Female, 29 years, old, sedentary office job, 246 pounds at the time of writing. My life is quiet, uneventful, to some it probably seems boring but for the most part it suited me, however I've got to an age where I feel like I should be getting a bit more out of life.

As a teen/young twentysomething I never did the partying or the drinking, heck I've never even been travelling or holidaying! I’ve hardly even travelled to events or destinations within my own country!!! I preferred to stay at home keeping myself to myself, playing games, watching anime and crafting things. I’m the complete opposite of a social butterfly (whatever that may be) I met my fiancé at 17 and we've been together ever since. We spent a lot of time early on either in full time education and/or unemployment until we found jobs and started saving for a house. During these times we didn't really try to afford things like holidays or fun stuff, it was all about saving for the house!

February last year, after finally having saved enough money to put a deposit on a mortgage for a house to call our own, we moved in and have been living there for a year now but becoming a home owner gave me a mental wake up call. All of a sudden, I felt like I didn't just want to be cooped up indoors all the time, I wanted to get out there and do something with this life! I know people who think owning a house at our age is a huge achievement (and with the UK housing market the way it is, it really is), but that's all I currently have to my name. Apart from my house I have nothing, no interesting hobbies or skills, no exciting travel or holiday stories, nothing and I’ve decided that sucks!

One of the things that stopped me doing things was my weight, after relentless bulling in school, like many children I comfort ate and I’ve been a big girl as long as I can remember now. I’ve also had a long term underactive Thyroid which was only diagnosed when I was 22 so that certainly didn’t help things! When I left school and college I was still overweight and I never wanted to go out because I was fat and I had nothing to wear, I wouldn’t do activities like swimming or going to the beach because I was fat and people might stare at me, I wouldn’t do active activities because I was too fat and I wouldn’t be able to do it. My whole mentality toward life revolved around my weight, more so than I even realised at the time, but that is not how I want to go on.

I don't want to get tired when we go shopping and I don't want to avoid activities like the beach because I don’t feel happy with what I look like. I’ve realised that I want to go on holiday and see some of the world but I want to enjoy fun activities while out there! Activities that I currently would not be able to do due to a combination of fitness, weight and mental barriers.

I have already lost some weight, I was as big as 270pounds this time last year and losing what weight I have currently has really spurred me on with my desires to continue making myself the best version of me I can be.

My biggest barrier at the moment is diet as I have extremely life limiting food phobias so I do not eat a big variety of food, I virtually eat no vegetables and only 2 types of fruit, but I am slowly trying to introduce new things.

It's a slow journey but knowing it's something I have to break through in order to help meet my fitness/life goals is a good motivator.