Okay here are some photos that may show progress: Last week, painting pots with friends:

I'm the one on the left at the end, white shirt and scarf (another cold!)




And this is me at Luxor Temple, Egypt, 6 months ago. I'd already lost 4 1/2 stone at that point!

Spring Check In

Having had a nudge from Jilly, here's an update on progress:

Start weight: 137.8kg 21st 9lbs BMI: 52.2
Current: 95.5kg 15st - BMI: 36.1

TOTAL LOSS: 42.3kg = 93lbs = 6st 9lbs

So only 7lbs until I reach my second big milestone - 100lbs!!!

You'll have noticed my weight loss has dratically slowed down over the last few months. I've only lost 7lbs since the end of Jan. Well, I did delay my last "fill" as I've been having a bad time with coughs and colds. If you can imagine the impact a deep hacking cough has on a small pouch for a stomach, its not pretty. The coughing tightens up the stoma between the pouch and the normal stomach and makes it difficult for stuff to pass through. This means that stuff sits in your pouch, and when you have a coughing fit it comes back. As I said, not pretty and very distressing when it happens when you're delivering a client workshop, like it did for me last week! Luckily, I was staying away and happened to have my suitcase with me and could change clothes.
You'd think that not being able to pass food through would help me lose weight, but it doesn't seem to be working that way. Maybe not exercising and eating too much chocolate may have something to do with it! Sitting around feeling sorry for myself with a drippy nose is not conducive to being active.

Last week a friend had a Hen Night and we had alovely time. Pam took photos and then emailed them to us. It was really wierd, I knew that was me sitting at the end of the table, but it was really hard to register it was me! I wasn't overspilling the chair and taking up enough room for two. I looked "normal". I didn't look much different to the women sat around me! Okay, I wasn't sylphlike, and I was sat next to the elegance of Karen G which is never an easy comparison, but I didn't look out of place.
I'll see if I can post a photo up here so you can see for yourselves. (Ooo, techie challenge!)

So my next fill is on 18th April, so on the homeward stretch then!
I'm seeing a personal trainer the same week to get some advice on toning etc. Getting worried about these wobbly bits! I've developed some particularly spectacular bat wings! So maybe vanity will get me exercising!

New Year News

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Even if we are a few weeks into 2006 already!

Statistics update first:

Start weight: 137.8Kg (303lbs, 21st 9lbs) BMI: 52.2

Weight to date: 98.6Kg (216 lbs, 15st 7lbs) BMI: 37.0

Total Loss: 39.2Kg (86 lbs, 6st 2lbs)

So a great result in that I've moved from Super Obese, all the way through morbidly obese and am now in Severley obese. As a reminder, the chart is below:

A BMI of: Means you are:
Less than 19 Underweight
19-24 Normal
25-29 Overweight
30-34 Obese
35-39 Severely Obese
40-49 Morbidly Obese
50+ Super Obese

From a health point of view, that's an amazing change. I've probably added years to my life expentancy.
I was trying to work out, the other day, when was the last time I was 15 and a half stone. I think it has to be about 1995. Just that thought makes me feel younger, quite bizarrely! My self image is also probably a bit of skew. To me, 15.5 stone seems positively waiflike! Yet to others, who haven't seen where I've come from, I probably look very overweight, which of course I am! (Confused? How do you think I feel!) it goes with the ambivalent feelings I have to the people currently taking part in a TV competition to win a weight loss programme in Australia. Apparently (and this is 2nd hand knowledge) the heaviest person taking part is 17st. To me there are much more desperate, heavier people out there who would love this kind of help. Is this a case of making fat people thin is good tv, but there is still a limit to how much fat is acceptable viewing? In other words, really obese people would be too offputting to the general viewing public? I have a horrible feeling that this might be so.

Anyway, back to me! In my last post, I mentioned I was going to talk to a lady about introductions to men. Well, I did. She is really nice and very understanding. I have been out with a few men and they were very nice. However, I was left with the feeling that I "could do better". This is probably very arrogant on my part, and is in no way a reflection on the gentlemen I met, but they just seemed middle aged and over weight! Yes, I know, I'm no spring chicken myself and not exactly Kate Moss, but my self esteem just keeps saying "you deserve better". So, as my coach and I discussed, I'm not playing the dating game, but I am open to a relationship. In layman's speak, I not going out looking, but would be open to opportunity should it knock.

Work is going well. If you would like to find out more about what I do, check out my website: www.beaumontkilpatrick.com.

I've booked my Day Skipper theory and practical courses, and a short additional sailing trip on Eve this Spring. Can't wait for those! I feel so much more agile and feel a lot more confident about my ability to move around the boat.

I'm now getting a bit concerned about baggy skin etc. So I have to find ways of toning up. Now I've lost so mucgh weight, I have no excuse not to exercise, so the trick will be to find something that I'll look forward to and not consider a chore. So I'm checking out dancing classes and pilates (for toning).

I'd better get back to work now. Ciao.

Quarterly News...

Its been a few months since my last post, so there's quite a bit to catch up on. Weight Loss news is good;

start weight: 137.8kg (303lbs, or 21st 9lbs)
current weight: 106.6kg (234lbs, or 16st 10lbs)
total loss: 31.2 kg (69lbs, or 4st 13lbs) - just 1lb off 5 stone!!!

I have reduced in size by 4 dress sizes (from size 30 to 24), I no longer create my own dam in the bath, I have gone from going downstairs one step at a time a year a go to running up them.
My confidence is really good and as a result, work is booming! I've taken a part-time salaried job with Skai, a group of like minded ladies who deliver coaching at a very senior level in both public and private sector. So this is a guaranteed income that will pay the motgage and bills, but I can still deliver Beaumont Kilpatrick work in my own time! BK work is taking off too; I've taken on two new clients in the last week and two existing clients have renewed their contracts.

The biggest change of all is in my self-image, I feel slim, sexy and attractive for the first time in years - and of course thats the secret to being attractive! So the next step is to get out there in the world and meet men. I'm seeing a lady tmorrow who may be able to help me with that, so more news soon.....!

A slow boat to China...

The title today reflect how I'm feeling about my progress. It seems to be taking forever! I have to keep reminding myself that I have lost 47lbs - that'a about 3 and a half STONE!!! Try carrying 5 x 10lb bags of potatoes around with you all day, every day - or 21 bags of sugar! Or a 3 year old child. Its the kind of weight you would think twice about lifting and doing it properly, i.e. bending the knees, not your back etc.

That's what I have achieved so far.

My clothes are starting to fall off me. I had a sort out the other day and I have 2 suits left that are still wearable, one of which has been in the cupboard for 5 years and I've started wearing again recently - they are both pretty baggy, but I'm holding off buying a new suit as long as possible. I'd like to get some decent wear out of a new suit before it, too, becomes too big.
A big thrill yesterday when I realised I could get back into my favourite white linen trousers!
I could accelerate my progress by being more careful about what I eat. i.e. less puddings, chocolate etc. But at the moment, my skin seems to be shrinking back with me. I'm really not looking forward to folds of extra skin all over mer, which is real possibility. By losing the weight gradually, I am lessening the impact, but it will still happen to some degree.

I read something really inspirational today. Its on the following website, www.forthelittleonesinside.com click on the tab titled "Eating my way home". For those of you out there with eating problems, I'm sure you'll find a lot to relate to in it.

Results so far:
Start weight: 137.8kg
As at 22.7.05: 116.6kg
Total Loss so far: 21.2Kg(46.6lbs, or 3stone and 4.6 lbs)
Only 3.4 lbs off my first target weight loss of 50lbs!!!!
I need to think of a special celebration for when I hit that figure. Ideas welcome!

(This blog entry is dedicated to Pam, Helen and Jilly who have been nagging, er .. nudging me to get back to my blog!)