Be My Guest: Karen Cox

This Friday's Be My Guest blogger is Karen Cox from Lossiemouth, who I'm happy to say is a loyal reader of The Real Slim Shandy and also likes to chip in with some good comments too. Karen helps to run Boxer Welfare Scotland, a charity that specifies in rescuing and rehoming boxer dogs across Scotland. So how does a busy mother, wife, boxer owner and trustee for a charity cope with a healthy lifestyle? Here is her story:

Karen Cox

Ah the joys of dieting and weight loss, where do I start?!  As a woman of a “certain age” I am well aware of the struggles to maintain my weight, especially as Mother Nature is now very kindly making it harder for me!

As a teenager/young woman, I tried various diets, including The Cambridge Diet and Slimfast of course. Inevitably they never worked and my penchant for cashews and chocolate to see me through my London Underground trek home always won and consequently “shaped” me.   When I moved into my own home, I gained more weight. Probably due to the fact that I could cook and eat everything I liked, rather than what my Mum liked and so, by the time I had my first baby, I was already carrying a bit more weight than I would have liked to.  First baby grew and second baby came along and I grew some more!  Don’t get me wrong, I was never excessively overweight, but as I was normally a size 10, hitting the shops for size 16 jeans was not the highlight of my life!

Finally, the penny dropped after my 2nd baby and rather than dieting to lose my baby pounds, I started watching my fat intake, cut out all those things that were bad for me and generally changed my attitude towards eating. I lost all the weight I wanted to and for the first time in my life, really felt I had some control over my weight.

I have always maintained a low fat diet and healthy eating attitude since then, but when baby number 3 came along I found myself struggling to lose weight once again! I tried Slimming World as I just didn’t seem to able to get a handle on where I was going wrong, but I stuck to the green days and ate as much pasta as I wanted, so that didn’t work either. (Yes I know, I face palmed too!)

Two years ago I discovered the second secret to losing and maintaining my weight – portion control! I am unable to exercise and most of the time I am housebound, so I needed to stop eating as if I was going on a 5 mile walk!  Things seem to be levelling out now and I am once again in the position where I am happy with my weight and clothes size.  Yes, of course I would like to lose a couple pounds here and there, but if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world (well not quite!)

Don’t get me wrong, I am no saint. Ok granted I am on to a winner as I don’t like alcohol or fizzy drinks, but I do have a weakness for coconut macaroons! However, we do have a takeaway maybe once or twice a month and I never say no to chocolate! Plus there are movie nights which always involve a bag of Butterkist popcorn.  But it’s everything moderation.

I have loved following Jason’s experiences as he embarked on his new life habits and what I found most refreshing was that he’s a bloke!  Seriously, how many times is it just us women whining about how big our bums look, how we are going to lose x amount of pounds by so and so’s wedding or how we need to squeeze into that must have bikini?  Jason dealt with the whole thing with humility, humour and honesty, just how weight loss should be dealt with! It’s not rocket science after all!

A whole lot of sense talking right there! Thank you Karen but for the record, you'll never get me in a bikini - or a mankini come to think of it!! Please be sure to check out the Boxer Welfare Scotland charity website, and spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. 

If you'd like to be a guest blogger here on The Real Slim Shandy then please check out the information on the Be My Guest page. Thanks.