October 2020

We are fast coming to the end of the year and I was silly enough to look at my New Year’s Resolution I made at the beginning of this year and one of the main resolutions was to lose weight (along with most people’s resolution) and then I was silly enough to look in the mirror. No matter which way I looked, no matter what excuse I could come up with, no matter how hard I tried to blame Covid-19 – I was forced to admit that, so far, this resolution has not been achieved (in fact I have achieved the opposite – put on more weight).

Now I can still remember my wife’s reaction when I informed her, on the 1st of January this year, that I was going to lose some weight and finally let the “slim me” out. She tried so hard to keep a straight face and appear to be encouraging but when she finally said “That is going to be fantastic, but I think it is the ‘fat you’ that is hold the ‘slim me’ back” – that was when she finally succumbed to the laughter building up inside. She started with a snigger, that grew to a “snorter” and finally she let it all out and nearly collapsed laughing with tears streaming down her face. It took her at least a week to get over it – every time she looked at me the laughter would start again.

This is not because my wife is a bad person – she has just heard the same statement every New Year since we were married (in fact a few times before that because we had lived together for couple of years before we got married) and we have been married for 38 years. Initially, in the earlier years of marriage, she had been very encouraging even to the stage of cooking me special meals, restricting certain foods in our home, reminding me of my quest when I was eating out or visiting shopping centres. She had joined me up to gyms, employed personal trainers, bought me books on diets and exercises, acquired home gym equipment, encouraged me to ride a bike (readers from the past may remember my stories of “the beast”). She spent a lot of time and effort trying to assist me achieve my greatest goal – to become fit and healthy.

But over the years her resolve has been beaten down with my lack of self-control, my inability to maintain focus, my absence of conviction to achieve the final outcome. Now she treated my weight desire with disdain and derision – in fact, she has already written my New Year’s Resolution 2021 – on top of the list is weight reduction.

But I will show her – I will spend the next 3 months being strong, being decisive, keeping my mind “on the prize” – I look forward to seeing her face on New Years Day when my new resolution does not include “losing weight”. Starting tomorrow (or maybe next week – you do not want to rush into this exercise and dieting regime without a clear program) I will starting eating only good food (and less of it), I will start exercising and I will take time to focus my mind on the final outcome – a Slim Me.

Only time will tell and in the meantime, while I plan for my great achievement – I must finish these 6 cream donuts, that packet of chocolate biscuits and that pizza cooking in the oven (I need my strength when I am writing these newsletters).