Why?

This week I’m really proud of myself! I knew that if I hadn’t lost anything when I stepped on the scales this week, I would be genuinely gutted, but my hard work has paid off and I had a loss of 4 ½ pounds! Which means I am back on target for having lost my 14-pound goal by my 1-year anniversary of 30^th October and most importantly I got to cross off some of those numbers, which is really therapeutic. 

  Our friend Laura has joined us in our Slinky mission too and we have grand plans of heading to Vegas next year and being the hottest babes on the strip. I think our trip will probably end up something like this, which I think the 3 of us know is how we'll be in about 40 years time!

In the meeting today we were talking about what was the catalyst that made you want to lose weight.  Everyone had different reasons for some it was because they wanted to be able to run around with their children, for others it was a photo that had spurred them into action and for some a cruel comment.

  Lucy works with a lot of men and without wishing to tar every bloke with the same brush, sometimes you don’t think before you speak! One of the blokes Lucy worked with schmoozed her with the line “blimey Trinder you’ve put some timber on” Safe to say he didn’t get a brew made for him for the rest of the day. It really hurt Lucy, she'll tell you she'd never really had a weight problem before, but said she could feel it starting to spiral out of control, so when someone else mentioned it, she knew it was time to act!

For me, I think it was the realisation that it was about time I put myself first, as no one else will! They always say the only person who loves you more than you love yourself is your dog and if I’m honest I sometimes think Cyril waivers on that!

Cyril ignoring me!

 I’d had such a long period of time where I let life get me down; I always put the needs of others before my own, particularly in my working environment. I think I was very aware that I wasn’t popular and so tried to make people like me by helping where I could and taking the things they didn't want to do off their hands. Very often I’d plan to do something like go for a walk at lunch time or nip out and do my shopping so that it left my evening free to go to the gym, but then someone would shove something on my desk and I’d end up doing that. I know some personal trainers would argue that meant that exercise wasn’t a priority for me and maybe it wasn’t because I was just trying to keep my head above water. The reality was it didn't make anyone like me any better, I was still very unpopular and Vile Scabby Fanny would still miss me out when offering everyone else a cake (in hindsight maybe she thought I'd eaten enough cakes in my time and was trying to help me lose weight?)

Eventually I reached breaking point and a colleague asked me to help him with something that didn’t need doing. I had a meeting scheduled so I said no. You’d have thought I’d have asked him if I could have a poo on his desk as he spent the next TWO weeks wearing his headphones, pretending to listen to something on his computer, when I could see it wasn’t connected to anything. He didn’t speak to me only to unceremoniously hand me his mug when I offered to make a coffee. And people ask me if I miss my last job?

 After a few months of licking my wounds and getting my head straight again I thought it was time I did something for myself. It’s harder than it sounds because my natural tendency is to do stuff for other people first, Lucy and Dad say I’m a love monster. 

  Losing weight is now a major a priority for me, because there’s only me that can do it, it's on my list of non-negotiables, along with these;

1. Lose weight
2. Spend time with my friends and family
3. Never miss an episode of "Dexter"

There’s only me that can drag my fabulous ass (well it will be fabulous) to the gym and if I eat crap it will only affect me, no one else will put on weight if I shove my face with a family sized bar of Dairy Milk (other chocolates are available)  

  I have a lot to lose so it’s all about small victories for me, last week I managed to zip up a pair of knee high boots that I’d never worn before because my calves were too fat and I’ve had to get rid a pair of trousers that were too big and made me look like Kevin Federline in the Britney years, which wasn’t a good look even in the early noughties!

 Ultimately I have a size 10 dress that I want to get into, the last time I wore it was on a Valentine’s date with my ex, the evening wasn’t massively successful and I’ve always felt like the dress was slightly wasted, probably why he's now my ex!

An Escaped Beagle, a Damp Patch and a Biscuit Tin!

Yesterday I had one of those days where it felt like I was going to get my ass kicked. Everything was just really frustrating, every time I sat down to do something, something went wrong, computers crashed, websites wouldn’t load, Cyril decided to leg it out the gates and introduce himself to next door, but one. If someone had filmed that it would probably have been quite funny to watch back! Being a hound dog, Cyril picked up some kind of interesting scent and off he went, I realising what was happening went legging it after him, frantically screaming for Lucy to help. In hindsight I should have acted calmly and Cyril would have come back to me. As it was, my reaction made him think it was a game, so off he went next door but one and started playing with a golden retriever. In fact the “game” only game to an end when the next door but one neighbour flung himself on the floor and on top of Cyril! Cyril has now been grounded.

  Just as I got back to the office I got a phone call from the estate agent to say she’d shown someone round my "for sale flat" and it looked as though upstairs had got a leak and my walls were covered in damp, so again it was a case of stopping what I was doing and heading over there to sort out yet another problem!

  I think yesterday it was safe to say that by 1pm I was very much in a foul mood and when things get tough for me, my make myself feel better strategy is to stuff my face! By 1pm, the biscuit tin in our office had never looked more appealing and all I wanted was a massive cup of tea and to dunk biscuits until the tin was empty!

  Then as I was messing around on the Internet, I found this quote. 

It struck a cord, I thought all I’m doing by being in a bad mood is attracting more and more negative stuff to happen to me and actually emptying the contents of the biscuit tin wont make me feel better, all it will do is make me mad at myself next week when I get on the scales.

  So I decided to stop what I was doing and take Cyril for a walk at one of my favourite places. We went off to Newstead Abbey, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in Nottinghamshire. As I looked at the water glinting off the lake I was dragged out of my funk by an American couple who wanted to know where the gardens were because they wanted to see “traditional English roses”, I resisted the temptation to say they were talking to one and pointed them in the right direction. They then thought I was some sort of tour guide because they started asking me loads of questions about Lord Byron and whether monks still lived there. I actually shocked myself with my knowledge of Byron, but sensed their disappointment at the fact they weren't going to see any monks.  In fact I think I was one step away from raising my umbrella in the air and insisting they followed me whilst I pointed out various places of interest. I left them to explore and Cyril and I continued about our business and after my conversation with them and seeing Cyril legging it about really happily my bad mood seemed to have lifted.

 When I got back to the office I’d received e-mails from potential clients and confirmation of more work, which again added to my happy mood. That night I stuck to the promise I’d made to myself to go the gym and as I peddled away and lifted weights it felt like even my iPod wanted to play ball and every song that came up on shuffle was a winner! I had to stop myself singing this out loud. I love a bit of Taylor Swift, particularly when she’s in shouting at boys’ mode!

  By the end of what could have been a rubbish day, I’d earned 8 bonus points and the contents of my biscuit tin were still in tack!

  I am a massive believer in the saying “what you think about you bring about” so for me I stopped thinking about was wrong with the day and focused on what was right!

Oh and PS - my upstairs neighbour phoned me back about the damp and he's really hot and the problem is being sorted!

Saving Stuff for Best.

So as you can see from our chart my 2 pound a week plan hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts, I stayed the same (boo) and Lucy managed a loss of a pound and a half. Still I’m not feeling defeated, I can still achieve my target!

  The change in weather means that when taking Cyril for his daily walk, I’ve had to wrap up, there was a slightly dodgy moment when I decided to wear new trainers for such a venture and was hobbling around Newstead Abbey in a very unladylike fashion. It also means I’ve been able to dig out my dog walking hat! I had a conversation with my friend Michelle about this the other day and I think she thought that there was a special range of clothing designed solely for the purpose of dog walkers (there isn’t as far as I know, but maybe I could launch a Slinky fashion range and debut it at London fashion week next year, with our key pieces being hats for dog walkers?)

    It’s really just a hat that I liked and wanted to wear, it’s also practical at keeping my head warm when I’m out in the cold, but because I like to give things a sense of occasion my hat had to have a name and a purpose.

  I realised that it’s a bit of a Trinder thing to make a sense of occasion of things and this stems from my Mum. My Mum would always try and make things fun, so for example when we had to go to the orthodontist in Nottingham she would take us on the bus and let us sit upstairs (this is fun when you’re a child!) We would then get to have a wander round the shops, then have our gobs prodded and poked by Mr May and then she would take us for tea at Jessops, where we could pick anything we wanted (within reason!) It just meant that rather than seeing it as a trip to the Orthodontist, it became an outing with Mum, which was far more fun. When I had to have an operation on my ankle, my Mum made sure that waiting for me whilst I recovered was a pile of trashy magazines and a stack of DVD’s. As a family we always celebrate Thanksgiving, we know we’re not American, but any excuse for a Turkey dinner.

  My Mum also never saved anything for “best, she believed clothing and jewellery were for wearing otherwise it just sat in a cupboard and you never got to make the most of it. She did this because she once read an article about a woman who had treated herself to a Janet Reger nightdress and had promised herself that once she’d lost all her weight and felt more confident she would wear it. Sadly the woman died before she got the chance to wear it, this stuck with my Mum and as a result fancy handbags were used daily and she always wore an expensive watch my Dad bought her. Some of this was down to the fact that she thought if she used something daily my Dad would never realise how much she'd spent on something. She once passed off a Mulberry handbag as something she had bought from Marks and Spencers! My Dad now claims he knew the truth all along, but he didn't!

  It’s the Trinder way to try and turn even the dullest of events into an occasion and I know for a couple of ex-friends it got annoying as they couldn’t understand why we would bother. Well the reason is really simple, you’re a long time dead and if you are spending your Saturday night sat in watching the “X-Factor” then why not make it more exciting by getting everyone to wear matching pyjamas and pretend their a judge? Alright it might not be for everyone, but it beats sitting in glaring at your husband!

  We very much follow the principal that if you’ve got something horrible to do, plan something nice for when you’ve done it. It doesn’t have to be expensive for example today we had to input our expenses and chase invoices, so we decided that once we’d done it, we’d have a cup of tea and a flake. It’s amazing how much enjoyable it was knowing there was a flake the other side of it!

  For the last New Year’s Eve I had a really bad case of laryngitis and so me, Lucy, Laura and Laura’s children had a “Onsie New Year”, where we just hung out at my house watching films and wearing a onsie, it meant that despite being ill I got to spend time with my mates and yet I could legitimately wear my PJ’s without feeling bad.

  If you’re one of these people who always says “when I’m thinner / richer / happier etc. I will do XYZ” Then have a word with yourself, because you’re missing out on so much, wear that jumper you said you’d save for a special occasion, get your friends round and hold your own version of Come Dine With Me and just enjoy life!

  Oh PS, there's now a Slinky By Tuesday Facebook page www.facebook.com/slinkybytuesday and Twitter @slinkybytuesday

Early Mornings and Hot Blokes!

So far so good this week! Lucy and I have set ourselves the challenge of losing a stone before our 1 year Weight Watchers anniversary, which is the 30^th October. We’ve even pinned a chart to the office noticeboard so we can cross off the pounds as we go!

  When (not if) we both lose the required 14 pounds, it will see Lucy reach goal weight and me achieve my 15% goal. Before anyone thinks we’ve set ourselves an unrealistic target, essentially it equates to us losing 2 pounds a week, which is what the people who know what they’re talking about say you should aim for.

  I think the more my slinky mission continues, the more I’ve realised that you have to set yourself realistic goals. I know I have a sweet tooth and so to deny myself any form of chocolaty goodness would see me have a bonkers moment where I just stuff myself full of a family size bar of Dairy Milk! So instead of saying that I wont eat chocolate I’ve found low fat options. For example a flake is only 2 Weight Watchers points and a curly wurly is only 3 and they’re proper chocolate! Plus you can have 4 rich tea biscuits for 3 points, if you have those with a brew you feel like you’re being really naughty when in fact you’re not! (well your not if you have the points!)

  Exercise is the same for me, I think in the past I’ve set myself unrealistic targets and made such bold statements as “I’ll get up every morning at 6 and do an hours workout before I start work” The reality of that is, my alarm would go off, I’d have an extra hour in bed and then get up to watch “Daybreak” (other breakfast news shows are available) with a brew.

  This time I’ve decided that I will go to the gym a minimum of twice a week, any more than that and yay me, but no pressure! In my working life I’m really organised and keep a list of what needs doing when, that way I know what I’m trying to achieve that day. (These organisational skills may shock my friends who know my non-working reality is somewhat more chaotic) I decided to adapt this philosophy to my gym schedule, so I looked in my diary at what I had to do that week, when I could realistically fit everything in and decided when the gym trips could happen! Hey presto last night I went after work and then again this morning! I got up when my alarm went off and headed to the gym! If I manage to fit in a workout tomorrow brilliant, if not then I wont feel guilty! The bonus of going to the gym this morning was I saw a really hot man leaving for work who lives round the corner from me. I felt as though the exercising Gods were rewarding me for going to the gym so early! In fact he was so hot, I’ll be getting up early next week to go the gym!

  I’ve also decided I need to put together a new gym playlist to motivate me, I pressed shuffle on my IPod this morning and as much as I love Angry Anderson, it’s not really great at making me pedal faster on the bike. Don’t judge me! If you’re mid 30’s I bet you still cry at the clip of Scott and Charlene getting married, if you don’t, then you’ve a heart of stone!

  So any suggestions for suitable songs for my “work you ass of playlist”? Please keep in mind the following

1)     I have rubbish taste in music

2)     I’m not a big fan of anything that takes its inspiration from a car alarm

3)     I love soft rock and also boy bands 

Please and thank you to you!