Just me and my old shoes from now on!

oldboots_2

Another week begins again, and I have been spending more and more time trying to work out why I have been doing what I do. When I really think about it, it goes back a lot further than the last few years, all the signs of shopping addiction were there, but I never really realised how gradually I built it up. When I was young and had a Saturday job, I would instantly spend all my wages on rubbish and clothes, things I know that my parents had never been in a position or desire to indulge me in, and now that I was independently earning, (admittedly only a few pounds a week) it was liberating not having to ask for permission anymore.

I won't go on boring you all with these musings, but It has really helped reading some of the threads and realising that the trigger may be different for each of us, but what it seeems to come down to is that there is a root to the spending that often has nothing to do with shopping at all, it's usually something inoccuous that was the cause and then it snow balled, in my case for years to the point where I wasn't trying to repay my fifty pound overdraft, but a fifty thousand pound debt.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's important that while reducing the debt, it's also important to try to stop the cycle. I don't want to think of myself as ever potentially out of control of my own life ever again, that if I'm not careful, this could happen again. I don't want to resort to shopping to make myself feel temporarily better nor do I want to feel that I can never buy anything ever again because shopping is BAD. I want the choice. Back.

To that end, I've decided to do something about my weight because I feel at the moment at this point in my life, they go hand in hand ;they didn't always, but they do now. It's about how I feel inside my own head. I feel unhappy regardless of the cause, I just need to feel better, therefore I shop to fix it. Instead of shopping though I'm going to tackle the root, and today the cause of my unhappiness is my weight.

I've had a few ideas as to how to go about this. I have an "I want NOW" personality incase you hadn't guessed! so I've had a look at some of the web pages of some of the well known weight loss programmes and decided that most of then aren't for me. SLIM Fast seems as though it could be quite dulll after a while and I think that I need to try something that will challenge me to keep me interested. Also, I don't have the spare money join weight watchers or slimming world and I'm not sure I'm the type of person who wants to attend public weigh ins. I understand why it may appeal to some, but it's not for me. So, I turned to my vast array of products that I have purchased over the years and dusted down my old juicer and smoothie maker and found an unread book called Juice yourself slim - that's right! If that dosen't do what it says on the tin then I want my money back. It starts with a seven day detox, so I bought the long list of ingredients (which I thought given the size of my trolley was going to be extortionate, but it was a pleasant surprise! Just goes to show how often I hava been buying fruit and veg and may explain my size!) and started the programme today. I have decided to start a new blog else where to chart my progress as I don't think that this is the forum for losing weight!! but I will keep an update on the debt front, as hopefully as the pounds come off, so will the financial ones too!

turfy6

Hi oldboots glad to see youre posting again, there is a thread on here called the wibbly bums which is full of good advice for losing weight. Im on wk 2 of my diet and is going ok, I too couldnt do the WW thing so Im going it alone and hoping to lose about a stone, so good luck I'll pop in again and well done on shifting some of the debt too.:j

Choc-addict

Good luck on your diet, really hope it goes well. I'm trying to lose weight too but aiming for the sensible eating/exercise route....doing ok so far but it's slow. I'm hoping the slower it comes off the more likely it'll stay off

Interesting read re the spending habits, have often thought about it myself and know that I need to be in control, not the other way around.

Anyhow, keep us updated on everything! You'll be surprised how many of us are aiming for weight loss as well as debt loss xx