“I’m going to give you the thrashing of your life”
So said Basil Fawlty as he used a small branch to batter his broken down Austin 1100 in the Gourmet Night episode of the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers.
Part of the humour of the scene (and many others in the programme) lay in the fact that Basil was the architect of his own misfortune.
After all, he was the one who had been cheap with the repairs on the car, leading to it breaking down at the worst possible moment.
In the same way as he was the one who chose to marry Sybil, employ Manual and use O’Reilly the builder when they were sources of such huge frustration to him.
In the same way we might get annoyed when stuff falls out of a cupboard or fridge when we open it – even though it was us who packed it improperly.
Or when the bin bag overflows when we overfilled it or when we are out of something that we neglected to replace on time.
Or in the same way as we get annoyed when we gain weight over Christmas when we were the ones who chose to eat and drink every single thing that went into our bodies.
And we were the ones who chose to let the exercise slip over the same period.
Now, we’re not killjoys.
We plan to enjoy Christmas as much as anyone.
But it’s a useful mindset to keep that we do have a choice in everything we do.
It’s not just a given that we have to eat and drink these things.
We are the architects of our post Christmas waistline.
You can enjoy Christmas just as much with, say, a quarter of the weight gain.
If that!
Just by remembering that you are choosing to consume each and every thing that passes your lips.
It’s not ‘just Christmas’ – it’s your choice.
Much love,
Jon ‘Ees no rat, ees hamster’ Hall and Matt ‘I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it’ Nicholson
P.S. We’re holding a second find-out-more meeting for the January ‘FREE 20lbs in 8 weeks’ weight loss challenge next week as quite a few couldn’t make last Thursday. It’s next Tuesday, 30th December at 8.30pm and will be the last chance for those who want to find out more about the challenge and, possibly, apply for a place. You, or a friend, can book into the meeting at myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting.
