Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

The new bathroom saga continues..........

The plumber came on Monday night and ripped out my bath/shower and sink in order for the joiner to come in on Tuesday morning to start work on the floors.

Unfortunately about an hour after the plumber left with my old bathroom suite in the back of his van, the joiner got in touch to say that sadly his mother-in-law is about to die and he could no longer come along on Tuesday morning to start work. I have no idea when this work will be completed now but our problems are small in comparison to his at the moment and my thoughts are with him and his family.

However, every cloud has a silver lining as they say. The toilet is still there so we can be thankful for that and more importantly, I went to the gym yesterday in order to use their showers and did 45 mins or exercise whilst I was there (well, I thought it a bit cheeky to just walk in, use the shower and leave).

I also thought that it might be a good idea to join Slimming World last night in order to keep up with the weight loss. I went along to my local class and was pleased that everyone was so friendly. The class leader was really nice and seems to love food which is always important. You can eat quite a lot on the SW plan, it's all about the combination of food you are eating and making sure that you eat healthy as opposed to following fad diets. I am optimistic.
By the time the new bathroom is installed I will be a shadow of my former self.

Loving: My blog.

Loathing: Gym showers.

Britney's new diet

Britney Spears has revealed to US OK! Magazine that she is following a healthy new diet programme consisting of no sugar (that includes fruit which contains natural sugar) but lots of chicken, salmon, rice and avocados. Britney is now eating 1,200 calories per day and working out at the gym five times a week claiming that she is healthiest she has ever been.

I hope that Britney continues to keep on track and maintain a sensible weight rather than falling into the size zero trap.

Good luck to her!

About

A few weeks ago I decided that I no longer liked the way I looked any more. Actually, I had decided that long before then but despite various attempts at improvement I hadn't actually managed to succeed in doing something about it.

With thirty fast approaching (in six months to be precise), I have decided to embark on a life changing healthy eating (dare I say diet) and exercise programme. This started about four weeks ago and I am pleased to say I am now 16lbs lighter than I was then. I plan to continue with this without killing myself in the process although I have indulged in a couple of large white wines this evening.

One of the things that I find particularly interesting is the way the media constantly berates the obese in our society, particularly women. According to them we cannot do any of the following:

• Have a successful career or a good job (because we are either 1. too lazy to work or 2. completely undesirable to a prospective employer)
• Be in a happy, loving relationship (well....a bloke doesn't want to be seen with a fat girl on his arm does he?)
• Have sex (we are clearly too fat to be able to manoeuvre into any position successfully)
• Have children (obese women apparently find it more difficult to conceive and carry a child successfully)
• Be a good mother (apparently being obese also means that we are unfit roll models for our children. Hmmm........it seems that drug addicted, alcoholics are making better mothers these days. Well, they are thin after all)

For the record, I have a good job and am in a happy, loving relationship with a man who adores me. We do have sex and enjoy it although I admit that it is not as uninhibited as I would like to be. I know plenty of obese women who have managed to conceive and have given birth to healthy babies and went on to become great mothers however, this is one of the reasons I have decided to lose weight permanently and become healthier. With the aforementioned 30th birthday looming, I am scared of the effects my weight is having on my health. Admittedly, when I was younger I was more concerned that I didn't look as good as my friends or that I couldn't get the latest fashions because I just looked like a sack of potatoes in them. As I get older I do worry more about the health implications. I would like children and I don't want people judging them because their mother is overweight. Sadly, people do and other children can be so cruel as I often found out when I was growing up. Anyway, more about that another time when I feel more able to talk about it.

While I am on this subject I noticed this article in the newspaper (I use that term loosely) today entitled 'Triplets Joy of 40st Mum: World's fattest mother of three tells her story'

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article14491.ece

The article talks about how "A enormous 68-strong team of medics weighed in to deliver 40-stone Leanne's three healthy babies.
And the total bill to the NHS added up to a hefty £200,000—four times the normal cost of a triplets pregnancy"........

Yes, I realise that 40st is a lot of weight to carry and it does mean serious health risks but what about the hundreds of babies that are born each year to drug addicted mothers. The babies who are born addicts themselves and have to be treated for heroin withdrawal. What about their cost to the NHS and then ultimately, the cost to Social Services when their parents are too drugged up to care for them.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who has substance abuse problems, I know that everyone has different circumstances to deal with in their life but come on! Isn't it better to have a baby born to an obese mother who loves and cares for it than born into the unhappy, chaotic world of substance abuse and all the implications that go along with it?

Loving: Gwyneth Paltrow's legs

Loathing: Tabloid trashpapers