A weighty matter...

Samoa 2008: holding Princess while Radar watches (the dogs belonged to our landlords).

A funny thing has been happening to me lately, something I'm not used to, and something that I'm not entirely sure how to respond to:

People are commenting on how much weight I've lost since they last saw me... they're saying I look skinny...

Now, I'm a little baffled by this because I've been a lot skinnier than I am now. Currently I'm wearing Aus size 14, or there abouts, which isn't that small, or so I thought, but then sizing isn't reliable. I had to buy new jeans earlier this month, not just because my old jeans were falling apart, but also because I was hitching up the old ones every 5 seconds. Internet shopping is great, so long as the size guide and comments on sizing are reliable, and in the case of these jeans, they were. I bought a US size 10 (Aus 14). They're a good fit, but I can't help but wonder if I shouldn't have gone a size smaller...

Anyway, if you're at all worried about me there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

1. While pregnant, I put on 20 kg, and I was already verging on 'overweight' according my BMI before falling pregnant;
2. I'm currently walking everywhere, not snacking, having a small afternoon tea, sometimes having morning tea and sometimes not, running around after Jimmy (ok, crawling around...), and I'm still breastfeeding;
3. Skype makes me look skinny and my now baggy clothes don't help either;
4. I'm still eating. In fact I'm probably eating more pizza than you, drinking more milk, and eating more soft cheeses too (unless you're my Mum);
5. The photos you're looking at in this post were taken 6 years ago, and I'd basically been that size and weight for 10 years, so being thin used to be normal for me.

Samoa 2008: making palusami with our neighbours.

So, while I don't expect to be making palusami any time soon, I am hoping to lose another 5 kg but I'm going to keep on eating as much pizza and cheese and whole milk as I like, so long as I keep up as much walking and breastfeeding and crawling around as I am currently doing. Please pull me up and check in on me if I become any skinnier than in the photos below:

Warwick 2007: study break, in my sisters clothes.

Warwick 2007: ok, just the jumper was hers.

I took these photos while doing Honours, before Snowy passed away (and then I got even skinnier). But as I wont be doing anything like Honours again, at least for the foreseeable future, I'm highly unlikely to get down to this size, plus my smooshy postpartum belly will never look that flat ever again... you've seen Jimmy - he's so worth the smooshy belly, and worth more than all the Aus size 10 jeans in the world. 

Thanks go to Michael for the photos from our time in Samoa, and to him for removing the red eye in the first photo with Princess and Radar.