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Well, hello there. My name is Annmarie Miles and I am delighted to welcome you to the first episode of Words, Wobbles and Wisdom.
Let me introduce myself. I am a writer and a musician and a lover of all things social media. As you can probably hear from the brogue, I'm from Ireland. I was born and raised in Dublin, in Ireland, and now I live in Pontypool, which is in the Eastern Valley of Gwent in South Wales. I come from a large family and am the youngest of eight children and I have 27 nieces and nephews and I'm not sure how many grand nieces and nephews I have now, so I'll be in trouble for this. But it's 40, something it's quite a lot and and I come from, you know. Family of music and so on, and laughter and lots of celebrations. I feel blessed actually, to have been brought up in a family that remains close and sees the next generations. My nieces and nephews all wanting to spend time together, which is fantastic.
But I have struggled in the happiness and in the safety that I grew up in, I have struggled with some personal issues and I'm hoping that words Robles and wisdom will help others as I kind of share a little bit and talk through some of the things that I have struggled with, how I have dealt with them. And also maybe some of the things that I've. Learned that I would. Do differently? I don't know. I'm no expert. I'm the only thing. I'm an expert in is my own story, and even then I'm not even sure whether I'm. An expert in that, but. I do know that I have been a comfort teacher for a long time and I remember as a young child, I I was a secret eater. I was a an overeater even at a very young age. I also know that I've been suffering and struggling with mental health issues for many, many years. I remember telling my mother when I was, I don't know, eight, maybe 10, and and this was like 1980s Dublin, early 1980s Dublin, and I told my mother I thought I was depressed. She was shocked that I even knew what the word depression meant and and told me off. I mean, I don't blame her for that, but I just know that I knew sadness. I knew fear. I knew loneliness, even in the midst of that big family, from a very young age. And over the years, circumstances. Built on that and I gained weight consistent. Really though, I was always on a diet and I married my husband Richard in 2000 and he never batted an eyelid at my weight and uh, where other uh guys that I had been out with certainly did. But uh, Richard's always been wonderful and encouraging. But in 2002, just before our 2nd wedding anniversary, I had to have major surgery, which meant I could never have children, and depression took a real hold of me from then on, really. And my eating then just completely spiralled. Out of control. So from then, from 2002, Lee wasn't until. 2017 So what? You know, 15 years later that I really addressed the subject of my eating, really addressed it. And it wasn't until lockdown to 2020 that I really addressed my mental health.
So what is words, wobbles and wisdom? Ohh well words really. As I'm a writer, I've written a lot of. Know the issues that I've struggled with and I'd like to share some of that stuff and. I will continue. To write, I've also written some fiction as well, but I love to it help. It helps. It helps me to write about the the way that I'm feeling and Wobbles.
Well, we're gonna talk about two types of wobbles. There's the physical wobbles of somebody who. Was very, very heavy. I was almost 24 stone at one stage, so I was extremely big, extremely inactive, very down about my waist though. If you know me, you'll know that I put on the the brave face most of the time. And so there are the physical levels. They're trying to lose weight trying to to wrestle with food, trying to wrestle with. The whole. The whole subject. Which is a struggle and but also the physical wobbles. The as in exercise and trying to lose some of that weight. And as I started to lose some of that weight trying to be more active and I run a little bit well, let's not call it running, let's call it enthusiastic walking. So there's that side of it. But also there is the mental health side of. How I have struggled with depression, how I've struggled with anxiety, how I have struggled with what, what felt like stress. I'm not really sure what it. Was and just just how I've come through it. And and now I'm in a place where I'm not sure I'll ever be back to 100%. But I'm getting there and I need to be, you know, kind to myself. Let me just say one thing. Mental health and obesity are no joke. I know they are serious issues. And I struggled with both of those issues, but this is not going to be a serious podcast. This will probably be the most serious episode that you hear because I want to laugh. I want to smile. My purpose in this will be to encourage will be to. Help us all to see that even after the heartbreak of being childless, life is still worth living. Life is still worth enjoying, even though I'll probably never be a size 0. I'd be lucky if I ever get to be a size 10. I'd be happy if I ever got to be a size 16. But no matter what, it is still worth caring for myself. It is still worth looking after my body. It is still worth looking after my mental health, and I do that by. Laughing by laughing at myself and by seeing the the bright side of as much as I can see, and by looking at the funny side of life and what I want to do is lift spirits. So if you are looking for a deep scientific. Examination of obesity of overeating of. And this is not the podcast for you. It really isn't. Because like I said before, I'm only an expert in my own story and I want to bring encouragement. I want to bring. Laughter to situations that are. Hard because I think we need laughter. We need lifting up, so the words, the wobbles, what's the wisdom?
Well, I'm a Christian and I believe that God's word is true. I believe in what the Bible says. I won't be hitting you over the head with the Bible. I won't be preaching sermons, I promise you, but there is a lot of wisdom in there. There's a lot of wisdom in the Bible, and I I've brought that into my life. I've I've prayed a lot with people. I've prayed a lot myself. And my husband is a a pastor of a church church life and the Christian life is very important to me. And I believe that there are elements of that wisdom that I can bring in to my life, to lift my spirits, to help me as I try to lose weight to help me as I try to get more healthy. To help my mental health and I can't share anything. With you. If I don't bring that in because it's it's a huge part of my life. It's the foundational part of my life, so I will be bringing it in there. The the Lord is is just such a huge part of who I am. And there's no point in me saying anything if he's not going to be part of it. So world's wobbles and wisdom. This is the the my opening salvo. I would love you to join me. We're going to be here every week and I don't want to do all the work. There's a little bit of work for you to do. Starting next week, there's going to be. And what I'm hoping is something that you will contribute to my 2 1/2 listeners, and I'm hoping you will contribute to another W and it is the. What's that about section. What is that about? And it's an opportunity for you to get something off your chest. Is this something? I suppose it's a kind of a room 101 thing. If there's something that. Bothers you? It's just so annoying and you want to get it off your chest. And if there are things in the world? That you see and you go. Is that about? Let me know. I'll be sharing my first one next week, and I'm hoping that I won't have to share mine every week that I will get loads of contributions, send you in to me. I want to hear. What is it that really? But what's your Boo bear? What is that about? And I'm going to be picking a few of them and hopefully sharing them each week onwards, wobbles and wisdom. The other thing we're going to do. Is I will be inviting some guests, some people who do have expertise in certain issues, maybe like exercise or diet. Also help with mental health issues. And also maybe some writers as well. So it's going to be a bit of a mix and I'm hoping that that mix will really lend itself to to the group, you know that I want to gather around and just encourage and lift us all up because it's been a bit of a strange to say the least, 18 months. Not only strange for some, it's been heartbreaking for people have lost. I know people who have lost members of their family. Due to the virus, I know people who have lost work and and and their income drastically reduced due to the lockdown and I know it's been difficult and I don't for one minute take any of it lightly. But I do want to lift. I do want. I want us to lift our eyes. If we can lift our eyes from some of the difficult stuff, lift our eyes from some of the hard work that we have been. Just ploughing through in the last year and a half.
So you join me? Will you come and join me each week for words, wobbles and wisdom? I would love you to. You'll be able to find us on www.annemariemiles.co.uk. There's information about my books as well on there. But that's where you'll find links to the podcast. And of course, I'm going to be sharing it on social media. I'm Amo wrighton among writing Ng at ammo, writing on Twitter, on. Facebook, Instagram. You'll find me there if you want to give me a follow and I'll be posting the links there each week as well. And eventually when I worked out how to do it, you'll be able to subscribe. I'm still trying to work out where all the. Buttons are but. Yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there. Listen. If you go online, you'll find me. Just search for ammo writing and you'll always find me. So thank you so much for listening. Really excited to have got started. Please do send me in your what is that about section and I will try and include it and join me next week for the second how exciting the 2nd and the first full episode of Words Wobbles and Wisdom take. Care bye bye.