Not such a fatty!

After two years of being told virtually daily that I was 'very very fat' I am now back in the land of the muffin top and beer gut and am feeling right at home!

While never erring on the skinny side I never thought that I was particularly huge (OK I lie I thought it at least once a month). I knew that a few less pints of beer and more sessions down the gym would benefit my body but I enjoyed my lifestyle and felt more or less content with my wobbly size 12 figure.

However, after 2 years in Bangkok the fat comments were beginning to get to me and I was beginning to obsess about my weight. I was regularly subject to situations such as these:

• A tuk-tuk driver complained that I weighed his vehicle down due to my size which was why we were going so slowly.
• Miss Alex is very fat (in one of my students books when we were studying adjectives!)
• A shop assistant actually ripped clothes out of my hand while announcing that I was too big to try them on.
• The only clothes I have managed to buy in Bangkok were XXL
• A Thai girlfriend of a guy I know suggested the reason I was single was because I was so fat.
• In a nightclub, after chatting up my mate with little success, some girls turned on me and pointed and laughed at the 'big fat farang'.
• A random in the street even shouted 'eat less' as I walked by.

The straw that broke this big, fat camels back though was when, after parents evening, one my students parents said 'you do know that I am a plastic surgeon, you know, if.....' He didn't get to finish his sentence as he was silenced by my death stare so I will never know if he was offering to fix my unfortunate looks or to suck immense amounts of fat out of my body.

I've always eaten pretty healthily, despite a few ali-the-hutt moments which we are all entitled to from time to time, but recently I have thought twice about everything I ate and have done more and more exercise (unfortunately only succeeding in buggering up my dodgy knee again). The first and last thing I did each day was stand on the bathroom scales - not a good way to start the day.

But being back in the UK has allowed me some perspective. I am and average size and am certainly not obese despite what I may have been told over the last couple of years. It is great not to stand out here and to be able merge into the crowds of similarly sized people. Hoorah!