Don’t worry. It hasn’t hit us. I am just trying to come up with a sensible plan to keep it as far away from us as possible. And if that means I am going to sit on my 5 extra pounds for a little longer, so it shall be.

I have tried to ignore the media frenzy around the topic as much and as long as possible, vowing to myself only to take it seriously when more cases arise and ignoring it any longer would make me look and feel like a, well, ignorant dumbass.

Just in case you have managed to ignore the topic as successfully as I did, the papers are full of rather shocking estimations of numbers of victims and casualties. And by now I already ‘know’ one family that was haunted by the piggish disease, and another one that had a serious swine flu scare.

Hence, apart from encouraging every visitor politely but firmly to wash their hands, using the Carex hand gel when out and about and refusing the nice, old lady from next door a cuddle with my 3-months-old, what else can be done?

In terms of risk minimization, I decided to expose little L to as little opportunities to catch the flu as possible. She is not yet in a nursery, but I used to leave her in the gym’s crèche for about an hour twice a week. It’s the nicest crèche you can imagine, all freshly smelling with happy children and lovely carers. But do I know if other parents leave their kids at home when they show signs of a cold? How would you tell the difference between the average runny nose and the early signs of a truly nasty flu? The risk is just too big to be taken, and so there goes my gym regime.

(The yoga had to go too, as this is now little L’s new naptime. Bummer.)

Not being a fan of swallowing pills, for the sake of my immune system I am now taking supplements. For sure I don’t want to be the one passing anything on to my daughter; becoming sick myself might be the biggest threat for her. Thinking of what I pass on via breastfeeding, I feel the urge to reconsider my diet.

It’s been a while since I counted five a day. Not being able to let go of my chocolate and my pain au chocolat for breakfast, I will have to eat fruit, seeds and veggies on top of everything else. More fish instead of pasta and potatoes could help as well to boost the immune system. If that means I will be getting stuck to where I am weight-wise, or even put a few pounds back on, I am absolutely fine with it. I will use the extra flesh on my bottom to sit it out.

And now, if you’d excuse me please, I am off to my last remaining source of exercise: pushing the pram around and around and around the block.

This week’s weigh-in:

Starting weight: 136 pounds

Goal weight: 125 pounds

Last week: 130 pounds

This week: 130 pounds

Pounds lost: 0

How many pounds left to lose: 5

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