Collect our diet books and get on back to school
September is a great month for dieting. Summer is over. Christmas is miles away. Let’s get on back to school!
What’s your favourite season, if you have one? Many say Summer. The most languid time of year. The excuse for laziness we don’t get at any other time - save maybe at Christmas but that’s only really for half the population as it’s hard work for women and incredibly stressful. August though is time off even if you haven’t managed to get away which I didn’t this year. It still feels like a month of Sundays though. So much shuts down that in a way you are forced into a bit of a rest, a slowdown at the very least.
I said in a recent post that if you’re going on holiday to take your diet with you. But I heard the laughter here from Mars! I mean who does that? I didn’t go on holiday this year but my diet did. I gave myself licence to let go in August. I saw friends, I socialised, I ate, I drank - a bit. I took time off work. It was glorious. It was a real staycation in that I stayed put but still had a holiday. Best kind in some ways. All the the de-stressing of not working with none of the hassle of trying to get somewhere and sleeping in a different bed. It’s the kind of holiday I always had as a child so I’m used to it. The money that would’ve been spent on high-cost travel, food and accommodation was indulged in my very own kitchen. And I did indulge. However I only gained two pounds. Two. Pounds. And I’ve already taken them straight back off.
September is an invigorating month. Even if you no longer go to school or have kids who do it still has that back-to-school feeling. A sense of dread for some, I know, but also a sense of relief that life has a clear structure again which for many people is a blessing. Don’t knock routine. It keeps us feeling safe and secure, children especially so. That’s why for many September is a great month. It’s the beginning of the academic year and that stays with us long after we leave school. Autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness said Keats. He was right. It’s my favourite time of year and I think that’s why it’s no coincidence that I’ve registered great losses (in the diet sense of course!) in the last two Septembers and hope to do so again.
It makes it easier to go back on the diet when you’ve come off it. A sense of you’ve had your fun, now collect your diet books and get on back to school. I know many dieters find it difficult to get back on it if they’ve come off it - I’ve sinned I may as well carry on, what’s the point etc. Well there’s plenty point! Doesn’t matter how much you may have indulged in August. You can get it back in September.
Only 2? That is great. And they're gone. You obviously have it figured out. I wish I did. Working on it.