I have been trying to lose weight this year. I basically started the day after Boxing Day last year as I felt sickened by my Christmas indulgence and was weighing in at a ridiculous 15 and a half stone.
I gave up chocolate and alcohol. I didn't drink until the end of February and have only consumed two tiny pieces of chocolate (one accidentally as it was in a toffee) since then.
I lost a stone in the first month and since then things have been tending downwards. The week before last I almost ducked under 13 stone. But weighing myself this morning I was disappointed (though not entirely surprised) to see I had crept back up to 13 and a half stone. It's still a loss of two stone over the year, which is great, but is a reminder of how easily it can all pile back on, if you're not careful.
It is true that I have been partying and eating well, but I haven't really been starving myself all year. It is significant that I haven't done any exercise for a week or so. I was going swimming or running three or four times a week. But hangovers tend to stop you wanting to do that.
I think it's proof that all this stuff about metabolisms and big bones is largely if not entirely rubbish. All dieting boils down to is that you have to burn off all the calories you consume to maintain your weight, and slightly more if you lose weight. It's up to you. The power to achieve this is entirely in one's own head.
To be honest, losing the weight involved changing a couple of things in my life, but it's been pretty easy to get this far and provided you don't go crazy every single day you can still enjoy a big meal and some alcohol regularly.
I can't believe the multi-million pound industry that revolves around all these diets and exercise programmes. Because losing weight is simple mathematics. It's mind over fatty matter.
It is easy to get disheartened when you have been dieting and put on weight and start to stuff yourself again (I've certainly done that in the past), but I am determined not to get so fat again. I am going to enjoy Christmas, but I am not going back to those 40 inch jeans and I would really like to be 12 stone something by the end of January.
