I'm excited about my birthday, even though it means I'm another year older... Today I'm looking forward to being rather spoilt and having a fun family celebration this evening. I will be eating well! At the moment I'm contemplating getting up and going for a cycle or a swim, but .... Maybe later! I do plan to get right back on track with my 5:2 fasting diet next week, and probably for the rest of the year. It's been much easier than I imagined and I've loved the weight loss and new energy it's given me. The other day I walked up a very long steep hill near me without any of the huffing and puffing that usually went with it. I think my weight loss is the best birthday prezzie to myself !!! I'd like to lose another 7 or 8 pounds before my holiday in a months time. Then, I hope to keep up the 2 semi-fasting days until I am slim! I'm not going to settle for being less fat - although I do love it- I'm going to go for the max. Meanwhile, it's time to get on with my birthday, woo hoo!

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I week down and I'm starting to lose the flab! 102 days left until Turkey time!

Diet books - how effective are they?

107 days to go! I have quite a good collection of literature on the subject of getting slimmer. Recent additions include Fat around the Middle by Marilyn Glenville and The Fast Diet by Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer. Sadly, the fact that I have invested heavily in diet and lifestyle books over the past few decades - whilst steadily gaining weight suggests I'm wasting my money, but may be one day I'll find the secret to success! The 2 books I've bought are both quite interesting reads and I think they may be able to help me in my quest for a slimmer me. The Fast Diet seems like a great idea: eating what you like for 5 days and then just having 500 cals a day on the other 2. I did try it for a day, which was fine, but I'm not sure I can find a way to fit it into my lifestyle. Work and fasting don't go together and my weekends are too precious to give up the things I love. The big problem with all these books is that whatever they say about how simple and easy their system is, it always involves a fundamental change of habits and that is not always easy to achieve. In 'Fat around the Middle' I'm advised to give up all refined carbohydrates and sugar for 3 months. I am sure this would be really good for me, but it's a big ask! No more white bread (ok, possible), potatoes or sweet potatoes (probably not possible) and other foods I sometimes love. I am prepared to change my habits and my lifestyle, but it has to be achievable. There is little doubting that the stress of my teaching job has contributed towards my weight gain - if I am to believe many of the weight loss gurus,- but I need to pay the mortgage. I've been advised to have my main meal at lunch time and just a healthy snack in the evening, but with a thirty minute lunch break that's impossible and I want to eat and relax with a glass or two of wine in the evening. It keeps me sane! I was really proud of myself in 2011 when I lost around 50 pounds and I do look back to see what the secret was. I know the main thing was having something to look forward to - a holiday - and counting down the weeks before I went. I planned various 'rewards' along the way, but I think that my weight loss was the biggest incentive to keep going. Each week I would try on some clothes I liked in the shops whilst waiting to pick up my daughter. It was the best feeling to get into something I actually liked wearing and felt good in. Unfortunately, I've put on most of the weight I lost...so I've booked another holiday and am feeling really determined to succeed again with my diet. I am going to stop nibbling, limit bread to a little wholemeal nimble occasionally and cut right back on the wine. That way I hope to be checking in to Gatwick in 107 days feeling slim and confident!

108 days to my holiday! The best incentive.

Today it all starts again! The sun is out (well it was a minute ago...), the temperature is ur, above freezing and I've booked some flights to Turkey in 108 days! Woo hoo!!! I am therefore in the mood to get out and battle that fat. Today I will be leaping on my bike and going for a cycle. I know it's going to be hard as I've not been getting much exercise recently, but I have a goal now and, to me, a holiday on the horizon is the best goal ever! I think I might try the 5-2 Fast diet, (2 days of 500 cals and the rest of the week eating normally). I shall cut out the wine, the bread and the nibbling generally. That's all for now apart from this picture showing where I'm going!

To this day -

Watch it. You may cry, but I think that if everyone watched it and took note the world would be a better place, and a lot of us would find it easier to get our lives in order.

A slight misjudgement of calories...

I am in the middle of festive feasting time - and packing plenty of it in.  Expansion has definitely taken place sadly.  This was not really the plan as you might have guessed.

I'm not saying I wasn't planning to enjoy Christmas eating and drinking, rather that I expected it to be a time of treats, mixed in with healthy food and seasonal exercises - dancing to my Christmas spotify list, cycling along the seafront on crisp, bright mornings or even swimming a few lengths at the pool in my new, more streamlined swimsuit.

However, that more streamlined swimsuit is still packed away - unworn, together with my favourite little black dress.  This is because the month leading up to Christmas was filled with too much work, fatigue, shopping, colds and general stress - and very little exercise.  I could almost see myself ballooning and by the time Christmas Eve arrived I knew that I was gaining rather than losing the pounds.

Strangely, despite the Christmas fare  bulging out of cupboards and fridges all around the house I was confident I wouldn't overdo it.  After all, I had bought loads of fruit and veg and some yummy low calorie puddings.  I'm not one for sweet things like Christmas cake or Christmas pudding - I prefer jelly for desert - so chances of overdosing on calories seemed less likely.  I'd even bought an alternative to the oh so filling Christmas pudding - but that's where the trouble started...

I collected a beautiful raspberry panacotta for 10 from M & S on Christmas Eve, planning, of course, to share it with my family.  But so far no one else has tucked in.  I have to say it has come as a huge shock to discover that each portion of this delicious pud contains  over 1400 calories.  That's a day's allowance on a diet...  How can this be with a desert that with fruit and jelly?  I guess I just ignored that rather nice creamy base. 

Still, I suspect that if I do get through this whole panacotta without help from family or friends I may find I no longer crave it... well, maybe!

The plan still goes like this...

The plan still goes like this ... a year on.
I hadn't realised how much I owe to Pretty Woman... or how much that 50 Shades of Grey owes to the film either.  I watched it last night and it still hits the spot.   
Day - Thursday, in December
Time - 11 am
Place - Brighton, London, Paris... who knows? Somewhere with lots of beautiful shops full of gorgeous clothes.

I walk in and the sales assistants, who have been looking bored as they tootle around the store, gasp with astonishment. They all look towards the store's manageress who regains her composure, puts on a big smile and walks towards me.

"Madam - can we help you?"
I smile nonchanantly, ( I need to practise this in the mirror) and gaze around at the rich array of designer dresses dripping off the hangers. "Perhaps, yes I think you probably can."

There is an audible buzz of excitement now in the shop.
"I need a whole new wardrobe - and rather quickly actually", I add. "I have such a busy schedule these next few weeks; you know parties, balls, school productions, skiing trips, a weekend in the Cotswolds and a few nights in Istanbul. Plus I have to fit in a bit of location managing too. Colin and Pierce have asked me to find a few beautiful secluded bays in the mediterranean. Such a bore I know, but I did promise I'd do it."

The manageress smiles and nods incessantly, whilst around her the staff run for the hangers eager to help. "Would you like one of our girls to model some outfits for you?" she asks. "I guess you're about a size 8."

I smile and thank her, then slump into an arm chair, with a glass of bubbly, as the dresses start to parade themselves before me.  An hour later, I'm out of the shop, laden with designer carrier bags, l and heading for lunch; somewhere nice of course...

BUT this plan has a flaw - just one!  I am having trouble getting to that size 8 bit.  My dream is having hiccups and I need to get it back on track.

It's the tea time treats that do the damage for me I think.  I watch what I eat quite carefully in the day - and in the evening too, but I need to arm my kitchen with self locking machines to stop me nibbling late afternoon.  And maybe add in a little zumba then too.

Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan like me the way I am, of course, but I really don't want to let myself down.  A girl has dreams you know...
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