David Hurst

Day 2 of the diet and I’m still feeling positive. Got home last night to a rather fantastic dinner of fish pie, potato croquets and broccoli, followed by some jam tarts with custard. I’m not sure whether it was particularly low fat or not, but portions were much smaller than I’m used to. I was very hungry when I got home from work after such a light lunch, but not uncomfortably so. Late night supper could not be avoided, as after running around for an hour on the football pitch in the freezing cold, I was pretty hungry. I broke my no-bread rule and had a couple of slices of toast, but it was Weight Watchers bread at 49 calories a slice. An apple (of the edible variety) finished off the day, and I didn’t wake up hungry.

And so, on to today’s nosh…

A couple of crispbreads with low-fat spread cheese (garlic & herbs) served as a simple breakfast, however this wasn’t such a great plan as I have needed to chew gum all day to combat the garlic breath. D’oh!

At lunch time I persevered with my crispbread and soft cheese regime and bought myself a tin of pilchards to go with. These weren’t nearly as nice as the mackerel I bought yesterday and I won’t be buying them again. I also got a bit weak and allowed myself a packet of crisps. In fairness, these were baked crisps at 97 calories a bag. Total food bill today: £1.02. Whilst I get thinner - my wallet gets fatter!

I am starting to sense the onset of gnawing hunger and I remember this being the worst part of my last diet. The first couple of weeks really suck, but after that I guess your stomach must shrink, because it gets much easier. I think a lot of the difficulties people experience with food has to do with habit. Once you’ve dieted for any length of time, you can survive happily on smaller portions, but for some reason, if you’ve been used to eating more, it feels like you’re missing out. So, despite having eaten to satisfaction, you eat more because that’s what you’ve been used to, and then the whole process starts over.

At this stage, I know I will be able to get down to 16 stones without to much trouble. I think getting to 15 from 16 will be twice as hard as the initial drop.

To make matters worse, exercise is becoming more difficult due to a damaged achilles. I have x-rays for that next week, so hopefully it will get sorted. In the meantime, I will be hitting the Crewkerne swimming pool. I have found in the past that swimming is the ultimate weight loss exercise. As you swim, your stomach tightens up creating the psychological illusion that you are actually losing weight as you swim. It feels great. 64 lengths in an hour is my target - that equates to a mile. I’ll give that a go tomorrow I think.