A gain this week, but an entirely expected one. When you eat nearly half a birthday cake, chips, pizza, Chinese (including Peking and Crispy Skinned Duck), Thai, choc tops, popcorn and Baskin Robbins, it's kind of a given. But it was the boy's 30th and it deserved to be celebrated most thoroughly.

And it was. [grin]

But do I care about a gain? Not a bit. Especially when it's only .2kg (.4lb).

You know why I don't care?

Because the pants I'm wearing? The suit jacket hanging on the chair behind me?

They are SIZE 12!

Do you have any idea when I last wore a size 12? If you do, let me know, because I don't remember.

I had to go shopping last weekend, my work wardrobe was getting truly dire. One of the only skirts I could still wear needed to be pinned on either side of the waist to keep it up. My shirts billowed around me. The last pair of black pants I owned were about to get me arrested for public nudity.

I couldn't really afford it, but it was go shopping or show up to client sites looking like a bag lady.

So, I'm wandering around Chadstone when I spot this DIVINE suit in the window at Ojay. I go in and grab the suit in a 16 and a 14 (you never know which size you'll be). I go into the change room and start with the size 14 pants.

I nearly needed to be resuscitated when I realised they were too big!

I think my favourite phrase in the English language is now, "Er, this is too big. Can you get me a size 12?"

And not just the jacket, the PANTS! This from Miss Thunder Thighs/Child Bearing Hips 2004!

Actually, the irony is that while I've spent most of my adult life with a bottom usually equated to the back end of a bus, now that I've lost weight, I have no arse at all. Broad hips and big thighs still, but no arse.

None.

Gone.

Flat as a pancake.

I was hoping to keep a little junk in the trunk! I don't want flat, old lady bum! Maybe I can shift some of the fat still on my thighs to my buttocks? No? Damn.

So, how did I get away with eating so much last week? The clue was on the 'behind the scenes' Biggest Loser episode. If I do enough of the right sort of exercise for my body, I can get away with murder. How do you think Bob got away with eating cupcakes and snagging bits of pie and snacking all the time? He's a personal trainer!

I knew I was going to be eating hideously last week, so I focused on my water and my exercise. Sure, there might still be some damage next week, but this week my eating is back on track again, in addition to the exercise and water. I've found I can have a week of debauchery, as long as I keep up the exercise. Half an hour brisk walk every day (to find your fat burning pulse rate subtract your age from 220 and then find 70% of that number. Whatever that number is should be your heart rate as you walk. Mine is 220-32=188. 70% of 188 is 132 - so my fat burning heart rate is 132 beats per minute) plus half an hour of weights (serious dumbbells, not stupid, girly, pink handweights) three times a week and Winsor pilates three times a week.

It burns off a multitude of sins and allows you to have your cake too!

Finally, deepest apologies on the lack of updates and the lateness of this one. I'm currently working with 4 clients simultaneously and working from 6am to around midnight every day. Absolutely buggered, but it means lots of lovely money coming in soon. Hmmm, maybe a holiday might be in order...