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July 2010 (left), August 2011 (middle), February 2012 (right)

So the whole immigration limbo/living off savings thing has had one other good result (apart from the permanent residence thing, obviously). 

Almost 18 months ago, it became obvious that I'd have to save for the period I wouldn't be able to work beyond the end of my contract at work, due to how long it was going to take for permanent residence to be completed. Economies had to be made somewhere. That meant an end to pre-processed junk food, cooking from scratch a lot more and not buying lunch every day at work, taking a packed lunch instead.

Combined with the great broken ankle saga, it ultimately ended up in a calorie-limiting diet, roughly speaking consuming roughly 2500 calories less per week than 'maintenance' level. The ankle thing doubtlessly accelerated the whole thing and I wouldn't recommend it. Because the immigration process took so long, there ended up being more than one set of photos taken for the process which became completely useless. So now I have a desk drawer full of them, and a visual record of my progress, since the shop concerned stamps the date on the back of them.

For someone who once upon a time had no patience for things like this, it's demonstrative of what you can do over the course of a long time with just a tiny bit of willpower and the banning of baked goods. Look at the photos! The left one, I'm 215 lbs, the middle about 175, and the right one 165. I'm still very sad that bacon baguettes and ice cream are off the menu though....