And...breathe....And....diet....

It seems as though I'm here at this same point every January.  Starting yet another effort to lose and keep off weight.  But, strangely perhaps, it's not getting me down this year.  That makes a pleasant change from previous Januarys when I have been down, depressed, beating myself up for being back in the same dieting boat and lacking in hope that anything will change.


This year, I have been actively looking forward to the restraint of January.  I have not being going mad on food or drink anyway although lots of goodies have been consumed.  The difference is in HOW they were consumed.  I may have had cake or mince pies or too much wine but I never ate just for the sake of it; because it was allowed.  I ate in the appropriate situations and not much more than I needed. 


As a result, and probably mainly due to a little too much Christmas cheer and not enough exercise rather than food intake, I have only gained a couple of lbs.  I went to SW last night quite cheerily and with no dread in my heart.  It was not the shaming failure it used to be and I didn't slink through the doors.  It's part of what will no doubt be a lifelong process to keep my weight to a reasonable level and look after my health.  There is no shame in that.


So, I'm back to sensible eating and increased levels of exercise and I'm quite happy about that.  Hopefully I'll start to see some proper losses over the next few weeks.


My endeavour to lose weight which started last August was not a great sucess really.  I dropped around 12 lbs but was derailed by a very persistent series of illnesses over the autumn and, once recovered, couldn't get the diet properly embedded before the Christmas season so, effectively, I'm starting again with only a 5 lb drop to show for my efforts.  But, the way I look at it.  I was gaining steadily over a year; if I had NOT started at SW, I would no doubt have continued to gain and would now, after Christmas, weigh much more.


I have been scouring the foodie mags for interesting and healthy recipes as I have been getting a bit stale in my cooking and am looking forward to trying out a few.  It would be nice to break the tyranny of the meat, potato and 2 veg for a while.  Rich is going to be the guinea pig for a few interesting attempts no doubt but he's always up for that as long as it doesn't involve spinach!!  (Which is quite annoying as several of the new recipes I've spotted seem to involve spinach....I'm debating trying to sneak it in once on the offchance he won't notice as I suspect his dislike of it is historic rather than genuine!)


So - Happy New Year everyone!!  May 2012, with all its likely challenges, be a happy, peaceful, fun, loving and healthy year for you and yours.