Is that it?

....in which a milestone is reached.

Today was Monday, and therefore weigh-in day; I was pretty sure that I would get to target this week, but not absolutely certain, so it was a great relief to get on the scales and have it confirmed (I lost 2lb, so I've now lost a total of 4 stone 1lb (25.8kg, for those who prefer measurement systems with less character but more logic) since January).

As an illustration of what that looks like, there's a before/after picture at the bottom of this post.

As another illustration, Claire the Very Lovely Consultant brought a wrapped up box of....something,,,(I assume it was stones) to group tonight, and had us pass it round. It weighed a stone, and it's very hard to believe that I was carrying 4 of those around with me; a stone is a lot more than I realised. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to run more than about half a mile carrying something that heavy.

The challenge now, of course, is to stay at target. I don't have to pay for Slimming World now as long as I stay within 3lb either side of target; my wife has managed this for well over a year now. It's surprising how many good habits you pick up over 9 months of eating sensibly and exercising, so I'm hoping I won't find it too difficult, but time will tell. Plans to keep me at target are already afoot....(see below).

Since I know myself, and therefore know that I tend to have an attitude of "well that's done" to things I've already achieved, and also know that healthy living is not something you "achieve" and then stop doing, I have already set my sights on a new target. It's a little extreme, but after running with Amy and managing 21 miles the other day I believe I can do it, so I've signed up for a marathon. Um. Gulp.

To be specific, I've signed up for the Greater Manchester Marathon in 2015...since it was Amy that inspired me to do this, I have decided to run it for the Isabelle Lottie foundation, which raises funds for children and young adults with brain tumours (I also have a cousin who is directly affected by this).

If you can afford to and would like to donate, my BT "mydonate" page is here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/chrisnmanchestermarathon. 

If you'd rather, you can donate to Amy's page here (it goes to the same cause, but she's prettier than me and really deserves it): https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/53marathons

Here's the obligatory before/after picture: