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People had laughed when I first revealed this goal and finally achieving it seemed to end my need to prove the doubters wrong while it also left me in an abyss, chasing new highs, new goals and new opportunities, all without the same passion and relentlessness that had seen me drop 178lbs, run a marathon and gain prestigious, rewarding and award winning roles in health promotion. I need structure, accountability and a plan, so when award winning personal trainer Paul Jewiss approached me to review his online personal training package, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to start afresh and get back on the right path. With a tailored online personal training plan designed around my needs, my home equipment and my current abilities and with some gentle but ever present accountability. I’ll be following this online personal training plan for 6 weeks, following the workouts, logging my food and reflecting on my emotions and my mood and by the end of it, I hope will have set the foundation for the rest of my life.

However, we possibly only have a limited number of years left travelling as a family before the boys venture off on their own to places like Ibiza with friends and I thought I would try and meet them halfway with at least one of our summer 2019 family holidays. While searching for Summer 2019 ideas, I was approached to write a blog for https://www.markwarner.co.uk/family-holidays who, in addition to skiing holidays, specialise in providing family holidays in the sun. There’s rarely a holiday where we don’t find ourselves rushing to catch a connection, wishing we could just relax in one place rather than trying to see five countries in five days and regretting not bringing extra money to do more watersports, so the prospect of allowing Mark Warner to deliver our family holiday in 2019 in one big package is slowly gaining momentum. Beautiful beaches and gleaming waters, historical artefacts and with Levante Beach resort being almost equidistant to Rhodes city, Lindos and the UNESCO world heritage site of the fortified Rodes Old Town there is plenty for Teresa and I to see.

Others more qualified than I will speak about the self-flagellation that is so common with those who struggle with issues of weight and I am self aware enough to accept that I am often my harshest critic, but in this post, I want to speak about some of the weight stigma I have endured and how I hope to address it. This brilliant campaign from Decathlon UK features everyday athletes of all abilities ages, ethnicities, shapes and sizes who some look up to and who all share one thing in common. We love sport and being active. If we are to end weight stigma and empower and enable people of all body sizes to embrace the benefits of sport and physical activity, we have to dispel the notion that sports are not for us.

While I will never ever be the most prolific or celebrated of bloggers, I was enjoying both blogging and ambassadorial roles with Simply Swim, Pedal for Scotland, Triathlon Scotland and Decathlon. Having enjoyed/survived my first open water swim, in Loch Lomond, I made the transition to the mountain bike with confidence For in the 2nd lap, I ended up with a panic in my breastie and in a ditch and subsequently I ended up in a hospital and then in a sling with a broken collarbone. My summer of sport had ended With my excitement and expectations building all spring and summer, there was a danger that this break would see me fall deeply back into a depth of depression. Today, I write a blog; tomorrow I return to work and over the next few months, I will continue to walk, start to run and eventually get back in the saddle and in the pool.