The Impossible Thing : A We’re-Calling-it-Progress Report

Okay, I said back in September that I wasn't going to blog again until I had reached the stage of no longer being obese, just overweight. BUT ... it seems to be taking longer than I’d hoped. Still three pounds to go. Progress has been incredibly slow. I've actually only lost five pounds in the past five months. Shabby. BUT ... I've not given up and we’re calling it progress.

I've now lost a total of 6 stone and 8 pounds. I'm getting used to it. My fitness regime is set in stone. I've added Zumba and am determined to master all the complicated moves. It's the speed that makes it so difficult and seeing yourself in the mirror, floundering around. But I like the fast pace and the music is good. I will persevere.

On a recent trip to Kendal for lunch/charity shop sweep, the FGE & I went into an independent clothes shop, which sold clothes the owner insisted were one-size-fits-all. Well, I’m a bit cynical about such matters, especially as the FGE is a size 8 and I am a size 20 and a good eight inches taller with size nine feet to her four & half to five. But the woman said try some on. Fair enough. Some fitted, some didn’t though the style and length would mostly swamp my much smaller friend, especially as she likes a more fitted style. I was trying to explain to the woman that I immediately think stuff won’t fit because I’d lost six & a half stone and it’s often hard to see or even believe it. She looked rather shocked but impressed though her first question was ‘Did you have surgery?’

It’s amazing that surgery is someone’s first thought and makes me wonder if others have thought this or even thought I was ill, which could be a cause of weight loss. I doubt it cos I’m sure I don’t look or act ill. Anyway, I told her I hadn’t had surgery but had just done lots & lots of swimming and cycling over the past two and half years and eaten a bit less of certain foods.

This week I had my first taste of spring. Having got Brenda sorted with a service and a new back tyre (can't think how the first one got so worn) and seeing the fabulous bright sunny weather, I took two trips to Heysham, one to Morrison’s for supplies and another along the canal towpath to include a pub lunch. Brenda tried to go over a broken beer bottle on the prom but I wouldn’t let her. I know she wants to go off with the bike repair man in his van and get turned upside down again but I can’t keep paying for her fun.

Beautiful Morecambe Bay, complete with horse

Soon it will be summer. I'll be back to cycling to work as soon as the mornings are light enough. And I'll be checking I can still walk 5k in 45 minutes on the promenade. I may even be going in for the Cross Bay Challenge, a 7-8 mile walk across Morecambe Bay, from Arneside to Kents Bank, with 500 people including expert guides, with some wading up to knee or thigh level. (Knee for me, surely?). The scariest part is all the people. All talking at once. Maybe I should just register … and commit. Its fourteen weeks today.

AND ... thirteen weeks today I will be in Glasgow to see SQUEEZE. I hope I can be at seven stone off by then.

Six pounds? If I get my act together? If so, I'll be ‘allowed’ to wear this necklace, a present – purchased a tad prematurely because she has so much faith in me - from my Fitness Guru Extraordinaire.

 

 

I love it. I mentioned seeing it at Fairfield Mill last May to the FGE and she went off and bought it for me. Some folk are too generous. It's ‘chakra’, which means nothing to me. I just love the colours and the symbolism of the seven stones, gradually getting bigger … or smaller.

 

So onwards to the seven stone necklace and beyond ...