Starting to see results

As every person who has every been on a diet for any length of time will tell you, there's a magical point you will reach in your efforts. This is the point when people start noticing and the significance of this as a motivator should never be underestimated.

When you start dieting, the first few weeks are often a secret struggle. If you're anything like me then you don't want to blab to everyone you know, because (again, if you are anything like me) you are always at risk of tumbling off the wagon before it's even left the station, into a big pile of pastry and chocolate and wine and ice cream and kebabs.

So you keep your secret, clandestine and brimming with potential, until you've got something to show for it. Or rather, until you've got less of you to show for it. I can only liken it to the many, MANY driving tests I sat; approaching each one thrilled at the thought of taking to the roads freely, yet also painfully aware of the potential for failure. And how I did fail!!

I did get there in the end though...

Anyway, I have now reached that magical point in my new regime where people are commenting on a noticeable difference in me. Now that's not to say that I'm sashaying about in size 8s yet... however several people have told me they can see a difference in my face. As with previous diets, my face is the first place for to show.

The Holy Grail in diet-related compliments comes when someone tells you you've lost weight and they never even knew you were on a diet in the first place. Oh sweet words like Manna from heaven! When you get to this point you know you're on the home strait. (a long home strait perhaps, but one nevertheles...)

In any case, this would seem to be the point I have finally reached. I can feel a big difference in my clothes. My trousers hang looser and certainly my face appears less podgy than usual. I feel as though my weight loss is more physically apparant than the digits on the scales might suggest. This makes perfect sense. Neil is giving me lots of workouts which build muscle as well as burn calories. Muscles, meanwhile, are heavier than fat so obviously the weight loss under this kind of training is perhaps going to come at a different rate compared to simple dieting without exercising. That's ok with me as, being a fundamentally vain person, as long as I'm looking skinny then that's all that matters - right?

Tonight I trained with me old pal Lynn - a skinymalink who has been training with Neil for a lot longer than me.




Here we are:


Despite initial fears about not being able to keep up, I can safely say I did well and only collapsed twice, right near the end. (Plus, she totally just texted me a message saying 'I can barely bend over to sit on the loo'.. so comparatively I'm doing awesome')

Please all remember that I'm putting myself through this ordeal for Cancer Research UK. Please make a donation to http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011
It helps me keep the pies at bay if nothing else