Hello!

I’ve been inspired to start a blog after watching the entertaining and heart-warming Julie and Julia film. What a great idea Julie Powell had to blog about her challenge of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with a deadline of 365 days (some 536 recipes!). I love the concept of sharing your daily challenges  with the online community to reach a goal.

So it got me thinking. Could I attempt a similar project and write about it in a blog? I enjoy cooking but I wouldn’t want to go down that same route. Then I realised, I already have the perfect challenge to write about…

You see, until a few years back, despite being a thirtysomething girl, I’d never made a Pact with anyone.  Not even in my junior years. That all changed when I went to work on cruise ships and made some fabulous friends on my first contract at sea. We had a ball, we went ashore together, we had drinks in each other’s cabins, we partied together, we shared some amazing memories (and gossip!) and as our time at sea together was drawing to a close, we worried that we might never see each other again. The nature of crew-life is such that there are many ships in a fleet, cruising different itineraries and it’s hard to determine which ship you will join next and at what time.

So, one evening sat in the crew bar, the four of us ladies made a pact. We promised, that no matter what, we would meet up again. Then we added some specifics. We needed to set a time and a place so we could be sure we would meet up again. Roughly 5 years ahead seemed like a decent timeframe to work to and that happened to coincide rather nicely with my 35th birthday. So the date would be the eve of my 35th birthday,  which just left the problem of where. The four of us each came from different parts of the world…England, Mexico, Canada and England again. Choosing a suitable country was tricky, let alone a venue! Perhaps a cruise? Though how could we be sure we’d all be able to book onto the same one? Too tricky. Then it came to us. Where have famous characters chosen to meet either after many years, or even for the first time? Here’s a clue: Sleepless in Seattle. Yes, you guessed it, we chose the Empire State Building because it’s in New York, which we felt would be easily accessible for each of us, plus there’s kinda a romantic feel to the whole idea. We also agreed that regardless of whether we’d met partners, got married or had children, for this particular occassion we would all come along alone, so it would be just the 4 of us again.

I’ve been excited about my pact for nearly 5 years now. Which the more observant among you may therefore realise means I’ve nearly arrived at this great event (and alarmingly at my 35th birthday). I’m not going to tell you the exact date, but I will say that it is in 2010, and I for one am absolutely certain that I will be upholding my part of the pact. A pact is sacred. It’s like keeping a secret, it has to be done.

So what more is there to write about a pact which comes to fruition next year? Not a great deal right now, and possibly not that much, other than the booking of flights, choice of hotel, packing nightmares and such the like over the coming months. In fact, this blog is not primarily to write about this pact, I have told you about it merely as background context for the main event…my real challenge…my project.

Truth is, there’s now Pact 2. It only really came about because of pact 1 and the excitement I’ve felt in being part of a pact. This is a different baby altogether. This one involves considerably more effort on my part, it will test me, it will squeeze me, it will cost me and it will nearly damn break me but the rewards are the greatest ever for me on a personal level.

My whole adult life I have been struggling with my weight. According to those charts you get which tell you what your ideal weight should be, I have never been in the zone for my ideal weight…always in the mildly overweight or too much overweight zones. I’ve dieted at times and nearly, oh so nearly, touched inside that special zone, but have never quite made it. At the time I made my 2nd pact, I was at my worst weight ever. I had been playing badminton on a regular basis with my friend since the start of 2009 and every week we would discuss our respective battles to get slim, what new things we were trying and commiserating over continuing to have failures. About mid-way through the year I reached a terrible conclusion, that despite my best efforts I was basically yo-yo-ing around the same weight. And year on year, my weight was creeping up ever so slightly – I didn’t like the direction it was going in. My friend felt the same concerns and frustrations as me, and we couldn’t think what more to do.

One night after another energetic game, we were on our normal topic of conversation and I joked that we should make a pact. Perhaps if both of us were reliant somehow on the other to lose weight, or felt a responsibility to the other person to lose weight, it might give us that extra bit of will-power we needed. Of course, if we agreed to it, there would have to be a benefit or a goal which we could both celebrate our success with at the end. We’re both foodies at heart (hence the predicament) and the thought of a fine dining experience thrills both of us. So that was it, the idea was born, and somehow through our discussions we both signed up to the following:

• Both of us will be able to wear a size 12 dress by our goal date
• Our goal date will be in December before Christmas (exact date TBC)
• On the goal date we will both go to a Michelin Star restaurant to celebrate our success

and the rub?

• If either of us fails to be able to wear a size 12 dress to our dinner date, NEITHER of us get to go and the challenge is over

So we both signed up for this fairly casually, went home, thought about it a bit, then the next week sheepishly asked each other what we’d committed to! This is a really difficult challenge, given that for 3 quarters of a year neither of us has managed to lose more than a couple of pounds. To put this in context, my Current Dress Size is more 16 than 14, so I’ve got a really long way to go and approx. only 4 months to do it. However, we both felt that we wanted to stick with the pact nevertheless, and to give it added bite, we made it potentially more painful. How? Well, in order to save the money to afford our michelin-starred extravaganza we worked out that we would save £10 each a week, giving us about £100 each for our dinner and wine etc on the night. But there’s one final catch:

• We save £10 a week to get £100 each by December, but if EITHER of us cannot wear that size 12 dress, the whole lot will be donated to charity. No Michelin starred restaurant for us

This is scary.

I am hoping, that over the course of this blog, in the run-up to Christmas I may get some readers who can support, guide and chivvy my to make this pact. Perhaps some of you may even like to join us in a similar pact! But please remember, the pact is sacred. Do not enter into it lightly, because once begun, you have to do everything in your power to meet its demands.

Will you join me in my journey? Will you offer me words of support and help? I hope so.

At the time I write this initial entry, about 5 weeks have passed since pact 2 was made. I have been struggling, but I have managed to lose 7lbs. It’s my first mini-goal accomplished. I just have to remember not to have a slap-up dinner celebration for each mini-goal if I’m to stay on track!

I reckon to be able to fit into a size 12 Dress, from my start weight 5 weeks ago I needed to lose 28lbs, with about 17 weeks to go until Michelin Star Extravaganza, which means between 1-2 lbs per week weight loss.

On each post I will track the remaining number of pounds to lose, weeks remaining and current Dress Size. Since clothes sizes can vary quite a lot between brands, I will determine my current dress size by whether I can fit into 5 different outfits (by different brands) of the dress size in question.

I would like to remain anonymous, at least for the present, but if I am able to illustrate any of my outfits with photos not showing my head, I may try to do so!

One final note before I sign-off for now, I am new to blogging, this is my absolute first attempt, so please excuse any amateur mistakes or faux pas.

Weeks to go:               13.5

Pounds to go:             21 lbs

Current dress size:   16

JetSetRed x