Virtuality

I LOVE the internet. You can do anything on the internet. I give you (tada) My Virtual Model.

And I give you me as I am now (although I have a feeling that the simulators only go up to a certain weight, so it's approximate). Note the short hair! In fact, it's quite spookily like me...



And me as I will be this time next year. Probably.



Can't wait.

Addendum: My Tae Bo DVD arrived yesterday. I watched the introductory steps bit with a fag in one hand and kedgeree in the other. I will be very pleased with myself if I can get to the end of the warm-up without crying...

Pie-eater chart

From The Onion

Work it out

One day, not long after I turned 30, I finally woke up to the fact that I needed to do some exercise. Other than yoga, and a desultory bit of running which I never managed to get into, I really had not done any exercise since I was at primary school. I got away with it for a few years, but after 30, as everyone knows, your metabolism slows and you start to balloon if you continue to eat too much and exercise too little.

The first step I took towards getting fit was to buy a fitness video. Somewhat shamefaced (because after all there is something a bit sad about exercising at home alone, in front of your TV, following orders from a complete stranger), I browsed in HMV until I found a video that didn’t look too bad. It was Tae Bo.

It sounds a bit daft but I would credit Billy Blanks, Tae Bo’s energetic protagonist, and his hard-faced sidekick, Shelley, with giving me the impetus to start exercising and with showing me the benefits of regular exercise. Packed with motivational catchphrases (From the sublime: “You gotta wanna work at it, baby. You gotta wanna DO IT!” to the ridiculous: “Walk by faith, not by sight”), the videos show a group of (mainly) women exercising vigorously to a thumping soundtrack. The moves are easy to follow and involve kicks, punches, jumps and squats, adding up to about 30 minutes of exercise and stretches.

After a bit of wheezing and cursing, and stopping half way through, gradually I started to be able to do the whole programme straight through and I realized that getting through the whole thing made me feel really good about myself.

You can’t help wondering about who these people are, and I was particularly intrigued by Shelley, who had abs of steel, and rarely smiled. You can’t help warming to Billy too. He means so well, and he tried so hard, and he cares about his people. Let’s face it, this is no soap opera, but the diversity of participants (big and small) makes this an exercise video that’s truly democratic. And it worked for me.

Promises promises

Day 1 was meant to be the first day of recess. Ha. Anyway, today I have started. I am making no promises because people never believe my promises to myself because I never keep them, so fair enough.

I have registered with this website Weight Loss Resources and I encourage my fellow fatfighters to have a look at it. Basic calorie-counting, but there are many little tools and tricks, such as the wee pie chart that you can click on that shows you the proportions of fat, carb, protein in what you've et. Fascinating, I hear you cry. Well, yes, but it has fairly opened my eyes to what a fatty diet I was on without realising it!

And on the exercise side? Well, I have also just found this site mapmyrun. No, I don't intend to run anywheres (not yet anyhoo), but have a look at it - it's got a wee facility thingie that will tell you what you've done and how many cals you've used doing it. I intend to walk.

Last night's exercise was bringing my abdomeniser thingie down from off the top of the wardrobe. It needs dusted, which will be tonight's exercise. Harley Cat is most distressed because he's been using it as a bed for the past 18 months. I shall post a pic of him with it as soon as I can get him to sit still long enough...

On another subject, has any of my fellow fatfighters had any experience of Tae Bo?

PS Again: Has anyone else noticed how the blogger spellcheck wants to change "fatfighters" to "beautification"?

A feminist issue?

Interesting article about the (largely - no pun intended) US-based movement asserting that fattism is the same as racism.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/woman/story/0,,1813081,00.html

I can't help feeling that this is a bit self-serving, but perhaps that's just a hallmark of my own prejudice.

So sick

I've been ill, and as the soon-to-be Fatfighter5 says, there's nothing like a good old illness to make the weight drop off. But it's also profoundly dispiriting not having any appetite. Perhaps this might be the key: if you only eat when you really need to, then maybe that will work. The problem is that generally speaking I've lost my sense of when I really need to eat. Only when I'm ill does any of this really fall into place: I am currently eating as much as I can given that I'm not hungry at all, and so I stop even before I'm full because I have nothing invested in eating more than I need.

Who amongst us hasn't rather guiltily envied the anorexic for their self-control? Let's have some thoughts from the other Fatfighters who have been eerily silent of late.

Stuff and nonsense

Don't get uppity, Fatfighter2.

I've been away
But now I'm back
Still got a talent
For eating crap

I've been participating in races, which means chiefly that I've given myself carte blanche to eat anything I fancied. If all the bad stuff I've eaten in the last week were laid end to end it would stretch from here to the nearest cake shop, which is some way away.

I've a feeling we need to rally round here, with some new goals, some new promises which we encourage each other to keep, and new determination to see off the flab between now and, let's not make this too daunting, August 1. What do you say?