Michelle and I met at our anternal class in October 2005, our babies were both due in December. Each week we would meet for a coffee and biscuits and be 3lbs heavier! Eventually I’d put on 3 stone and Michelle 3 and half stone. Once we’d had our babies, we sat back and waited for the wait to fall off!! - Strangely, contrary to belief very little happened.

We started an 18 month cycle of diets. Weight watchers, slimming world, south beach, atkins, cabbage soup, detox, fasting, blood type, personal trainers (3 x per week). We gradually lost some of the weight, although 18 months later we were both still two stone overweight. In desperation one afternoon we scanned the internet for fasting retreats and stumbled across the FitFarms website….. After piling on a few more pounds over Christmas and a depressing (couldn’t fit into any clothes) New Years Eve we couldn’t procrastinate any longer. We booked to go to FitFarms in February 2008 and not wanting to be totally useless on arrival we started exercising in the 6 weeks leading up to our departure.

Initially we walked outside and then progressed to the gym and treadmill. This told us how far we had walked and how many calories we had burnt and heart rate…….was a high heart rate good or bad? Could I die of a heart attack? I couldn’t run, had always hated gyms, my only source of exercise was horse riding during childhood and dog walking. A bit of aerobics in th 80’s Lycra moment and that was it. Michelle had done a little walking to the shops every now and again but that was it. We had lost a bit of wait in January but generally we were coming to the conclusion that exercise was a bit of a con, and that perhaps we were still eating and drinking a bit to much…….

We arrived at FitFarms on Friday 15th January 2008 - we were both very nervous but also excited. Our view was we only had one week and we were going to go for it. By Sunday I was exhausted and Michelle could hardly walk. I felt light headed and sick. The nutritional therapist told me that my blood sugar levels were unbalanced, basically my sweet tooth was finally biting back at me. Mid afternoon I found myself with tears rolling down my face, 2 days in and I had failed. 30 minutes later a knock on the door a smiley staff face saying ‘do you feel better’ - actually I do and off I went again.

Further highs and lows consisted of lowering ourselves onto the toilet (aching muscles) and crawling between circuit training. We thought it was going to be touch but this was something else. It was always just manageable though and the staff new when to push and when to hold back. By Tuesday we had turned the corner on the walks we were running and walking. There was a spring in our step I could feel that I had lost weight and my body shape had completely changed.  Before professional dieters we loved healthy food and although were well practised in the “its only vegetables piled high on our plates”, felt strangely full on the small potions and didn’t feel hungry.  It was great handing over control gto a French chef and eating the right things at the right times with no temptations.

Out on a hike one day I whinged to the Health Manager “I can’t run, I haven’t got the right technique, it doesn’t flow, I run like a girl! I can run for 64 seconds exactly, 8 lots of 8 in my head and then I have to stop”.  What makes you stop? she asked.  I opened my mouth and closed it again (this is rare).  What did make me stop?   It wasn’t my legs they felt OK.  I felt a bit puffed but wasn’t out of breath.  Could it be my head telling me I couldn’t run. A light bulb moment for me.  So there and then I had a little promise to myself, I was going to get to grips with this running mallarkey.  I carried on walking and running even though it wasn’t smooth and I felt all lumpy, disjointed and rubbish and I tried to listen to how my body felt and not the “can’t run won’t run” voice in my head.

At the end of the week I had lost 7 pounds and Michelle had lost a whopping 13 pounds and inches and body fat all over.  Michelle was 2 dresses smaller and I was one and a half.  When we arrived home everyone raved at how fabulous we looked..   Michelle’s brother thought she’d had a tummy tuck but we had more work to do and more weight to lose so we focussed on the running.  Gradually the walking got lesds and less and the running got more and more.  by May I ran my first 10k non stop.  I was over the moon.  The weight generally slipped off but sometimes it stalled.  Sometimes we lost our rhythm. When either one of us was  on holiday it was hard to exercose alone.  Realisation and horror set in if we wanted to lose weight and keep it off we had to continue to exercise for ever.

The food was going well and the relif of not being “on a diet” was immense.  It all felt under control.  It was 3 months before we had a glass of wine and 6 months before we returned to our skinny lattes.  We did not want to start up old bad habits.  I made my muselu every day, lentils and goats cheese, marinated salmon.  The French chefs recipes were firm favourites and regulars in our houses.  Our husbands lost weight.

We became ambassadors for FitFarms and raved abut it to anyone who was remotely interested.  Michelle’s Auntie and 2 of her husband’s work colleagues booked into FitFarms as they had watched Michelle get smaller and smaller and they too wanted the same results.

In September a good friend of mine took her mother for a week, when she retuned she couldn’t stop talking about it.  We felt we wanted to return on an annual basis to keep on track.  Actually we would love to go once every 6 months but feared we wouldn’t get a pass twice a year from our husbands.  We settled on every 9 months.  We booked and returned in March.