Author: Wattle

Is the activity of making a collendar childish? Yes! In some ways it is. Very childish. Cutting out images and coloured paper shapes, placing them on a page in a pleasing manner, enjoying a pleasant activity, it does sound childish, it is what what you would see children doing, early in their school career.

What happens if an adult mind is in charge of which images are chosen and placing them on a page in a meaningful (as well as pleasing) manner, enjoying a pleasant activity? The collendar could then be viewed as a task which has a specific goal, the goal of being an assistant to losing weight and keeping the weight lost.

It works in a few ways. On a practical level it keeps the hands fully occupied. Hands that desperately want to hold a cigarette, or a chocolate ripe are instead forced to hold scissors and sticky tape. Spare time is precious so cutting out images which may, or may not be useful in the future to make a collendar, instead of having a cigarette, or a trip to the refrigerator might seem to be a pretty silly activity. Let it seem so, yet still give it a try.

Another way it works is to pair images with words we want to associate with those images. If I spend all my afternoon thinking about “Great” and “Mandarin” and I place images of them on my collendar page, what is the chance I will feel happier about eating mandarins, instead of chocolate ripes? I’d say a very good chance. Not only that, if I did it for a few years of Mayndarin, I’d probably come out loving to eat more mandarins, those little gems.

Wrong! More accurately, I’d say I feel more accepting about eating more mandarins. After the novelty of the first week of eating mandarins wears off, Mayndarin becomes a really difficult month. Sometimes its cold. Mandarins are not warming to eat and they lack any excitement. Worse still, they are full of pips!

My collendar task is really helping me to stay disciplined this month. Today I have paired the word “Powerful” with mandarins. It reminds me that they are a powerful thing to eat in my weight loss journey, and the Collendar is a powerful task, a weight management tool.

In the past, given any opportunity I used to sit around all morning, drink coffee (strong, without milk or sugar) and smoke cigarettes. At best, breakfast was an imposition. Eventually as morning turned into afternoon, some sort of “brunch” would be eaten.

Imagine my surprise to find out that after giving up cigarettes, given any opportunity I still sit around all morning and drink coffee (strong, without milk or sugar) and do not smoke cigarettes. At best breakfast is still an imposition and eventually as morning turns into afternoon some sort of “brunch” does get eaten.

This makes me suspect that the tendency to not want to eat breakfast immediately after waking up is quite natural for me regardless of smoking cigarettes or not smoking cigarettes, and it may well be quite natural for others too.

Having reached this better understanding, what will I do about it?

It is much easier to make eating themes which accommodate natural eating tendencies. After deciding what time breakfast will be taken (even if that time is closer to lunch time), decide what type of breakfast. A bread roll in a container with some ham and onion, and lots of lettuce and tomatoes is a very portable breakfast if I need to go out. That will set me up well until the next meal which is the evening meal.

Most of the time I am at home and have found out that a fried egg with a short cut bacon on lightly buttered one round of toast plus an orange is a very sustaining “brunch”. Over time, as the weight reduces the body needs less. In the first year I started with two eggs and two shortcut bacons on two lightly buttered toasts plus two oranges. At that time, that was the right amount to be a sustaining “brunch”.

The smell of mandarins… breathe in their unique tangy perfume which is released into the air as they are being peeled. The juice of mandarins also has an appealing smell. Allow it onto the hands to smell it better.

Take deep breaths of Mayndarin, delicious.

The Mayndarin task is very confronting.

It is important to take mental ownership of the new smaller shape which has been the result of the sum of the small changes made over time. Manageable changes that weren’t too hard, and are even becoming habits by now, like drinking some extra water, and gradually reducing the amount of cheese eaten.

What happens if instead of congratulating ourselves about the new smaller shape, the eyes still see a large body which oveflows the underwear? Thoughts may take the path that what is being seen is obviously not size ten, never will be, it is all so demoralizing and depressing and all one wants to do is go and eat chocolate ripes and barbecue crisps.

Those sorts of thoughts and feelings might mean that we are just not ready to lose the amount of weight that we did at this time in our lives. Not yet. It might need to take place in the future. It might need to be at a slower pace.

What we are able to do is to think about the situation and try to make conscious decisions about just how many chocolate ripes and barbecue crisps to eat and for how long. Perhaps we might need slightly less of them than last year and will still be able to feel better, feel more like our usual self? Perhaps, instead, some of the chocolate ripes and barbecue crisps could be… Mayndarins?

Today I found a department store with great dressing rooms. In each room one of the corners had a full length mirror on either side, giving me a marvelous view of my new shape.

My usual one dimensional view had to be adjusted as I looked simultaneously at the front of me and at the side of me, or as I looked simultaneously at the back of me and at the side of me.

One of the most noticeably changes after losing some weight is the lack of the roll of fat which sits above the stomach. In practical terms this means that there is less support for the bust because there is nothing for it to sit upon like there was before. So I admired the great two dimensional view of me, who still looks sufficiently like me, but is now missing that roll of fat above the stomach.

As well as admiring my new smaller pear shape, I invested in a better fitting bra, more suited to its busier task.