So, This Is Me.

First of all, let me tell you a bit about myself and please, if you are going to complain about having to read why are you even here? This is a blog site, you read on it, so if you just want random pictures, gifs and little to no writing then please, go to Tumblr, save the hassle of hearing complaints.

Now, as I was saying...

My name is Alicia Mary Alma Donna and I am a 29 year old woman who stands at 5'7 in height, was born on the 28th of November 1983 and I am am obese. yep, I am going to put it out on the net, the thing that once something is on there it there for life, I am obese and have been for a while now, like ever since I was about early to mid teens but I will get to that later, right now I want to actually give you a bit of background information on me which means that if you want to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something to snack on then go do so now and I shall wait for you. 

*Insert cheesy game show wait music here*

...right, ready? Then lets begin. 

I was born and bred in New Zealand, still live here, it is home and if anyone knows me I hate leaving my home, get terribly home sick so I am here for life but you don't want to know that so lets move on shall we? I am the youngest of four children and the only girl, I have three older brothers who are (from youngest to oldest) 31, 39 and 41, I was born to loving parents...well, they were loving at the time, they cared about us kids and loved us but the love for each other was rather dwindling by the time I was born so when I was four years old my father finally left and I was left alone with my mother and brothers, still seeing my father but it was basically just my brothers and mother. When I was born I had a lot of excess skin around my butt and the doctors just basically said to my mother that I will 'fill it out' and I did, not in the way they probably would have thought but I did fill it out and so all these years we just forgot about it and let it be and thus I grew up into a normal, healthy girl, as you can see below:

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This is me (right) and my best childhood friend Michele, her sister ended up marrying my brother so yes, we are now family.

In the photo I was around 7 years old (same with Michele, her birthday is a day after mine) and as you can tell I am a normal kid, I had a bit of a chubby face bit other then that I was skinny and kept that way up till the age of about 11 when I started putting on the weight and it gradually climbed with my age so, for example, at 11 years old I was 11 stone, at 12 I was 12 stone etc but when I got to 15 I was 23 stone and it kept getting worse from there on out. For a while I stuck with that weight, 16 I was still the same but when I got to 17/18 the weight just got worse and worse and I was getting more heavier, sure it was due to the food I was eating but because I was at the weight I was I had NO motivation to do anything and anything my family and I tried I just gave up weeks later and my mother didn't really have it in her to keep pushing me when I didn't want to help myself. So I was basically left to do whatever I wanted, as long as the doctor gave me a 'shes healthy' score when I went to see her then I didn't care and, besides the weight, I WAS actually healthy, my blood work always came back to me with nothing wrong (cholesterol was maybe up a little bit but other then that everything was fine) and so I just went on doing what I was doing, eating whatever I wanted and screw the exercise I should be doing I just didn't care at all, technically I was healthy so I didn't really see the point in doing anything about my weight problem.

But as time moved on I grew older, I was now in my twenties and I was getting bigger and, at my heaviest, I was 77 stone as you can see below:

This photo was taken about two and a half years or so ago when I had just come out of hospital, the first of what would end up being several trips in and out of hospital due to the fact that I get terrible Cellulitis and so with me oral antibiotics don't work and I actually NEED to be admitted into Hospital for about a week and a half to two weeks because I have to have strong drip antibiotics to kill the more severe part of the Cellulitis before I can go home and be on strong PICC line antibiotics for two weeks and THEN be on two weeks of strong orals just to kick the last of the Cellulitis in the bud. Though not everything has gone well, take two times when I have gotten Cellulitis, one time it was so bad that I nearly died whilst another I had gotten Blood Poisoning which helped bring on the Cellulitis and I nearly died from that and that one was worse then the first near death I had, at least that one I wasn't TOO far gone, I was in a bad way and I could have died by the poisoning...well, that actually WAS touch and go, if they left me and let me go into a deep sleep like I wanted to they were pretty sure that I wouldn't have woken up again. 

So, now we get to the present day where I haven't been in hospital due to Cellulitis in about five months now, before it was practically every three months I would be back in there but, touch wood, I have been able to stay out of hospital and have been taking vitamin supplements like Garlic, Fish Oil and Probiotics as well as using anti-microbial and anti fungal soap for my legs which is also to help the the germs that cause the Cellulitis to be kept at bay (which is what the garlic is helping with also) so thanks to them I have been able to be kept out of Hospital. However, my health problems didn't stop there, one time I was in Hospital due to Cellulitis I ended up getting a blister which became huge and popped and the fluid just went everywhere and so to try and stop that as best they could they used bandages and padding etc which didn't help exactly because my leg is a funny shape. So they didn't stay on for long and so after leaving the hospital (bandaging my leg as best as they could when I was in there) the District Nurses came around and did it but after a while the bandages wouldn't stay up and so in the end they used padding and this tight stretchy tubey-yellow stuff which pushed the fluid I had in my leg up to where that tubey-yellow thing stopped and now I have Lymphedema which means I will need a compression stocking to help get rid of it but I have been dead against that and so I went with swimming, the best thing for Lymphedema is to swim (it is just as good if not better then a compression stocking) and that has been working fantastically.

So as I sit here, having been on my 'diet' (if you wish to call it that) for about a year and a half now (I had been on one after getting out when that second photo was taken but I lost so much and then gave up and put it back on) and I have lost a total of 9 stone or so and still have about another 9 stone to go till I have reached my goal weight, anything more and it will be a bonus. As for what I look like now, 9 stone lighter, we have this:

I still have a way to go but I have lost weight, half of what I am going for so at least that is something and I do feel SO much better in myself, I hate how I am starting to look fine at the top and the bottom still has work to be done (due to the fact I have a lympahtic build so my weight, mostly, sat on my thighs, legs, butt and stomach) and that just seems to be taking its time to come off anywhere in those areas but at least I know, in the next lot of weight I lose I will more then likely lose it from there.

So from here on out this blog will be basically my daily? Er...Weekly? Er...When I can think of updating you guys? (I am bad at these things but I will try at least once a week and go from there, see if I can build it up to more, but it will be for many things, my thoughts on matters, my weight loss (or not depending on how bad I am that week) and just maybe even random recipe postings that I would like to try whilst losing the weight. I know, by now, everyone and their dog has one of these but I thought it might be about time to start one for myself, a bit late to the party but better late then never.

And also, if you want to know why I look like death warmed up, it is because I LOATHE smiling, eating, laughing, anything that makes me use my mouth, it is fine when I am alone but in front of others I just don't bother, I sucked my thumb for far too long when I was growing up so my gums are pretty much pushed out and stuffed, so closing my mouth looks odd as well so yeah, apologies for the bad facial expression? I will see what I can do about that after I have lost more weight, I am tempting to see if I can get contacts first, I have had glasses ever since I was 6 so, since I starting to get my life in order (slowly) I decided I will try and get contacts first and my teeth can come at a later date.

So, hello everyone out there, I am your driver, keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and your seat belt fastened, I am sure it is going to be one fast, bumpy and rather weird ride.