#TheImpossibleThing: Two Thirds of the Way

 Progress Update aka ‘There’s Definitely Something Wrong With These Scales’

Total lost: 87lb (6 stone 3 lb)

Amount left to lose: 43lb (3 stone 1lb)

Percentage of original weight lost: 28.3% (Well over a quarter!!) 

BMI: 31 (moderately obese) Started at 43.6 (morbidly obese)

This time round there will be no complaining about how much it messes with your head & no moaning about things from far back in the mists of time. This is …

ALL THE GOOD STUFF

So much easier walking uphill

This is really just another way of saying everything feels that bit easier but walking uphill is when you notice it the most. How I managed to carry these two sacks of potatoes and the carrots with me everywhere or indeed anywhere I do not know.

25kg + 10kg + 2.5kg

At least once a week I walk up Bridge Road after work just to check this is still correct. I really have to breathe but no longer have to stop to ‘admire the view’ or feel like my heart and lungs want to explode. I can get to the top, even the last very steep bit. On my recent visit to Glasgow there were many steep hills. I now see these as an opportunity rather than a right pain. The first one was Garnet Street, near Tenement House.  

Garnet Street, Glasgow

I was walking slowly but keeping going. A man ran past me. A proper fighting fit runner. But I still made it to the top without too much hardship. Yay!

At the top there were some scaffolders and one of them called ‘Have you got the time, pal?’

Pal!?

The use of pal is one of the clues to that dreaded realisation that you’ve been mistaken for a man. AGAIN.

Mate. That’s another one. And I once heard a man say ‘Mind that man’ to a child though the child was on the floor of the supermarket so he was only looking at my feet. This is something I’ve heard both Miranda Hart & Roxane Gay talking about. I think it’s mainly being tall and big, something I’ll always be. But it may also be to do with how we dress. But … if I went for high heels and a flowery dress would they think I was a man in drag?

Better sleep.

I am fairly certain I didn’t/don’t have something as serious as sleep apknee-ah (can’t even spell it!) I think it’s just now I wear myself out more exercising, though there could be other reasons. The main thing is when I did used to wake in the night it would be the time for thinking ‘I really should do something about this.’ But now I’m more likely to be thinking ‘I can’t believe I’ve actually done this and am doing it.’ I like that.

I like summer more

Cycling to work, wearing sleeveless tops and getting brown shoulders, going places and not wanting to rush home. Actually wanting to be out. I want summer back. We’ve just not had enough. Ah, but by next summer I will – hopefully – have less than two stone to go AND the weather will be fabulous. More beach walking like I did on The Wirral for a day at the end of August. Even if I have to have sunstroke again. Must buy a hat.

Getting a reputation

In the leisure club pool I’m becoming known as someone who really swims and keeps going. Several people now ask how many lengths I’m doing or am I doing ‘the mile’ and one even lets me go in the end lane because he knows I keep swimming and he’ll stop for chatting if the opportunity arises. I have no time for chatting. Got #greatlengths to do.

The first time a relative stranger asks ‘Have you lost weight?’

I knew this would happen at some stage and last week it finally did. Maybe people notice but don’t say. It took someone’s Nana – she’s picking up her granddaughter from the nursery just as I leave after my morning shift - to be daring and ask.

‘I hope you don’t mind me asking?’

‘No. I appreciate it ‘cos half the time I can’t see it or believe it.’

She also said ‘You look great. Not that you didn’t look great before.’

This made me laugh. It sure is a sensitive subject. Though if someone asked you this and you hadn’t lost any you could hardly be insulted. It might just mean you'd chosen a flattering outfit. Anyway, I told her I’d lost six stone two, that it had taken nearly two years and that slow was the best way. I said I’d done it mainly through lots of exercise as I cannot diet.

Got to admit this made my day. I wonder if it will happen again. I did have a bet with myself on it being one of the university cleaners who are often on the same buses as me. They are quite vocal, shall I say. And I had high hope for my hairdresser, who I see infrequently and who is someone into gossip and knowing and remembering everything.

The idea of people noticing and drawing attention to it used to scare me. When you’re fat it really is a case of ‘the elephant in the room’. (Must stop wearing those grey trousers and top!) But this time it’s different. One of the reasons is I’ve been so honest about it all online so it would be daft to get shy in real life. And another is that I’ve not been doing that terrible soul-destroying-depriving-yourself-of-what-you-love dieting thing. I’ve been doing that positive-life-affirming-getting-out-and-about swimming, walking and cycling thing.

When you begin to lose weight you draw attention to your fatness. There’s a fear of what folk will think when it goes back on but I guess I know that’s not going to happen now.

That Feeling of finally being in control of something I’ve never been able to control.

This is the big one. In any area of life, I hate the feeling of not being able to control things. I never really thought I could do this even to the extent I have so far and so easily. Relatively easy. And this feeling, I can carry around with me at all times. It’s great.

That’s it for now. The plan is next time I blog I’ll be a) No longer ‘obese’ but merely ‘overweight’ and b) Finally able to use the step ladder at work. Eight pounds to go. Wow!

I’d like to say a big THANK YOU for all the encouragement in the form of comments here & on Twitter and Facebook and for all the likes and retweets too. Massively appreciated. You’re ACE, the lot of you.

Sal