Helloo!!

I don't quite know where to start.  Do I try and catch up on the last month or do I talk about the newer stuff?

Well, as you know from my  last quick catch up, I have gone back to Slimming World albeit a new class in Rotherham.  I'm not really sure what prompted that decision except that I have been trying very hard to bed diet and exercise back into my life and, on the evidence of the last few months' blogging and the scales, getting absolutely nowhere.  To be honest I was working hard to stand still then getting disheartened and gaining a couple of lbs to the point that, by last Thursday, I was the biggest I've been for years.  Only by a few lbs, but a very significant few lbs.  My work trousers were becoming uncomfortably tight and other clothing options limited.  I was starting to feel bad about myself, which hasn't happened for ages.

So, I must have been mulling over my options and idly checked out SW classes in Rotherham.  The 2 classes locally are on either Monday night (no good - dancing) or Tuesday (not much good - football and the leader is not particularly inspiring).  So, I picked a class in Rotherham not too far from the office at 11.30 on a Thursday.  I can usually take an early lunch and she does have other classes if I can't make it.  I put it in my diary and then forgot all about it.  But on Thursday morning my trusty Outlook popped up a reminder and I couldn't think of a reason not to go!

The class leader is a rather formidable Russian woman.  Tall, angular, short bleached blonde hair, very slender and sometimes tricky to understand but so enthusiastic. She lives and breathes to help us drop the weight and then stay slim.  The last part is crucial to her. She does not just dial it in and can be a bit, erm, stroppy assertive  about attending class and staying for the talky bit rather than just getting weighed and leaving (which has always struck me as a waste of money too).

I like her style.  I like the fact that she is willing to say the hard things rather than let people coast but, when people come to class and stay or have family troubles she is full of support and enthusiasm.  To be honest I don't think I have a lot in common with many of the other women as most are not working women, lots have children or are retired.  But I do admire a lot of their determination and stoicism.

It was very inspiring today.  Firstly I dropped 4lbs which is good although not brilliant for a first week.  (I know I pushed my luck last week through being disorganised and slightly complacent so I must work on tightening up significantly this week.)  However, the main source of inspiration was the other women in the class.  So many of them were receiving awards (which you receive for hitting a stone or half stone loss milestone.  Jovita had a veritable handful of books but she saved the best til last.  A woman who had dropped 3.5lbs that day to reach a loss of 10 stone!!

She seemed lovely and determined (and very short - she must have been a like a beachball with the extra 10 stone on her frame!) and I got quite teary.  It reminded me of how I dropped that 9 stone.  Now I have gained HALF of what I dropped which is not great.  But seeing that woman and her steady progress made me feel that I can get this sorted.  I joined last week desperate to drop a stone or so before we go to Malaysia but NOW I want to get this sorted, for life.  Jovita has got her work cut out for her!!

In one interesting postscript, Richard doesn't seem to have noticed that I'm the heaviest he has known me,although he must have done.  When I mention it, he just says I'm always gorgeous to him.  And conversely, when I texted him this morning to say that I'd dropped 4lbs, he just said "well done".  It seems that it really doesn't matter to him beyond how I feel about it.  I must say, I do like that it a man and it makes a refreshing and happy change from my previous life.