Monday, January 22, 2007

Picture on the wall

At my 40th birthday party recently my mum had selected a bunch of photos for the wall depicting me from age 0 to 39. It's funny how you forget how you looked once. I was struck by one photo in particular, which showed me, my sister, my brother and my mum outside my aunt's house near Huddersfield. The sun is shining and we're all smiling. It's the summer of 1996, and I'm about to start my final year at university. Fatfighter 1 has met or is just about to meet her future husband.

It's interesting to see some photographic evidence of the slimmest I've been in my life, post-early 20s. I weighed just under 9 stone then, and it's obvious. At the time, I was following a strict eating regime in which I avoided refined carbs, coffee and all alcohol except gin and vodka. I may have mentioned it before - it was recommended to me by a naturopath, when I went to see him about my lack of energy. Iwas also running three or four times a week and going to the gym two or three times a week. I cycled everywhere. I would love to go back to living that way - I mean, I was happy too! - but can't get my head round doing without treats in these days of work and childcare and not much else. Any suggestions, anyone?

2 comments:

LottieP said...

Aye - it's a tough one. I was quite struck by that picture too. I had just met my future husband, and the trauma associated with splititng up wiht my then live-in boyfriend meant I lost tons of weight so I think I looked pretty good too.

I think the thing is not to beat yourself up about it, but maybe get a copy of that picture and/or think about it whenever you feel tempted to indulge.

I often think about something FF4 said - from Kirsty Alley's book I think it was: When you eat something with high calorific/low nutritional value you are *choosing* not to lose weight. So it's your choice, because you know you could look like that again - or better.

Claire said...

That's pretty much the line Neris and India take in their book. Unlike other diet books I've looked at, they go into the psychology behind overeating in a way that makes sense.

I have a copy of that pic so I might just frame it and put it on the wall. And you do indeed look great in it too. We all do.