A 'hey, what?' sort of day

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday, all told. An ex-colleague, who I haven't seen for a couple of years, came in to visit and her reaction as she walked into the office came as quite a shock to me.

To cut a long story down a bit, her jaw dropped and she couldn't stop looking at me. Call me stoopid, but this was just after lunch so my first thought wasn't anything to do with weight at all, but whether I had a seed or spinach or something stuck in my teeth.

However, the last time she saw me, although I'd already lost a considerable amount of weight, I was probably somewhere near two stone heavier than I am today. I guess that makes quite a noticeable difference, or it certainly seemed that way.

It's funny, but unless I look back at old photos I kind of forget how I used to look. I don't really 'see' what I look like and very often still think of myself as not much different. On some days I still see 'me' as a fairly chunky sort of fat lass. Strange how we perceive ourselves, eh?

Then later on, another colleague popped in to say a quick a 'Happy New Year' and the subject of weight gain and loss came up again. Oh dear, it didn't go well. He was decidedly unhappy about starting the year with a noticeably larger mid-section than he liked (having enjoyed the Christmas break to the full) and turned to me, almost aggressively, demanding to know why I hadn't gained too. He seemed to think it just wasn't fair.

I bit my tongue a wee bit, but did (gently) mention that, to some extent, I had taken reasonable care with what I ate. I also mentioned that I hadn't come away completely unscathed by Christmas but had done something about it a.s.a.p. on seeing the small rise... before it could get worse. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say and I probably should have kept my big mouth shut altogether.

He proceeded to inform me that 'I didn't understand' and that 'of course' he couldn't lose weight because his wife cooked so beautifully and so he 'had to' eat her meals. Obviously her fault then, poor love. Hmmm, this is a gentleman I see with cake or biscuits most mornings.

Ho hum, sometimes it just isn't worth extending the conversation though... taking horses to water comes to mind. I'm afraid I took the coward's way out and left it there.