Four weeks ago – on my 50^th birthday to be exact – the Great Office Weight Loss Weigh In was announced. They all decide it would be a great idea to weigh in every Tuesday with the nurse at work and to bring a special healthy treat for the biggest loser after 4 weeks.  I agreed to go along just because I like to follow the crowd. And also it was beginning to dawn on me that people were going to see pudgy old me in a swim suit at Henley and there would be no way to avoid it.  I had to get a spurt on and eat all my birthday cake and other treats super quick and then play catch up as there was no way I was going to skip those goodies. I carbo loaded for my diet.

We all stuck at it and shared progress, recipes and lapses. The weigh in was last week and I was pleased to find I’d lost 8lb in 4 weeks. That’s ~ 3.6kg but let’s not use metric as it sounds so much more when I say it is *drum roll please*  over ½ a stone. I’d only gone and won the challenge!

I kept my cool in the office and quietly accepted a pack of peppers, a bag of apples, a box of porridge oats, 2 muesli bars (bought last minute from the canteen), a cup of jelly, some home grown rhubarb and a tin of low salt baked beans (from a  4 pack – what happened to the rest?).  It all sat proudly on my desk like some weird Masterchef invention test and I just went back to work. However when I got home I went totally mad and ‘dad danced’ around the kitchen screaming “½ stone! ½ stone!  I’ve only gone and lost  ½ stone! Whoop Whoop GET IN!”.  This went on for about 20 mins until my husband told me that if I had that much energy then I should either cook dinner or go to the pool. I went swimming.

A different version of the celebration kitchen dance was done a few days later to acknowledge a swimming goal: “12 km! 12km!  In 3 weeks I’ve gone from sofa to swimming a total of 12k! Whoop Whoop GET IN!”

I hope there are a lot more of these celebrations in the next few weeks. I aim to celebrate more weight loss victories and more swimming goals. The “dad dancing” is really fun. It is definitely addictive. Give it a go and you’ll see what I mean.

(The photo is of me with a rosette that I won at the weekend with my clever pony. Unfortunately there was no dancing this time as he isn’t allowed in the kitchen).