BOOM!

Get ready to practice your finest Running Man, llamas...  Spev is Back In Business, Baby!!!

The scales treated me right last night.  I lost 4 1/2 lbs!!

*AaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIBAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!*

Happy?  Good grief.  I smiled so much I looked like I had a feather in my knickers!

2 1/2 lbs to go and I'll have lost my first stone.  I'll do it by next week.  I will, I will, I will!!  There's still two weigh-ins before Jo and I go to see Olly Murs, and three before Rachael and I go to see Pete Firman.  I'll work extra hard over the next couple of weeks, try and get as close to my Club 10 target as possible.  I know I won't reach it, it's impossible, but I'd like to be in striking distance of it.  If I haven't explained what Club 10 is before - when you join Slimming World and you don't really know how much you want to lose, they suggest you try to lose 10% of your body weight as your first target, and then look at it again.  It's quite a good way of doing it, say you're five stone overweight - 10% of that is... umm... half a stone (yes, I used a calculator!) - that's a much less scary target and feels more easily achievable. 

Andrea the Consultant told us we might be moving to a school hall just a bit further down the road from the Church Hall.  This suits me fine, I've never been too keen on the idea of going to a Church Hall.  They make me feel a bit uncomfortable.  I always feel bad for laughing at the cross that some kid made out of pipe cleaners that they've hung randomly on the wall, nowhere near anything else even similar to it. 

She also told us that one of the gentlemen who goes to her Lostock Hall group (a couple of miles down the road) is a butcher on Oswaldtwistle Market  - for all Southerners/Europeans/Americans, Oswaldwistle is a small market town in East Lancashire.  Y'know in the Beatles song 'A Day in the Life' and John sings about 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire?  Oswaldtwistle is quite near there.  Not sure about how many holes are there.  Probably not enough to fill the Albert Hall. 

Anyway.  Back to the butcher.  Apparently he makes Slimming World sausages.  I know, don't worry, I'm ahead of you on this - there will be a punchline eventually.  But sausages, despite being possibly THE best invention since... I dunno... brandy... are scarily fattening.  But apparently he makes them so that they aren't and you can feasibly have a proper Full English Breakfast with no guilt.  Well in.  He has offered to come to our class to give a talk about the Syn Free Sausage (I really did try to be mature at that point - and failed), and he has even agreed to bring in a few samples.

I say good on him.  It's a brave man who stands up in front of a class full of 70 women and asks them if they'd like to sample his Syn Free Sausage.

Speaking of men - Dave the Bloke wasn't there!!  Perhaps he was on holiday.  Or perhaps he was poorly.  Or something.  I hope he hasn't quit.  Little does he realise what a shining beacon of inspiration he was to all of us simply for having the guts to turn up every week and be outnumbered 70:1 by a horde of Leyland Women.

Beth the Legend put on 2lbs.  She went to pick up a copy of the Slimming World magazine and told the girl that she'd put 2lbs on beacuse she'd conned herself into believing that flapjacks were part of her Healthy Extras!!  When Andrea the Consultant asked what had happened she said, "Oh, it's just my necklace.  It's very heavy.  And my headband, I don't usually wear them!"  Well, if she can put a weight gain down to her necklace, I can certainly put down last week's blip down to a held-in tinkle!!

So.  It's true.  If you stick to it, Slimming World works.  And it isn't really too onerous to stick to.  I've still got just on seven months before the Convention in August.  If I really knuckle down, I know I can do it.  It's tough work, especially around Easter and things, but it'll all be worth it in the end, I just know it.

Thanks for sticking with me on this particularly rambly blog.  Much appreciated.  Whatever you're doing over the next 48 hours, have a fabulous time, be good - and I'll see you again on Monday!!