Where to Even Start?

"Hello my name is ck83, and I am a chocaholic".

Admitting it? Surely that's the first step? The hardest part?  I wish... the hardest part for me continues to be keeping my hand out of the chocolate box!

There'll be pleny time for life stories later, but for now, just to get started, here's a bit of background.

In January of last year, 7 weeks post partum, and filled with enthusiasm, I (along with my baby, and my mother) joined my local weight watchers class -not (I admit) for the first time, but for what I intended to be the last.  I weighed in 5 and a half stone overweight (I was 4 stone overweight pre-pregnancy, btw).  I wasn't a bit surprised by this, but I really wanted to do something about it.  My enthusiasm came, in part from the fact that I'd been intending to join ww since early in my pregnancy- relishing the prospect, if truth be told.

I took off... I pointed, I tracked, I exercised.  I did it all with vim and vigour.  And I lost weight.  I lost 7.5lb the first week.  In fact, I lost my first stone in a month.  My second took longer... maybe six weeks.  My third stone was gone sometime in May.  And then it slowed... I lost another five pounds, but it took until August.  That was ok. It was all going in the right direction.

I went back to work post Mat Leave in mid August... and downhill from there it went.  I couldn't get the motiviation, or indeed the time to exercise.  I couldn't seem to drive past a shop without going in to buy something nice (or two, or three somethings).  I put on a half stone in the space of a few weeks.  Then I'd cop on and lose a few pounds.  Then I'd put on a couple.  I've never gone more than 8lb above my August low, but I've never gotten back there either. 

I recently gave up chocolate (and most other nice things) for Lent.  And completed it quite successfully- the occasional hot chocolate excepted.  Towards the end, things slid a bit, I had the odd nicety, but never chocolate.  I really felt during that period that I was back on track.   I was starting to track properly again, I was losing a few pounds here and there, and most importantly, I was feeling good about myself.  Then Easter came, and I swear, for the last 6 days, I've been eating all the chocolate I missed out on during Lent.  All the time.  Just can't stop. 

So now I need to have an intervention.  I need to do something, before I find myself back at square one:  Obese, miserable, and banging down the door of the local charity shop looking for my size 18's back. 

I took a bit of inspiration from my weight watching friends on boards.ie and decided to start this blog.  Somewhere where I can document my progress, share my food finds and recipes, and most importantly, have a rant if I need it, without feeling like I'm lowering the mood of my favourite thread all the time!

Welcome to my blog reader, and thanks for reading.