Easter...

The Easter weekend was a strange experience for me this year. Most years hubby and I spend it at my parents’ house – it has a sense of occasion about it there and we get some form of gift and a cooked dinner, having had fish and avoided meat on Good Friday. 

This year, because of the mess up with our flights and the chance to change them at no extra cost, we decided to move them to the May Bank Holiday weekend, so that I could attend my brother’s 30th birthday party (shhh it’s a surprise!). I am delighted that I am getting to do this, but my Easter suffered greatly. 

Good Friday I wasn’t feeling that great, so avoiding meat turned out to be quite easy. I didn’t however have any fish either. Ah well. 

Easter Sunday we got up and headed to the in laws for the Liverpool match at noon. I was glad to have that to focus on and not be left moping about the house. However, once the match was over, listening to hubby and his Dad squabbling was too much for me and I took a walk to the Co op in the hope that (a) it would be open and (b) I might get a reduced price Easter egg, as I had not received any! I was 50% successful in that it was open, but there were no reduced eggs to be found. I got a couple of things, including reduced fat hot cross buns! – wandering round the store gave me chance to compose myself and relax. I walked back to the in laws’ and managed to keep my composure for the rest of the day, despite having Chinese take away for dinner because his Mum had been out in the afternoon and it was too late for her to start cooking when she got home. 

Easter Monday I was a bit more chilled out. I worked on the appearance of my blog for a while and learnt a few things along the way. Lovely friend C was a great help, as her blog is a piece of art :D I am not happy with mine yet, but I’ll keep tinkering about with it and I will settle on something eventually! 

The other thing I was drawn to on Monday was diets. As avid followers will know, I am always coming up with new ideas of how to lose weight and then not sticking to them, so I decided that I need some structure rather than free styling and failing. I found something online called Dietchef, which involved paying for a month’s worth of meals to be delivered which could be stored in a cupboard and microwaved. At first sight this seemed to be just what I needed to teach me about portion control and take away the daily dilemma of what to eat. So I started to read reviews on it and ask if anyone on Twitter had heard of it. Then I realised that you still have to add your own fresh fruit and veg, as well as rice in some meals. Not only was this additional cost, but it was also not helping with my portion sizes issue! 

As a result of bringing this up on Twitter, lovely friend H started to talk about Slimming World, of which she is a member. I explained that hubby was not very supportive because he likes to share take aways, etc, but she was able to persuade me that there are dishes I can go for within the plan, as long as I am smart about it. The great thing about SW is that it is possible to get free classes via your GP – father in law got them last year but didn’t really take to it. So I have agreed with hubby that if I can get the vouchers, I am going to start the classes. I don’t know if it is 6 weeks or 12 weeks that I will get, but I’ll say to hub that if I can lose 7lbs or 1 stone (depending how long the vouchers are for), I want to continue the class and pay for it myself. Seems reasonable to me! 

So, I am going to the Drs tomorrow morning and will hopefully get the SW sorted whilst I am there. I am actually quite excited! I am hoping that there are approachable people there and they are not all gabbling in heavy Belfast accents! This could not only change my life weight-wise, but also give me a social life! What’s even better is that the meeting is in a church (Elim Pentecostal), so I can be closer to God without the headache that I would get if I wanted to go to an actual service. I think it is important to have him near me if I am going to succeed on this journey. Who knows, maybe I will eventually gain the confidence to say, “I want to go to church!” if I like the feel of the place! It is only 0.5 miles from our house too – half as far as I used to walk to church before I moved here. 

Sorry, I am going off on a tangent here, but just lately I have started to think that not having the church in my life could be a major part of my issues. It is crazy how we can fall in love with completely the wrong person for the lifestyle we want – I never dreamt I would marry an atheist who doesn’t dance!! Anyway, I may come back to that topic at some point in the future. 

The reason I am going to the Drs tomorrow rather than some more convenient time is that I have been feeling light headed in the afternoons the last while. When I say light headed, I feel like I am walking on a boat! I suspect it is related to my blood pressure levels but I’m not going to risk it any longer and will see what the Dr says. I am going to see the new Dr, so I will have to have my wits about me to work out quickly what type of Dr he is and how I should approach the SW thing. I do hope I don’t mess it up! I’m not sure how I could though, since my BMI is in the top range at present (different charts label it differently, but something along the lines of severely obese). About my BP though, I changed to taking the tablets in the morning rather than at night a few weeks back, so I expect he will just tell me to move back to taking them at nights. We’ll see though! 

All in all, despite being emotional and "character building", the long weekend has been very productive for me and hopefully has set me on course to achieving my goals :)

Michelle x