I signed up to the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation because I figured it was $200 and worth a crack. I’m not horribly overweight but I’m generally unhappy with my weight and know that I could be lighter. My goal weight for the program is 70 kilos.  When I signed up to it on September 24th, I was 81.4 kilos.

My food issues aren’t difficult to work out. I don’t eat my emotions, but I do eat if I’m a bit bored or just out of habit. I generally haven’t been drinking enough water, and as thirst is often misinterpreted as hunger, I would have some crackers or almonds or a muesli bar. My food choices aren’t too bad; the muesli bar is the most reasonable one that I can find, and I don’t tend to dive for chocolate and cakes. I am well aware of which foods are what the Cookie Monster reminds us are a ‘sometimes food’.

Mum and Dad split up when I was about 12, so all meals from that point on were the same size on the plate – there was no ‘Dad-sized’ portion to compare my and my sister and Mum’s meals to. When I lived by myself, I would go off the portion size as specified on the recipe – if it said “serves six”, I’d eat one portion, refrigerate a second portion and freeze four of them. I tended not to go for seconds, but I would usually clear my plate.

When I moved in with Jeremy, I would exclaim over the amount of food on the plate. At first I wasn’t able to finish it, but as time wore on, it was easier and easier to clear my plate. The portion sizes weren’t decreasing, my waistline was increasing. I would diet with Jeremy; if he was eating salads for lunch, so was I. If he was eating leftover roast lamb and 4 different vegetables with gravy for lunch, so was I. And the portion sizes were the same.