What made the change from unhealthy and fit?

[Thatwentbadly]

I’m approaching 40 and have never enjoyed exercises and I have always eaten to much too and too much sugar. If you made a permanent change then what made you change, what did you do and how do sustain it? I need to be fit and health by 40.

Hopeful bump. Please say someone managed it.

I was a skinny child, then put weight on and got bullied all through secondary because they were all slim and I was a dumpling with glasses.

At 16 someone who worked for my dad lost loads of weight on the rosemary Collins diet and I decided I wasn’t going to be the fat girl anymore so I started the diet. Lost loads and kept it off since then just by eating healthily and I don’t drink.

I don’t want to be unhealthy which is a big motivation.

I was fairly fit In my twenties, then had children and didn’t exercise and ate crap. I’m now 50 and have tried several times over the years to become fitter and thinner. I’ve had some partial success but never sustained it.

Then Covid happened and it really brought home to me how important being fit as I got older was. The tipping point was when we had to do a risk assessment at work to see what our “Covid age” was and I got 4 years added on for being obese. That really hit home in a way nothing ever has before.

So, I am eating well (sort of calorie counting) and did c25k. I am now exercising 4-5 x per week, I ran 9km yesterday, and lost almost 2 stone.

It’s too early to say whether I will sustain this but it feels different this time as my main goal was being healthier rather than thinner.