Baby Steps

During a particularly boring day at work, I scribbled down a vague plan of short, medium and long term changes I’d like to make to my lifestyle which would have the pleasing cumulative effect of slimming me down.

Short term goals:

• Reduce plate size to small.
• Gym/exercise 3 times per week.
• Eat 5 portions of fruit and veg per day.
• Drink 4 pints of water per day.

I can claim success on only two of those counts so far. Thanks to my recent obsession with fresh fruit salad, carrots, celery hearts and iceberg lettuce, I’ve been scoffing down almost exclusively fruit and veg lunches, along with veg-heavy dinners. As for the water, I’ve been managing an average 4-5 pints every day this week.

The other two, however, need work. I have an extremely expensive gym membership that has been lounging around unused for a good 3 months now, which is appalling considering how badly my finances are suffering during this credit crunch. My contribution to it this week is to book and go to a legs, bums and tums class with my mother on Sunday. I’ve had the membership since February, but haven’t yet been to a class because I’m a chicken. What will they think, I wonder, when they see my sweaty red face, and big lumbering body at their class? Why is this porkasaurus here, they’ll ask, why isn’t she at home eating all the pies? Ridiculous, I know.

The other stumbling block has been the size of my plate – or more accurately, the size of my portions. While in theory I know what a good portion size is, I just haven’t gotten to the fine art of cooking what I need, instead of more than. Add to that the fact that my boyfriend overserves and you’re looking at trouble. Having said that, I’ve cut my portions down considerably since last week, and they’re due for a further cut this coming week, so I’m at least making progress.

Once I have these goals nailed, I’ll move onto my slightly loftier medium term goals. For now, my next challenge is how to cut down on the damned mashed potato that we seem to serve with every evening meal.