weight

grave1 Next week I am due to accompany my eldest daughter to Buckingham Palace where she will receive her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award – from the “Duke” himself. Without going into detail about the award itself, its a great achievement and a boost for my self esteem and self confidence, let alone hers!

It goes without saying that this is a smart rather than casual dress event. So with that in mind my wife got me to try out my suit. I’m fortunate in not having to wear a suit to work, as I did in those far off days when I worked for a bank.

To my surprise, my one suit has mysteriously shrunk since I last wore it. Something about clothes you don’t wear often – for some reason I still keep the suit I wore for my wedding, nearly 24 years ago. The trousers on that one have “shrunk” so much they can hardly go above my knees!

Joking apart, such events do remind me that I’m gradually getting larger, especially around the waist. [Read more…]

I recently came across this article – The Best Way to Gain Confidence – where the author (Steve Hill) briefly describes his attempt and success at gaining self confidence and overcoming low self esteem. He outlined his problem thus:-

I had a speech impediment, commonly referred to as a stutter or stammer. I was desperate, for some unknown reason, to be liked and was basically paranoid about what other people thought of me. I had a bald patch on my head and I am also quite short in height in comparison to the average male. I was also over-weight.

Steve goes into detail about his efforts to lose weight and overcome his stutter. He somewhat breezes over his paranoia and negative thinking…

I had to learn how to become a far more care-free person and to accept that not everyone will like me. I had to become a positive thinker and to ignore the negative voices in my head.

…not exactly explaining how he achieved this!

But what fascinated me was his dealing with his lack of height and his bald patch:-

I unfortunately had to accept my lack of height and also the fact that I would have a bald patch on my head for the rest of my life as there was nothing that I could do to change them.

There was nothing I could do to change them. So Steve [Read more…]

Using Pictures to Solve Problems

Does it matter what you look like?