Would you believe I once had a 27-inch waist?

It's been a bit of a life-long struggle. I was a heavy 8lb 2oz baby at birth but generally a scrawny toddler. Things starting going awry when it took me awhile to hit puberty. A number of my classmates in Standards 5 and 6 in BHES were experiencing early growth spurts and my mum expecting mine to come shortly starting feeding me like I needed the calories. Well, my face started getting rounder (and captured for posterity in photos).

I did start growing through puberty at around 13 and did stretch out a bit and caught up with some of my (first to grow) friends, though generally still at less than average in height. But at least I was no longer pudgy.

That way I remained for a good 10 years. In fact I was slimmer then (less buff too!) than J is now. So much so, that none of us could believe how small my old scout uniform was.

The trouble started not in junior college or university (and yes I did have a 27-inch waist and could carry a white pair of slim cut Levi's like a rock star!) but it was the entertaining in the airlines industry that did me in. I went from a sub 70kg to touching 80kg in the 90s and have remained there since. In boxing terms, I would have gone from welterweight to middle weight to light heavyweight.

But the horror of horrors was awaiting me. This morning as I stepped on the scales, an act I have been assiduously avoiding the last few months (knowing the feasting I had done in Athens, Hydra, Paris and most recently over Christmas in Malacca), I was confronted with a number it has never shown me before. I am now well and truly in the heavyweight class, a good 20% above my ideal weight.

I had sensibly adjusted my ideal weight (owing to a stout, muscular 'ahem' built) to about 77kg (and allowed a permissible range of 75 to 79kg).80 was to be the alarm bell. At 84, I am more than alarmed.

And this is after a year of disciplined exercising. In fact, I had run 400kms, and with the distances covered from cycling, walking, swimming and rowing, it'd top 600km. In fact, I do enjoy running and recently did so in Chicago along the lakefront and in the Greek national gardens. So am not short of expending energy. Its the intake that way exceeds the output that's all.

So, here's a simple resolution. One which D made for me early this year. She didn't even specifiy a weight target. She simply said "lose the gut". Being more mathematically inclined, I would resolve to get back to my sensibly adjusted ideal weight of 77kg. Certainly way before my 50th birthday.

So, here's to a smaller waist!