I felt better about myself, I was still unfit, still depressed but I didn’t feel worthless.

I noticed that I’d been ignoring my family, the Dazzler and the dogs! I couldn’t do much more than be there for the Dazzler, but I could do something for the dogs. I started walking them

It started as a 10 minute walk to the the woods at the end of our road and back, the dogs couldn’t believe their luck! I did it once a day to begin with and then by the end of the week I was taking them a couple of times a day. It was getting to the point in the second week when I could have walked further and decided one day that I would walk into Brighton to pick up a package and get the bus back, a journey of about 2.5 miles!! Once I got into my stride I felt I was enjoying it, I was slow but I did it!!

What was better was that I didn’t want to stop, so instead of getting the bus back. I walked and walked and walked. I kept telling myself that I could always catch the bus whenever I got too tired but at every bus stop I kept going. And then the final test! We live halfway up a hill and I had planned to get the bus from the bottom up to our house as a treat for all the walking, but I forgot to stop and before I knew it I was walking through the wood at the end of our road and was exhausted. I promised myself a rest at the bench to catch my breath before walking the last 100 metres but when I got there I just walked passed. I wanted to get home!!

Don’t get me wrong the walk nearly killed me, I collapsed in my chair and couldn’t move for a few hours, I’d given myself sores on my inner thighs and on my feet and I didn’t really want to move for 2 days afterwards but I had done it!!

So then started a pattern. The doggies got at least 1 walk a day then every other day I’d do a longer walk, sometimes into town to buy Xmas presents, sometimes just to sainsburies to get shopping. I’d gone from even getting a bus down the hill to walking everywhere, and I started to lose weight, without cutting out any food!

About a month later I finally braved my next challenge – walking up the hill with the doggies. We live at the bottom of the downs and there are some amazing views so I thought it was time I took the dogs up to see it again, so I started with just one dog and it was hard! I had to stop a couple of times on the way up but once I was up there I loved the walk back down!! Gradually I added a dog and in the end was happy taking all three up there and gradually increased the length of the walk so that we had a good 4 mile walk every other day.

By now we were in mid December with Xmas fast approaching but I was feeling fitter and my body was shrinking. I plucked up the courage to get on the scales and was shocked at I’d already lost over a stone!! I hadn’t changed what I ate but I had noticed that I hadn’t been as hungry, or eating as much as previously but as I’d said Xmas was just round the corner!!