Bringing my attention back to weight loss

Yesterday I noticed that it was no longer dark at 4pm and today I saw some snowdrops peeking up above the brown soil. It may still be a long way off but spring is on its way. That makes my heart sooooooo glad.

I finally went to see my counsellor for an official weigh in and here are my updated stats:

• 16th March 2010: 94.5kgs/208lbs
• 1st February 2011: 71.7kgs/158lbs (3.2kgs/7lbs higher than my lowest weight last year of 68.5kgs/151lbs)
• Total weight loss to date: 23kgs/50lbs
• Total weight left to lose to reach goal: 16.7kgs/38lbs

I know that I've done my health a great service by dropping that 23kgs/5olbs from my frame and I feel phenomenal with it gone. I would now love to lose that last 16.7kgs/38lbs. by June and I really think I can do it with a bit more attention to my food and exercise routine.

Whoever said blogging was easy???

My my it has been a long time hasn't it?

Well for my first (and hopefully not last) post for 2011 thought I'd share a few goals I'd love to achieve this year.

First, I had a pretty good year in 2010 with weight loss but between family visits and the holiday celebrations, I have been gaining and losing the same couple of kgs. for the past few months. Have now re-established my customary routine and am looking forward to shedding my remaining weight and reach my goal of 55kgs. this year.

Secondly, I have resurrected my inner minimalism. My husband and I live and work in a small flat and what with personal effects, books, art materials and college paperwork we have been feeling simply suffocated lately. Even though we aren't big shoppers, we've just accumulated too much stuff over the years and so much of it we just don't need. So on Monday we began a GREAT PURGE. Our general goal is to sell, donate, give away, recycle or bin everything we don't need (haven't used in the past 6 months) or love and to digitalise whatever we can and get rid of the hard copies. Whatever survives the GREAT PURGE has to have a comfortable home. Nothing can be on the floor except the furniture and every surface has to be clear save the choice piece of art or decoration. We're about 1/4 way through this massive undertaking and have already made about £200 from selling just a few things on line. More than anything though I feel this incredible sense of freedom, lightness and clearheadedness.

Thirdly in keeping with my desire to reduce waste and consumption, my new goal for acquiring stuff is that I will only buy what I absolutely need and if I see something I don't need but I absolutely love, I have to wait for 30 days before I can buy it. If I still want it after 30 days then I can have it, IF I find a comfortable home for it in our apartment and IF I pay cash.

Which brings me to my fourth and final goal, this year I want to see if I can live without using credit cards. I have cut up my joint credit cards with my husband and have frozen my personal credit card. This means I'll have to use my debit card or PayPal for online purchases if and when I make them. Can't wait to see how all this works out.

So I'm back ... I hope. I had a looooooovely summer and a long post-summer blue period.

My oldest sister who lives in New York and my mum who lives in Barbados came to visit and it was just like old time. James and I took them to Devon where his family had rented a cottage for part of the summer and we had a lovely visit there with them for a few days before heading back to London. Dee then took Mummy off to Paris and Barcelona for two weeks and when they got back we spend another few days together exploring London and shopping before Dee had to fly back to New York. I begged her to quit her job and stay, but she just looked at me as though I had two heads and went off back to her life. The upside was that I had my Mummy all to myself then, and boy did we have a blast ... a revolving door of chatting, sightseeing, shopping, eating and then off to Istanbul, Turkey for more of the same.

Much too soon it was time for her to return home and it was harder than ever to see her go after spending a month and a half with her. I tried the "why don't you move here and live with us" routine on her too and she too looked at me as though I had two heads and one was smaller and a different colour than the other. I don't know what's wrong with moi. I just want the days of mummy and me again. They weren't all a bundle of laughs mind you, but there was a certain sweetness and comfort to them. Adult life has its charms but .... oh well .... By the way don't you just love the black and white of mummy and me. I wish I had that dress and those shoes in my wardrobe now. She was such a looker, my mum. Could definitely give Betty Draper a run for her dinero.

James and I celebrated our 10th anniversary of togetherness and 1st wedding anniversary this week with a day of indulgence. We started with an fabulous exhibition at the V&A called Shadow Catchers and then moved on to a leisurely lunch at Hibiscus, then on to the Tate Britain for a look at the work of the artists nominated for this year's Turner prize. The highlight of the day for me though was getting our very first fish pedicure at Aqua Sheko. I must admit that seeing and feeling those fish attacking my feet with such frenzy freaked me out much. The sensation is like having your feet tickled by a million popping bubbles. Once I got over that I was eventually able to relax and get into the experience and I gotta say those little buggers are very efficient. My Flintstone feet felt as smooth as silk at the end of the session. After the fish attack, we finished our evening at the cinema with popcorn and an action flick. It was a very lovely day.

Okay now to business. With all the action happening around here, I haven't been able to weigh in with my counsellor. I know I must have put on some weight because my clothes are tighter now than at the beginning of summer, but I'm not too bothered by this because I know I'll be able to drop it all again now that I'm back to regular programming.

I'm still here and still focused on my weight loss/health goals, but my mother and sister have come to visit and I have been very busy playing hostess. It's nice having them here and we're having lots of fun.

Hope everyone out there is doing well and that you've all had a nice summer. I'll be back to regular writing, reading and commenting in a week or so. Looking forward!

Meanwhile, here's a little photo of me taken by my husband in a B&B in Devon a few weeks ago. Can you see my fake nose ring?

Had my weigh in today and lost 3kgs./6.6lbs which brings my weight to 68.5kgs/151lbs. I feel great!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was given three awards. One by the beautiful Emilia of 238 and Shrinking and the other two by the ever so lovely Alexia of My Wicked Wicked Ways and equally gorgeous Miss Haneefa of Black Girl Gets Fit. I thought I'd combine answering them because they both require that I reveal 7/10 things about myself that you probably don't know. I really don't know if I can come up with that many things but I'm going to try.

1. I'm a licensed scuba diver.

2. The first boy I ever kissed was French :)

3. I got kicked out of a class in graduate school after I had an argument with a teacher and not only wouldn't back down but ended up calling him a "fascist pig" :(

4. This would be a good time to say that I'm a really positive, easy going and warm person but on the rare occasion if someone gets on my wrong side I don't care who they are, I'll rip their head off.

5. I love the sound of rain on a galvanised roof.

6. I make the best cheesecake ever.

7. I'm fluent in French.

8. I LOVE George Carlin. He is my soul brother and I was heartbroken when he died.

9. My husband made on of my dreams come true when he took me to see Barbra Streisand in concert when she was in London a few years ago.

10. I love people but at heart I'm an introvert and would rather spend time quietly at home than out socialising.

Okay, I'll pass along these awards by inviting you to share 5-10 things about yourself here if you feel like it.

I've been having a very busy summer. First with summer school, both teaching and taking classes, and then visiting my Dad in Dresden (Germany) where he's on his penultimate assignment with FIFA before retirement.

Beautiful city, Dresden is. It has rebuilt itself from the ashes of total destruction in WWII and subsequent Soviet occupation to become an elegant, vibrant city with a very high quality of life. This was my second time visiting my Dad there and the first with my husband. Lots of walking, visits to churches, museums, galleries, a FAB opera house and sitting in cafes chatting and people watching. Happily I was able to sample the delicious Saxon cuisine without going overboard, which I am really really pleased about.

At my last weigh in I had dropped a further 2.5kgs (around 5lbs) to bring my weight to 71.5kgs/158lbs.

In other news I have started a vegetable and herb gardening venture on my patio. I got a bunch of seeds and am attempting to grow lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers, dill, basil, parsley, etc. I think I've started a little late in the season, but we'll see how things go.

I see from my comments, I've won a few awards during my absence. Thank you to everyone who has given me an award. I will be around to your blogs today to thank you personally and will honour the suggested guidelines in my next post. Meanwhile, I was tagged by Journey Beyond Survival a while ago and the question was:

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
First this is a ridiculous amount of money, more in my opinion than any one human being needs or should have, so I would have to give most of it away.

1. Bank 100 million and plan to live off the interest
2. Give 5 million to each family member, 2.5 million each to my friends and 1 - 1/2 million to random people who I know are having a hard time = 100 million approximately
3. Select 10 - 20 issues I feel strongly about and finance their improvement = 800 million approximately.
4. That's it.
5. Ditto
   

What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire?

It 4:44am. A new day has begun and I haven't gone to bed yet. I've been up trying to complete my end of term paperwork for all my classes. Finally it's all done and I can go to bed if only for two and a half hours. I need to be at work by 10am and I have to leave enough time to get in my exercise and food prep and to walk to the tube.

Before I go to bed though, I just wanted to jump on here and say a great big thanks to all of you who read and/or comment here. Your comments really brighten my day and make this very difficult journey easier. I especially want to thank Journey Beyond Survival for tagging me. I'll leave answering your question: What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire? for my next post.

I'd also like to thank Lynda at Taking Less Space for selecting me for her first ever Taking Less Space giveaway. What a lovely lovely surprise!!! All this love makes up for my not having lost any weight this week ... as a matter of fact not only did I not lose any weight but, quite bizarrely the scale read exactly the same as it did last week. How odd is that??? I did get some really fantastic news on another front though. I went to the doctor to have my blood pressure checked and it has come way down from the high readings I got before I started losing weight. I'm now high normal, which means I still have a ways to go to get it back to normal, but I'm so happy it's moving in the right direction.

Well, I'm off to bed. Will catch up with everyone tomorrow ... ummmm ... later today that is!!! Definitely looking forward to reading what you've all been up to.