Wednesday 8 October 2008

Weighty Matters

Well! This is it then - this will be my staple diet for the next - oooh... forever and ever I suppose (or at least until I can fit back into the scarlet silk mother-of-the-bride frock...). Yes, I've done it. Gone back to Weight Watchers - and ooooh noooo! It was far, far worse than I'd even thought... I now need to lose 10lbs just to get out of the scary "obese" zone and into the much more friendly "overweight" area. And 20lbs to get back to where I was when I reached my WW goal earlier in the year.

And yes, Mags, I blame YOU! Best friends DO NOT force other Best Friends to eat their body-weight in ice cream (so many flavours, so little time) in one short week's holiday, or stuff toffee apples and candy floss to explosion point in a mere 48 hours... It wasn't even as if I had any say in it, was it? You asked me, and, as a good friend, I had to do it... It had absolutely nothing to do with that family-sized box of fun-sized (not very funny now, thank you very much) Toblerone I had for my birthday and ate in three days, or not being to keep my hands off the cheese, or the fact that a meal's not a meal without something gooey, sweet, syrupy/chocolatey at the end of it... I shall post my WW losses (and gains - oh, the shame!) on the blog every Wednesday to frighten myself into sticking to it.


The trouble is, overall it's not such a huge amount to lose before Easter - but there's Christmas in the middle - so, the plan is to stick to it before the festivities, eat myself silly for a week, and then become a diet-bore again until I can shimmy into the scarlet silk. Watch this space...


Other ramblings - the fair was lovely. I had a great time. Monday was dry and cold, Tuesday was wet and warm - and both days I was joyously working on the toffee apples and candy floss (the least said about the amount I ate the better) stall. I'm allowed to do this as I'm the proud owner of a Food Hygiene Certificate. I got it as part of my NVQ in Hospitality. The brewery I'm employed by insists on all bar staff having an NVQ in Hospitality - we spent a weekend in a country house hotel trying not to kill each other or poison the guests, and learned all sorts of exciting things and did team building which went well until Naomi ran off with one of the waiters and we were a person short. Anyway, sorry, I've digressed - the fair was fun, the stall was snug, and it was great for people-watching. Nothing funnier than watching the one-day cabinet ministers and judges and minor royalty from our local boys public school, let out for the occasion, down burgers and chips like there was no tomorrow and then leap on to vomit-making rides like Body Count or Meteor Strike and - well - vomit...


Oh, and I've heard back from My Weekly about the serial. They are still accepting serials (but only short ones) but are pretty well stocked at the moment. However, they're considering Back-to Back, but only if I rewrite it to make it more family-friendly and less edgy. So while Woman's Weekly found it old-fashioned, My Weekly want it more cosy. And MW didn't think it was contrived, but intriguing and exciting. And I always thought MW and WW aimed for the same market - still, I'm delighted to be given another chance with it so will try my damnedest to turn it into something saleable.


Now starving and going to slink off to bed with a tomato and GK Chesterton.


7 comments:

Jan Jones said...

s'easy, Chris. Write another joyous, funny, really fat book. Then you'll be so busy working you won't have time to eat. And we get to reap the benefit.

Don't know why you didn't think of it for yourself, really.

Margaret McDonagh said...

My head is hung in guilt after being outed in public as the main orchestrator in your dietry downfall!!!!!

Of course, it was as if I was there and actually spoon-feeding you the gazillion flavours of ice cream and stuffing toffee apples and candy floss at you. And, like the stupendously brilliant friend you are, you downed it all on my behalf without a whimper!!

Seriously, I am very sorry for leading you astray and I will try to be on my very best behaviour - (sorry, did I hear you sniggering then?!) - and support you whole-heartedly in your quest to reach the wedding day looking gorgeous in your mother-of-the-bride stunner of a dress.

I so hope you are enjoying Father Brown.

Great news that MW love the serial with a few tweaks and I hope you are able to do the changes they want. I can't wait to read it.

I hope you are making more progress than me on the wip. I think we need a mutual confab and booster session when you are up for it.

Lots of love,
Mags xxx

Christina Jones said...

jan - oh, damn! why didn't I think of that!!! sooo easy as you say - hah!!! Okay, I will write Moonshine, I will, I will - and I won't think about food, I won't... I won't...

mags - glad you're hanging your head in shame! Oooh the public humiliation of those WW's scales!!! Father Brown is wonderful (even if he does mention food rather a lot... still, at least he doesn't keep tidying!!!) thanks so much. Yes, I need a conflab to make me get on and write Moonshine as per jan's suggestion - are you up for it though???

Margaret McDonagh said...

I'm always up for it!! Any time at all it suits you is fine with me. I'll even overlook the mention of my heroes "tidying"! You'll be very proud of me as Luke, the hero of the previous book, was very untidy just for!!

So delighted you are enjoying Father Brown. I don't remember the food mentions but he's an annoyingly clever man in solving his cases!

Lots of love,
Mags xxx

Jayne said...

Hey well done for getting back through the WW door!!! Hope you have a good first week of eating hell.....lol. My WW blog STILL isn't up on the site but it should be very soon. They've been in touch this morning to OK the wording on the masthead and ask for a clearer head shot! EEEK! I take it they didn't the one of me with a bag over my head. So if I have to weigh in publicly every week then you can too! So there, dieting buddy! lol We can share in the shame, embarrassment and agony.

Glad MW love the serial - YAY!! Hope you can manage the edits they suggested. Still planning on coming on the 18th so will be lovely to see you :)

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

You can't possibly be in the obese zone! If you are then I hate to think where I am.

Well done re MW, looking forward to reading it.

Christina Jones said...

mags - will look forward to meeting messy Luke in the next book!

mummy - please let me know when the WW blog is up and running and I'll pop along and we can be humiliated in cyber space together!
Great that you'll be there on the 18th!

debs - true, I'm well into the purple obsese bit - but not the scary red clinically obese area or, even worse, the black morbidly obese - so, being an eternal optimist I took this as a Good Sign! And, as I've said before, you are way smaller than me, and healthy and happy and beautiful - so stop worrying about it!!!