Wagons, and the falling off thereof...

I'm the sort of person, who wonders where the everyday sayings in our speech come from.

The one that has always intrigued me was 'He's as happy as Larry!'  Well what I want to know is, who was  Larry?  Was he really  as happy as people say?

A common cry of many 12WBTers is  'I've fallen off the wagon!'

Now we all know what it means these days - that you've broken whatever promise you've made to yourself in regard to diet, lifestyle, or more commonly, alcohol.

But where did it come from?

Was there really a wagon?

Did anyone actually  fall off it?

As it turns out, there was  a wagon.  It was the Prohibition era in America that gave birth to the phrase.  The ‘wagon’refers to the water wagons that used to sprinkle water on the streets to keep the dust down.

Men would climb onto these wagons and take an oath that they would give up alcohol and drink only water, that they would in fact, drink from the water wagon before taking an alcoholic drink.

Naturally, this gave rise to the expression ‘to be on the water wagon’, which was later shortened to ‘on the wagon’.  When these blokes broke their pledge and started hitting the bottle again, they were said to have ‘fallen off the wagon’.

As most of you know, this has been my second round of 12WBT, and most of you know that I have struggles with Voice, and have had for many years. Voice hasn't been as loud or constant as she has in the past, but she is still there - sniping, harping, sneakily getting the knife in when my guard is down. It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride through this round, and Voice has hit the mark more times than I'd like to admit.

 Heaps of my supporters, both friends & family, have been asking me how the program has been going for me this round, and whether I'll do another round. I know they are genuinely interested in my progress, but and here is where Voice comes in I don't know if it's because they think I should have the tools I need to succeed on my own by now...

Maybe I should, I'm sure that some people - many people, do.

But I don't. I proved that to myself this round.

I fell off the wagon.

In fact I didn't just fall off it, I garaged it, took the wheels off and put it up on blocks...

In Round 1 2013 I focused on the mental work involved with the program, I knew that's where the answer to my weight problems lay, so I spent that round dealing with it. I exercised sporadically, tried a few of the recipes, and managed to reduce my portion size considerably. I lost 10kg and either 16cm or 20cm (can't remember which) so I counted that round as a success.

In Round 2 2013, I thought, 'I don't have to do the Pre-Season tasks, I've only just done them!' and 'Things aren't going to have changed that much' but I resolved to watch the videos and read the emails... until I noticed that they had begun to repeat themselves.

That was when I decided to see how I went without it.

BIG mistake.

I have exercised regularly hello Madame Lash *waves insanely at computer* and while I have certainly changed my eating habits, there is still a long way to go. I haven't counted calories or even looked at a 12WBT meal plan since week 1, and with the onset of the cold weather I can honestly say that I don't bother falling off my wagon any more, I just lay down in front of it, it's a lot less painful.

I was even silly enough to give in when Voice suggested using some of the apothecary jars from my recent wedding when styling my dining room.

Another BIG mistake.

Naturally, because I was doing so very well on my own, I filled them with lollies and chocolates, instead of the faux fruits & berries I'm now looking for.

More than once...

Twice actually...

OKAY OKAY 3 times! I filled the one with Violet Crumble 3 times!

So as you can imagine, my weight loss has been minimal to say the least the chart looks like one of those lovely chevron patterns that's all the go in home decor at the moment, just as many ups as there are downs...  So when people tell me how well I look, or how I've changed, or how well I'm doing, I feel like saying 'No! I'm not! I'm a big fat fraud!' But I don't, I just smile, accept the compliments and feel guilty about it.

I have decided to sign up for Round 3 2013, and not to put the wheels back on my wagon.

In fact, I think I'll sell it.

I'm tired of beating myself up over the small things, it just makes me feel worse about myself, which helps perpetuate the cycle.

Anyone want to buy a metaphorical wagon?

Larry Foley - not looking very happy.

As for Larry, he was either an Australian boxer named Larry Foley (1847-1917) who retired after a career spanning more than 40 years, after reportedly having won £1000 for his last fight.  That's $165,953.74 in today's money, I'd be pretty happy about that too just quietly  or it's short for the word 'larrikin'.  I prefer the first one.