Recently Single: A TimeTo Ditch The Muffin

There’s many times when we make resolutions to ourselves that seem impossible to keep... Too lose weight, give up smoking, join a group, do a course. Invariably though due to a lack of will-power, lack of confidence, external influences, peer pressure, stress and unrealistic goals, we give up and go back to our familiar routine or habit. 

There are specific times when we look to give things up: New Year, Lent, a birthday... and guaranteed when a lesbian relationship has ended.  You can always tell the girls who have just become single - suddenly they’re on fad diets, have joined a gym, started keep-fit classes, are constantly chewing Nicorette gum and talk incessantly about losing weight and getting their tone back. They are on a mission to look and feel good and get their life ‘back in shape’. 

During the course of my last relationship I put on about a stone and a half. My partner was ‘a feeder’; she cared by ensuring I never skipped a meal and ate wholesomely food for each of them.  She was always concerned that I didn’t properly eat when alone, missing meals and living on a diet predominantly of raw food and baked beans (not together I might add!) 

Its funny how as lesbians, when we’re single we want to look good by being our correct ‘height weight BMI’ ratio and will take the steps necessary to do so, but as soon as we enter a relationship we stop caring. We no longer go to the gym or that sports group we did previously, we over eat, we generally are less active preferring cuddles on the couch and weight gain becomes inevitable.  

At a party with mostly women I didn’t know, one of the girls was described quite openly to me during the course of the evening by her friends who were shocked at the negative transformation in her appearance. Apparently she was once really trendy, super-cool and very attractive, but having since partnered up no longer made the effort, her sense of style had diminished as she’d ‘merged’ with the new girl in her life and she’d put on considerable weight.  

I recently separated and people are already commenting that I’ve lost weight, which of course I’m thrilled about and caused totally by my former eating habits returning.  I’ve personally not felt the need to go to extreme lengths in pursuit of restoring happiness and equilibrium that my friends (also nursing broken hearts) are going too.  Then again, fed up with a muffin top as a stark reminder, I have just spontaneously registered to do the Cancer Research 5K ‘Race for Life’ in Brighton come July!

Please sponsor me to gain pounds of a different kind, the sort that actually help women stay healthy. My donation page is here. All pounds gained are gratefully received.