Starting All Over Again

I know it's been ages, but I've really had very little indeed to report on the weight loss front.

Although...

On July 5th (exactly 6 months after I first stepped on the scales) I managed to hit my half-way target of 3 1/2 stones. In fact I got just over my half way point, and all I needed was to lose another 5lbs in 5 weeks in order to hit my 4 stone mark.  Then the boredom set in.  And when it set, it stuck good and proper. 

I don't know why, when I'd worked so hard over the last six months, I suddenly decided it would be a fabulous idea to go completely off the rails because I couldn't be bothered keeping on the straight and narrow.  Yes, because getting halfway there totally means you're allowed to give yourself a week or two off, just because you 'can't be bothered'!! 

No, actually, I shouldn't be allowed to give myself two weeks off 'just because' yet.  I've not done anything yet.  Halfway does not count.  I've been here before.  I've been halfway, and I've always fallen into this trap and the weight has piled straight back on and I'm back to where I was before I know it.  I haven't done anything to congratulate myself for yet.  I'm not taking away from the fact that it's been a long hard slog to get this far. And I know that losing over 3 1/2 stones in six months is an achievement, and I'm not really detracting from that.  But it isn't the target.  It isn't where I want to be. 

You don't see people training for marathons giving themselves a few weeks off from training after they finally manage to run for thirteen miles solid, do you?  Exactly.  I haven't made it yet, I've got no reason to start messing around and giving myself lame excuses to fall off the wagon.  So what if I've had a tough day at work?  That doesn't instantly mean that I have to have a few large glasses of something interesting.  It's not going to make my tough day any less tough.  It's just a bunch of extra Syns that I don't actually need and that will only serve to make me feel guilty for a lapse in motivation.

Perhaps, and the thought did occur to me earlier last week, I've really never known myself this size.  It feels weird.  I look in the mirror now and I only see two chins, rather than 50.  I saw my collar bone when I looked in the mirror the other week.  It was just, y'know, there.  I genuinely panicked for a few moments and thought there was a tumour growing below my neck, until I realised what it was!!  My shoulders have gone skinny.  My cheekbones are huge.  I don't look like me any more.

Being smaller than I already am, although I want it desperately, will seem so weird.  Being 'big' is very much an intrinsic part of how I see myself and what I think I am.  If I haven't got that instant, bizarrely comforting, self-deprecating joke of me being fat to hide behind, then I'm not really sure what I have got.  Perhaps my firm thwack on the 'self-destruct' button last week was because I'm actually really scared of the physical aspects of being smaller.  I already hate the attention.  And no, no I haven't had any attention from blokes, they still have no idea I exist - but getting told, "Wow, you look great!" and "Oh my god, look at you!!" or "I can't believe how amazing/stunning/beautiful/fabulous you look!" (and seriously - words like 'stunning' and 'beautiful' should never be associated with me) and all that sort of thing... don't get me wrong, it's lovely, I really appreciate how supportive everyone is - and it's a lot nicer than "Holy hell, look at that fat bitch!" which I haven't actually heard for a while now.  But to be truthful, I don't feel like I deserve it and it really makes me uncomfortable.  I don't really want to be looked at.  I thought that's what being smaller would help me achieve - a nice little degree of invisibility. 

Still.  That's still no reason to go completely off track.  I've got things to do.  I've got clothes to fit into.  I've got a Michael Nesmith gig to go to at the end of October!!  So I'm going to stop feeling sorry for myself, I'm going to stop being scared and I'm going to get the hell on with it. 

In the wise words of Tony DiNozzo from NCIS - "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."  In the equally wise words of Stanley Holloway - "You can't jump with one foot on the floor."  Basically, this week, I need to get my finger out and make damn sure I don't completely put the last six months to waste.

Four stone mark - I am going to own you...!!