Dear Maureen....

Today's card is dedicated to the Tubby Town website, courtesy of the traditional RWS (Rider-Waite-Smith) deck which, for me, has the best imagery for the website this week.  It's the 'you're f**ked' card, and that pretty well describes the Tubby Town website this week.

In Tubby Town there is a website where you can enter how many Fat Pills you eat and drink each day and the website will add it up for you and keep a running total of how many Fat Pills you've used and how many you've got left. it's a very valuable tool.

Well, this week the website kept refusing to save my data and kept losing it.  I complained and the Tubby Town computer geeks kept sending me different fixes to try, none of which worked. By Friday I had pretty well lost track of where I was Fat Pills-wise. When I logged in on Friday morning it wouldn't let me go onto the site until I had deleted all my Fat Pills data that hadn't come from their own Tubby Town database. Thinking this was a clean-up to solve my 'save' problem I duly did so and is it then obliterated all said data - including stuff it had previously saved. When I finally logged in I found out that everyone in Tubby town had been forced to do this.  Apparently a technological melt-down.

But even more idiotically, they couldn't retrieve people's data. Hard to believe in this day and age that they don't do site back-ups or had no way of getting it back. So, they sent me an apology e-mail addressed to "Dear Maureen...."  That just rounded it off really, my name isn't Maureen.

The Tipping the Scales Point

The scales;  Our best friend and also our worst enemy.  Today's card is chosen from the beautiful Psy-Card oracle deck. This card stands for justice, balance and moderation. Ah - moderation - what we should all be doing with chocolate and wine and all those other high Fat Pill value items.

My scales gave me a fright this morning.  When hubby got up early this morning I got up just to weigh, stepped on the scales and they showed a gain. I stood on and off them several times, and it was definitely a gain.  I couldn't believe it, an SP (Sneaky Peek) two days earlier had shown a loss. So I went back to bed worrying about having to post this to my Foxy Flower team-mates in the weight loss competition and feeling that I had really let them down.

Two hours later I got up and stepped on again. This time they showed a 1lb loss. This was more what I had expected.

I think that two hours previously I was probably holding some of the 3 litres of water I had drunk the day before.  As I'm only a virtual Tubby Towner, on-line only, I can choose my weigh-in time - but imagine people who go to a Tubby town meeting and have just that one opportunity each week to check their progress.  And at that very moment that you step on your scales, your body might be holding water or feeling bloated and so shows a gain rather than the loss you deserve. That must be so disheartening.

So, some advice from the cards about this. The Psy-card Scales are also about fairness - in our case it's unfair that the scales aren't registering the loss we deserve and that our looser clothes tell us we have.  The message from the Psy-cards is that there is justice which in time makes things right, and what we should do is be patient for these natural laws to operate.  All things balance out, and the loss that isn't showing this week will show next.

Good Luck to everyone else who has a date with their Scales today.

Well Done Foxy Flowers

Well done to the fabulous Foxy Flowers who won the Tubby Town weight loss competition for this week, with a whopping 52 tubbies lost.  What Fantastic Foxy Flowers.

It looks like the chocolates from Angel Bethany to the Sunnies worked their magic (see previous post earlier today). 

So let's have a card for the week coming for the Foxies.  Today's guest tarot deck is the Llewellyn, which has beautiful water colour painted cards.  I shuffled the cards and drew one at random. 

We have drawn the Ace of Pentacles.  Pentacles are to do with money or material / practical matters. Aces represent new beginnings and that hand coming out holding the Pentacle - well it does look a bit like a Sunnie doesn't it?  I sense they might be a bit phoenix-like in the coming week after this week's result, so no room for any of us Foxies to slack.  Otherwise this could well be the Sunnies week coming up.

Good luck to both teams but sending the biggest four-leaf clover to the Foxies (of course)!

Today is YOUR day

Some of the lovely ladies in Tubby Town have set up a competition where two teams compete over a 6-week period to see which team can lose the most weight.

I'm in the Fabulous Foxy Flowers team and we're a beautiful bloom of a pink and purple variety.  Our competitors are the yellow Sleepy Summer Sunnies. I wish both teams good luck and may the best team win - which of course will be the Foxy Flowers.

I must admit, being in a team and the thought of letting others down is helping. It's making me think twice about what I eat (ok, well drink).  I have been a bit casual with my Fat Pill-popping recently and this new team commitment has made me be more disciplined. So thank you lovely Tubby Town ladies for organising the competition.

After a good day tubby-wise yesterday, managing to stay within my Fat Pills allowance, I'm feeling full of PMA today - that's Positive Mental Attitude in Tubby Town speak. So today's words of wisdom from the cards will be drawn from my deck of 'Angel' cards. These aren't tarot cards, but are oracle cards with messages from the Angels.  Angel card messages are always full of PMA, and today's message is for all the lovely Tubby Towners - but particularly for the Fabulous Foxies this sunny Sunday morning.


I shuffled the cards and drew one randomly.  And what a lovely message from Angel Bethany. It says "When you take excellent care of yourself, everybody benefits. Give yourself a relaxing treat today, such as a massage, sea salt bath, or pedicure. And for the Sleepy Sunnies there's always chocolate"

OK, so I added the last sentence myself, but the rest came from Bethany.

So Foxies and all you lovely Tubby Towners, the message for today from Angel Bethany is that now is the time to give to yourself. Take care of yourself, open yourself out to rest and relaxation, and "don't allow yourself to be swayed from this important mission".

Go Foxies Go!

Back to Track

After a good start at the beginning of the week I have just fallen apart diet-wise.  Too much wine on Friday and a night out last night and I've just about blown my Fat Pills allowance for the rest of the week.  So, lovely tarot can you help me get back on track please. Today's guest deck is the Universal Waite, one of the first tarot decks I bought.

The first card I drew is The World, and what very good guidance this is.  This card represents the end of a phase in one's life and the threshold of a new one. In Tubby Town terms, this is the equivalent of drawing a line under the damage done and crossing over it. This is well illustrated by the card, where the figure is standing poised in front of the wreath - which represents the line - ready to cross over.

I then drew a second card for more guidance - The Knight of Swords.  This is me coming off track, foolhardy and rushing in headlong without thinking.  Ignoring my inner voice which is telling me to stop now, but - like the Knight - I don't.  Ignoring the consequences I pour myself another glass and eat another crisp.  Swords in tarot  represent intellect and rational thought, and for a fairly intelligent person I can be very unintelligent about dieting sometimes, especially when wine and crisps are involved.  And I know that I'll pay for this weekend on the scales on Tuesday.

All I can do now is follow The World and step over the line and embrace a new beginning today. What's done is done. Don't look back, don't make it worse, just move on and start afresh today.  Wishing myself luck!

It's Comforting

Today I am comfort eating. I know I am, I'm not hungry - if anything I feel a bit bloated - but I just can't stop myself.  After a slightly upsetting little event (nothing serious), I am consoling myself with food. I know it's comfort eating by what I'm fancying - chocolate ice cream, pizza, wine.  I rarely eat things like this (nothwithstanding the wine of course).

It's only lunchtime and I've eaten 12 Fat Pills already.  I need to stop and now as I've got no spare 'weeklies' left to cover any over-indulgences.

I am struggling, so I consulted the cards for advice.  The deck I'm using today is my favourite Tarot of Ceremonial Magick.  This deck always gives me very, very strong, powerful readings - and I need all the strength I can get today.

The card I drew (randomly of course) - the Queen of Cups - corresponds with the zodiac sign of Cancer; she represents a very loving, romantic, emotional woman. A very kind, caring person.  Think Princess Diana - both strengths and weaknesses - and that's the Queen of Cups.

So, the cards are telling me to get control back of my emotions (Queens are generally in control in some way).  So, I need to get control of what I am feeling in order to stop the comfort eating.  As long as what I'm upset about remains a problem in my eyes, then the eating will continue. So, tackle the root cause and the eating will resolve itself.

This little problem isn't insurmountable. I can't change what happened so I need to just get over it as they say.  And it certainly isn't worth gaining tubbies over at my next weigh in.  The comfort eating isn't even making me feel better, so I need to replace it something that does.

***Light Bulb Moment!***

Yesterday I bought some new make-up which, in the event, I didn't get to use. So - I think I'll go and put some of it on now as I'm going out with friends this afternoon. The new make-up will make me feel better in myself, and will also keep my itchy little fingers out of the fridge.

Queen of Cups (or queen of something) here I come!

Beating the Wine Fairy

This post is a day later than I promised my Tubby Town friends as I went out with the Wine Fairy last night.  There are some very brave ladies in Tubby Town who have formed on-line abstinence groups. I'm not sure I'd go that far but I do need to get better control and rein in the wine a bit sometimes.

I love the new Tubby Tacklers system, but it does punish you on wine - which is worth 6 Fat Pills for a 250ml glass.  You'd think that that fact alone would be enough to make us cut back, but you know how it is - once the bottle's opened....rude not to finish it - right?

So, I'm going to ask the cards to give us some insight into why we do this, and what we can do to change. 

And what better tarot deck to use than the Alcohol Tarot - yes, there really is one.  It still has a full set of 78 cards made up of major and minor cards, but the suits are different types of drinks rather than traditional suits.  I have corresponded them with card (tarot and playing) suits and the elements as follows:

Spirits:   Wands     Clubs         Fire
Wines:    Cups       Hearts       Water
Lagers:   Swords   Spades      Air
Beers:     Disks      Diamonds  Earth

First of all, I looked at why we do this

Card 1: Our Conscious Mind, 7 of Spirits

This card is about fighting off adversity and threats to oneself and ones stability. This is the card of knowing and recognising the Fat Pills damage that wine, beer and cider can do. It's the card where we are in control and 'we're just going to have one'.....we know this one well, right?  It all starts off with good intentions.

Card 2: Our Unconscious Mind, 9 of Spirits

This is what really does the damage, this is the 'almost there' card. It's where we have been striving for something and have almost achieved it.  This is where we've been good all week and so tell ourselves 'just one more' won't hurt, and then one becomes another and another and another and before we know it we've sunk a bottle of wine and opened the next one.  This is the card that tells us that because we've done so well we can afford to do this.  It isn't even a conscious decision, it's our unconscious mind working. And that's why we are doomed to stay in the 'almost there' of the number 9 cards and never quite reach the completion offered by the 10s.

So what can we do about it?  I set out some cards asking for advice from the Alcohol tarot, and laughed when I turned the following cards over.  The cards just never lie, they really don't.

First of all, these are all major cards - indicating an issue of great importance to us Tubby Towners.  Secondly, these were all drawn randomly, I didn't choose any of these - but they say it all.

Card 1, The current situation:  The Drunken Fool.
Ha! ha! ha! say no more.  The Fool generally can go rushing headlong into situations without thinking.  Sometimes it's about being a free spirit and experiencing life's wonders and new things, other times it's pure foolhardiness, and I think it's fair to say that's what happens when the Wine Fairy gets us.

Card 2, What needs to be developed: The Magician
Depicted in this deck as the barman (of course), the Magician tells us that we have the knowledge and tools at our disposal to be anything we want to be, and do anything we want to do and make anything our own.  The Magician card means it's up to us to 'make it happen' and take things where we want them to go. It's a very powerful card and a good indicator of us making a success of things.  But the message of the Magician is - WE have to make it happen.

Card 3, What needs to be avoided: Death
Depicted here as 'the toilet bowl of death' - lol! The particular image here says it all doesn't it?  Don't overdo it lest you find yourself there. Normally the Death card represents unavoidable change and transformation, in this position here that means don't wait to take action, don't wait for events to drive you - take control yourself, and do it now.

Card 4, Where you're heading: The High Priestess
Again, the depiction here made me laugh, that's us - wine glass in hand, partying away, and thinking how good our dancing is after a few glasses. Ha! ha! ha! And of course we look absolutely ridiculous don't we?

Well, the cards have certainly spoken here. Not only is alcohol generally high in Fat pills, but we end up looking silly and of course regretting it the next day. So my lovely Tubby Towners, today's the day to take back control. It doesn't necessarily mean abstinence, but it means paying more attention to the Conscious Mind (the 7 of Spirits above) and don't let that Unconscious (9 of Spirits) mind take over.

Cheers!