Monthly Archives: March 2016

B*tch: The Rematch

StandOff-copy

So. If you read the blog last Sunday you might remember that I had a bit of a meltdown when the bitch in the bathroom delivered the less than welcome news that over the preceding week I had somehow picked up an unwelcome guest, in the shape of one whole pound of lard.

I held my hands up and ‘fessed all. I hadn’t cheated on the diet as such but I’d definitely taken my eye off the ball. Counting points had sort of morphed into guessing and I’d become a little too complacent to convince anyone that I was serious about shedding once and for all this additional arse that I’ve been carrying around for most of my life. I swear down I’ve never been more serious about anything, ever. Upping of game was clearly required.

And I have. This week has been totally different. I’ve stepped up to the plate, walked more, exercised more and I have been scrupulous in terms of point counting and clean eating. I’ve been textbook, right? So you’d expect that to show up on the scales, just like I did. As I went about my morning routine I was confident. Some might even say cocky.

After brushing my teeth I threw a contemptuous glance towards the bitch, sitting just to the left of my washbasin, a glance that was intended to convey that her ass was mine, once I’d dried my hair, you know just in case the fact that my hair was wet made it weigh heavy. See, I had it all going on, I know how these things work.

I walked around the bedroom like Rocky strutting around the boxing ring, I mean I was da man. And when I was ready I sauntered back into the bathroom and stood on the scale only to find that there had been absolutely zero fucking downwards movement since last Sunday. That pound appears to have welded itself to my arse like some kind of lardy asylum-seeker, clearly hoping that the past philosophy of all additional pounds being accepted as the norm and going largely unnoticed was still in play.

So now, we’re at something of a stand-off. I mean, I tried all the usual things like moving the scale around the bathroom, standing on one leg, holding onto the sink so I weighed lighter at first and letting go slowly just in case you know, it needed time to adjust in order to be accurate. Nothing. The extra pound climbed aboard the damned thing every time I did.

Now, we all know what would have happened in the past, right? Proceed directly to the fridge, do not pass GO, do not collect £200…you know the score. Plus, let me tell you that since buying my new phone yesterday I’ve spent in total about five hours on either phone support or text chat support with the incredibly patient clever people at Apple.

For whatever reason, every single operating system within the four walls of my house has seemingly needed to be rebooted or updated with different software before anything would recognise my new phone, and now finally old phone, new phone and MacBook are all working but still not talking to each other so the nightmare continues and will probably swallow up my entire Sunday. Knowing all that, and knowing me as you do, with my lack of patience and technical muppetry, you’ll realise that I’m a woman on the edge.

(For dramatic purposes please feel free to ‘hear’ that last paragraph in a voice going up in both pitch and volume, coming from a body dressed in mismatched pyjamas and one slipper because I got dressed without concentrating whilst talking to said tech support and the dog’s slipper fetish has struck again.)

Nine salted almonds and two muesli bars were consumed with a cup of tea during the course of my morning just to ease the pressure. I’m ten smart points into my day and now before I go pick up my mum I have to call the nice man back who said clicking that button and waiting for shit to download would fix the problem, only it didn’t.

Anyway. The pound lives to fight another day but it’s not going to win. The battle lines are drawn and me and the bitch in the bathroom will reconvene next Sunday. I have a lump hammer on standby just in case things turn ugly.

Have a good week y’all 🙂

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Being Normal (ish)

normal

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wake up with an idea in my head, and whilst I might lay and rationalise with myself before I even get out of bed as to why it’s not a good idea, more often than not I end up doing it anyway. Today, out of nowhere I woke up and decided I needed a new phone.

I’ve had worse ideas to be fair…my old one’s been out of contract for at least six months and I’ve been lusting after something a bit bigger. Old eyes and all that, I’m tired of squinting at my hand.

Debate raged for a while between me and the committee in my head made up of the Asshole voice (spend spend spend) and my Captain Sensible voice (nothing wrong with your old one, you’re basing this on want not need and besides the one you’re after won’t fit in your favourite evening purse, you know the one you ‘had to have’ because it was just the right size for your phone…) but in the end the lure of technology and a little retail therapy proved too much, and I upgraded.

And there started the mad dash. I’d faffed and fannied around all morning so I was running late for my nail appointment, which meant I had to rush out without breakfast. From there I headed over to town. I knew I wouldn’t find a parking space anywhere near the shop, and since everything around here is built on a hill I ended up parking right at the bottom and walking up into town. Like normal people do, and without batting an eyelid.

Deed done, I walked back down again, swinging into Marks and Sparks to pick up some stuff from the food hall, and walked back to the car with two fairly heavy bags. Being mother’s day tomorrow the town was jam packed with folk clutching flowers and bags so it required much dodging left and right. I just did it on autopilot. Like normal people do.

And then I came home. Without plundering either bag of goodies in the car or steering with one hand whilst chewing something because I’d not eaten yet and the clock was ticking…I just drove. Charlie dog greeted me with a big wag of his tail and then stood by the door expectantly whilst I unpacked the shopping as if to say come on, you’re all sorted and now it’s my turn. So off we went, and walked about three miles. Then I ate. Like a normal person.

Six months ago, my day would have revolved around food. The prospect of leaving the house on an empty stomach would have practically induced a panic attack. If I’d gone to town at all I would have driven up and down the main street on a continuous loop, getting madder and madder when no parking spaces opened up right on the doorstep of where I needed to be. But I’d have hung in there, for as long as it took. Walk..? No chance.

I certainly wouldn’t have gone near Marks and Sparks on the day before mothers’ day but after I’d eventually found a parking spot and got sorted with my phone I would have swung through the drive through and picked up twenty chicken nuggets to see me right for the drive home, because you know, quelle horreur…I’d missed lunch.

There’s no way on earth I could have done then what I can do now. I’m still fat…I’m six dress sizes away from where I should be so there’s still plenty to go at you know? But I’m a fat girl who’s dipping her toes in what being normal feels like, and I’m here to tell you it feels good.

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My Side Of The Street

dropOne of the things I love and value the most about the way we chatter on here and exchange thoughts and perspectives is that sometimes out of nowhere I throw a lasso around a couple of things I’ve read, tie them together in my mind with a big bow and all of a sudden there’s a brand new-to-me insight that I can add to my bag of tricks. To be honest, that’s what’s keeping me nailed on and committed – I can’t even begin to tell you how much it’s helping.

Something that Fleury said in her guest post, and the genius way in which she knitted together the parallels between life and diet really got me thinking.

Her very first point was if you drop it, pick up the pieces…well you would, wouldn’t you? Take this morning for example, I knocked a box of cotton buds off the shelf in in the bathroom and they skittered to all four corners of the room. It would never have occurred to me to just leave them there.

Once I’d finished muttering naughty words I picked up all the ones that hadn’t managed to gather fluff in their bid for freedom and put the rest in the bin. I didn’t have to think hard about whether I should do it or not, it was a simple reflex action, because my brain is wired that way. If we didn’t pick stuff up as we went along, our lives would be spent stepping over crap on the floor, and I don’t know anyone that could live that way. With the possible exception of my boy…he could live that way 🙂

Reading Fleury’s post again this morning, my brain made the leap from her words, to cotton buds and then right over to something Kathy said in a blog post a while ago, about keeping her side of the street clean. Kathy was talking about owning your own actions, and not worrying what other folk are up to on their side of the street – as long as you keep your side of the street clean you’re doing ok.

I know it’s not strictly the same thing – Kathy was making a different point – but that’s the weird way my mind works. It made the leap, and all of a sudden putting those things together created an image in my head that just seemed very logical and…well, obvious.

I don’t want to live in chaos. It’s not how I live my life, so why would my approach to losing weight be any different?  If I drop something, and I pick it up straight away, my side of the street stays clean and I’m not required to navigate a path through crap. It’s like nothing happened. It’s dealt with, right away, and life carries on. My street isn’t ruined. I don’t have to move house because things will never be the same again. That would be an over-reaction, right? I’d pick it up, and move on with my day. So if I ever drop a blooper on my diet, why should it be any different..?

I mean it’s harder, because there’s the buggeration factor otherwise known as the Asshole voice, who would bust his balls to see the ground under my feet littered with the wrappers of a hundred dieting fails. But the principle is the same. Once you pick up the pieces, life goes on. Your side of the street is as clean as it was before whatever you dropped hit the deck, and you can move on.

Speaking as someone whose internal wiring has always thrown me into the path of ‘all or nothing’ thinking, it’s a concept I’ll need to work at, since it’s as far away from my dieting default as it’s possible to get. But I’m recalibrating, you know? I’m choosing it as one of the life skills I need to practise until it’s perfect. I’m hoping that by the time I get to Skinny Town it’ll be as natural to me as breathing.

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I’m working my nuts off to get fit so I can complete a 90km trek in October, to raise money in memory of my dad. You can read his story HERE and I would be so grateful if you’d help me honour his memory by donating whatever you can afford. Together we can make a difference and help other people who have been affected by mental illness. Thank you!

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Officially Going Nowhere

passport

I just realised that my passport expired yesterday so if I wake up in the morning with an urge to take off to some far flung exotic destination, I’m buggered and I’m going nowhere. I’m gutted to be honest…my passport contains a fairly flattering skinny head shot and since I shall be forced to get a new passport before I’m officially resident in Skinny Town, the next one will actually have to look like me.

I was skinny and ten years younger when the picture in my passport was taken which might help you understand why I’m quite attached to it. To be honest I’m astonished that I’ve been allowed to travel on it all these years but with the exception of one very diligent immigration bloke when we arrived in Russia last year nobody has ever questioned it. The guy in Russia took some convincing mind you.

I ended up standing in front of the immigration booth trying to mime the fact that I’d put weight on, by puffing my cheeks out and striking a particularly fat pose, not that I needed to pose that much since I was topping the scales out at over 320lbs at the time. All done under the watchful eye of the other folk in the queue…definitely one of those moments where I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

I can’t even take a selfie and edit out a chin or two can I..? I think the pictures have to come from one of those little booths, although to be fair it is ten years since I last went through the renewal process so things might be a bit different now. I won’t need it until the back end of August so I’m going to hang on for a bit so I can at least take a running jump at my skinny face. It’s got to last me for the next ten years so I need to put my best foot forward, right? At least it’s only my head.

On another note, I had to fill in a medical questionnaire today for the Cuba trek. Question 4a in section three threw me a bit when it asked for my weight…I wasn’t expecting that. I made up an outrageous lie obviously 🙂 Well it’s not strictly a lie, right? By the time I set off I will be significantly smaller than I am now and besides, I’m not running the risk of being booted from the trip because they’re scared that hauling this fat old body up a mountain might actually kill me.

It’s a bit different to our trip in the helicopter last October, where if you remember I ended up paying an arse tax for a wider seat…just one of the indignities you have to suck up as a fat girl living in a world built for folk who know when to quit with the cheeseballs. If all goes according to plan, by the time I get to the foot of that mountain I’ll be wearing large pants instead of extra extra extra large, having consumed no cheesy balls for well over a year. There’ll be no reason for anyone to look at me and think she’ll never be able to do this

I’m really going to enjoy that moment of just being like everybody else 🙂

Whilst you’re here, please take a moment to pop into our guest blog page, where our very own Fleury Knox has given us a few things to think about! You can find it HERE

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Served With A Backhand

compA friend of my mum paid me a compliment today when we bumped into each other as I’d popped in for a visit and I accepted it with good humour, but as I’ve reflected on our conversation I’m starting to feel just a little bit mugged off. When is a compliment not a compliment..? I’d hazard a guess and say when it’s served up immediately before a long silence that contains no spoken words  whatsoever but the implied meaning says more than words ever could.

I can think of a few really obvious examples. When someone says you’ve got such a pretty face, without exception we all know what they really mean is shame about the rest of you, if only you’d lay off the pies, but they’re too polite to come out with it. Whenever I put weight on, it goes to my face first and I’ve always hated that.

I remember reading teenage magazines with make-up tutorials way back in the day and I used to lay on my bed and seethe with resentment that with the best will in the world no matter how much I yearned for a heart-shaped face mine could only ever be described as round. It felt really unfair, like I’d been dealt the joker you know? A little dab of this week’s free blusher here, and a bit of shading there and my face still looked…well, round.

When someone says I like that top, it gives you a really nice shape, it feels like what they really mean is you generally look like a sack of spuds but that pattern hides more of your lumps than the one you wore yesterday. And yes, I get that the way you interpret stuff has got a lot to do with how you see or think or feel about yourself but still, some compliments are framed thoughtlessly and they sting, intentionally or not.

As a fat girl you kind of get used to bumping into comments like that, and whilst not everybody serves them up, you quickly get to know the people who do. If you’re anything like me you’ve probably shrugged them off a lot of the time and beaten yourself up for being oversensitive and maybe that’s even true some of the time. But not all of the time, right?

My mum’s friend wouldn’t have deliberately upset me for the world. I know that. But right after she told me how good I was looking, she followed it up by saying mind you, you’ve always been good at losing weight haven’t you…

Now, is that me, or were the words shame you can’t keep it off said without actually being said? Of course they were. Emphasis on the word losing, then the words just sort of hung there in the silence whilst I studied my feet before the conversation moved on to other things.

The annoying thing is, she’s not wrong. But it’s not her place to point it out you know? Which she didn’t, exactly…except she did, in not so many words. And now I know that she thinks that I can’t help feeling a bit offended, like I’ve been judged and found wanting. What she really means is you just keep on getting fat. You keep on blowing it. You SUCK at being a skinny string beanI already know all those things and knowing she thinks that too has landed. Bad lands, remember..?

Best thing I can do is prove her wrong I suppose. And I fully intend to. In the meantime I’ve whiled away a good couple of hours fantasising about what I wish I’d said in return. I should’ve said yes, that’s so true but I’d rather keep trying than just accept …you know…whilst throwing a glance at her own not unsubstantial midriff. Pointing out her face looks like a melted welly boot might have taken it a bit too far.

Even though it does 🙂

 

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