What with all the other rubbish going on here, I’d forgotten to post a quick update about health, weight loss etc.

While I’m currently away during the week, I’m still working on the entire weight-loss thing, although I’m not managing to weigh myself regularly. I know I should (in theory) but I’m not doing – I’m quite happy with knowing it’s coming off.

Besides, I’ve got my own evidence that I’m still dropping weight.

For one thing my belt is now two holes in from where it used to be – that means that I’ve lost about an inch from round my waist.

The other big sign is that I’m now able to wear T-shirts one size smaller than I was when I started the weightloss. (And they’re T-Shirts from the same manufacturer, so none of this “one size in [company A], another size in [Company B]” malarkey)  I’m now wearing a 2x shirt instead of a 3x.

It’s small things – and small but steady losses. I’m not wanting to drop five stone in five months, or anything insane like that. I am wanting to lose it, and keep it off. And as I do lose it, I’ll be doing more stuff in order to keep it off.

I’m happy with how I’m doing, anyway.

In the ongoing work towards gaining fitness and losing weight, the current work environment is actually pretty good. In work I’m on the fourteenth floor, and in the Travelodge I’m currently on the 6th.

First of all, I’m walking between Travelodge and work – it’s roughly half a mile each way, which is fine. That now takes me about six or seven minutes (my kind of commute!) and a bit longer when I’m lugging my Big Bag on Mondays and Fridays.

Now, I’m also a lazy bastard – I admit it freely. So I really can’t be arsed to walk up the flights of stairs (if I could even find them – I know they’re here somewhere, but no idea quite where) to Floor 14 – besides which, I’d be a sweaty lump of dough by the time I got there.

But I do walk up/down the six floors of stairs (i.e. twelve flights of stairs) at the Travelodge rather than using the lift. I’m not knackered at the end of it, but I know I’ve done it (well, on the way up anyway) which is probably a good indication of how out of shape I am. But at least I’m working on it.

What does bemuse me, though, is the people – both at work and at the Travelodge – who take the lift to go up one floor. Fine, if they’ve got loads of bags or whatever, I’m not going to begrudge it. But seriously, if all you’ve got is your sodding iPod or whatever, one floor of stairs isn’t going to break you into a sweat.

This week, I haven’t lost any weight, for the first time in six weeks. Mind you, I haven’t gained any either, so it could’ve been worse.

I knew I hadn’t done well this week, what with one thing and another – but I was still thinking I’d have lost something.

I know that sometimes this’ll happen, but still, in some ways it feels like I’ve let myself down somewhat by not losing any. Stupid, I know.

In some ways though, I think it’s also a good thing, because it shows me that I am actually serious about wanting to keep on losing it, to get down to where I want to be.

The next few weeks are going to be slightly more of  a challenge, with the London contract, but we’re looking at ways to get that more sorted too, so I think that I’ll be OK with that, too.

We’ll see, anyway.

I know, I’ve said many times before about the way I’ve been planning to lose some weight, and all that shit. And it’s always been “I intend to”, rather than “I am”.

Recently that’s changed though, and I am working on it. I’ve started going back to the gym, although I’m not back in the habit of it yet – I still need to think about it, and force myself to go. Hopefully that’ll improve though.

But I am already losing weight, because of the other thing. Over the last month, I’ve been going to a local Slimming World group, and it seems to be doing the trick.

Basically, it’s about “reprogramming” our food and diet a bit, getting rid of some of the convenience stuff we were making use of – by which I mean things like jars of curry or sweet’n'sour (or whatever) sauces, rather than doing our own. Other than that, I don’t think we’ve really changed a lot about what we eat or drink. We just think about it a bit more now.

One of the things I do like about Slimming World in comparison to Weightwatchers et al. is that you can set your own target for where you want to be – it’s not based on idiot BMI charts etc, unlike our experience with WeightWatchers a few years back which put me off going back.  They also never announce your actual weight (nor the weight you started off at) which means no-one else knows/cares what you actually are, it’s about what you’ve lost. And that’s an attitude I quite like.

I’m not shy about it, though. I don’t have a problem with admitting that when I started, I was weighed at exactly 22st 1lb. I’m not happy (or proud) about it, but that’s what it was. And my current goal is to get back to where I was back in April 2005 , to be under 20 stone again. From there, I’ll see what happens – but that’s my current plan.

And I won’t write about it here every week – D4D™ isn’t going to turn into Dummies for Dieting anytime soon. I’ll write about it every so often, I’m sure, but not every week. That’s just dull.

What I will say now though is that in the time I’ve been going, I’ve already lost 8 and a half pounds. Not an awesome loss (just over half a stone) but equally, not bad either.

One of the big issues for me when it comes to my weight is my own perception of it – or the lack thereof, I’m not sure which.

Firstly, there’s the simple fact that I’m pretty big anyway, although I’m not going to use (and never have used) the excuse of being “big-boned” for being the weight I am. However, one can’t escape the simple fact that (as I’ve said before) I’m still 6’3″(ish) tall, and have a chest measurement that’s at least 50″ on it’s own. And that’s a chest measurement, not a belly one – so we’re talking structure, not flab. All told, my body can take a fair bit of weight without looking like I’m fat.

Second, my mum (in particular) is by no means slim – that’s not meant nastily, simply a statement of fact – which has done something to my perceptions of size, in that “normal” in my head most definitely isn’t Size Ten, or whatever.

The third thing is that on the rare occasions I see a TV programme like “Biggest Loser” or whatever, I try to compare my own weight with that of the competitors. And that’s a problem – because I simply don’t have the rolls of fat that appear on them, even when those people are spposedly lighter than the just-over-300pounds that I am currently. (And yes, I know that I’m probably taller than they are too, etc. etc.)

I know I’m overweight, I know I need to lose some – and I’m working on it, of which more later in the week – but somewhere along the line I need to believe it as well as know it, if that makes any sense…