The thin bridesmaid

If you've ever struggled with your weight or wondered how to kickstart your weightloss efforts, I hope today's guest post will inspire and motivate you.

Written by Tina, it reveals how she managed to lose 60lb in a year and change her BMI score from "obese" to "healthy" with the right incentive, an eating plan that worked for her and the introduction of an exercise regime.

Having supported my husband when he needed to lose 7.5 stone and seen the hard work and commitment it takes, I have the utmost admiration for Tina's achievement and I'm sure after you've read her story, you will too.

In her own words, Tina is "a Mummy, a Wife, A Geek and a blogger! I blog about my family's adventures, our loves, hates, successes and failures. I am a huge fan of gadgets, technology, history, and lego (See - told you I'm a geek)! We live in Manchester, and our 11 month old Son is nicknamed Batman. I am currently pregnant with baby number 2 (Robyn) - due at the end of June!".

Tina writes a blog at MotherGeek.co.uk. You can also find her here on twitter as well as over here on Facebook.

Happy reading!

Way back in 2009, my best friend got engaged. At the time, I was 14 stone 8lb (204lb), and OBESE! When she asked me to be her chief bridesmaid at her wedding the following Summer, I knew immediate action was required. I had tried (and failed) at countless diets in the past, so this time I monitored my food intake for 2 weeks, to see what my flaws were. It became very obvious that I was eating too much fat. (Cheese, margarine, pastry, olive oil, etc). I decided to create my own meal plan based on a low fat diet. As a vegetarian, I get limited protein so I guess this is why cheese had become such a staple part of my diet.

On July 1st 2009, I began monitoring my fat intake. I kept it below 20g a day (of fat - not saturated fat). I also did 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week on my Wii Fit. I weighed in weekly and blogged daily on my weight loss blog. I found I got a lot of support from other "losers" and they encouraged me a lot to stick with it. By 1st August, I had lost 14lb! (1 whole stone in 1 month, and I hadn't been near a gym). I continued the same way, and by my birthday in November, I weighed 11 stone 10.5lb (164.5lb)! I had gone from being OBESE to being in the normal BMI range in just 20 weeks!

By this point, it had become harder to lose the weight. I was losing 1lb a week at best, and it was frustrating. I decided to switch things up and bought a couple of exercise DVDs. I had become a huge fan of the American version of The Biggest Loser, and bought Jillian Michaels' 30 days shred. I swear to god, that DVD almost killed me, but it did the job and kick started my metabolism again. It was a 20 minute workout, and very intense, so I did that for a month.

By January, I was down to 11 stone 1lb. I then found out I was pregnant, and we were thrilled. In February, my other half popped the question! I was continuing to eat healthily but had increased my daily fat intake to 40g a day - the recommended amount for someone of my then weight. At the end of February, we found out at our 12 week scan that we'd lost the baby. We were of course devastated, and initially, I wanted to eat everything in sight. My other half managed to prevent this by ensuring the cupboards contained only healthy things. I was very poorly after the procedure to remove the baby, and lost a lot of blood. It was May before I felt fit enough to start exercising again, but as I was still losing blood, I could only do light exercise.

I had signed up to do the Race For Life in July, so I started walking 5k a day on the treadmill. By the time the race came around on 4th July 2010, (a week before my Bridesmaid duties were to take place), I was down to 10 stone 4lb (144lb)! I had lost 60lb in a year! I managed to finish the race for life in a fairly good time, despite only doing half of the C25k training. I finished it in 35 minutes, 20 seconds.

The day of my best friend's wedding rolled around, and I wore a size 10 dress! It had to be taken in to fit me! I had NEVER worn a size 10 in my life! When I was initially fitted for my dress, she said I needed a size 20 dress, so I had lost 5 dress sizes by the dress maker's reckoning!

Since then, I have had a baby boy, and am now 8 months pregnant again. I suspect I will be a good 12.5-13 stone once I have had my baby, so I shall once again be taking to my low fat plan (after breast feeding duties cease, of course)!

If I had to suggest one thing to people trying to lose weight, it would be a support network. I genuinely think I did as well as I did because I had the support of my other half and an amazing online community.