So annoying trying to remember what it is that I wrote the first time round. And when you try and re-do things, somehow they never seem as good as the first time.  It’s not like baking a cake where practice makes better – then again though, there are plenty of times when baking a cake again ends up in disaster too.

I’m finding all sorts of benefits to this weight loss and exercise malarkey. I mean I knew already, as do most people that losing a few pounds has health benefits – you know, less risk of stroke, heart attach, diabetes, etc.  You look better, you feel better, clothes look better on you, all that kind of stuff. 

There is something else I discovered recently , that I didn’t really pay attention to or had no particular notion of.   Or simply never considered on the list of positives.  I got a chance to get away just before Christmas – finally, in that shit*y pandemic life of ours we are living in at the moment.   It wasn’t a long of flight, it wasn’t a big plane,  and there wasn’t much to it.

As is usual I boarded the plane, squeezed myself into the coach seat and settled for the 4-5 hour flight. I have a tendency when I travel on planes and coaches of sitting with my legs crossed.  Nothing unusual in that I guess, plenty of people do. So as per my habit, I crossed my right leg over my left and off we go.  I’m sure the DVT brigade would have something to say about it, and they’d be right, but I can’t help it.

Plane took off, and I started to munch my way through the bag of snacks I brought with me. It wasn’t till quite some later, possible well over an hour into the journey, that a weird thought dawned on me as I made a move to switch over the crossed legs.

Or was it 2 thoughts blended into one as they are inextricably linked.  The first half of the thought was – I was sitting in the same position for a considerably long period of time and yet felt no particular discomfort associated with sitting crossed legged in a tight space like the aircraft coach seat.   Secondly, when eventually I did feel the desire to change over the crossed legs positions I found the activity oddly easy to manoeuvre through.  The fun and challenge of trying to squeeze myself as far back in the plane seat as possible, just so that I could swing one leg over the other – was no longer as challenging as I remember it. The need to keep switching the legs over on frequent basis also somehow diminished.

Turns out that losing about 10cms off the circumference of ones bottom, and quite possibly few centimetres of ones thighs (I never measured, but must have done, I mean all my trousers are smaller now) wonderfully increases the aircraft leg room allowance, and reduced the discomfort of sitting crossed-legged.  Who knew!    Now also I know how the slim-girl-brigade manage to sit so neatly on a chair, with their ankles so neatly crossed and legs tucked under them.

If ever there was a reason to continue to lose a few more pounds, or at the very least not gain back again – this is definitely it.