Monday 9 January

It seems there is no end to this New Year's resolutions lark. Here we are, almost halfway through January already, and I've come up with another one. I was half expecting this one though and didn't mention it in my 1 January post as it is just a bit.... boring.

Almost 8 years ago, over a year after 9yo was born weighing a hefty 11 lbs, I was still carrying around excess babyweight. Looking back at it, I'm certain me eating rather too much during my pregnancy had something to do with him being the weight he was. I'd lost all my baby weight from my pregnancy with 12yo within a couple of months and figured that I'd lose it all again quite easily through breastfeeding. But 9yo weaned himself when he was 9 or 10 months old and I still had rather a few pounds to shed. I felt quite unhappy about myself but didn't have the discipline to lose it. One day, a neighbour mentioned WeightWatchers to me and I grabbed the chance and asked if we could go together. That was in August, and by November I'd lost 2.5 stone and reached goal weight. The first week I was starving, but I lost 5 or 6 lbs and there was no looking back after that. And since then, WeightWatchers has been an important part of my life. Sometimes I fall off the wagon for a bit, or I don't enjoy the meeting as much, and those are always the times when I start to struggle. I know now that if I go for a weigh-in every week and stay to the meeting, I managed to maintain my weight pretty much. It sounds melodramatic, but it has changed my life - mostly the knowledge I now have of portion control, healthy choices and exercise.

Christmas is always a hard time. I know at some point I give up trying to track and throw caution to the wind. I knew this time that I'd put some weight on - I usually do over Christmas, and I'm certainly not alone. I was already a little over goal by the last meeting of the year, and I'd managed to put 5.5lbs on over the last 3 weeks. What was worse though, was that I'm now a stone over where I should be. And that was enough of a kick up the backside to get back on track again. Yes, most things still fit, yes I'm tall so it doesn't show much, but I don't feel happy at this weight and I want it back off again. I know too that it will come back off without much extra help, but I also have a soft spot for pretty notebooks so when I spotted this at the shop this morning, it just had to come home with me.


I think WeightWatchers know that many women have a soft spot for pretty notebooks, because an awful lot of them were being sold this morning. And with that, I'm off to fill mine in. With that fountain pen. The journal covers 12 weeks. I hope by the time I've finished with it, I'll have lost that stone.