In the past,whenever I’ve started a weight loss journey, I’ve always had in the back of my mind that there will be this magic day when I wake up and I’m skinny, like flipping that switch from fat to thin.

The fact that this magic day doesn’t exist is the reason why I’ve never succeeded before.

It’s now been a year, almost exactly, that I’ve been striving to create a new way of life for myself and turn around my attitude towards food and my body. It’s been a journey of taking it one day at a time, congratulating myself for those tiny, almost invisible steps of progress and not beating myself up or feeling guilty when I decide to treat myself.

Here are some of those steps that I’ve noticed:

- While the first 1.5km of every run feels like I’m dying, I have now reached that point where I get into ‘the zone’ by 2km and can just keep running (and I even enjoy it, a bit…)

- I can’t wear my jeans without a belt now as they fall down and although the scales haven’t changed in a while I’m still toning up

- I don’t think twice about getting up early and going for a run or doing circuits in the rain

- Abs (they’re tiny but you can see them. If you look carefully. With an Instagram filter)

- My body feels literally poisoned when I don’t eat properly - this is how I felt all the time before!

- My mindset has changed - I don’t want to be thin, I want to be fit. I want to have defined muscles, strong limbs and a ‘don’t quit’ mentality

So I’ll continue taking it one step at a time, recognising the tiny achievements and building myself up mentally and physically, one squat jump at a time.