That’s it – that’s all there is. 24 days until I leave work. No more annoying colleagues, no more stupid customers, no more working for the bank that helped bring down our nations economy. I’m very excited, especially because I get the double whammy of leaving work and then the Edinburgh Fringe Festival starting the next day and 3 weeks jam packed full of comedy, and meeting lots of friends I normally only get chance to speak to on the internet.
Other than counting down the days until I get to leave work I haven’t been up to much lately – hence the lack of blogging action. My weight loss efforts are still going well – I’ve lost just over a stone in the last 5 weeks. Usually when I’m on a diet (which happens at least once a year) I seem to spend my time endlessly discussing my progress with my Mum; who has been on a ‘diet’ ver since I can remember. I decided this time that I’m doing this for me, because I want to, and that I’m not really going to talk to anyone about it because that only puts more pressure on me that I don’t need. And quite frankly I just don’t feel the need to talk about every morsel that crosses my lips. So although my Mum kind of knows I’m trying to lose weight again, she doesn’t know how I’m doing it or how much I’ve lost. I’ve not seen my Mum & Dad since Mark’s wedding in May and I probably won’t see them again until the middle of September, when hopefully I’ll have reached my goal weight. I’m going for the Extreme Makeover style ‘big reveal’ and I can’t wait to see the look on my Mum’s face!
I’m really hoping that this time I manage to change my eating habits for good. I’ve always been pretty good with the will power when I’m ‘on a diet’ (this time for instance I haven’t had any chocolate or alcohol for 40 days) but my past mistake has always been to go back to old habits of eating to much chocolate (and that really is the main culprit). It’s quite scary to think that I need to change my whole way of thinking about food – it’s so easy to get into that mindset of ‘just one won’t do any harm’ – which it won’t, if it’s just one a month, but when it turns into one a day you have a problem. My other problem is just generally eating too much. The food I eat for my meals is usually pretty healthy but I need to learn to control my portion sizes. When I’m just cooking for myself it should be easy but if I cook too much then I’ll eat too much because I can’t stand to throw things away. So the answer; cook less to begin with. Simple really!
So this time I really am determined and my early success has spurred me on. I’ve still got a long way to go but I’m going to get to my goal weight, and more importantly I’m going to stay there. I’m going to be a bridesmaid to my friend Claire but the wedding isn’t going to be at least next April so I’ll have even more motivation to manage my weight once I get to my goal. I might even post my before and after pictures when I’m done – so they’re there for all the world see then there’s no going back!
In other news – I got this t-shirt (you can get one here if you like). It’s inspired by Tim Minchin’s amazing 9 minute beat poem Storm. In case you can’t see from the picture it says ‘Isn’t THIS enough?’ which in the original poem is asking why the beautiful world we live in isn’t enough for some people and why we have to ‘diminish it with the invention of cheap man-made myths and monsters’. I like that only Tim fans will get the reference on my t-shirt and most people will just think I’ve got a huge ego and love my boobs! A point proved by a drunken man in Edinburgh shouting after me ‘No, it’s not. Come back here so we can have another look’.
The most exciting part of this story (well for me anyway) was that when I posted this picture up on Twitter, Tim actually commented on it saying ‘oh, that’s excellent x’. I know I’m supposed to be cool and not a squealing fan girl but that comment made my day.
I’m off to go and cross some more days of my calendar now….damn it, still 24 to go.
