When no news is bad news

When you haven’t heard from a bandit blogger in a while, I’ve learned that it’s probably going to be for one of three reasons.  (I’m assuming the bandit is female, because a high proportion of them are – and I can’t speak for men.  Never been able to, come to that…)

It could be that something has happened in her life that has made it too difficult for her to share her news – too busy or too sad, and all you can do is visit her blog every so often waiting for her to come back to life.   (I follow some Chilean blogs, and I was worried for a week or so when they didn’t blog after their terrible recent earthquake.  Such a relief when they returned to cyberspace.)

The second comes from a reluctance to own up - her weight is becalmed and she’d rather blog when she can report on something positive.    

If she’s gone into reverse and is gaining weight, then this is the worst for a bandit.  She lurks in the shadows, reading the other blogs – she’s hooked after all, and wants to know what her virtual friends are up to – but feels increasingly inadequate as she notices they are leaving her behind.  Run to catch up?  No, it was ever thus before being banded – no good at keeping up with the rest of the crowd, that’s why she got into this mess in the first place. 

(If only she just carried on telling us about other aspects of her life which are alright, and understood that bandits can’t afford to be competitive.   To mangle a good old-fashioned saying, there but for the grace of the lapband go they.   Take their band away and they’re as weak a new born kitten as we are.)

For the moment my case is the middle one – I’m drifting, with weight more or less level (ish).  Two weeks ago I had gained a kilo, and Taunton Hospital considered this enough of an emergency to leave me to the tender mercies of the dietician for a good pep talk.  She reassured me that keeping level is not bad anyway, and suggested a food diary.  So in addition to eating the biscuits I shouldn’t be eating (at work – I don’t buy them myself), I’m having to write down in a little notebook that I’m having them, for her to look at and wag her finger next time.  Double punishment.

I draw the line at putting in the calorie values – I did this for years when I was busy zooming up and down in weight… little rows of bright blue A6 sized notebooks lined my windowsill, choc full of lists, recipes, exclamation marks, self-loathing or jubilant comments, my weight written precisely in the top right hand corner of the page, and “P” for ‘period’ every so often – as if that made much of a difference… 

I’ve SO had it with treating the process as a project.  Sorry bandits, I’ve done this for too long, and I find the subject immensely, utterly and crashingly boring - there are so many other topics with which I would rather be occupying my mind.  All I can do is try to follow the main precepts (which I'm clearly not at the moment):  buy wisely, take my time eating, chew thoroughly, stay away from the high calorie foods… and read the other blogs to know I’m not alone.  And of course it’s important to encourage other bloggers – I know well what a difference a good comment can make.

Thank you so much Robin (My Journey into a New World) for your Sunshine Blog award – I will try to deserve it.  I wish I could be more inspirational – but all I can say for now is thank you so much to the followers and blogger friends.  Please keep faith with me and continue to read me from time to time if you can stand it.  I always check out new followers to see what they have to say, and often join their lists of followers.

This I know – and I speak for myself alone:  there’s no point being slim when you’re old.  Please help me be strong, be brave, be resolute.  Before it’s too late.

-oOo-

Photo Finish
– from Lonicera’s non-digital archive
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Spring, a time of hope and renewal

I took these two at Glastonbury Abbey some years ago.  When the slides were returned from the processor, they were very underexposed and I could barely see the subject. Disappointed, I left them to one side.  I’m so glad I didn’t throw them away, because today thanks to digital technology, I’ve been able to transform them by lightening them, and to observe with surprise that they’re reasonable images.  If only other aspects of my life were as easy.

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