Last weekend was Cadansa, a balfolk festival in Utrecht. Had a great time with lovely dances and nice people. It had been a while since I danced balfolk but the dances are so simple that it all came back rather quick.

I even had the guts to ask a particular Frenchman that I had noticed before on Damada and last year Cadansa (because he's handsome) and I got asked by various gentleman. This was good for my self esteem! What helped for my 'happy feeling' too was that I fitted the green dress again that I made back in 2008. It had been too tight around the chest area so the buttons would be under pressure. That's all fixed now that I've dropped a total of 7,5 kilograms.

The dieting is doing wonders for my self esteem. I feel prettier. The only hard thing is to ignore all temptations and keep my calories around 1500 a day. Last weekend the sound guys (among them of course Matthijs) had a huge pile of snacks and all I got to eat (self imposed) was tangerines. (which, fortunately, tasted good) The other hard thing is that with a few basics like whole grain bread and a big apple or pear a breakfast or evening meal races towards the 400 calories, and that's without stuff to put on your bread. That is disheartening sometimes.

The weight loss is going slower now. I only dropped half a kilogram last week. However, I'm a woman so this might have something to do with hormones and periods and stuff. Still, I'm "worrying" that I might need to add more exercise to my schedule to drop the last 2,5 kilograms (and perhaps a bit more to be more on the safe side of the BMI 25). Last weekend might have helped, however I "splurged" on lasagna for dinner yesterday (food for the volunteers) and got to about 2050 calories. I haven't weighed myself today because what good would it do? I'll keep on trying to stay near 1500 this week and on Friday I'll weigh myself again.

Yay for feeling prettier! Let's keep going. Oh, and I continued working on a new belly dance costume (second one this year) for which I'm planning to pimp a bra, so bare belly! The skirt is lovely and I'm working on the belt now. I used a pattern that I made in the first year I started belly dancing (2009/2010) and I had to take it in for a better fit! I still need to buy the bra for the top and make some loose sleeves. I've got lots of beads for decoration but still need to decide on a design. Next to actually performing for an audience, this is the best thing about this hobby: creating costumes.