Beating The Body Humbug!

No, it’s not Christmas humbug I’ve got.  It’s clothing humbug!

The poor, unfortunate creature at the left was my very own Duct Tape Dress Form.   If you were following my pursuit of that idea back at the end of 2009, you will remember that it was a rather embarrassing revelation to see just what my body shape looked like.  But I put it online anyway, in order to show people how to make sewing patterns fit easier, and thus the clothing fit better.

About a month ago, I went to put the dress form back on and check to make sure it was still the right size.  Uhh… no.  It’s not.  I stepped on a scale and whoopsie!  How did those extra numbers get in there??!!  Surely the scale must be wrong.

I’ve battled with food and exercise since the mid 80’s, going both up and down in weight as much as 50 lbs.  I’ve been to Weight Watchers.  I worked out at Curves.  I’d been able to lose weight on both of those programs, getting down to 167 pounds – which was pretty darn good for a woman who is 5’8″ and middle-aged.

But then came the plantar fasciitis (a painful injury to the strong band of ligaments that run down the middle of your foot).  At the time I was working on my feet 8 hours a day, and by the end of a shift I literally couldn’t walk once I got out of the car at home.  I tried a lot of different shoes, shoe inserts and things to help with the pain. but eventually I had to quit that job.  The loss of income forced me to tighten my belt financially, and so all non-essentials had to go, like membership in Weight Watchers and Curves.

Well, rather than keep up my healthy habits, I used the job loss and foot problem as excuses to let my discipline slip.  My weight and dress size slowly crept up each year so that now in 2011, I’m 30 pounds heavier than I should be.  I’ve gone back and forth between convincing myself that I am what I am, and I can’t change it – to knowing that I’m not eating healthy or getting enough exercise.  You know which one is the truth.

So I’m taking some positive action – against my humbug, and against my excuses, like this recent one:  “If I lose the weight, then the clothes I’ve taken all this time and effort to sew won’t fit, and I’ll have to sew new ones…”.

Okay, so I have to make new ones.  It’s not the end of the world.  I like to sew.  And sewing  new ones – or even altering old ones – would be proof that I was making progress in my plan to get those 30 pounds back off my body.

I’m returning to the point system for tracking my food intake, and signed up for Weight Watchers Online.  (I already know how to use the program, how to weight and measure myself, etc; so I don’t need to attend meetings).  I went to the podiatrist to begin the process of managing the fasciitis, and purchased a pair of custom orthotics for my shoes.  Between the orthotics and my stretching exercises, I hope to be getting back on the treadmill and walking a couple miles a day.

My goal is to get those 30 pounds off by the time the IPCA Retreat and the Bristol Renaissance Faire roll around in July.  There are 20 weeks until the retreat, and if I lose the minimum of a pound or two a week, then I should be able to meet that goal.  I might have to sew an entirely new Renaissance dress by then, but I don’t mind.