On my return from holiday that I discovered that I had gained a few pounds so I decided that I had better get a grip and do something about taking the weight off.
Now, in my younger days this would not have been a problem; just not eat till dinner time then have chicken and salad and, bingo, the excess pounds would just drop off. But when you are older, this is not an option! If I don’t have something to eat before lunchtime, I become a bad tempered ratbag of a woman who, if you have any sense you avoid like the plague!

So what to do to lose the holiday bulge?

Well like so many others before me, I have a gym membership, taken out in the firm belief that I would go at least three times a week and look like Elizabeth Hurley in three months’ time! Why do we do it? May as well put the money down the drain, the gym owners must be laughing all the way to the bank; is it just women who are lacking in a bit of self discipline on the excercise front, or are there men out there who have done the same thing. Anyway, I have actually been to the gym five times in the last six months, not good is it?

So, accepting that I am not and never will be a “gym bunny” I decided that I would take the healthy eating route to getting my weight under control. I think I have a healthy attitude to food already – I like it – but looked again at where I could possibly make adjustments. Butter – lovely melted on brown toast; the spread stuff just doesn’t do it for me and anyway, I read somewhere that butter is better for you, so I’ll just scrape it on and scrape it off, should do the trick. I have decided that I can live for a while without too many carbs, evidently they can raise blood sugar levels, so no potatoes except for the odd jacket and only wholewheat pasta, lots of veggies, fruit, chicken and fish, sounds like a plan!

If I lived on my own, I know that I could crack this dieting lark, but I have a “significant other” in the form of the RH (retired husband) whose main pleasure in life, apart from cigars, tv, holidays and the dog, is to sit down to a lovely home cooked dinner of all the things I am about to take off the menu. As I do the cooking I think I should choose the food, he is not going to like this one bit………………..