Down we go

Well, it was off to see the dietician last night. And I'm delighted to say that since I saw her last at the tail end of August I have indeed managed to shed another hunk of the 'orrible flab. About 7 or 8kg of it, in fact. Whooppee, that's two of us pretty happy then.

That slight vagueness about the amount I've lost is because, using the scales she has at the clinic, she thinks I weigh a little bit less than I thought I did. Quite a pleasant Christmas present to be fair, but I think I'll play safe and 'believe' the scales I have at home. I do use those regularly, after all. Either way, I'm below eleven and a half stone and staying the right side of it for the first time in years. A definite cause for celebration, eh?

So I thought I'd push the boundaries a bit and have bought a second-hand pair of size twelve jeans as my next clothes target. I can just about (but only just) squidge all the fatty bits into them at the moment. And, rather amazingly, I can get them done up without resorting to lying on my back, breathing in until I go blue and hauling on the zip with pliers. Mind you, bending, sitting down, or even breathing normally, is completely out of the question. Wear them in public? Er, no. Not quite yet, me dearie.

An aside, but to think I used to keep on wearing jeans and stuff even when they got so tight I had to do that suck, wriggle and pliers routine, during those crazy years of the diet and gain cycle. Whatever must I have looked like? Makes me cringe!

That leads me to another aside. Why do we so easily dupe ourselves about what we actually look like? And how does that work? I suppose I mean how come we don't 'see' what we 'really' look like in the same way that we 'see' the other people around us. I've spent a lot of years fooling myself that I'm 'hmmm, sort of alright' when I've actually been grossly overweight (scratch that - I really mean 'obese'!) and now find myself struggling with looking a lot more streamlined but still 'seeing myself' as (or feeling like) the Goodyear blimp!

Another little bit of good news in this season of good cheer. I was out at a committee meeting last night. For a start, it felt quite strange to be one of the slimmer people at the meeting. I'm definitely not used to that. Then, there were two plates of mince pies, mini chocolate logs, Christmas cake and other goodies in front of me... and I resisted. Actually, all I wanted was my cup of tea and then, when I got home, a satsuma was what drew me.

True, hubby and I did eat two chocolates each before we went to bed. But it was just two, and they were Belgian Leonidas chocolates (yum!). Not too long ago two choccies would have been just the start!

So, on to goals.

The next one is to get down to 70kg (a nice round 11 stone) and I think that should be achievable quite soon. OK, it may get hit by the festive frolics, but I will get there.

And, for once I'm actually looking forward to the New Year. Why? In 2009 I'll be closer to moving below that 11 stone range. Won't I be delighted when I can say to myself that I'm ten stone something!

Then, the medium-term goal is a BMI of 25. No longer 'overweight'. That'll be when I hit 10 stone 5 lbs (oh pooh - not the 10 st 7lbs the dietician told me!). Anyway, when I get there and am 'normal' you'll probably hear the 'yippee' from the other side of the globe.

And the long-term goal? Well, we'll see, but if I could stretch to below 10 stone, that'd be amazing.