How did I get this fat?

I like to think I was a pretty normal looking kid and teenager. I don’t think I was ‘fat’, yet looking at photos, I definitely had puppy fat and was bigger than others. I was a size 14-16 throughout my teenage years, so bigger than a lot of the girls, yet not what I now think ‘fat’ looks like.

In my first year at uni, I lost a lot of weight and was around a size 14 when I met my husband. We jumped into things straight away, moving in with each other just two months after meeting. We lived about an hour away from where my family and friends lived, and it was isolating and lonely. Our favourite evening activity was going to the service station and buying a one litre tub of Connoisseur icecream which we would eat with two spoons on the couch. Over a couple of years, my weight had ballooned out to 116kg.

In 2006 when we first started trying for a baby and knew that we had fertility issues, I was told that I could not do IVF unless my BMI was under 35. So I worked my butt off and got down to 98kg within 3 months to be able to start treatment. I guess you can do almost anything when you have motivation! It was also the first time that I had joined a gym or really tried to be healthy, so the novelty of it all probably helped me to get through.
However over the subsequent years and through many IVF attempts, the weight crept back on, plus more.

So here I am. My before photos. I cant wait to see what my after photos will look like.

2010, I'd lost a bit of weight here

At my biggest a few years back. This photo shocked me

Heading to a 20's ball

March 2012 next to my sister-in-law

Trying to feel pretty

October 2011 in Paris

Trying to look classy in London

Loving the Paris life, yet this photo made me cry

Macaroons??? Isn't that how I get in this mess in the first place?

Bali March 2012

My wedding day - November 2005