The One Where… I talk about being a grown up woman

That's me in the pink.  Man I was cute.

When I was a girl I couldn’t wait to grow up and be a woman.  I wanted to go out with my friends, meet handsome men, and wear glamorous clothes and red lipstick. 

I watched Ally McBeal hoping that my grown up life would be as zany, glamorous and successful.  Surrounded my hot men, taken on fabulous dates, going to fabulous locations, being serenaded by Robert Downey Jr…..Oh Robert *looks off wistfully in to space*

Oh 16 year old self how wrong you were.  The reality of being a grown up is a bit different, and mildly boring.  Although some of us women in the world are blessed with glamorous, creative and fun work environments not all of us are that lucky. 

There is mundane bureaucracy, office politics, bitchy colleagues, working late for no overtime (or recognition). 

There’s housework, broken down appliances, ailing parents, recession, redundancy, credit card bills, funerals, biological clocks, misogynists and the glass ceiling.

The glamour and romance of your imaginings is often fleeting and overwhelmed by the mundanity of everyday life.  Men are not going to serenade you.  Robert Downey Jr is not going to know that you exist.

But oh 16 year old self, lets not say that everything about being a woman is bad.  I feel waaay more confident about myself.  OK I’m short, fat, and incredibly short sighted.  But man I make this shit look hot.  Yeah I like to look nice and am perpetually on a diet, but I am the most comfortable with who I am and what I look like, imperfections and all, than I have been ever.  All of the neurotic Ally McBeal shit?  Nope, I am freaking awesome.

There are cocktail hours, babies, the ability to question expectations, high heels, the opportunity to make your own choices, to break barriers, and men with beards.

There are beer festivals, scary movies, weddings, christenings, and parties, learning to cook, choosing your friends, staying up late, and discovering yourself.

I love being a woman, but bloody hell it is hard sometimes.

Would I want to be a man?

Well…. I could pee standing up.  I wouldn’t be judged for not wearing makeup.  Prospective employers wouldn’t ask for little hints about my personal life to see if I was planning to get up the duff.  I could do my hair in less than 5 minutes.  I could like the stuff I like with out people being surprised (“Star Wars? Really?”).

No.  I wouldn’t want to be a guy.  Regardless of all of the societal, social and personal pressures you are put under by having an innie rather than having an outie, being a girl is great.  In fact it is bloody fantastic.

16 year old self, keep having those fantasies because even though real life isn’t always as glamorous as you think it might be, in so many respects it s even better than you imagined.

The one where I discuss a 'Positive Attitude'

OK I am now officially back at WeightWatchers. OK I was never really officially gone, but I am now refocusing on the count down to Christmas.

Today's meeting was on a topic which is surprisingly apt considering I have been in the process of devising a little project with the idea go get me back on track and my weight going in the right direction i.e. down.  But before I unveil, The Meeting!

The Art of Positive Thinking

Oh how I have missed my weekly WW Meeting. Not having the accountability of weighing in each week for me is a tad dicey. It's the 'F*#k it' moment I get when faced with temptation (usually a takeaway or cake) when I think 'I'm not weighing in this week, I'll be extra good next week to make up for it'. Unfortunately the extra goodness often doesn't come and when I do finally weigh in I am 3 lbs heavier than the last time I weighed in ( and on this occasion, after 3 weeks of no weigh in it's 3 1/2!).

So today's meeting topic came at a great time for me, ‘Developing a positive attitude toward your own weight loss journey’ and not letting a lapse (or even a relapse) lead to a Collapse.
 
I am a dedicated WeightWatchers member; however I do often describe myself as 'The Worst WeightWatcher in the world'. This isn't 100% true, but I am very prone to lapses, and have often found myself drifting back towards old unhealthy eating habits. Despite the odd (quite frequent) lapse I have always returned and got back on plan and I have never found my weight creeping back up to where I once was.  In my 3 years (yes 3!) of being a part of WeightWatchers I have never 'left', the longest I have ever gone without going to a meeting is 3 weeks.  And in the terms used in today’s meeting though I have had lapses (and relapses) I have never had a collapse.

Despite my ups and downs, although I may have lost faith in myself I have never lost faith in the plan (no matter what form it may appear).

I think (and this is probably for others to judge rather than me) I have had a positive and healthy attitude to weight loss.  I am doing this for myself and it is for the long term. It not just a quick fix.

I think many other people who may be in a similar situation to myself would have probably given up or ‘Collapsed’ by now, but a big part of why I am still going is down to my 'Positive Attitude'. So below I have put some of the tips for staying positive and how to bounce back from a lapse we discussed today in class.

1.  Remember why you are doing this:  Sometimes when you have been working your butt off to get those pounds moving it is easy to forget why you started you weight loss journey in the first place.  Phyisically and emotionally we change so much that the initial spur that prompted us to head to our first WeightWatchers meeting has been lost. Revisit it. As part of my blog I have written down my motivation. I am not suggesting everyone start a blog (but is it really such a daft idea?) but get those before pictures out, write it in a note book, stick it on a post it note on your vanity mirror! Anything that can help you re-focus on you.

2. Be realistic:  I know perfectly well that if I was a very good girl I could lose 104 lbs in a year. I would be at gold.

However I also know that losing 104  lbs in one year, is for me completely unrealistic. I have a life, I eat out, drink beer, eat cake, love pizza, love chocolate.  Yes I do know that you can do all of these things and say within points, but there are occasions when you may not know the PV’s in all that you are eating and on those occasions I prepare my self for small losses/SS/or a gain.  I don’t want to be that person who everyone avoids because they are the diet bore; some times you need to be realistic and manage your own expectations.

3.  Use others as thinspiration:  I love my class, and one of the things that I love about it is that there are so many people who are role models.  Just today 2 people reached their 50 lbs!  Some people may seem de-motivated by how well others may be doing in a “I can never do that” way.  But surely if they can do it why can’t you?  Are these successes proof that the plan works?

4. Be kind to yourself:  No one is perfect.  Not matter how much you try you cannot be a ‘perfect Weightwatcher’ all of the time.  It can be easy to beat yourself up about ‘falling off the WW Wagon’.  It happens; it doesn’t make you a failure it makes you human.  Pick yourself up dust yourself off and start over again.

Attitude is a key part of anyone achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.  It doesn’t always come straight away, often the motivation to head to your first meeting comes from a negative place.  But by transforming your attitude you can aid your transformation on the outside and make sure that it lasts.

And now to my Plan to get back on track to Christmas.  Keeping on the themes of accountability and positivity I have come up with a plan… which I will post in due course and hopefully some of you will join me.

My final point, I have finally let my WW friends know about this blog… Hi guys!