2nd kyu... 2 years on...

Two years ago today I got my 2nd kyu. I remember getting the belt and it literally just fitting me- it was the biggest belt- 320cm. 

I remember seeing this picture and deciding that something had to change. I was 21 and 117kg. 

2 weeks later I had finally got the courage to go and join fat club all by myself. 

It was one of the scariest things I've ever done but one of the best decisions I've ever made. 

Within a year I had gone from 117kg to 80kg. I lost 37kg and dropped 5 dress sizes. 

All of it was because I knew we were coming to Okinawa (at the time just for a trip!) and I knew I would be getting another shureido gi and for the first time in my life I wanted to get the correct dogi for my height and a belt to fit me with no worries. 

I wanted to be fitter and healthier my asthma was getting to the point that it was affecting daily life, I was on super high doses of inhaled steroids as well as weeks of oral steroids for flare ups that were happening more and more often. 

I gave myself type 2 diabetes and spent months bordering between diabetic and borderline. I had to change before I killed myself. 

Karate and Okinawa were my goals... 

2 years on I'm living in Okinawa. I fluctuate between 72/ 76kg. I'm still chunky but chunky isn't fat. 

Diabetes/ borderline is a distant memory. My asthma is better controlled, unfortunately it's something I'll probably be on inhalers for life, but it's better than it was. 

My dogi is a size 4- previously a size 8. 

And my belt I'm wearing in the picture is 295cm- it goes round twice with some nice ends now! ;) 

Life's changed, at the time it felt like such a huge and daunting thing to do but the biggest thing I learned the whole way through was that small consistent steps are all that's needed. 

I'm not there yet but you never give up ;) 

決して諦めない。