all these things, my HbA1c (blood glucose) is down from 44 to 33, meaning I have totally reversed pre diabetes.

I did what Little Miss Cynical here didn’t believe possible at the outset. I totally thought that because there was type 2 diabetes in my family I was futilely fighting the inevitable genetics. I also thought my mental health and physical mobility difficulties would hinder my losing weight. And while it has probably slowed me up a bit, it certainly hasn’t stopped me. I didn’t mention in the statistics that my mental well-being has improved, because it’s more subjective and less easy to measure. But it definitely has. Since starting to train in the gym I feel stronger mentally and physically. I feel generally more resilient.

So you may expect me to be singing the praises of the Healthier You course. No, not really. What spurred me into action was my GP breaking the news to me that I was pre diabetic and that she was referring me to the course. My most trusted and reliable source of information and support was my son, who has undergone his own incredible weight loss and fitness journey. The course in comparison, presented very old school advice, via a range of different educators (who were trained only to present the course, and didn’t actually have health qualifications or experience). Because it was done online via video call it wasn’t conducive to building relationships with others really. Many dropped out. And two sessions before the end, our group was technically discontinued and we were told out of the blue we had to attend at a different time of the week. Different facilitators and changing participants made for a pretty disjointed experience in my opinion. For me, the lack of learning and engagement was summed up by one lady asking at the end, now her blood glucose had come down one point, did she still need to eat healthily? Or could she go back to normal now?

I engaged with Healthier You because I didn’t want it fed back to my GP that I was not engaging with services. The principals were basic, I didn’t actually learn anything new. I was ticking a box as much as the educators. But my outcomes speak for themselves.

The thing I have taken from all of this, is this is my journey. I am responsible. What I eat, or not, is down to me. If I lose weight, it’s not because of the Healthier You course. It’s not because of my son even, or the other guys in the gym who cheer me on. As helpful and supportive as those outside influences are, only I can show up and put the hard work in. Or not. I make the changes, I reap the benefits. And, if I’m honest, I’m really rather liking this new found autonomy.