Diet aids...

Not sure about these. I guess I was brought up with the old fashioned Scots attitude that anything worth doing should be hard work and probably painful, if it tastes good its probably not good for you, if its fun its not work etc etc - all of that baggage we carry around that says life is really hard and then we die and go to heaven and its all wonderful. I've never really bought into that part of it but I'm not going there today!!

So anyway, as a result of these boring subconscious beliefs, I've never really believed in any of the millions of things that promise to make you lose kilos with zero effort - as far as I can see the only thing they make lighter is your bank account!

I tried hoodia when the local health food shop gave me a free sample but didn't notice any effect though I know some people swear by it. I tried a friend's Slendertone machine once as well but I found it so tickly I couldn't stop laughing, though I guess laughing does use up calories so maybe it does work. I've done a few faddy diets in my time but my boredom threshhold is set pretty low so a diet of bananas or grapefruit might well work but I've never stuck to it long enough to find out! Cabbage soup - now there's a good one, I actually quite like vegetable soup but the other inhabitants of my office asked me to stop and even the dog wouldn't sit near me!

The other day I was clearing out a cupboard and found a pair of "slim shorts" (Slim Shorts - Black, Size SM ok one thing - if you need a size small why do you need slim shorts at all??? ) - I have no memory of buying them, no idea where they came from but they are made of neoprene and a quick search of the Oracle told me they were to encourage sweating which would increase fat loss around the hips and thighs. I wasn't convinced but hey, they're here, no harm in giving them a try.

Well I can tell you that they certainly encourage sweating! Just putting them on was a major exercise and probably at least as good as a yoga class! So full marks for doing what it says on the tin and extra points for the extra calories burned trying to get into them! They're a bit noisy, so I threw on a pair of leggings over the top and took the dog out for a brisk walk (OK a brisk walk with my dog consists of a quick jog, stop to sniff, quick march in the opposite direction, flat out after next door's cat, another long sniff..... repeated as many times as she can get away with) but we went round three lakes reasonably fast.

So my verdict after one use is if sweating makes you have thinner thighs then they certainly work - I'm not entirely convinced but if it works for thighs maybe I should just go for the whole body effect and walk the dog in my wetsuit - that would give the neighbours a laugh!!

BTW if any of you have any other diet aids you think I should try out, let me know and I'll report back - I probably won't take photos though!

An incentive to focus!

Oh well, so much for losing it! I'm not, well not in any sense that matters. Losing the rag on the roads in Dubai now everyone's back from summer holidays - yup, totally. Losing the will to live while on the phone to the rocket scientists at Etishite's customer disservice line - too many times. Losing my sanity - well nothing new there....

But losing weight has just not been happening. On the plus side I have not gained any either, and that's despite some fairly good efforts (for efforts read parties) and the only thing I can put that down to is the vegetarian diet I've been following. Not only that, but its really good on the wallet as well, my groceries bill is almost half! Now if only I had the excuse that I needed to buy new (smaller) clothes I could put it to good use!

But now the weather is better I'm running out of excuses not to take the dog for long walks, get out on the bike and even swim more.

And as a big incentive we've got the Mother-in-Law coming to stay early November so I need to focus focus focus! I need to lose at least 5 kg before she gets here for two reasons - one is that at least half of them will inevitabley come back on as we do the tourist thing and lots of lunches!! And the other is that she will report back to my mother the minute she gets home and any porkies I have been telling about how much I'm losing will be instantly found out - oooops! There will be hell to pay!

So its back out with the old faithful The Low-GL Diet Made Easy and this time it will be interesting to try out more of the veggie recipes. Watch this space, I'm going to be taking up much less of it soon!

Oh no, it works!

So I've been having this on/off thing with raw food over the past couple of months but I'd pretty much fallen out of the habit until last week. The vegetarian thing is going well. OK, pescatarian really, but that's only because I'm not organised enough to work out the correct nutrition for being totally veggie and anyway I do love fish. Maybe I should do some more scuba diving - every time I come back from diving I feel guilty about eating fish - its hard to eat someone when you've just been swimming with their cousins!

Anyway, back to raw - I'd been feeling a bit creaky - well, OK feeling my age would possibly be more accurate, although some days I felt more like my mother's age!

One day, I kid you not, one day back on raw and I woke up the next morning feeling like a 15 year old! I had so much energy I didn't think I would sleep that night but in fact I had the best sleep I've had in ages! Last week was about 70% raw and I feel fantastic and lost two kg! Effortlessly!! This raw thing really works! The trick is to keep it going, not fall off the wagon at every possible excuse and remember that it is actually less complicated than cooking - there's about the same amount of preparation involved but then you can eat it immediately! And I'm pretty sure wine is raw!

I found a great website called Wild Health and they have this fantastic recipe for beetroot coleslaw which is so delicious I ate it all last week. The great thing is you can keep it in the fridge and it matures and actually gets better, and better for you, as the week goes on. It makes a fantastic base for all sorts of tasty salads and salting the cabbage means its not so noisy to eat!
Here's some other great books on raw "cooking"! I'm hooked!

The weekend

So the weekend is almost here and as usual I have a plan! Not sure I'm going to stick to it but hey, rules are made to be broken! It's been a reasonably good week - about a kilo down so I'm happy. So here's the danger, happy = excuse to slack off!! I'm going to see if I can get through a weekend without pissing off all my friends and be accused of being boring and still either lose or maintain! Wheat free AND meat free! Wish me luck!

The big change in my life is that a couple of weeks ago I was challenged by my coach to do something new and challenging for the next 100 days, I had all sorts of good intentions commit to exercise every day but guess where they went....? I even thought I would commit to getting up one hour earlier every day - ha ha ha, not a chance, 6am is for the birds! And I didn't even think of giving up wine!

But I did commit to giving up meat for 100 days and now, 20 days in, to my surprise I'm actually enjoying it. Giving up bacon is the hardest, but other than that I'm surprised how easy it is to make meat free choices and even more surprised that my weight is dropping with much less effort than usual. I'm not sure I will ever be able to give up meat completely - a meat free barbecue doesn't sound that appealing, but I'm open to seeing what happens.

But PLEASE don't wave a bacon buttie under my nose or you just might lose your hand!

The ONLY way to lose weight...

...is to completely ignore people who tell you that the ONLY way to lose weight is to do EXACTLY what they tell you!

In reality these people will keep you fat and unhealthy forever, and I'm beginning to think maybe they like it that way - because then they can keep on selling you books, CDs, magazines and really crappy food that perpetuate their myths. Maybe the last thing they want is for people to actually succeed in their efforts because then their market will disappear!

I'm fed up of well meaning (and not so well meaning) people telling me I should eat this and NEVER eat that. What do they know? Have they lived in my body?

I've lost 40kg so far. I think I'm entitled to call myself an expert! And I can tell you what works for me, but I have no earthly idea if it will work for you! But I'm happy to share ideas in the spirit of awareness.

I know what works for me is building in flexibility. Its never making something totally forbidden, its being able to make conscious decisions about what I want to eat with full awareness of the consequences. Its knowing that Kathy's chocolate cake will probably add a kilo over the weekend but knowing its worth it! Its knowing that raw vegetables are delicious and energising so I don't need to choose a pizza but if I really really want that pizza that's ok too... but there will be consequences. Its about knowing that I do actually prefer More Cafe's pumpkin and feta salad to their burger or fish and chips and I don't need to have fish and chips just because I can. In fact the reason I don't need them is because I can! Its about taking total responsibility for my health.

Losing weight has almost nothing to do with what you put in your mouth and everything to do with what you put in your mind!

I LOVE good intentions....

I especially love the crunching sound they make when I trample all over them!

This week was supposed to be the start of a new focused drive to lose another 5kg. All the plans were set, the cupboard had been stripped of everything tempting and unhealthy. The signs looked good.

But then there was the perfect storm which was Thursday. A combination of hormones, a very early start after a late night, lots of meetings and a certain amount of stress and to top it all off, a great conversation with a friend about curry. Add to that the traditional Thursday evening glass (or two) of grape and the result is I am NOT getting on the scales now until Sunday!

Today is not going to be any better, dinner at friends' and she is the best baker in Dubai! Ho hum. My plan is to enjoy every morsel and go vegan on Sunday!!!

Hey, at least I've got a plan!

What just happened?

My body is wierd! After a solid 6 weeks of almost 80% raw, healthy, fantastic, nutritious food something had to give! Its been a really crazy couple of weeks at work so no time for exercise, no time for making healthy packed lunches, lots of lunchtime meetings... all the usual excuses. So imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scales this morning after avoiding them for about 10 days to find I'd lost nearly two kilos! Total amazement and glee!

Still, the time for excuses is nearing its end. I've had a couple of weeks where focus was very difficult and I've survived them with no gain but its time to get back on track and lose another 5kg! Maybe this is just how my body works - 5kg, then rest and stabilise, then another 5kg. I was finding it increasing difficult to get enthusiastic about raw vegetables but now I'm really looking forward to them again.  Also my weight loss had slowed down to frustrating levels so maybe I needed that little break to kick start my metabolism again.

Anyway, with Ramadan coming up there will be fewer lunchtime meetings, almost no meetings in coffee shops and the whole pace of life will be slower and more reflective. Time to do some planning, some refocusing and some hard work! I can't wait!

Not losing it!

This has been a bit of a disastrous week for losing it. Somehow along the way I managed to pick up nearly 2kg! I swear they're not mine! Could the person who left them with me please come and pick them up because I don't want them!

I'm not exactly sure what's gone wrong. It was a really busy week so there was a lot of grabbing food on the run and I guess its really easy to make the wrong choices or lose track of quantities, but I thought I was doing pretty well. Lots of meetings in coffee shops so maybe my favourite latte is going to have to be replaced with a peppermint tea, but I do resent paying 15dhs for a mug of hot water!!! I guess its just lots of little slip ups and of course wheat has crept back in - oops!

Exercise just didn't happen, apart from my foray to Concept 1010 but the good news is I'm signing up for their programme and I'm really looking forward to getting some amazing results. I didn't make it to the pool or yoga once all week and now I'm really feeling it.

I think actually "feeling it" is a very good thing. I was feeling amazing and energetic and flexible on my raw food diet but as soon as I came off it the energy levels dropped and the creaky body came back - I felt like I aged 5 years in a week! Feedback like that is priceless, as long as we pay attention to it and, most importantly, act on it!

I've just done a survey on Dr Mercola's website which gave me some interesting results - it's really worth doing - its free and really very eye opening. On my raw diet I felt fantastic but weight loss had slowed right down - my results from the test show that I need a lot more protein in my diet.

So next week its back on track, stay focused, more exercise and more protein. And I still want to know who dumped that 2kg on me!!

The Exercise Thing

Yeah yeah I know, trying to lose weight with no exercise is always going to be a recipe for disaster. At the very best you'll lose the weight but end up a flabby mess! But most likely you'll have to be so restrictive on the food intake that you'll fall off the wagon too often to get any lasting results!

I'm not that bad on exercise really. I do a lot of yoga and I swim 50 lengths three or four times a week and sometimes I even go Polewalking - no NOT pole dancing, and no, walking with poles does not mean you need to find some Polish friends! And there's always a dog who needs a walk even in a Dubai summer! So I'm not exactly inactive but there's not a lot of focus to my exercise programme. So when my friend Georgie  (yes, she's much braver than me - she's doing a video blog!) told me she was doing a thing called Concept1010 which only took 20 minutes a week and was getting her amazing results I wanted to know all about it. So yesterday she hauled me along to Jumeirah Lakes Towers to watch her sweat! It's such fun watching other people work hard!

Of course I didn't get off that lightly and they made me have a go at three of the machines myself. Its very focused, very hard work and if the results Georgie is getting are typical its very, very impressive. I'm definitely going to sign up for some sessions and I'll let you know how I get on - who knows - I might even get brave like Georgie and do a video blog .... but don't hold your breath!

Sense of Humour Crisis

Ok this is NOT fair!

I had a relatively wheat free weekend. And apart from Friday night's supper at friends' I had a pretty well behaved weekend overall so how come I managed to put on 2kg? Right now I'm thinking I might as well have done brunch if that's the kind of results I get from mild bad behaviour!

I guess the terms "relatively" and "pretty well behaved" are a clue, sadly. It looks like my body is not going to give me any leeway to go off track so there's only one thing for it - its time to ramp up the exercise programme!

A friend of mine is doing the Concept 10 10 programme and says she is getting amazing results so I'm going to take a look at that. And my local yoga centre  is doing a special one month unlimited offer so I have to take them up on that. And right now I'm off to do my favourite thing - 50 lengths of our local pool! 2kg - you guys are OUT of here!

How To Survive Brunch

One simple answer - don't do it!

Seriously, I had a friend on the phone last night wanting to know why I'd turned down their invite to brunch at The Warehouse.

"Why won't you come?" She asked, "you can just eat the salads and you don't have to drink anything"

Yeah right - 300dhs to sit and nibble on a lettuce leaf and watch everyone else get  hammer mellow! Actually make that 600dhs since the other half would have to come too! I can think of better things to do with my Friday! I'm sure they do wonderful salads, but so do I and for considerably less than 600dhs! And let's face it, most of the point of brunch is to get hammere oops mellow.

But it seems my weekend of good behaviour is doomed anyway. We've been invited out to dinner and the friends are great cooks AND I've been instructed to bring along my famous rhubarb crumble - not the diet version .... well, OK, there isn't a diet version!

I see a huge swim or a visit to a yoga class in my very near future!

Wheat Free Weekend

That is the intention! Its not that easy though! Already I've had the dog telling me that its her divine right to share a digestive biscuit with my mid morning cup of tea - hate to tell you dog, but you could do with "losing it" too!

Breakfast could have been toast and marmalade but instead it was a very delicious pineapple, cucumber and apple smoothie so that's a great start. Thursday night supper, which for as long as I can remember has been "telephone Chinese", was homemade and very delicious chicken lettuce wraps followed by stir fried vegetables and egg fried brown rice. It really helps to have a husband who is an awesome cook and, since I bought him a beautiful leather belt for Christmas that didn't go round him, has also been on a bit of a health kick!

Not sure what we're going to do tonight. It's our wedding anniversary so there will be some celebrating going on. A very beautiful bottle of South African Shiraz has been waiting in our wine rack for a whole year now - an anniversary present from our dear friends in Cape Town with whom we celebrated last year in some style!

So it's not going to be a pristinely well behaved weekend but it is going to be a fun one and I'm hoping the exclusion of wheat makes it a productive one.

Ikg down from last week. It doesn't seem like a big number but its going in the right direction and that's all I ask!

Oh Chocolate

I'm hungry and I need chocolate. As everyone knows there are certain times in a woman's life, diet or no diet, where only chocolate will do. Don't get me wrong, chocolate will always do - but sometimes ONLY chocolate will do and this is one of them!

Trouble is I'm at least 5km away from the nearest chocolate - yes, I have searched every cupbpard and every filing cabinet in the office and there are no stashes hidden away. Trust me, if they were here I would have found them! And I'm not going to leave work to drive 5km to the nearest petrol station to buy some.... no really I'm not! But I admit I thought about it.

Actually the nearest petrol station is only about 5 minutes walk but in this heat it would be melted before I got back! Hang on, who am I kidding? I'd have eaten it before I got back!! Anyway, the road layout here has been planned by dyslexic trainees thowing spaghetti at a map, and in order to drive to the petrol station I have to drive 3k in the wrong direction before I can get to a u-turn to go 2k back! And then do the same thing in reverse to get back to work!

So I'm just going to have to deal with my obsession and try to feel smug that I'm resisting the urge when in reality I'm just too lazy to go out!

So just to add to my pain - here's 20 reasons why chocolate is better than sex:

You can GET chocolate.

Chocolate satisfies even when it has gone soft.

You can safely have chocolate while you are driving.

You can make chocolate last as long as you want it to.

You can have chocolate even in front of your mother.

If you bite the nuts too hard the chocolate won't mind.

Two people of the same sex can have chocolate without being called nasty names.

The word "commitment" doesn't scare off chocolate.

You can have chocolate on top of your workbench/desk during working hours without upsetting your work mates.

"If you love me you'll swallow that" has real meaning with chocolate.
You can ask a stranger for chocolate without getting your face slapped.

You don't get hairs in your mouth with chocolate.

With chocolate there's no need to fake it.

Chocolate doesn't make you pregnant.

You can have chocolate at any time of the month.

Good chocolate is easy to find.

You can have as many kinds of chocolate as you can handle.

You are never too young or too old for chocolate.

When you have chocolate it does not keep your neighbors awake.

With chocolate size doesn't matter; it's always good

Is it wheat?

Well that wasn't as bad as I feared! Nearly two kg put on in a weekend lost in just a day. OK, it was a day of raw cabbage and bown rice but that's not too bad (I've got a tasty recipe!) and the results are worth it.

I'm really, really starting to think wheat is a bigger issue than I wanted to believe! I love my bread (which is apparently a bad sign!) and, although I avoid it during the week, I allow it to sneak in at weekends and the 1-2kg gain seems to be the result. Yes, I can get rid of it relatively quickly but its still a day or so wasted. So next weekend is going to be a wheat free zone, just to see.

Its not too hard at this time of year to stay focused. Its hard to get really hungry in this heat and lots of people (for people read bad influences!) are off on holiday now the schools are out, so our weekends are pretty quiet.

So I'm off to investigate living without wheat. There's lots of great recipe books on the subject - Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook: More than 100 Easy and Delicious Recipes from the Gluten-Free Chef or The Wheat-Free Cook: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone for example have lots of great ideas and The Holford Low-GL Diet Made Easy is big on avoiding wheat too. I'm just going to have to find something other than a Spinney's Portuguese roll to spread my marmite on :-(

Oh and any wheat free recipes and ideas would be much appreciated!

Party Time

Ugh - two words that strike fear and panic into any dieter's soul! The problem with parties is that the food is almost always going to be either delicious or fattening, and probably both! And there's probably going to be excessive amounts of the dreaded grape, aka adult beverages, around and we all know that, in all but the most determined characters, alcohol and will-power are mutually exclusive!

So it was on Thursday night. A surprise birthday party for a friend, the end of a long hard week and just to add to the fun, the friend's wife is a seriously good cook!

So what do I do in these circumstances? Well, what do you think I did? I partied like a mad thing and got on the scales Friday morning to find an extra 1.5kg had mysteriously attached itself to my person!! How does that happen! OK, I wasn't exactly a paragon of dietary virtue but I can honestly say that I did not eat 1.5kg of food! Have you ever looked at that amount of food? Its a big heap! You'd have to try really hard to eat that in an evening!

So how come my body can create 1.5kg out of thin air? I must be the biological equivalent of a perpetual motion machine! I'd leave my body to science but I kind of need it right now!

Oh well, the weekend's nearly over - back to salads and raw vegetables tomorrow.

Prayers for Dr Simon

If you’ve ever been inspired by Dr Simon or Deepak Chopra please repost this link – lets get as much positive energy flowing to him as possible!

Much love goes to Dr David Simon of the Chopra Centre who this week was
diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Share your positive thoughts
and laughter by posting on this website which he will visit daily for
support: http://www.lovefordavid.com/

Stress - what's that?

Why is it that, whenever we feel stressed, the automatic reaction is to reach for the chocolate? I mean, what possible good can chocolate do? And for that matter, why can't we crave a nice crisp apple or a light tasty salad instead of a bar of Galaxy Hazelnut? Oh now look what I've done! I've named the monster, now I'm in big trouble!

Funnily enough, I treated myself to a packet of Minstrels the other day and to my amazement they really didn't do much for me! They used to be one of my favourite treats but this time they seemed a bit tasteless and not very interesting. Even the thrill of having something "forbidden" didn't interest me, since in my philosphy nothing really is forbidden! I shared them with everyone else in the studio and that did feel good, all the fun of chocolate and hardly any of the calories! I could be on to something here.

Now, I know there's supposed to be feel-good substances in chocolate and that's what we're really craving and I can kid myself that there's lots of protein in the hazelnuts but that's exactly what I'm doing - kidding myself. So my mission for this week is whenever I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed and that urge for Galaxy Hazelnut surfaces, is to consciously replace that thought with something more nutritious and healthy and to consciously focus back on what I want - that fabulous fit body, rather than how hard I'm going to have to work to get it.

Maybe that's where we go wrong a lot of the time, and not just with diets - we take our eye off what we want and start to focus on what we have to do to get it. Which sounds sort of sensible but actually is anything but. Focusing on the work makes everything much more difficult, but focusing on the desired result is fun and empowering.

How to Survive a Weekend

So, I've had a very good week and great results - another kilo and a half gone - I've now officially lost 10kg since Christmas - yipppee, celebrations all round! No I do NOT need a cake to mark the occasion - and NO a carrot cake is not OK, no it does NOT count as a vegetable!! Nor do I want to go out for a curry to celebrate or even hit the Barasti!

You see this is the trouble with losing weight! Sooner or later your friends get bored with all the good behaviour and want to drag you out to play and play inevitably involves a glass or two of wine (OK maybe a bottle or two...) at which point all good intentions go out the window and before you know it you end the weekend 2kg higher than you started! Now I can live with 1kg. For me a lot of that is water weight because at the weekend I do eat some bread and that always causes me problems, but it will go the next day. So 1kg I can accept as a consequence of a bit of fun bad behaviour, but once it goes up to 2kg I'm in trouble. Its going to take me half of next week to get back to where I started, at which point frustration sets in and "what's the point" thoughts start to raise their ugly heads!

So weekends are a balancing act between having fun, preferably lots of fun, and keeping the positive momentum going. Some weekends I do ok, others are a disaster before they even start! Yes, some weekends I want to have my cake AND eat it - really, can someone tell me, what's the point of cake if you don't eat it?

A Sad Day and a Glad Day

And for the same reason!

A sad day because my favourite pair of super comfortable jeans are now so big on me that walking downstairs in them has become dangerous! And when even the dog laughs at you, you know its time to consign them to the ever growing heap of clothes that just don't fit any more! Its going to be tough - these are the jeans I reach for instinctively on a Friday morning, they go with everything and they are so comfortable its hard not to mourn their passing! But I need to be strong - I'm told keeping them is dangerous, it means deep down I expect to need them again!

So tomorrow morning I will march down to the bin, take a deep breath and throw them in - and then pour something really disgusting over them so I'm not tempted to whisk them back out again!! Or maybe I'll leave it till Saturday....

And its a glad day because that super trendy sparkly pair that I bought in the New Year sales (and risked buying a size smaller) have gone from being rather snug to perfectly comfortable - so these are my new favourite jeans. And if anyone says a woman over 40 shouldn't be wearing sparkley jeans they can just go and get stuffed!

I'm Starving!

Actually I'm not. But it was a complaint from a diet buddy the other day that got me thinking. I've been following a low GL (glycemic load) plan with a good deal of success for a couple of years now. Yes, I deviate, sometimes really badly! But I find it really easy to get back on-plan because basically I enjoy the food. Its easier and less restrictive than low GI and I'm pretty sure its healthier too. Certainly I feel great on it and after 30kg down I have to say it works! This is the book I use most of the time and what I love is its written by people who actually love to eat: The Holford Low-GL Diet Cookbook: Recipes for Weight Loss, Health and Energy So many diet books seem to be written by people who think food is the enemy and that's never going to work for me! I've cooked entire dinner parties for some quite serious foodies from this book and not one of them has had a clue they've been eating healthily!

Anyway, this friend started the same plan as me about two weeks ago and I couldn't believe how hungry she was! I sometimes find it hard to believe I'm on a diet with some of the recipes and often the quantities defeat me.

But it occurred to me that "normal" eating for a lot of people involves large amounts of bread, rice and pasta - bulky foods that fill you up physically but really don't deliver a whole lot nutritionally. So sticking to a low GL plan may be a challenge initially because you have to get used to the feeling of being nutritionally satisfied before you are physically full. Its a subtle difference but once you get used to that feeling, it makes sticking to the plan really easy.

Many people who overeat are in fact nutritionally starving! They might feel full up but their bodies are craving the nutrients they require and, until it gets them, its going to keep sending "I'm hungry" messages to the brain! No wonder most diets don't work!

Lose Weight Slow

I know this is a hard concept to grasp. Lets face it, we want rid of those extra kilos NOW! We want to fit into a size 12 NOW not next week, next month or even next year!

But the sad truth is if you lose weight fast you will put it back on faster! Your mind/body system does not like change and the one thing it hates more than change is quick change. So the only way to fool it into submission is to lose weight so slowly that it doesn't catch on until its too late! That way your changes have a chance of being permanent.

I've taken over two years to lose 30kg and I don't care if it takes another two to lose the next 30! In fact I don't care if it takes another ten! Those ten years will pass anyway and the important thing is losing it. Sure I'd love someone to wave a magic wand and make me a size 12 now - I'm human! But if being a 12 NOW meant being back to a 20 in a few weeks or months then I wouldn't take it. Losing it is too challenging to do it more than once.

For me the big thing that set me out on the path to weight loss success was accepting that it would take time and probably a lot of time and that was ok. Realising that a crash diet, cabbage soup diet, lemonade diet, even Atkins or South Beach was never going to change my life is actually what has saved it!

The thing for me is that life is too short not to go off course occasionally - the best scenery is off the beaten track! Friends are more important than diets and if that friend happens to make a killer chocolate cake then so be it! I'm not going to avoid them, and lets face it, I'm probably not going to avoid the cake either so what I will do is enjoy every morsel and then get back on track tomorrow.

Oh dear

Oh dear! Blew the detox! I was doing so well but this morning was a very early start and my routine was completely messed up. So for lunch, instead of my usual lovely healthy raw salad, I had a tuna salad Subway. Not the end of the world, I know, but annoying that I can be blown off course by a simple change in routine. Oh, and I am really going to suffer for the wheat!

Starting to realise that a huge amount of this "losing it" thing is about preparation, preparation and more preparation. I knew I had an early start and I could have been prepared for it. Still, its all about making mistakes and learning from them. Who was it who said "good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement"?

OH BTW here's the recipe for my lovely raw lunch - its really tasty and filling and the best part is it takes ages to eat so there's no chance of feeling deprived! Its sort of based on The Juice Master: Turbo-charge Your Life in 14 Days turbo charged salad but I've tweaked it a bit! The tahini dressing makes it feel super rich and indulgent when it really isn't!

First there's the basic salad:
I cup raw red cabbage (or white if that's all you've got) grated or thinly sliced
Half a carrot grated (or more if you fancy)
Half an apple
A stick of celery
Half a small cucumber
A handful of pumpkin seeds

Then you can add any or all of the following:
An avocado
Half a bulb of fennel
A couple of sprigs of brocoli. grated or chopped
Half a pepper chopped
Spinach leaves, rocket leaves, lettuce - whatever greenery takes your fancy
A couple of tablespoons of beans - cannelini, kidney, borlotti, whatever you prefer (though Heinz baked beans might be stretching it a little!)
A handful of walnuts
4 olives, black or green, your choice
A small tin of tuna (don't buy the flaked stuff though, it tastes like catfood! Well, not that I've tasted catfood...)
Half a cup of cold (but cooked) brown rice

And the dressing:
One tablespoon of tahini
One and a half tablespoons of olive oil
A tablespoon of cider vinegar or balsamic
Juice of half a lemon or a whole lime
And if you're feeling really indulgent a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup!
Put all these in a jar and shake and you have instant mayonnaise!

Chop or grate everything to a manageable size and stir thoroughly then pour over the dressing and stir again. Enjoy!

hello

OK this is my first ever blog post so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here. Practicing maybe?

This blog is about losing weight but its also about shedding all the other crap that comes with that.

If losing weight was just about eating less, how simple life would be. But only the effortlessly thin truly believe that! And I've got news for you guys - virtually no one stays effortlessly thin forever! So enjoy it while you can.

I believe in living life to the max and I don't believe to lose the weight I want to I have to deprive myself forever. I've got 30kg to lose so I'm in this for the long run. And if the long run meant no chocolate again ever I'd be doomed to fail!

And in case anyone is wondering how I can call myself an expert - well, I may have 30kg to lose but I've already lost the first 30 - so I must be doing something right!

Right now I'm on day 4 of a major detox - with all the joys that brings. More on that later - I've got lunch to make!