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Many things have changed in the last two years. We moved to another part of the country, and parts of me are gradually disappearing…

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But one thing will never change. The glorious, fun, life-affirming, daft and loving relationship I have with my husband.

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Happy anniversary, hubster. I love you.

Funny how life can change, isn’t it? Yep, this is me after half an hour on my gravity walker. Worked out to the usual selection of tunes then switched over to my latest acquisition, the soundtrack to the glorious Ashes to Ashes.

*sniff* Hm. Best get a shower.

It’s been an interesting sort of a year for us. When 2007 arrived, we’d only just moved to Devon, and had sort of theoretically started new jobs, but not quite. In the space of a year, I’ve settled happily into the new job, while Sam’s been through a few of them. We’ve lost a cat, and Sam’s lost a grandmother and eight stone. Her mum had cancer, and then didn’t again.

Speaking of my work, I’ve had a couple of successful projects there – PenFinder and Pencyclopedia, along with enjoying the general day-to-day stuff.

We haven’t finished getting our old house sorted out for selling yet, but we’re getting there. It’s at the stage now where we can get other people to do things, rather than us having to drive over 200 miles each way every time to do a bit more on it. Sam has arranged for some nice house clearance people to visit on Wednesday, meeting her mum there, to quote for emptying it. Then we can have it cleaned, have some repairs done, and get it redecorated. Once all that’s done, hopefully someone will give us some money for it, and we’ll be able to stop throwing away money on rent and mortgage for a house we don’t use any more.

A year ago, I had a little Canon Ixus camera, and Sam had an old Nikon compact. Now, we both have Nikon D40 DSLRs, so we can do a whole lot more photography. I have a 55-200 VR lens, in addition to the kit lens, and a Gorillapod for even more options.

At the start of the year, we’d pretty much given up on the idea of PigPog being anything much more than our personal place on the web, but PigPog hadn’t given up on it yet. We’ve changed that in a few stages over the course of the year, so it’s admitting to being a personal home page now. More catblogging, less attempts at being the world’s number one resource for anything to do with being creative. It’s a step down in a lot of ways, but at least it’s realistic.

Thanks to my parents, we have a new car, which should make exploring Devon more fun. Our old car struggled with some of the hills. Our new Honda CR-V seems to quite enjoy them.

That was 2007 – what about 2008? I don’t really go for resolutions. I’ll probably aim to be less fat than I am at the moment, but I’ve been slowly heading in that direction for a while. Nothing like as fast as Sam is, but I’m happy as long as I keep heading in the right direction. Like almost all bloggers, I’ll plan on blogging a lot more, but I probably won’t actually keep it up. I’ll probably try to get better at actually doing things, rather than just putting them on lists and moving them around. I’d like to spend more time taking photos, and to get better at getting them processed and shared.

In the end, though, I don’t mind too much if things don’t change – I’m enjoying life as it is. My work is fun, Devon is fun, and, most importantly, Sam is fun.

April 2006 – our Wedding Day. I had no idea how much I weighed then, and I didn’t really care. Although I was aware that my weight was a problem, I thought that it was such a part of me and my identity that I never really felt motivated to do anything about it. After all, a fat bride is still a bride. I’d managed to trick that man into thinking he wanted to grow old with me and that’s all I really cared about.

One year later – oh, how things had changed! It was getting increasingly obvious that my weight problem was a barrier to many of the fun things I wanted to do. It felt like it was time, so I went along to my first meeting the day before our first wedding anniversary.

Six months in – and it’s going brilliantly. Last Monday’s weigh in saw another loss of 3 and a half pounds, which takes me to a total loss of six stones, two and a half pounds or 86.5lbs or 39.2kg!

I’m now a third of the way through my journey, and it feels wonderful to know that I have the support of so many wonderful people, namely:

• My husband
• My Consultant Saint Frankie …
• … and Tiverton’s other Angel, Katrina
• All my friends at group
• And all my online pals
• Not to mention certain mad women who I don’t see much of nowadays

So cheers! I raise my glass of diet cola and look forward to the next six months.

The journey continues!

Last Monday, I joined our local Slimming World group. After years of swearing I’d never do another diet ever, ever, again (and, I’m sure, putting on a pound in weight every time I said it), I decided to give Slimming World another go. I think I’ve been motivated by a number of things – like the cold, hard slap of reality brought on by seeing myself on video; feeling energised by the beautiful surroundings we live in and wanting to be fit enough to make the most of it; and being able to buy clothes somewhere other than Evans; but most of all, I just had the feeling that enough was enough, and it was time to do something about it.

I took a deep breath, put all my preconceptions about slimming groups behind me, walked in to the church hall and met my new guardian angel – the Consultant – who goes by the name of Frankie. I paid for six weeks up front, walked towards the scales and prepared to meet my doom. Gah. It wasn’t pleasant. But, at least I had made the important step of going in there, paying my money and joining the group. The other ladies in the group are all very nice and friendly. I sat next to a lady who works in a coffee shop near work, who knows us two well enough to know that if Michael’s there, he’s having a cheeseburger.

One of the reasons I had been against doing this sort of thing for so long is that I know what I’m like. If I get into something like this, it consumes almost every single waking thought, and this plan does that with bells on (give or take a thought or two for squee and screaming “I’m going to see VR in June!”) It’s a corker of a system to get your head around, it’s like GTD for food.

The Plan

• There are two versions – Original and Green. And Mix 2 Max. Wait, there are three versions. Original, Green, Mix 2 Max and Success Express. Hang on, I’ll go out and come in again…

• Choose which version of the plan to do. On Original you can have lots of meat, on Green you can have lots of rice, pasta, potatoes etc. Although there are the other two variations, I’m sticking with Original and Green until I get the hang of it.

• Eat loads of free food. Free foods can be eaten in unlimited amounts. So if I’m in the mood for a big plateful of pasta, I’ll go for Green. While we’re playing with our new George Foreman Grill I’ll stick with Original for a couple of days, I think.

• Choose options from the Healthy Choices bit. These include milk and cheese, and limited amounts of meat on the Green plan.

• Then choose to sin. Sorry, syn. All the foods that would be considered off-limits in conventional ‘diet’ thinking are rated by ‘Syns’, and you get so many a day. I found out at my first meeting just how many syns a pint of lager is, and it was suggested I consider switching to spirits instead, because it’s possible to enjoy more drinks that way. So the following day I reconciled with a long lost friend, my old buddy, Mr. Daniel. Lovely.

To make sure I get off my butt and get moving, they have this thing called Body Magic, which basically is motivational tool to increase activity, and to be more aware of how much time is spent being active. My new job is very sedentary, but this has inspired me to go for walks at breaks and generally try to be more active. Increased amounts of activity are rewarded in the group with certificates and stickers, and as daft as it sounds, it works, because I really want a certificate and a sticker! Obviously this part of the plan appeals to my inner child. It’s like going to the dentist. It’s worth going through the pain if there’s a sticker at the end of it.

So, yes, I’m afraid I’m going to be a bit of a diet bore. Sorry about that. It’s really going to be worth it, though. If you’re interested in tracking my progress, keep an eye on here and also on my Adventures at Slimming World flickr set.