iDiet

[a weight loss story]

kathrynoh at nemesis dot com dot au

::16.2.06::

Rest

I'm having a rest day today. My weary body needs a break.

Tonight I was browsing through a magazine (forget which one) and it had the averages for Australian women. Average size is 16. Average height is 164 cm and average weight is 69 kgs. That means I'm less than 10 kilograms over the average weight but since I'm 4 cm taller, I'm not really that overweight. The average hip measurement is around 97 cm and the average bra size is 14c.

Buggers me how the average size is also the biggest most manufacturers make. It's almost impossible to find a fashion bra over a 14c (if they even go that high) and even rarer to find a fashion label over a 16. I know it's been said a zillion times but why? It's just not good business sense.

It also struck me with a wallop, after reading this incredibly insightful post (found via the delightful Shauna), that soon I'll be having to maintain my weight. Forever. That scares me. The thrill of seeing the number decline on the scales each week is a hella powerful motivator for me. Is it just me or do other people get to the point where you are no longer motivated by the reason for which you originally started losing weight and instead the weight loss itself is the motivator? Does that make sense? I mean, you just want to lose weight for the sake of losing weight - it's no longer about health or looks, it's about a smaller number.

I guess I have other things to motivate me now - running goals. Since I can run 5K, I want to do it faster and with incline and outdoors. Running on the treadmill with no incline is kinda like having the training wheels on, not that I want to downplay my achievement in any way.

Maintenance sounds hard. I think I'll miss losing weight. It's the only thing that's kept me together at times in the past year.

I got a new work skirt at the op shop yesterday and damn my legs look good in it. I wore it today and I couldn't stop perving on myself. I spent the day looking for reflective surfaces so I could check them out. I fear I'm getting awfully vain.

Anyway, I'll finish up tonight with a funny story. I only have one pair of work shoes and they have very thin soles and hurt my poor little baby feet if I have to walk too far - like from the train station to work - so tonight on the way home I went into a shop and got some inner soles for them. Waiting for the train, I was so amused at my nanna-like joy at having inner soles that I had to put them in straight away. I had one in my shoe when the train came so did up my shoe and got on board. As the train pulled out of the station, I looked down at the packet and realised the other inner sole had fallen out on the platform. If, but some weirdarsed coincidence, someone reading this found a single inner sole at Camberwell station tonight, my left foot would really appreciate it if you could send it to me.

# 6 comments * Post a Comment

:D

insert cheesy joke about lost soles here! mwahhaha!

that really is food for thought re the maintenance. i sometimes wonder what i will do when i get there because i have spend SO long focused on smaller numbers. probably time to start getting some new hobbies ready to distract me... hehehe!

hope ya enjoyed that well-earned rest!

By Anonymous, at 2:42 am

enjpy your rest day!

good post. I don't talk much about maintenance on my blog because I'm not really comfortable with the idea yet, for many of the reasons you mentioned. First, I'm kind of in disbelief that I made it, and second, I'm like, wtf do I do now? There's half a foot of snow outside so my outdoorsy hobbies aren't as available and the treadmill can only keep one's attention for so long. So I'm still working on it. Thanks for the insight!

And I thought the same thing as dg - lost soles! There's a good "missed encounter" personal ad in there somwhere. "Single white male looking for "sole"mate. If you are missing yours, I can return it to you over dinner...."

By Zara, at 4:03 am

I think successful maintenance depends on your emotional health. After the "you look great" comments stop because everyone is used to seeing you skinny, the drama is gone. I got so focused on not gaining weight that my entire life revolved around food and exercise. I stopped going out to eat for fear that I'd be too tempted to order something unhealthy. I forced myself to exercise no matter how tired or sick I was.

By wife2abadge, at 7:04 am

I'm scared about maintenance too, but i'm still thinking i'll never get there so i'm putting it out of my mind right now!!
Bri

By Briony, at 9:51 am

Fashion...mmm, I have asked a designer that question about size and the honest answer was that their clothes don't look good on "fat" people. They have an "image" they want to protray with their label. I know it sucks but I can see their point of view, not necessarily agree with it but fine. I have a vision for my art too and wouldn't want it shown in certain say galleries or something. Just trying to make some sense of it.

Speaking of business sense....Anton's in Melbourne opened up in Sydney and I asked them why they're in a bad place that has no walk by traffic etc and the chick said that Anton likes his stuff to be found. People that really want their eccentric 40's inspired clothing will find it and they don't need to be on a main street or something. It's not about making loads of money but more about the integrity of the clothing, design, culture.

Now I'm waffling but I think with fashion, if it's designer, it's like art. If it's not and you can get a range of sizes, then we go to Target, Kmart or Sussans I guess.

Maintenance....much easier than you think! By the time you get to goal, you'd have worked it out and realise that you have in fact changed your lifestyle :-)

By Mary, at 6:30 pm

It is good to think of things to work towards otherwise you could hit goal and go WTF now? Improving the 5km run time sounds great, you could also enter duathalon or something similar, work on toning etc. The options are endless.

You could take up shoe making perhaps?

By Lucinda, at 9:12 pm