Photo Diary

HAPPY New Year! Happy NEW year?? Happy New YEAR??!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

No matter how I try it out, I can't get that 'fresh-from-the-packet' feel for the New Year that I generally get on the border between 31st December and 1st January. I don't know why. I mean, I've started my Book of Days, I've given the house a good post-Christmas tidy up. I've even been for a brisk New Year's Day walk in the bright sunshine and crisp frost. Well, it would have been bright sunshine and crisp frost if it wasn't for the grey clouds and persistent drizzle. But I went for a walk nonetheless.

Didn't stay up to see in the New Year though.

What I did do, however, and here can only be the undeniable proof that I am suffering with some kind of middle-aged madness, was to don my most unforgiving outfit (a pair of skin tight leggings and a skin tight vest top) and get Andy to take full length photos of my front view, back view and left 'n' right profiles. Blimey, was that a levelling experience.

'Why am I doing this?' asked Andy.
'Because I put on weight in 2010 and I want to lose it again,' I said. 'And this is how I'm going to do it. I am going to have photos taken on the first of every month to motivate me and I am going to photograph EVERYTHING I eat to see EXACTLY how much and what I eat every day.'
'Will this work?' said Andy.
'I don't know,' I said. 'But right now my brain is telling me it's a good idea.'

And to be honest, looking at that first set of 'around-the-girth-of-Denise' photos was motivating in a depressing 'ye gods' kind of way.' I had a minor dilemma before the photos were taken and that was should they be done pre-morning poop or apres-morning poop (sorry if you're suffering a hangover, or eating, but come on, these things need to be considered), and decided apres-poop to be the better option mostly because I really needed to go. Plus I was going to weigh myself and I needed all the help I could get.

And I didn't cheat by breathing in either.

And good news in the paper this morning in that the recommended healthy BMI was re-adjusted last year (why did nobody tell me??), and I can get away with losing about a stone less than I originally thought!

So today is not marked by any prophetic, spiritual, motivational poem. It is not marked by a series of wishes and blessings, nor a list of hopes and dreams.

Just a picture of me. And my breakfast. Looking more and more like Ann Widdecombe. That's me, not the breakfast.

Photo Diary Day One. Tick!