The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl

Wednesday Weigh in - Week 3

hey kids! just thought i'd post week 3. am running late for combat then SC comes over so it's just the stats for now! more soon!

...updated weekly on Wednesdays...

last update: 2 February 2005

age: 27
height: 173cm (5'8")

original start weight: 159.2 kg (351 lb) on 17 Jan 2001
original start bmi: 53.4

fresh start weight: 95.9 kg (211.4 lb) on 12 Jan 2005
fresh start bmi: 32.2

current weight: 91.8 kg (202 lb)
current bmi: 30.8

result this week: -0.6 kg (1.3 lb)

loss in 2005: -4.1 kg (9 lb)
total loss since 2001: -67.4 kg (148 lb)

initial goal weight: 75 kg (165 lb)
distance to goal: 16.8 kg  (37 lb)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Bloody hell, life is moving so quick at the moment. Four weeks from today I will be Mrs Scottish Companion. March 3 is the big day, mark it in yer diaries, kids! I guess that means I should hurry up and find something to wear.

Anyway, apologies for yesterday's hasty entry. I usually write my entries at work and post them when I get home, but work has been too crazy for that. So instead of a nice coherent entry you're stuck with random ramblings!

I was pretty happy with the 0.6 kg lost last week, but I need to be careful on the weekends. I did my very last shift of my shitty second job on Saturday, and had a few chocolate digestive biscuits and other rubbish, my reasoning being, "I'll never be here again with these FREE COOKIES!". By Saturday night I had no energy and a throbbing headache. It's amazing how quickly bad food makes me feel bad. I got right back on track though, which is progress.

There is so much change going on at the moment my head is swimming. There's the whole marriage thing and before that the moving house thing, the finding a frock thing. Then the applying for the visa thing. All in the next month. But as sad as this is going to sound, the change I am most flustered about is the Gym Change. I got hold of the timetable for the Council gym near SC's place and it's alright I spose. It's just not the smorgasbord of classes I've been spoiled with at my current place. I could go on any day or night and there'd always be something on. If I missed Pump on one night, rest assured there's be another in a day or so. With this place there's only two Pumps I could make, one Body Combat and one Body Balance per week. And no Body Jam.

Waaaah! My current gym is great coz the classes are scheduled so you can do a cardio class followed by Pump, or vice versa, so you can get in a great cardio and weight training session in one visit to the gym. As I've said before, I thrive on being told what to do - in the exercise sense. I like the classes because they push me to my limit, whereas on my own doing running or some cardio machine I often get bored or lazy.

Looks like I will have to get over that if I want to get fit. Let's look at this as an opportunity to shake up the routine and push myself harder without the use of a shouty instructor. But if anyone wants to buy me a PERSONAL TRAINER for a wedding gift, knock yourself out! People keep asking us about gift registers but we don't need towels or ice buckets or casserole dishes. Hehe.

How're you all doing?

The Great Frock Hunt

Holy farking shit, Batman! I just entered the Race for Life! It's a very popular fundraiser, a 5k race in aid of Cancer Research UK. I've signed up for the Edinburgh event on June 5.

That doesn't sound like very fair away at all, eep! But I really need to shake things up and find new ways of getting fit. Training for the 5k should be fun and hard work, and the Good Cause factor will keep me motivated and full o guilt ;) I'll get cracking once this wedding and honeymooning palaver is over.

I can't believe how bad my wedding procrastination is that I would rather sign up for running races than go dress shopping. I did have a wee look on the weekend but soon got cranky with how SLEEVELESS everything is! I'm not even looking for a wedding-y type frock - just a nice fancy dress that you could wear for a formal do, you know? But it's all either tiny wee straps or no freaking straps at all, so all the world sees are my pale wobbly ham-like limbs. And I don't want one of those wrap-thingies to hide my arms coz with me it always looks like I am obviously trying to hide something AND I am really uncoordinated and don't need additional "bits" to worry about.

I'm off to London this weekend to visit my sister and hit the shops. I have a grand budget of about £200 including dress, shoes, accessories and/or Bridget Jones-esque magic squishy-in undies. Oh dear.

I am dreading this big style. It's all such a hurry, and it's the wrong season to be a looking for something for a size 16/18 person who wants to hide both legs and arms. I just have a sinking feeling we will run around town for two days and I'll end up in some frumpy sack, whatever I can force my flesh into. I hate shopping. ARRRGH.

Nevertheless, it could have been worse. I seem to have lost a few inches over the past four weeks. My grey trousers that threatened to disembowel me mid-January now fit perfectly, as does the jumper that was skin-tight and itchy. My undies aren't digging into me anymore. I've been gymming like a mofo this past three weeks, including three Body Pump classes last week, so I'm feeling quite good.

I'm so reluctant to post these things, the Little Changes I've noticed. Last year I so rarely did it, coz I thought I'd jinx myself if I shared some success and I wouldn't lose any more. But the only way that will happen is if I stop eating healthily and/or stop exercising. So from now my tactic is to give you guys FULL DISCLOSURE! There's no point skulking around. I need some accountability. Meanwhile, unlike last year, I've decided not to mention my weight-loss efforts at work, coz they'll only try and feed me cakes.

Wednesday Weigh-In - Week 4

And here we go again. Four weeks went by pretty bloody quick, eh?

latest update: 9 February 2005

age: 27
height: 173cm (5'8")

original start weight: 159.2 kg (351 lb) on 17 Jan 2001
original start bmi: 53.4

fresh start weight: 95.9 kg (211.4 lb) on 12 Jan 2005
fresh start bmi: 32.2

current weight: 90.6 kg (199.3 lb)
current bmi: 30.4

result this week: -1.2 kg (2.6 lb)

loss in 2005: -5.3 kg (11.6 lb)
total loss since 2001: -68.6 kg (150.9 lb)

initial goal weight: 75 kg (165 lb)
distance to goal: 15.6 kg  (34.4 lb)

There's some little milestones to celebrate this week. I'm now in "onederland", as the pound watching Americans call it when you crack the < 200lb mark. And I've hit 150 pounds lost, which is good because that's how much I said I'd lost in my bio for Erin's book. The book comes out in May, so I was hoping I'd get to that point by then. So now there's all the more incentive for not gaining weight - I don't want to be a liar in print!

I had a cracker of a week, overall. I planned every mouthful at the start of each day using Weight Loss Resources' groovy little Food Planner. Then I add in whatever exercise I've planned to do. That way I see how many calories/fat/protein/carbs etc I'm set to scoff, then I can decide whether I'll be eating too much or not enough, and I chop/add snacks as appropriate. This week I knew I was going out for lunch on Saturday so I cut back during the week and piled on the exercise. Sunday morning SC had a sudden craving for fish and chips, so we had the oven-baked kind for dinner that night. It was still way over my calories but I'd cut back on breakfast and lunch to compensate.

I know I must sound like some sort of control freak, but planning is, and what always has, worked best for me. I am not doing anything extreme here. You'd think we three weeks to go to the wedding I'd be drinking SlimFast and nibbling on seaweed in an attempt to drop a size. But I just couldn't be arsed. I feel happy and optimistic and level-headed with the way I've been eating.

I had the bread and the fancy French butter at the restaurant on Saturday, but skipped on wine and picked a vegetarian main and a fruity dessert. I'm trying to strike a balance, to shed my old extreme behaviours. If I am mega-healthy for the vast majority of the time, I can afford to eat out or have some fish and chips once in awhile. I'm not panicking, I'm not in a rush - I am just enjoying logging my weight here and at WLR every Wednesday and watching the numbers inch downwards.

Maybe I am speaking too soon, it's only been four weeks. But I feel like my head is finally in the right place, I've come to terms with the fact that I know what works best for me and that it's all about focus and hard work.

I have some freakin' huge challenges this coming week (London, baby!) and the week after (my hen do - aka bachelorette party to you Americans) and of course the wedding and honeymoon after all THAT. Yet I'm finding myself looking forward to the challenge of all these events and seeing if I can handle 'em without with a sense of balance. Bring it onnnnnn.

So Many Bodies

Just dandy, my period arrived last night so now I will head off to London all grumpy, bloated and full of loathing. Just perfect for a grueling weekend of frock shopping!

Oh well. I am determined to remain calm. Thanks for you all your suggestions by the way! As my sister said, it is going to be a Try-On-athon, I will just have to keep going until something works. I'm not altogether too worried. If I don't find the perfect dress this time around, I'll get something fancier for the Oz wedding in October! That's the beauty of having your families scattered all over the planet - you get to have two weddings WITHOUT having to find two different husbands!

I am just BUSTING to get the altar. I'm so much more focused on that than the dress stuff. I just want to get the ring on my finger, I am dead excited about that. I can't believe I get to marry him! I know we'll have a blast together. I am so relived and freakin happy that he wants to do this, that he thinks we're worth all this trouble. I get all teary just thinking about it. He is just such a sweet, lovable dork; he has a way of phrasing things that makes me laugh til my guts hurt. I love it when I stagger in from the gym all red-faced and stinky, he'll give me a hug and kiss regardless and say, "How was the Body? Which Body was it today?" And I'll say if it was Body Pump, Combat or Jam, and he'll always say, "Oh yeah. So many different Bodies, I can't keep up."

. . .

There is a book currently screaming up the UK bestseller charts called I CAN MAKE YOU THIN, by hypnotist Paul McKenna. From the gushing customer reviews on Amazon it sounds like the advice in the book is perfectly sensible, nothing new at all, but could the title be anymore stupid? But it's selling like hotcakes, so I guess people are walking by and seeing that title and saying, "CAN YOU? Can you really make me thin? COOL!" and then buy the book. Oh well.

Have a good weekend, groovers!

Fat Girl Freakout

Hello groovers. Happy Valentines! A big slobby kiss to you all.

So I got the wedding frock! I will stop short of describing the actual thing because I have a sneaking suspicious that the Scottish Companion knows about the site.

(Incidentally, I will have to tell him anyway, because en route to the honeymoon I'll be staying with Jillian, a kickarse chick I met through here! I am dead excited about that, but at this stage I told him we met "through my blog" but neglected to specify which one. Time to come clean, methinks.)

ANYWAY. You know what it's like when you shop when you've lost a bit of weight. Your brain struggles to catch up with how your body has changed. When I arrived in London on Friday night, my sister showed me a picture of this dress she'd found and thought could be a goer. I immediately said sulkily, "Well, it's too slinky, it's sleeveless and there's no way I can get into anything from that shop."

Sis rolled her eyes. "How about we LOOK and SEE."

"Fine, fine."

So we rocked up to the wee shop and I peeked in through the window, and declared we couldn't go in because the shop was empty THEREFORE the saleslady would annoy us and I would be humiliated IN MY UNDIES when she flung open the curtains to see the dress wedged somewhere around my gut.

"You told me the dress is also at the big department stores, why can't we go there so I can hide amongst the masses?"

"Nooo!" She insisted we were better off in the smaller, quieter shop; and we were just LOOKING anyway, there was no pressure. She marched inside and started riffling through the racks. She pulled something out and I said, "Oh, it's a skirt?" It looked to small to be a dress. But no, it was apparently a dress.

I started getting that Fat Girl Freakout feeling. Do you ever get that feeling? Where your heart starts pounding, your throat burns and tears spring to your eyes, because your Fat Girl Sense detects pending embarrassment and bludgeoning of self esteem. There was no freaking way I was even going to attempt to get into that! Especially not with that blonde skinny saleslady bouncing around the shop like a frisky puppy.

"Can we just go?" I begged. "Would it be so wrong to get married in jeans like Brittney Spears?"

But my sister was insistent. I was getting panicky. I flatly refused to try it on, instead I managed to persuade HER to try it on instead of me. "To test the sizes," I explained. The biggest size was a 16 and it looked nothing like any other 16 I'd ever seen. So my sis got into the cubicle and got into the frock. It was way too big for her.

"I think you should TRY," she said firmly, "There is no harm in TRYING!"

I made her patrol outside the cubicle and not let anyone in. I stepped into the dress. I was gobsmacked as it slid up over my hips... THEN my guts... THEN my boobs!

"Shit, I think this might work," I whispered.

"It's not working? Oh well, at least we tried."

"Noooo I said it MIGHT work!"

"WOOHOO! I knew it!" She threw back the curtain and jumped up and down grinning and zipped me up. It look a great effort, but not because I was too fat for it, just because it was a close-fitting dress. It fit just fine. It had little straps, but they were detachable and it looked better without them. It was evident I was going to need some seriously manipulative undergarments to make a better shape, but it actually looked pretty nice. It was sleeveless, but my arms didn't look too much like Boeing 747 wings. Especially after we added the sheer and totally subtle stole thingy. It flattered the arms without looking like serious camouflage.

"Quick, quick," I squealed as my sister danced around gleefully, "Help me get out of this now so we can go buy it before the dress changes its mind and won't let me fit into it anymore!"

My sister is such a gem, she really did find a great dress. I absolutely love it, and did not see anything else all day long in all of London that appealed half as much. It's a style that I've always loved, sort of warm and vintagey, but it's rather fitted and obviously sleeveless and a size 16 so there is no way in hell I would have ever even picked it up if it wasn't for her persuading. I dunno if I was happier about finding a gorgeous wedding dress or the fact that I got it from a Normal People's Shop. Ha ha!

That said, crikey people! If I eat ONE mouthful of anything remotely unhealthy between now and March 3, if I can one ounce, I could be seriously in trouble. Mwahaha! It fits perfectly well right now but one false move and POW! So if that's not incentive to keep up with the gymming then I don't know what is. Huzzah!

Wednesday Weigh-In - Week Five

Here we go again!

last update: 16 February 2005

age: 27
height: 173cm (5'8")

original start weight: 159.2 kg (351 lb) on 17 Jan 2001
original start bmi: 53.4

fresh start weight: 95.9 kg (211.4 lb) on 12 Jan 2005
fresh start bmi: 32.2

current weight: 89.5 kg (197 lb)
current bmi: 30

result this week: -1.1 kg (2.4 lb)

loss in 2005: -6.4 kg (14 lb)
total loss since 2001: -69.7 kg (153 lb)

initial goal weight: 75 kg (165 lb)
distance to initial goal: 14.5 kg  (32 lb)

. . .

My weekly hop on the scales is so precise it borders on a religious ceremony. I do it as soon as I wake up. I take the scale into the bathroom, because the floorboards in my room are uneven. The bathroom floor tiles are black and white like a chessboard, and I place the scale on THE SAME tile every week. Then I go to the loo, then I wash my hands, then I strip off, then I get on the scale. I make a note of the number. Then I weigh myself four more times to make sure it wasn't an accident.

If I deviate from this routine I'd feel like it was cheating somehow. At least I know I am starting from the same place each week - naked with empty stomach. I fear this week's weigh-in, however, is not a true reflection of the past week. I won't go into the details, but lets just say last night's vegetable chili was having a rather dramatic effect on my digestive system this morning, and the ensuing evacuation may have made the numbers go down more than usual.

So this week I SHOULD be jumping up and down because HOLY FREAKING SHIT, I'm an 80s Girl! But I will wait and see what happens next week and celebrate then if applicable. I had some champagne and pizza on the weekend so I'm just not sure how I could lose so much in a week, even if I did walk around London for six freaking hours with only twenty minutes stop for lunch. Hmmm.

Anyway, even if the scales go up next week, let us just pause and reflect that I saw a number on the scale that began with 8. It has taken me for-bloody-ever to reach this moment. I became a 90s girl about August 2003. And I have not weighed under 90 kilos since 1994. Eleven years ago! Holy moly. I can't believe I've lost eleven years of lard.

It's tempting to go a bit crazy for the next two weeks before the wedding. After all, the dress is damn fitted and if I gain an ounce it could all explode! EXPLODE, I tells ya. But if I cut my calories too low, I won't have enough energy for the gym, I will feel like shit and my skin will look rubbish. So I am going to stick to my usual regime but be extra careful to lay off processed foods and refined carbs.

I also need to make sure I don't drink too much. Nothing puffs me up like alcohol! I have a night out on Friday, another on Saturday, and dinner at a friend's place on Sunday night who said she is planning some calorific dessert to wow us all. So my plan for the nights out is to sneak to the bar and get glasses of iced water with a wedge of lime or lemon, so I can pretend I have vodka or gin. I can alternate that with real drinks. They'll all be so drunk before long they won't even notice what I'm doing.

As for the Sunday Night Cal Fest, I will just make sure I be extra healthy and wholesome during the week so I have some calories up my sleeve for Sunday. Plus plenty of exercise! Woohoo.

So that's the plan, just remind me to stick to it!

Before and After

I used to be really dedicated to my fat. I put so much effort into collecting it. When I lived alone in 1999 there was a phase where I'd bake cakes all the time. My favourite was a chocolate cake made with Cadbury's cocoa powder, as opposed to actual chocolate, so it was really quick and cheap to make. I'd eat the whole cake by myself, over a day or two. I'd eat a great fat wedge with a glass of cold milk or two while sitting in front of the telly.

To me there was nothing more comforting in the world than the cake/cold milk combo. There was something about how the milk would make the cake explode in my mouth, then I could feel this surge of cold crumby liquid race down my throat and burst in my chest. For me bingeing has always been about the textures as well as the tastes. I always remember the feel of food just as much as the flavour. I'd go cut another slice, pour another glass, just to feel it again. There was one time I baked and ate three cakes in a week.

Last weekend in London with my sister and her flatmate, they went to university together so I hadn't seen her since December 2000. That was a month before I started Weight Watchers, when I was still baking up a storm. I totally forgot how long it had been, so I couldn't work out why she kept staring at me all weekend. My sister emailled me Monday to say her roomie had been stunned and said, "My my, how she has changed! She was radiant!". Bear in mind she is Swiss and has quite quaint English.

All I could say to my sister was, "Oh wow! So she could notice a difference?". CRIKEY, I can't believe I said that. If she couldn't notice 69 kilos gone, well I'd be in serious trouble. She is one of the last people I know that I haven't seen since the beginning of the Lard Busting Journey, so it was a kinda cool reminder that the Before and After are quite different.

I was standing at the bus stop this morning and suddenly realised that I wasn't thinking about food. I knew I would have my yogurt, apple, oats and seeds combo for breakfast once I got to work. I knew I'd be having chilli for lunch and chicken salad for dinner, some fruit and nuts in between. Cool. I felt a rush of calm and relief that I knew exactly what I was going to eat. I wasn't busting for the next meal, or plotting opportunities to buy chocolate or tubs of ice cream. Just a couple months ago during my Christmas Binge I was heading back towards those Hey Let's Bake Me A Cake days. As soon as I ate breakfast I was snuffling around in the kitchen looking for chocolates, and asking SC what was for lunch. At one point he said with a hint of bewilderment, "You're just OBSESSED with food lately!"

It's taken five long weeks to turn my brain around. It disturbs me to know how easily I can let food rule my life like that, but at the same time I know I have the power to stop it. I am so determined not to let the wedding and honeymoon send me backwards again. I am not the person in the Before photo anymore, physically or mentally. I will just keep living like the After shot, and sooner or later I'll be it.

Puffy

So much for the Water Disguised As Gin plan! The barmaid poured my water into a gigantic pint glass, so there was no hiding the fact I was teetotalling. "Why are you drinking WATER?" everyone demanded, "It's your night out!"

I ended up with one real gin and tonic but somehow made it last the whole night. Saturday night I had two and half gin and tonics and another pint of water which is a miracle considering I was out with seven of my work colleagues who are quite enthusiastic about their drinking.

Finally, Sunday night! The calorific dessert my friend had planned turned out to be a banoffee pie - a rich crust filled with bananas, sticky caramel and whipped cream. Holy crap. I had a small slice and my head was throbbing - it was sooo delicious but sooo rich! The main was a delicious spicy lime and lentil soup, but I passed on the accompanying hunks of fresh white bread and butter, and also skipped the wine. All in all I was really pleased with how I handled the weekend.

I tried on the wedding frock again. It still fits but there's some dodginess getting the final inch of zip up. I am so bloated from those lentils today, so will have to be really careful about what I eat for the next ten days. I'm not trying to lose weight, I just know how easily I puff up. Can anyone recommend what foods to avoid? Aside from lentils. My stomach is still groaning and I am one big fart just waiting to happen!

. . .

I thought I'd be freaking out about the wedding by now, but I haven't had any time for that yet! I'm moving to Chez Bagpipes tonight so I've been busy packing my stuff. And going out on the town. And going to the gym! I put my weights up at Body Pump yesterday. I'm up to 20kg for the squats which is really good for me, hehe.

So I'm not freaking out, but I'm freaking EXCITED! I cannot wait for next Thursday. Whoa, what? Next Thursday? NEXT WEEK? OKAY maybe it is time to freak out. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(NB: Come back on Wednesday coz I will tell you all about what's going to happen)

. . .

I had a comment in the last entry (hi Skinnie Minnie!) about skin. With 69 kilos gone you'd think I'd be a saggy baggy mess, but so far I am happy with how things are looking. Luckily I started lifting weights about September 2000, just 9 months into the Lard Busting Journey. There's been patches of months at a time when I didn't do this, but if you look at it over the four years I've done it more weeks than I haven't. So this seems to have helped a lot, exercise in general really helps.

Most of all the fact that is has taken me so damn long to lose this weight has probably given my skin time to adjust. It's not been a sudden and dramatic loss. My stomach is lardy, as are my upper arms and thighs, but it's all still fat there, not skin. I am never going to have one of these super sleek taut bodies - I was way too obese to ever recover fully - but at this stage I don't think there is going to be any great globs of skin. Let's see what happens anyway, I still have a long way to go, and I will definitely be upping the exercise to help things along as much as possible.

If you're quite overweight and reading this, please don't let the fear of skin deter you from losing weight. Just start exercising as soon as you possibly can and make sure lifting heavy objects is part of that!

Wednesday Weigh-In - Week Six

I'm late, I'm late! Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. I have come down with the mother of all colds so spent the day in bed sneezing and wheezing and feeling sorry for myself. I am still weak as a kitten and struggling to stay awake. My friends and colleagues have all had cold or flu over the past two months and I thought my healthy lifestyle had spared me from the same fate. But noooo! Rudolph Red nose right before our freakin wedding!

Anyway, here's this weeks stats.

last update: 23 February 2005

age: 27
height: 173cm (5'8")

original start weight: 159.2 kg (351 lb) on 17 Jan 2001
original start bmi: 53.4

fresh start weight: 95.9 kg (211.4 lb) on 12 Jan 2005
fresh start bmi: 32.2

current weight: 88.7 kg (195.2 lb)
current bmi: 29.7

result this week: -0.8 kg (1.7 lb)

loss in 2005: -7.2 kg (15.8 lb)
total loss since 2001: -70.5 kg (155 lb)

initial goal weight: 75 kg (165 lb)
distance to goal: 13.7 kg (30.2 lb)

Can you believe it after 4 years and one month of Lard Busting, I am finally classified as plain "Overweight" instead of "Obese"? Those damn BMI people really know how to make you feel like a pork.

And now I have now FINALLY hit 70 kilos lost, which blows my mind. I've almost lost a whole Scottish Companion! I've lost 140 tubs of margarine! I have lost as much weight as what I'd like my goal to be!

. . .

I owe people emails and replies to comments and I have been quite slackety slack on other people's sites as well. Here is my humble apology and I vow to catch up after the connubials! I also have to say a HUGE thank you to Julia for sending us a CD, and to MR (what is your email?) for sending us a GIANT FOUR SLICE TOASTER and Donna for sending us a groovy silicone oven glove from the wishlist/wedding register thingo. SC hasn't had a toaster in his house for three years, and I set his oven glove on fire after trying to grill bread, so you can really see how a new toaster and oven glove were gratefully received!

Someone anonymous sent a copy of "How To Steal A Million", one of my fave Audrey Hepburn movies. I would love to know who you are so I can say thank you properly, so please chuck us an email if you're out there!

. . .

You may have been wondering why I have been so cool, calm and collected about the wedding. That would be because we are actually having three weddings. Sorta.

As you know my family is in Oz, his family is in Scotland, and we have to be married quick sticks otherwise I'll be deported. We were busting our guts after he proposed trying to organise a venue in a ridiculous short time with no money. And meanwhile it was looking incredibly dodgy and expensive to get any of my people over here, especially my Ma who is the principal of a small school and can't really just pack up and leave at short notice. Our only feasible option seemed the register office, which has a crowd limit of 30. It just felt so WRONG and rushed, like he'd knocked me up and we had to get wed to make it look proper. We were both stressed and panicky and dreading the hell out of the wedding instead of being excited. Where's the joy in that? Eh? EH?

Suddenly we came up with the genius idea of running away, just the two of us. It has all happened so fast we felt the need to escape, say our vows together and take some time to digest what we're really doing, time to reflect. THEN in the summer we will have a wee party here for the Scottish crowd. Then in October we will be visiting Australia, so what better time for an Oz celebration. This way EVERYONE gets to celebrate, and we have time to plan decent events. They will both just be casual parties, but at least people will actually be able to be there, and not have to remortgage their houses for airfares! We of course talked it all over with our folks first, and they are cool with it happy we found a compromise that suits our style. Best of all me and SC get to do something that WE are finally happy with and finally excited about.

So it's not that weird really. We're simply having the wedding and honeymoon BEFORE the receptions. Just a slight reordering of events! And I will get to wear my dress three times, is that not value for money?

There will be photos for all three occasions, and full saturation coverage on my blog, so you the reader also get plenty of value for money too. Woohoo!

We head off tomorrow and won't be back until March 12. So this is the last Wednesday Weigh In until 16 March. In terms of my lard, I am aiming to stay under 90 kilos. I don't want to stack in on! But at the same time I'm not eating lettuce for dinner.

I will be sneaking online whenever I can, hopefully with photos. Thanks to you all for being soooo lovely, hilarious and supportive over the past few years. I am deliriously excited about everything that's happening and it's been great to have you along for the ride. So speak to you soon!