Jim Haysom | This Is Your Life an internet professional in digital advertising

Many Chocolates & Happy No Beer

Merry Christmas to all my website visitors, which is obviously you and some other randoms that have found this site. I wonder just how many regular visitors I get, or people who have subscribed via RSS and keep up to date with the eccentric antics that I get up to.

Surprisingly though, the site gets between 10 and 20 visits a day, mostly via search engines, Twitter and Linkedin.com. I'll check tomorrow how many have visited on Christmas day, but I know it's at least one person because they posted a comment to my Michael Jackson blog post about the number 13. A comment from Bob!

So it's now a month into marathon training, apparently, and four months until the big one, the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. I've done practically no scheduled running, yet I've almost lost a stone in weight, about 12 pounds to be more precise, in a month.

What's been my secret weight loss programme before the new year's resolutions are made? Has it been the personal commitment of no chocolate and no alcohol I made on Twitter? Maybe, but I think it was overworking, a bit of Q4 stress and two weeks of illness!

I have been really unfortunate to have had three illnesses back to back pre-Christmas lasting two weeks. This is where I think the weight loss actually occurred. First it was an URTI, known as an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, then Conjunctivitis, followed by a violent spate of Gasteroenteritis lasting a week. I'll spare you the details, but this was the worst I'd felt in 10 years when I suffered from salmonella poisoning.

Whether the amnesty of chocolate and booze has contibuted to shedding the pounds, it's certainly been noted by colleagues that I'm looking healthier. Not sure if that's a passing comment having not seen me for a week or so, but the jeans are definitely a lot baggier around the waist.

And Christmas day is most certainly the biggest test on whether you can abstain from the flowing alcohol and chocolates. I'd completed almost three Xmas parties with none of the liquor or delicious cocoa passing my lips.

I'd said almost because the 2nd was eBay's Xmas party at Hampton Court Palace and I was four days into the illness marathon. With almost no voice and a couple of days of conjunctivitis in one eye, I thought the 3rd party scheduled two day later was going to be no problems. But with the following two days suffering from conjunctivitis now in the other eye I had to make a judgement call; do I attend the next festive gathering which is already paid for with no refund?

The answer was yes, the eyes were better and the voice was beginning to come back, so what the heck, bring on the party hats and crackers! Anyway, long story short... I had to cut the meal short mid dessert and head home having decorated the car park.

Thankfully I've got my appetite back in time for Xmas dinner! Two hours slaving in the kitchen and being rewarded with a full plate of roasted vegetables, turkey, roasties, bacon, sausages, stuffing, Yorkshire pud and half a pint of gravy, has set me up for the day. With a top-up of carved ham, crusty baguette and English mustard, I'm crashed on the sofa pondering the following question;

How long can the two tubes of Cadbury's chocolate (presents) and Terry's chocolate orange last? Talk about torture. Christmas is not Christmas without a chocolate orange at the bottom of your stocking.

I'm quite content having done the December Xmas parties and not drank a drop of alcohol, as booze is normally an 'in the moment' thing. Either you accept or decline the offer at the time, and the night goes on regardless. But with the gifting of chocolate, it's another level all together. Alcohol might have gone by the morning, but the chocolate is going to be there to haunt you until it's either got the better of you or you've chucked it in the bin, or your wife has eaten it!

I might have to hide the chocolate I've got and enjoy them in the evening of the 26th April 2010 having completed my third marathon. But given that it's 4 months away, I think there's more chance that it will snow again, cripple the country and the chocolate rations will have to re-emerge as an alternative to the weekly shop at Tesco's.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!