Day Fifty-two: nearly six months on

Hello strangers. I seem to have fallen out of the habit of writing here, although thankfully not out of the habit of fasting. It's very nearly six months since my first fast day - 6 August 2013. I will be doing my 53rd fast on 6 February and will do a full weigh-in/measure/photos the day after.

January has been a very busy month. There wasn't much time to recover after the madness of Christmas before we got into two important family birthdays and a week off work, all of which disrupted the normal routine. I did weigh myself last week, four weeks after the pre-Christmas weigh in, and had lost a single pound. I suspect that despite my best fasting efforts over Christmas I probably put some weight back on, so may have spent the early part of January dropping that off again. Anyway, this puts me just 2 pounds away from a full 2 stone loss since I started, so I am crossing my fingers and being mindful on my non-fast days in the hope that I can hit that target this week. I've decided that going forward I am going to weigh myself every 2 weeks rather than once a month, so I can keep better track of what is and isn't working.

I appear to have reached the stage where people have started commenting on my weight loss. In the last week, three different people have mentioned it, and it gives me a boost every time. I definitely feel different. I tried to find something that weighs 2 stone the other day, and ended up with a pile of 5 house bricks. I struggled to lift them all together. Given that I am not carrying that around with me every day anymore, it's not surprising that I feel better.

I also feel more confident about how I look. I caught sight of myself in the ladies room mirror at work the other week. I was wearing a dress I bought a back in September (http://darklingplainfast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/day-nine-when-does-it-become-habit.html) which I was delighted to slip in to as its a size 18. I'm generally an expert at being in rooms with full length mirrors and not looking at them at all. However this time, rather than quickly glancing away, I stopped and had a good look. I'm not going to say that I was delighted with the image in the mirror, but at least I wasn't horrified. The dress hangs very differently to when I bought it, and I suspect I won't be able to wear it for much longer. Thankfully Dream is shrinking out of her dresses too so I am slowly stealing them from her.

I have a long way to go. Sitting here typing this, I occasionally glance down at my belly, bulging out over the top of my jeans, a constant reminder of the work still to be done. But for once in my life, I'm confident I can do it.