One of my biggest, biggest triggers is feeling...overwhelmed. And funnily enough, whenever I feel like that, all rational thought goes out of the window. I feel scared, panicky, depressed and that's when comfort eating (I have decided to stop saying food because it's not, it's comfort eating) seems like a much, much better (and safer) idea.
And I realise that I can feel overwhelmed about many things - from Tax Returns to weightloss. And...I know I am not alone.
This time last year, I got an allotment. Oh my goodness, I was excited. And I had no idea what I was taking on (a bit like a VLCD). And if I knew then what I know now, I may have chosen a different plot!
Day One - Barren
The plot had not been worked on for several years - it once had fruit trees and lots of produce but the neglect has rendered the ground rock hard and not very fertile...
You know who giving her seal of approval (look hard as she blends in...)
Work starts on digging the first beds...I was still excited and not feeling overwhelmed... yet!
More beds being dug but by now it wasn't feeling so much fun. There were no quick wins to motivate me...
Green shoots...some progress...
Bringing out the big guns - the rotavator to make the rest of the plot workable
Taking shape (I guess this would be the equivalent of when other people start noticing that you've lost weight)...
Bingo! Our first produce - a courgette in the making!
Lots of potential (in weight loss terms this is when I remember thinking that by being slim my life would be transformed - all the opportunities just waiting to happen ONCE I had lost ALL the weight. Oh how wrong I was!)...
The fruits of our labour... this is when you are slim and everyone is giving you LOTS of praise and encouragement and for me, I was beginning to eat on automatic pilot - taking the lost pounds for granted because...I wasn't suddenly several stones heavier again...
Wow! We grew all this...
My own red onions (very proud)...
Saving money! We have not had to buy any onions since last year (all these have gone into store) - they are just drying out here...
For Lesley (onions French style!)...
We grew the carrots from seeds. This was a MAJOR achievement!
An aubergine in the making. Sadly, this was as big as it got!
Someone blackberrying...
More carrots...
Now in weight terms, this is the equivalent of letting things get out of control again. The courgettes grew too quickly (I was working flat out and couldn't make the allotment a priority...sounds familiar?) and this is also when my weight was piling on. My weight loss also stopped being a priority and I was eating through the stress...
Trying to find humour in the situation. We had to give away so many marrows...
New Year...New Beginnings. When we went up to the allotment, our hearts sank...there's SOOOO much to do. But this is where it's really important to remember that it's do-able, progress has been made...
This time we understand how the land works and we want to plant things we want to eat. Last year was trial and error...
Starting over...
It's easy to forget where we began...
When we went to the allotment on Saturday, I cannot tell you how resistant I was. What a difference a year makes! It just felt too difficult, too cold, too miserable...blah blah blah. That's exactly how I feel about exercise - it just feels overwhelming. I also feel the same about weight maintenance BUT by posting these photos, I wanted to prove that slow and steady gets there in the end. Weight loss and then maintenance is about consistency - over and over again. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy. And it's incredible how much our brain will tell us it's just hard, hard, hard and maybe not worth it.
But it is. It really is! As the long-term, successful bloggers prove. Maybe you, like me, need constant reminders!
WTF can you actually cook with one marrow?!?!? Let alone thousands of them!! :)
Hysterical. I must ask PDP for a recipe (she'll have one!)
LOVING the allotment metaphor and oh so true on putting in the work does reap the reward, And (dare I say), it's a constant thing. But we must remember that whilst the work bit is constant, so too are the rewards. Ah, balance, imagine that? :)
xxx
Posted by: Tiger Girl | January 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I'm so impressed that you got ANYTHING out of that barren chunk of land!! Massive kudos.
Yup - totally get the law of diminishing returns, but there is also the rule where, once you have put a massive amount of work into something, and stabilised your processes, you don't actually have to keep working at that level going forward to get out the same returns. Unfortunately, I can't remember what THAT rule is called!!
You'll get through it and then have all those luscious veggies as a reward as well as loads of fresh air and exercise.
Bril!
Lesley xx
Posted by: Lesley | January 28, 2009 at 06:44 PM
The profound similes have passed me by as I revel in an orgy of vegetable envy - yum! And stuffed marrow is very nice. Possibly only a limited number of times, but still....
love
Peridot x
Posted by: Peridot | January 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Well, Doodle, as I am now known Tiger Girl, can certainly give you heaps & heaps of recipes for Marrow... When we are out of abstinence, for now, I shall work on the peanut bar recipes etc...!!
That alotment and the produce, is FANTASTIC, I cannot tell you how impressed I am... CANI - Constant & Neverending Improvement !! Yes we CAN xxx
Posted by: Doodle | January 29, 2009 at 06:48 PM
Best analogy ever :)
And WOW lookit all those veg! You must be so proud! I've got veg envy too!
Posted by: Account Deleted | February 03, 2009 at 11:11 AM