A year after I had my daughter, I got asked to be a bridesmaid for my lovely cousin - in California. This gave me he kick up the as I needed to go to Weight Watchers for the fist time, having been overweight what I've always thought was my whole life (a look back at photos shows me I actually wasn't the fat kid I thought I was, and that the year I moved in with my now husband, at 18, I actually got pretty svelte, but had no weighing scales at the time and managed not to notice! Damn! Then we moved into town the following year into a basement flat in close proximity to Domino's and what's that Oldest Chipper in Dublin Chipper? And we ate whole family sized bars of chocolate all the time, not to mention the Dunkin donuts and sambos I had for lunch daily - god (A bad year, which I never really recovered from).
Anyway, even for my wedding, too scared to go to Weight Watchers, I did the gym, cycling and healthy eating combo and lost about 2 stone, but I still look fat in my wedding photos - but WW (wibbly wobblies as a friend called it) did the trick and I ended up looking pretty damn fabulous for this trip to the States - I just saw a lovely happy photo of myself with great hair, great skin and a lovely smile in San Diego zoo, ironically sitting on a bronze hippo! And it's such a nice photo!
Sadly, after returning from the holiday I lost the drive a bit and slowly slipped back into bad habits. And the summer before last I ran a cookie and cheesecake stall for a couple of months, and that was my undoing!
But this post is meant to be positive, not a list of everything I ever ate in my life - if I did it before I can do it again, right? Sure, it'll be four years and one extra child later. Sure, I won't be in my twenties anymore. But if I did it before, I can do it again. Because it's such a great feeling to look at a photo and not quite recognise yourself - and to really, really love yourself in it. That's what I want achieve. I've eaten enough ice cream during this pregnancy to last me for the next few years (Though I have to admit I succumbed to 33% off in Superquinn tonight, and had some Phish Food meltier than usual and OMG! But that's not the point - I don't need it!) Actually, it's funny, for a while there I had a scary voice in my head urging me to buy ice cream and to make repeated trips to Lidl for creme filled brioche, ice cream and cake. Thank God that part of the pregnancy is over now, it was scary.
So here is my resolution for the next couple years:
find the girl in the photo -
and
Buy the Writers' Yearbook and start sending stuff to Children's book agents in the UK, while summoning up the balls to start practicing illustrations instead of being too scared to try!
Along with being a woman who parents peacefully - I want to find alternatives to shouting at my poor daughter, which I do far too much. And I want my family to start eating five fruitnveg a day before we all get scurvy.
That'll do for one night's resolve.
Anyone else want to share?
2 comments:
Jo,
I'm the one up late tonight afraid to go asleep cos it means the next day comes all the quicker.
I really admire you, I'm an 18, don't know how much I weigh but I know I lost weight while pregnant. So I've had to buy all new clothes and there are now some size 16 clothes in the wardrobe.
I like myself and my food too much, sometimes I think I have the reverse of anorexia, I think i look slimmer than i am. But I'm happy, and that's all that's important so I hope you find that girl in the photo. As for the magic number 5 for the fruit and veg, we can only try.
You go Jo! You sound so motivated already! Do it!! (I'm the least disciplined person I know so I'm just here to encourage you!)
It's great to make goals and the writing one sounds great for you!
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