A lot of time on my hands...

I'm not going to blog yet again about this damn chest infection, etc. that has pretty much kept me locked down for the last few days causing me a variety of emotions from guilt at not going to work, to frustration from not being able to do very much, let alone go to the gym, or take Molly out for the kind of walk she needs and deserves or Christmas shop...

I have had a lot of time to think and have pondered a lot this week, especially after having had a good chat with Cat on the phone yesterday afternoon.

This time of year brings with it an abundance of extra drinking and eating, what with all the celebrations, not to mention the scrummy food that seems to be on offer almost everywhere you turn. Looking at photos of myself, I seem to obsess over the slight bit of weight I have put on over the last little while, especially now that I haven't been able to work out in over a week. The girls in the office and I have had many a conversation about our bad 'bits' and how they drive us crazy, and how we could all stand to lose a stone, or two, or even three.

And then on the phone Cat, who had a baby last December, was saying how she needs to lose x amount of weight, leading us to the discussion of baby weight, and then weight in general. Of course we all need to be healthy and not let our flab run away with us to the point of obesity. Some women seem to bounce right back after baby, while others struggle to get back to where they were pre-baby, and alas some never even come close to regaining their figure. I also understand the need to try and lose most of the baby weight prior to getting pregnant with another child, because if you don't, you can end up doubling what you need to lose and it often gets out of control. And I do have to agree that being an overweight woman to begin with is not healthy for mom or baby.

I constantly berate myself because I'm nearly a stone up from where I used to be two years ago. But then the argumentative side of me says... 'woman, you might be up on the scales, but you have managed to keep the 28 lbs (2 stone) off from when you lost it five years ago' and I am right. I am still where I was when I initially lost my weight. I was determined enough to lose even more after moving here and I want to get back there again. Hopefully in a few months I will manage it because that's where I'm most comfortable being. And I just want to be comfortable :)

There are all kinds of reasons why we should look after ourselves, our health being the number one reason and no we all can't be size 6's and so long as we eat reasonably well and work out regularly, why can we not just be accepting of the body we have? This is why I love people like Gok Wan, a fabulous, self confessed queen who presents a show over here called How to Look Good Naked. What he does for women is fantastic and he often manages to get the women on his show to believe they are beautiful and that they need to love what God gave them, and work it to their best advantage.

And I often think and have often been heard to say... "If I were to find out tomorrow that I had an inoperable tumour, would I really care that I'm a healthy size 10-12? (14 in the UK)". No. I think I would regret that I spent so much damn time obsessing over something that is kind of small in the whole scheme of things.

So here's to you Gok... because this Christmas I'm enjoying myself with food and drink and I know it'll all be ok, cause the gym is my friend.