ideas for cheap stuff

Last Thursday I went to my Weight Watchers class as usual, only to be told that I’d managed to loose that last pesky pound that had been eluding me, plus another half pound for good measure, which put me just under my goal weight. Needless to say I was only ecstatic with myself. Since joining it in October I’ve lost 2 stone 2.5lbs (13.8 kilos). God knows what I lost when traveling, but it must’ve been another stone at least looking at the pictures. I’m now a grand total of 10 stone 1.5lbs (64.2 kilos). I’m comfortably in my healthy weight zone, and its a great change. People who I meet now look at me and just see what they see, others who’ve known me since I started becoming, and then remaining overweight since I was 16 will have a different view. I know I carried it well enough, but there really was no need for it. I just couldn’t get motivated to shift it. It just seemed like too big a mountain to attempt, and maybe a little bit like I didn’t deserve it. I made so many excuses, and told myself, and anyone who asked, that I was fine with my being weighty, which was, in hindsight, just an attempt to convince myself.
Over the years I’ve gone from size 14 clothes to size 18 and back again, for my brother’s wedding my dress was size 22, you can imagine how gorgeous I felt that day! I never dieted, never really confronted the weight head on until I got home from my travels, found I’d lost a good bit already, saw old pictures and clothes, and decided enough was enough. My Pops found it hard when I was loosing weight, as there’s a history of food related issues and that sort of thing in the family (what family doesn’t have that I guess!) He thought maybe I was starving myself, and that it was getting really dangerous as he thought I was fading away. However, I stuck to my guns, talked him around the issue, and kept going till I reached this point. And it feels fantastic. Such a change to see him scared of me loosing weight, when years ago, after slipping discs in my back and the doctor saying I needed to loose weight to take pressure off my back, Pops turned around and asked me what could he do? Then added he’d help pay for me to go to a fat farm! Jaysus, my mother and I just fell about the place laughing. To this day you mention this story, and he still thinks he said health farm.
If anyone is interested in loosing weight, but finds it hard to do alone, then I really cannot recommend Weight Watchers highly enough. Its healthy eating more than dieting. An opportunity to stop making excuses and hit the issue head on. To switch your habits. Most importantly though, it works. As long as you’re determined, are doing it for yourself, and not some outside reason, and get support, you’ll do it. The leaders are great, and the classes are interesting. In the end its something you can keep going back to keep the weight down, which is the ongoing battle if you’ve had certain habits all your natural life.
Now that I’ve reached my goal it’ll be tough enough to keep it off, I know, but I’m determined to keep up the motivation. I do like the new look and feeling, its nice to feel attractive in a new way, so I’ll have to keep that in mind for evermore. I know my friends will point out if they see me slipping. For now I want to say thanks to all my friends and family for their support. Really couldn’t have done it without you, and without you stopping me from being embarrassed to take care of myself, I would’ve never started. See Lids and Dee! I can be more materialistic and vain! Particular thanks to Ricky for telling me that I’ve a tight arse. That was a weird, but gracious compliment…I think…

So for comparison here are some photos:

Myself, Lids and Dee on our photo op day. During the photo-shoot we began to believe that we really were big in Japan. September 2005

Aunty Therese with nieces Shauna and Christina, and baby Joseph, October 2006

Lids, Sandra and I at Emergenza Festival, 26th May 2007