Who am I?
I’m Jen, a vegetarian, full-time mum and average kind of woman who talks a lot about weight loss! I also am a big advocate of being average and that everyone should aim for progress, not perfection.
Striving for perfection is the fastest way to feel like a failure. You don’t need to be the best at anything, you don’t need to get stressed about reaching a target by a set date.
Work on being the best you that you can be whilst you live the life you love and make plenty of time for yourself!
I lost over ten stone in 16 months by healthy eating and no exercise! I started running almost a year after losing weight and to my surprise I loved it.
Since losing all that weight and reaching a size 6 I realised that even then I was not happy, and my BMI showed I could lose weight and still be healthy (apparently!), why I disagree with the BMI scale.
Now I just focus on being happy and aiming in the longer term for a healthy weight that is healthy for my body and my mind!
Here on Just Average Jen, I share the ongoing ups and downs of my weight losses and gains! I live in Mansfield just north of Nottingham in the UK.
I cook for myself and my family on a budget and love experimenting with different foods and flavours in the kitchen.
I have depression and I am also open about having been in abusive relationships in the past because I feel these are nothing to be ashamed of.
My story about that is here if you would like a read it. Here is a bit more about me.
I have been featured a number of times in National and local media, read those here.
Some random things I love that I don’t share on my blog!
True crime documentaries
Reading books usually crime-related thrillers etc
Flavoured gin and white wine (not mixed!) in the evening and coffee during the day!
Shopping and spending money
Family board games except for Monopoly! (Ben loves it though!)
Who else will you read about?
I live with my partner Stuart. We met through Slimming World and he lost a whopping 22 stone by also following their healthy eating plan. He also has ongoing struggles with his weight.
My son Ben is 15 and he has some disabilities which can make life a challenge at times but he is amazing too.
I aim to feed him healthy food whilst still allowing him to be a typical child and have treats.
Ben has followed the Slimming World plan for young people “Free2Go”.
Neither Stuart nor Ben are vegetarian and I cook meat daily for them so can often offer both vegetarian and meat recipes.
As a vegetarian, I will always try to let you know how well I managed to adapt a recipe to make it suitable for vegetarians.
My story has been featured in local and national media read about this further here.
My weight loss story
Here is a selection of posts about my weight loss (and gain!) story. This video about where I lost so much weight I went from size 30 to size 8 is a great place to start.
I lost all that weight without doing any exercise to speak of.
Letter to my 12-year-old self
Here I wrote a letter to my 12-year-old self about how life could be for me and things that in hindsight were important for me at 12 to know.
Fibromyalgia and my weight loss
Long before I started losing weight I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
It affected my life considerably and throughout my weight loss, I was often asked about how my fibromyalgia was affected by it.
Here I share my honest experiences with you.
Being a secret eater and food addict
I know I am not alone in being a secret eater so I wanted to share that with you and did this in the form of a poem.
Weight loss and depression
I am always open about my depression and how my weight losses and gains have affected my depression.
Losing weight after gaining again
I share all about the ups and downs of my weight loss.
My weight goes up and down. Often more up than down, unfortunately. Here I share how important weight loss is to me and why. That isn’t the only post I have written about losing weight again after a weight gain!
My weight loss and exercise on social media
I try to share the ups and downs with you as honestly as I can but do remember that I also want to help you guys. As such, I won’t share all the bad things I eat when I go off plan.
The reason for this is that doesn’t help anyone who is struggling to stay on a plan. I share my reviews and articles on other subjects not linked to weight loss.
Hopefully, this gives you a great blog with a mixture of interesting content a bit like a magazine. After all how many people sit for ages reading a recipe book? I know I don’t!
Help for your weight loss
If you are looking for help with your weight loss then a great place to start is my extensive weight loss tips and exercise tips and reviews directory.
I have hundreds of recipes for you to try.
