Fast forward

Don't you want to fast forward sometimes?  Jump into the visualised fantasies which run through one's head on a loop. 

Visualising myself slim and fit, imagining what clothes I will be able to fit into and what exercise I will be able easily to achieve is a useful tool.  (Think I got the knack while doing Paul McKenna "I Can Make You Thin!" - yet another dieting blast from the past.)  It helps me resist temptation and keeps me on the straight and narrow.

But, and there is usually a downside, it does promote frustration as I do not reach the much-desired fruits of my labours fast enough.  I want to be wearing those clothes NOW; want to be running those distances NOW. 

So I have to remind myself that while I'm dieting, I am also LIVING my life, day by day, not putting it on hold until I am slim.  That what is important is HOW I live, not what I weigh. 

I have committed to dropping weight so that's what I'm doing but that is irrelevant to the rest of my life which is about working hard; having fun; looking after Richard; looking after me and the dogs  and the rest of our families; doing good things and helping people.  Just living well.

Weight is not the be all and end all of my life any more (despite what it may sound like on my blog!) but I do have to remind myself of that fact from time to time.

I think the key is the acceptance that this, what I'm doing right now, is pretty much how I'm going to be living forever if I do not want to put any weight I drop back on.  I mean, I'm dropping weight so slowly that there is very little margin between shrinking and staying the same.  So, unless I continue eating and drinking pretty much the same as I do now and keep up the exercise, I will just regain every single lb, again. 

In the past, I have hidden from this realisation.  I have not admitted that I cannot drop the weight then somehow, miraculously, go back to eating and drinking whatever I fancy and still stay slim.  But, the truth is that now I DON'T MIND!!  This is huge.  I can visualise myself living like this forever quite happily.

It really is about the journey not the destination now.  So I'll just press play  and forget about fast forward shall I?