Bossy Flossie
It usually starts with a photo; one awful photo of yourself looking fat and horrible, which is your wakeup call. For me, that photo was from my recent holiday to Gili Air. I was standing in front of the pier wearing a yellow t-shirt and some elephant-print pants (the typical female backpacker uniform). It made me realise just how much weight I have gained since coming to Singapore. It also made me reconsider my diet and lifestyle.
It took many years for me to achieve an ordinary and pain free life after breaking my L1 bone. I had broken my back after falling two stories from the roof of a building in London. In hospital just days after the fall, the surgeon and spinal specialist Dr Arun Ranganathan asked me to make a choice, to undergo spinal surgery or stay bed bound and let the injury heal naturally. It was a difficult decision, but one thing I remember clearly was when Dr Ranganathan said a broken back would affect me for the rest of my life.