Z feels good

My daughter said that I have slim legs now.

Z wishfully thinks

I'm going to spend a few days painting (walls, not pictures) this week and I stupidly, when having a turn-out, chucked away the painty clothes I used last time. So I raided a pile of clothes that got put on one side as being rather too old to give to the charity shop but that seemed too good just to bin. Whatever happened to jumble sales? I remembered a pair of jeans that Weeza passed on to me some 15 or more years ago. Well, more. She was still at school. They fit fine, but while I was rootling I found another pair of jeans. I remembered them, because I kept them out of sentiment. When Al was 13 or 14, I grabbed some jeans from the pile that had been brought in from the washing line, put them on and it was only because the legs felt a bit narrower than usual that I checked, and they were his. Although I was quite small at the time, he was slight and skinny and I was astonished that his jeans fitted me.

So, of course, I put them on. I couldn't do them up, but I could pull them up and they weren't tight around the thighs or anything. But the peculiar thing is that, all those years ago, I weighed about a stone less than I do now, and surely it isn't all around my middle?

Anyway, of course, that will now be my yardstick. When those jeans fit and I can fasten them easily, I'll be the size I was (lower half anyway) that I was 18 years ago.

Me too!

...and I don't appear to have lost more than perhaps four pounds. Hmmmmm.

But then, the exercise has me feeling great and my body shape is changing, albeit subtly...

Oh, and I need a shave, which is another pound.

Okay, so I did weigh myself

At last. It was all that effort on Saturday that made me think I might have started shifting a bit of poundage again. It was, I think, the end of July when I last ventured on the scales and I've lost 1 lb since then. Unimpressive as that sounds, I'm still on track for the 20 lbs I hope to have lost since the end of October last year, and have only two more pounds to lose in the next six weeks to achieve that. The thought at the back of my mind is next May to get to a weight I'm happy to stay at.

I also measured myself, depending on whether I was breathing in or out I fluctuated between 35" and 36" on top with 27" waist and 38" hips. I can't remember what I was when I last measured myself, much the same I suspect! I suppose my legs are getting thinner instead.

Anyway, I'm less than 2 lbs away from 9 1/2 stone. Needless to say, if anyone asks, I say that's 'about' what I weigh now. Well...

Another notch

Not on the bedpost, those days are thankfully gone. My bedpost-notching knife actually went rusty in my 20s, that's how much action I saw. Wow, too much information so soon. I rule.

It appears I'm another notch down on my jeans belt, which is good. Okay, it's not totally comfortable, but I did it up to there by accident – ie without thinking about it – this morning. I think that's mostly a good thing.

Been exercising a fair bit and despite the running and everything going well, I'm not getting up early and running, which is what I really want to do. For some reason my sleep at night is broken and when that happens, getting up early is impossible. No idea why.

Or it might be that the weather's been really wet and my motivation isn't above getting wet. Which is also weird, as I used to love running in the rain. Last week I went out and did a couple of miles in pouring, early morning rain and by the time I got home I was absolutely soaked. Since then I've done all my running and exercise on the treadmill, which I absolutely do not enjoy.

I'll figure it out. In short, the exercise thing is going well, my weight is just a few kilos less than it was, but I feel great. Played indoor football on Friday and knackered my thumb (I was in goal, resting kind of because I had just taken a ball flush in the plums. Next ball I went to save, I bruised my thumb horribly. Gah. Still, it took my mind off my testicles), which means I can't do any weights really, or any exercise involving my hands, so I cried off Trophy Wife's 11-mile hilly, partly off-road bike ride at the weekend, and I'm glad I did.

I'm rambling. In short, it's all good, dawg.

Z is complimented

In the last week I've forgotten how many people have told me how much thinner I'm looking. Lots. I mean, nearly ten I should think. Two of them have said that I shouldn't lose much more as I'll get too thin. This is a bit nonsense of course, because I'm nowhere near that, but it's encouraging all the same.

I still haven't weighed myself. I've been too busy in the mornings - I still use the stand-on scales with a sliding balance and weights which are kept in the porch (no nude weigh-ins for me) and so I don't do the deed until I'm downstairs and dressed and feeling strong enough to take the shock, but before I've had lots to eat and drink, so there's a bit of a narrow time gap to do it in.

I've been reasonably good, anyway. A whole lot of cycling and walking on Saturday, which I confidently believe to have burned off a pound or two (yeah, I know that's not how it works) and although I've eaten a little chocolate, it's mostly been chocolate-covered coffee beans which surely don't involve whole lots of the delicious brown stuff. Anyway, it hasn't been many. About ten in the course of a week. Still having trouble with the cheese cravings though.

Actually, I've been wearing my daughter's trousers, which are really tight at the top - not in an overstretched way (eek, I hope) but fit more snugly than I'm accustomed to wearing them. Also, the new skirt I bought is really quite flattering. I think that's it. The reason for the compliments, I mean. I've been wearing one or other of them each time.

How Z lost weight 19 years ago Part 3

It was quicker than the 9 months it took me to lose 18 lbs, but it indicates why I had quite moderate expectations this time round.

It took 12 weeks to lose a further 12lbs, having initially lost 5 lbs in 5 days. And this was, as I've described, on a really quite strict diet of mainly bread and vegetables. Very little fat, not much alcohol, small amounts of meat, no cheese. It was, at least, steady - pretty well at 1 lb per week. At the end of it, I was 8 stone 2 pounds, which gave room for a bit of leeway as I was quite happy with 8.4 - 8.7 in the long term.

But it'll explain to you why I keep saying that it can be unrealistic and demoralising to expect a great weight loss all the time, especially if you have relatively little weight to lose. And if you do have habits you want to break, then a diet of (as it feels like) great deprivation may not be one that you can realistically keep up.

During those three months, I was never hungry - the reason behind the mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. I never cheated, I never ate chocolate, cheese, pastry, biscuits (apart from the afternoon Rich Teas) or cake. If I had to transgress, I took the two baddies - fat and sugar - and never ate them both together. Thus, a cheese straw could make it a 'no loss' day, though an accompanying glass of wine would make it a 'weight gain' day, but a piece of cake was not on.

Looking back, it's hard to see why it took so long. I guess it was because I wasn't actually very fat. At the start, I weighed less than I do now. Damn. I blame my mother, of course.

Well, you have to blame someone, and that's what mothers are for (and it's true, but she didn't mean to).