The Challenge for 2009

Svelte.

It's a wonderful word and one I aspired to in my time in the UK. To be honest I doubt I have the frame (or the implied grace and dignity) to pull off svelte, no matter how thin I get. But it always seemed like a nice aspirational goal.

Alas, since returning to Australia and being rather well-fed since, that goal has got a bit further away. I notice little things, comparing myself to photos from Europe. My shoulders have slumped, so I'm actually shorter now. My bowling action has changed.

Of course, I was fiercely proud of the way I looked at the end of my time in the UK, as light as I'd been since high school. And the better you feel when you're at your best, the more resentment and disappointment you have with yourself when you let yourself go. So while I know I'm not morbidly obese, I'm pretty determined to get back to my former glory.

It's funny: you notice friends saying different things to you when you're a different shape. They're all well meaning, but you notice the difference. For example, some, when I lost the weight, would say how "fantastic" I looked. Some couldn't hide their shock and blurted out
"you've lost so much weight!" Then, as the weight slowly comes back on, the comments change to "you're looking well" and then more recently "you're looking healthy."

For my mates at the cricket club it was a bit simpler: it went from "you're a prick" to "you're a fat prick".

If you read a bit of my rather long NZ email and blog entry, you'll know that Eammon had a pretty grand New Years Resolution. I didn't have one ready for January 1 I'm ready to set one now for 2009.

I weighed myself the other day and was shocked to find myself at 96kg. Some of that (about 4kg) is post-Christmas "baggage." But I'm determined to get as low as I was before, if not lower. So my new years resolution is this:

By the end of the year I will have a weight that begins with a seven. That is, I'll weigh less than 80kg.

Why on earth would I make such a claim in my blog? Well three reasons. First, I've done it before so it's not uncharted territory. Secondly, if I write about it and make it a bit more public, I'm more accountable, and I feel more peer pressure to push myself a little harder. Even if
hardly anyone reads this, all my friends know about it so if they happen upon it they'll keep me on the ball.

The third reason? Well if anyone else wants to do the same they are welcome to do so!

I should stay from the start that, in terms of knowledge, I am a complete novice - I don't know anything really about nutrition or exercise except the obvious stuff and little tidbids I picked up along the way. My only guiding principle is pretty logical: if I want to lose weight and keep it off, and maintain fitness, I can't do a cash diet or manic exercise - it has to be part of a lifestyle I can sustain. That's why its unrealistic, for example, for me to say I'll give up alcohol when its such a big part of my social life.

So there it is. Under 80kg (on the same set of scales I weighed myself on a couple of days ago) by the end of the year. I'll try to update this every week, and I'll talk next week about choosing a gym and more about what I did previously too. But for now you can consider this a bit of a mission statement. I've done it in the UK, and I want to do it in Australia.

Svelte may not be possible but I'll see what I can achieve in 2009.