Weigh in Worries

Second weigh in is looming, two days to go. When I set out at the beginning of the year I was expecting or rather hoping to lose around the 4lb mark each week to start, so the 8lbs last week was amazing. The last time I lost that amount of weight in one go was when I gave birth to my son! The downside to this amount of weight loss is defiantly not physical, but mental. It has made me feel even more under pressure this week. How will I feel if I haven’t lost as much? Or even half as much? The thing is I know I can’t/won’t keep losing weight at that rate, also bigger people, I think; lose more weight quicker at the start than their slimmer counterparts. I also know it would be very unhealthy to keep losing it at that rate. So it is silly that I am getting worried about stepping on those scales, but it is still there niggling in the back of my head.

So I am trying to concentrate on being proud of what I have achieved so far and in such a short amount of time, not just the weight loss but the start of change in my head. Where in the past I would have said it’s too cold, too wet, too windy to go out for a walk, I just wrap up more and brace myself for the onslaught. Weekend just gone, instead of driving into town (about 1.6 miles away) I walked (I can’t say I will do that if its chucking it down). Little things like that do make the difference. I look forward to my lunch time walks during the week. I start getting twitchy around 12.30 and count down the last 30 minutes before I head out. Then it’s on with the coat, scarf and gloves and down Worthing seafront for ¼ hour and then back. Last night I even considered going for a ½ hour walk before I went to bed. Not sure that would have been a good idea. Is it good to exercise that close to sleeping? Will it help me sleep better/lose weight better or will it keep me awake longer? Answers on a postcard please. So in my head I am feeling more ‘active’ and the body so far is keeping up.

Anyway, I am about to head off for my lunch time walk, an hour late but I had been hoping the lashing rain and gale force winds (<<< only a small exaggeration) might have let up to a more gentle pace. Never mind it will be worth it, after all, I have lost 8lbs already and that’s 14½ packs of butter!!!

Panic!!

So I’m at work and my phone lets me know I have a voice mail..
I pick it up and listen..
“Hi.. this is a message for Miss Archer. This is Lauren from southern Water leakage detection team. Calling because we have come by and read your meter and the reading is showing really high consumption for the last 6 months, much higher than your usage previously”.
At this point I panic.
“We haven’t billed you yet so you wont get a huge bill landing on your doorstep. If you could call me back on 01903 ******…”
There was more to the message but I hung up and called back.
I spoke to a nice man who said Lauren was on  her lunch break. LUNCH BREAK?!?! What?? She leaves a message telling me somewhere I have an olympic sized swimming pool in my back garden (well not quite but the brain does start to go into over drive), and then goes on her lunch break?!?! How very dare she!

Anyway nice man (can’t remember his name so will call him Jason), Jason looks up my details. He said “wow yes that is rather a lot.”
“What are we talking? How much?” I ask.
“Well we haven’t billed you yet so I can’t say but I did a bill for someone yesterday and they had used (some huge number) cubic metres and their bill came to about £7500 and you’ve used (an even higher about that I cant remember) so I’ll let you do the maths.”

Panic! Sick feeling!

“There is no way I have used that amount of water.” I manage to say before taking a gulp of my scicilian lemon, ginger and honey tea (its very nice you know) wishing it was a large gin.
“Have you had any work done on the house?”
“Nope”
“Any leaks?”
“Nope.. they would have to be tsunami size leaks to use that much water.. I only had a drip from my toilet which was fixed in a matter of 2 days and only produced about 4 pudding bowls of water.”
“Built a swimming pool?”
“Have you seen the size of my house/garden?”
“Hot tub?”
“No”
“Didn’t leave the sprinklers on in the garden in the summer?”
“Well you know what I did think about it as I was concerned the grass wasn’t looking green enough. But no I did not use any sprinklers.”
“Oh” he laughed.
“and I don’t have a cannabis farm either. I am really stingy about my metered services.  My heating hasn’t been on yet this winter. I have a 17 year old who is allergic to water unless its the salty type. I do all the washing up in the evening, and I have the same washing machine. Nothing has changed.”
“So you’ve had no work done, you don’t have a hot tube or swimming pool and we have done no work near you.” He deduces.
” No no and no.. perhaps they read the wrong meter. Perhaps the meter is wrong, I’ve had friends who have had duff meters.”

Anyway, nice Jason explains that they will need to send someone round to have a look.

So it has been arranged for 24th in the morning. I am panicing.. I can’t afford a £80000+ water bill. I can’t afford a £800 water bill. I can only just afford my £283/year water bill I’ve had for the last 3 years since being metered.
I don’t own anything worth £8k+.

So now I wait until the 24th to find out my fate. Wondering if I can move abroad before then to avoid the huge bill I suspect is coming my way.

Perhaps Southern Water will be kind. Perhaps they will just bill me my normal amount, after all haven’t they got way too much water now? Thought they might be giving it away after the year of rain we have had.  Here’s hoping. *fingers crossed*