Saturday sniffles

Why am I always hungrier at the weekend? It's not as if I'm at work during the week which keeps my mind occupied and then have all weekend to think about food. I'm at home all week and, if anything, weekends should be easier as monkey boy is at home to keep me busy. We'd normally go out for a walk or something - trying to avoid delis and cake shops on our way - but today I'm sniffling on the sofa wrapped in a blanket. I've had this pooey cold for the past four days and I'm getting fed up. And I'm hungry. Feed a cold, starve a fever... I wish!!

Had some apple and raisin fruity porridge for breakfast with skimmed milk, then chorizo and manchego tortelloni with chilli oil and parmesan followed by two figs and an apple for lunch so I shouldn't be peckish but I am. Not famished but if someone offered me a pizza, I couldn't see me turning it down. Especially a Pizza Hut stuffed crust super supreme with pineapple instead of olives, mmmmmmm!

How I wish I was immune to the delights of fatty food but it wasn't salad that got me in this mess. It was an unbridled desire for pizza, fish and chips, spare ribs, tandoori mixed grills, cakes, chocolate and ice cream in gargantuan quantities. Not that I haven't had fish and chips since calorie counting; I've had it three times but managed to fit it into the day's allowance. Kind of. And it fitted in with my elimination diet, which I've since abandoned as I couldn't feel any difference. And now I can have cows' milk I can have it skimmed instead of semi-skimmed goats' milk so it's less fat and calories. I'm still trying to avoid yeast and almonds (after a lemon and almond cake made me feel really odd) but it's too hard to both calorie count and eliminate half the core food groups - yeast, cow's milk (and cheese and butter etc), coffee, cola nuts, almonds, oats, sesame, eggs and black pepper.

At least I've adjusted to sugar-free Ribena so I can have hot beena for my cold for only 7.5 calories a mug. So comforting. Might have a chicken stir-fry for dinner as that's fairly low fat and my lunch was okay for cals but high in the lardy stuff. And more fruit. According to WLR I've been having about 14 portions of fruit and veg a day but they calculate it strangely. I have been drinking heaps of water - at least 4 or 5 litres a day so I know the weight loss isn't water. I hope. At this rate, I'll turn into a fish. Or a mermaid, which is kind of cool. A hungry mermaid, though!!

Not starting at the very beginning

Well, I could have started at the beginning like normal people. Or the song from the Sound of Music. It is, after all, a very good place to start. But, no, I'm different. Or just super disorganised. Probably the latter, knowing me. So this is my weight loss blog but it's not the beginning of my journey. That started three and a half weeks ago when I weighed in at 377 pounds. Oh yes, read it and weep. I know I did. In British money, that's 26 stones and 13lb or, for our European cousins 171.36 kilos. Fat, in other words. Really, really fat. Morbidly obese, about to get diabetes kind of fat. Dying of a heart attack kind of fat.

I've tried endless diets - Weight Watchers, Slimming World, South Beach, Atkins (for one day) - and never lost more than 9 or 10 pounds before quitting and piling on even more weight (apart from when I dd WW a few years ago and lost 40lb... then put 100lb back on). So I decided that this time it was going to be different. Mind you, I do that every time. But seriously, I have to do something about my weight before I shuffle off this mortal coil and they have to send me to a special crematorium for lard arses. So I've joined a fabulous website called Weight Loss Resources, which tells you how many calories you need per day to lose a certain amount of weight and has an amazing database of foods with which you fill in a daily food diary. There's a lot more to it which I'm sure I'll talk about later but that's the basics.

So, three and a half weeks in I've lost eight pounds. 8lb. Which is fine. Not super great or anything but fine. I'm set to lose 2lb per week so I'm ahead of target and I haven't weighed myself since Monday (it's Friday) as I'm only weighing once a week. So the 8lb was in three weeks. 4lb, then 1lb, then 3lb. 4% of the way there approximately. Oh yes, how much am I trying to lose? 199lb. I could have made it a round 200lb but, hey, I like the irregularity of it and it would take me to 178lb, 12stone 10lb, or just shy of 81 kilos. In other words, over half my body will have disappeared. If I stick to this and it works that is. And it's going to take me about two years if I can lose an average of 2lb per week.

So I'm here for the long run. Will I still be here in two years at my ideal weight? Only time will tell.