Body image stuff
So I guess you have mostly gathered that I did indeed manage to fit into my wedding dress comfortably all day. In fact, it was actually a little big on the bust because annoyingly, I am apparently incapable of losing weight without losing it off my chest (having boobs was the best thing about being heavier, I actually filled an A cup for the first time in my life (seriously, my sister inherited all the curves in the family, I've always been a slim pear)). I didn't really do much; I lost my appetite when I had that flu bug in Ireland at the beginning of July and stress did the rest, coupled with a bit more exercise and an annoying dose of insomnia for about a week beforehand. I actually have no idea how much weight I've lost because we don't own a pair of scales. I was guessing about 3/4 of a stone but I actually measured my waist today out of curiosity and I've lost 2 1/2 inches off it (that would explain why I can't wear my clover coloured skirt because it is falling off my hips!) so it may be more like a stone and a bit - I don't think I've been this thin since I was an undergrad. My ribs don't stick out like they did when I was a teenager though so maybe not.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I can fit into my corseted black silk evening dress comfortably for a friend's 21st next weekend, and my Monsoon sundress fits again, and I'm not above being vain about having a flat stomach for the first time in ages. But on the other, my stomach is playing up again now I have my appetite back (although that may just be a delayed reaction to the stress), and I have to go to the doctors tomorrow about the fact that my entire left side is thoroughly decrepit - I need physio on my dodgy hip, my knee is playing up again, and I'm pretty sure I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist. So it's pretty hard to feel fit and healthy, as opposed to just thin and decrepit.
It's funny how we all seem to end up with body image issues one way or another. A friend was musing recently about people seeing her as fat and clumsy. Me, I get annoyed at people thinking I'm fragile because I'm small. I'm not fragile, I've never broken a bone in my body, despite several people having a good go at my skull (most famously I had a 1/2 brick weight Maglite torch fall on my head from about 6 ft up once when a friend knocked it off the top of a bookcase I was lying on the floor under. Now that was an impressive bump!). So I guess my point is, I'm ambivalent about thin, I want to be *strong*...