Health and weight (young people)

Huw: Body image. I think that's quite a major one, which makes people feel really bad. Just wanting to fit in really because that's what everyone wants, everyone wants to fit in with the crowd. And although that's less of a problem now, because now I've become more comfortable with who I am. And so I really-,  I mean if I don't fit in, who cares? But before like when younger years where I just wanted to fit in, just wanted to be part of the crowd and not stick out like a sore thumb.

Sami: I mean, there are some days when I actually I look in the mirror and I’m thinking, oh my God you need to lose some weight girl. And there are some days when I think, oh, you look quite cuddly today, you know, and I do want to lose some weight, but I want to do it in a healthy way. I don't want to lose it by starving myself. I'm just, you know, increasing fruit and veg, I'm increasing my exercise levels, you know. Instead of slopping about in bed all the time, I just get up and do something, you know. But it would be me choosing to do that instead of somebody telling me to do it.

Rachel: Well, like, you've obviously got,  your obvious problems on the body because you've got so much more of a strain to like pump, physically pump the blood around your body. So you're going to have stuff like your heart issues, your lung issues. Like there's, there's pills I could be taking for my polycystic ovaries and obviously I can't take them because the way that they're going to induce a stroke because of the size I am, you know, because they’re that worried that they don't really want to put me on them. And that's quite a strange thing to hear when you are sixteen. So he told me ’we don't put you on those because we're scared you might have a stroke’. That's weird.

Anaan and Naz

Anaan: Then you know the people you're talking to aren’t medical professionals themselves, they're not going to understand something that has all this, you know, medical jargon in it. You need you need to understand that the people you are talking to, you need to be basically more on their level. Because sometimes what I found with doctors is sometimes they've got to the point where they're almost a little bit inhuman, not in a bad way, but just they don't relate to the people they're talking to anymore. I don't know whether it's through the years and years of being a doctor, but it's sort of like they're not as personal as they were before. So when you are talking to them you sometimes feel like they're not really listening to what you're saying. You’re just another person walking through the door with another issue and another problem that they have to get sorted. And I think that is really off-putting sometimes

Naz: Like you said, do not chuck information in people's faces.

I didn't know how to take it in myself the way they just chucked it in my face. Take time to listen to them properly, what want to say and discuss it to them properly as well.

Anaan: Yeah listen to what they have to say. It is really important to..

Naz:  Break the information down bit by bit basically.

Alex: Before like, things that my mum used to just go to a supermarket and just buy things what we liked, but now she's more like she watches what she buys like we don't have fizzy pop anymore.

And that's-, I think that's helped a lot as well, because you don't think about it when it's just fizzy pop, but then you think of all the sugar in it. It's just then, just like instead of buying Walkers, she’ll buy Snack a Jacks and healthier versions of things.

Right? And so why has she started buying different things?

Because I think she's realized as well that they're not that good for you and things that I need -, and it helps as well at home because my sister and she is younger so it like gets my sister into the habit and not eating such bad things as well.

Chelsea: Well, I'm Chelsea, I'm 17. I've lost six and a half stone up to now. Before I lost all my weight I was nearly 17 stone. I didn't feel comfortable with my weight. I didn't do any exercise at all. I didn't -, weren’t eating the right foods in the right portion sizes. I were just really overweight. And then I just -, I was just getting bullied all the time and nobody wanted to be with me. I was always on my own in my bedroom, doing my own thing. And then I found, then I just really start to pick up. Went to a group called Shine that really built up my confidence. I started to lose weight. At first when I started to lose weight it started coming off of me slowly and I thought, well, it's never going to come off and I'm just going to lose a couple of pounds and that's it. It's just going to stay on me. And then it just carried on coming off and off and I just gradually lost it. It’s took me two year to lose the six and a half stone, but it has really helped me a lot.