Still at it and winning

So some of you may or may not have followed my journey. If you have I just wanted to give you a short sharp update that I am officially down by 15.5kgs now. With still over 20 to go I am cautiously optimistic. I think the big thing with weight loss and dieting is the personal inner struggle we have when we feel like we might be missing out on something. But you know, thin people miss out on things each day. They make conscious decisions to either partake or to abstain from food stuffs every single day. Purely because you might not have ever had to make that kind of decision doesn't mean that you shouldn't be. As much as life is about choices - so is the battle to either look good or to just looking ok. I know which one I am aiming for and its tough as hell - but I will get there.

Fun and Games with George... The horse.

Meet George... He is an off the track thoroughbred an a complete and utter hooligan. He won a race, got placed 17 times in other races, and then blew a tendon before they pulled him from racing. His "real" name is Goodwill Games. We love our George... Albeit he thinks he is 2 and is in fact 13 and has decided that opposed to being a good horse and actually putting his head down into the contact he is going to run around with his head in the air like a g-raff.

So yes... We do love our George.

Not rid of me yet... Yes still going

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water .... I am back. I never really went anywhere. Besides of course a quick business jaunt to Spain and a nasty brush with 400 deadlines that all came hauling at me once in case I thought I could avoid one or two while I was away. You probably thought I went to ground because I had failed my diet. MWHHAHAHHAHHAAAA... Well actually I haven't. Its 10kg's down in 4 weeks. Yes... *drum roll* a whole 10... So it really was just me getting busy that has kept me from posting my musings here. I don't have much more time today either. But I thought it best to throw that tidbit at you incase I had fallen off the wagon. 10 down... 25 more to go. And LETS GO!

Week one... DONE.

It is not my intention to turn this blog into one of those annoying diet diaries. But I need a place where I can pen this all down and as I am writer, and a large part of that being a corporate writer, I tend to write a lot for other people and not for myself. So coming here is forcing me to remind myself of this journey. Righty ho. Week one. Done and dusted. Hard as hell... There have been a couple of days I have wanted to (in the words of my diet consultant) "Eat the ass off of a low flying duck". The absolute worst is the cooking for my family. Bacon. Crispy fried bacon, steak, mushrooms in cream, greek style chicken... Who would have thought that packing away the biltong and seeing the nice fatty chunks, calling me, would be such a challenge. That merely sitting at the dinner table watching my kids and hubby tuck into what I have made would ... just about... send me over the edge. Lets not talk about packing leftovers into containers and not putting it straight into my mouth! But I am getting stronger and there is an incredible sense of achievement at the end of each night when you go to bed and realise you actually haven't cheated, not even by licking your fingers after packing Ghost Pops into a small packet for your daughter's traveller cooler box. The results? I have lost 3.5kgs and 20cm. Its rapid for a week but remember that first week is your detox week. That week where all the rubbish and water retention start to let go. Personally if I could keep it at this pace I would be a happy camper. Nothing more soul destroying than losing 500g a week when you are on a diet! So its all systems go. Go and GO. I may report in throughout the week with other snippets and to share the angst of packing a school lunchbox... When did we surround ourselves by so much fooD?!?!?!?!? Otherwise it will only be after the next weigh in. And happy International Coffee Day... Thank GOD they never took coffee away from me ;-)

Its only day 3

I said it was going to be a long road and boy was I right. I know I am still being vague about all of this, but to be honest I have seen so many failures when it comes to my battle against the bulge that I would hate to prove that self doubting part of my mind that it was right so I am going to give it a chance to start working before I start waving banners. That said - why this post? Well to say by golly its DAY THREE and I survive. YAY. So its a bit of a self congratulatory diary post that I can smile about once I am done. And I will be done and I will succeed and by God some of you will be celebrating with me over a whisky ;-) #OverAndOut

Its going to be a long road

Those of you who know me will know I have always struggled with my weight. I haven't been a yo-yo weight person, instead a gradual climber, where the weight leeches onto me and slowly (but surely) engulfs me. I have lost almost half of me once and now, after having my second child and stopping smoking resulted in me gaining just about every ounce I ever lost, I have to start all over again. Don't kid yourself it is soul destroying. Devastatingly so. Not only do I not fit into any of my clothes but I weep quietly to myself when I see pics of this person who is clearly not me - not to mention mirrors. I avoid mirrors, like fallout friends, I avert my gaze when there is a mirror just about anywhere near me. Its the nonchalant - pretend they aren't here gaze... Which is just as damaging as it gives you a false sense of what you think you look like - as opposed to what you now actually look like. I am not one of those comfortable fat people. I am not the embrace who you are and be happy with what you have person. Nope - I don't drink that koolaid. I do not like myself like this and no matter how many people tell me: "But you aren't THAT fat"... I want to dropkick them. Ask my horse George - I don't think he likes the heffalump on him. So today is the very start of another journey. And boy have I been on a few. But let me tell you when I decide to own a journey I will own it and it will be epic. Meal 1 of at least a 6 months journey ahead of me and I am feeling excited and nervous and highly motivated. I also tend to fail if I do it alone. I need someone to hold my hand and tell me its going to be alright. So I have a new someone now and I am not going to tell you just yet who she is. But in time I will. So this blog isn't for the masses its for me. I am not going to put it our there. I am going to merely, like a canoe on a river with a slow current, glide it onto the water and watch it be my guide for my journey. I hope to provide updates - use this as my own opinion poll and ultimately give myself motivation. This one is for me! So wish me luck.

When did marketing get lost?

I have been holding off on penning these ramblings. But I just can’t anymore. So here it goes – I might lose a client after this – but it is going to have to be a chance I take. When did marketing start relying on PR to develop its strategies? When did marketing start relying on PR to define its target markets? When did marketing decide that PR needs to do all of its research? When did marketing get lost? Now as a PR I am all for being left alone by the marketing guys and being allowed to get on with my job. In fact I am really good at inventing the opinions of the executives I work with and I haven’t had too many of them complain. But I am more and more being faced with a dilemma that is sending my blood pressure skyrocketing and making me question my sanity and my perceptions of my very profession. Over the last couple of months my briefs have been less a brief, and more an instruction to create, to invent and to establish. Heaven help me if I say I don’t know – or if I ask if they do. Now I promise I am not being melodramatic. Surely it is my job as your PR to expand on your marketing message? To unpack the delicate fabric of your research, your target markets and your go-to-market strategy, and then put these in words, take them to market via media (social and traditional) in carefully packaged content that speaks to YOUR marketing plan? So why is it that today there is no plan? The content has to be made up. The opinions invented. The markets guessed. I have increasingly been put on the spot for not delivering. But I have to ask some questions. Ok what would you like me to deliver? Do you have a campaign we are running? What stock do you need to move? What are your highest sales targets for this quarter and what products / solutions must we focus on? Who are your main partners? What market would you like to reach? But instead of answers I get more instructions. Yes we are tweeting. Yes you are on facebook. No there weren’t 500 likes on your post but we can see that 300 people viewed it. Oh you think likes are the only way to measure this? Yes we are distributing those press releases we are inventing because you haven’t told us what you want us to say. No the business press aren’t interested in speaking to you. Ok you want me to make your brand sexy to the business press. Oh you want a blog. Ok no problem – who must the blog speak to? Ok you have no idea. Oh you want me to create the blog. Ok so you want me to develop a technical platform from which you can blog? But you must be able to drive the blog traffic to your website. Yes I am sure your design / Internet people can make that happen. No I don’t think your company should get a “free” blog you are a known brand who should be able to afford developing a blog. Excellent you have three people who can write and want to blog. Sure we will edit their blogs. Can you send them to me? Three months later…. Why haven’t you started our blog? *beat head on desk* It gets worse. And I can go on. And I will. But not today. I have to quickly go and write something on a technology I didn’t know you sold, for an undetermined target market and you want it to have a business slant. But before I go please help me understand. Has marketing lost the plot? When did we start to put the cart before the horse? And most importantly … Have I lost my mind? - C