There's nothing so boring as someone on a diet.

I've gained 10 lbs since I last weighed myself in March.  When you are only five foot tall, every extra ounce shows.  Aside from looking like a barrel of Guinness, half my wardrobe is off limits.  I'm down to the last pair of jeans that still fit.  Time to act.

I've tried a lot of diets e.g. Weight Watchers, The Atkins Diet, Rosemary Conlon Diet, the Eat Nothing Diet but the one that works best for me is the 5:2 Diet created by Dr Mosley.  There is nothing to count or feel 'naughty' about.  You simply eat normally five days a week and for two non-consecutive days you limit yourself to 500 calories for that day. 

I start today.  It's easiest to do it on your busiest day at work or at your most relaxed at home. 

The 5:2 Fast website has recipes for three meals but I do not have the willpower to limit myself to three tiny meals.  It's easier to wake up in the morning and hold out has long as possible drinking only hot water, coffee and Rooibus tea until 1pm, and then eat half my allowance.  I eat the other half before 6pm.  I go to bed early.

Tip: Do not eat after 6pm; it makes a huge difference. 

Sometimes I go to bed hungry.  Save a tiny milk allowance for the last cup of tea before you go to bed.  Sometimes deep breathing helps.

After every fast day, I lose a lb.  

On 'normal' days I can eat what I like.  You would think that you would be tempted to go berserk eating all around you but that doesn't happen. 

I have Dr Mosley's book on the diet and it easy to follow.  To people who struggle on 500 calories a day, he suggests doing it over 24 hours i.e. have your last big meal at 3pm, survive on 500 calories for the next 24 hours and eat your next normal meal at 3pm the following day.  This is more manageable however, for effective weight loss, limit myself to 500 days per actual day where you have a night's sleep bookending the start and finish of a fast day works better. 

Some days I struggle: limiting your food intake to only 500 calories is daunting and that is why it is important to keep yourself busy.  I remind myself, "It's only for one day.  I can do anything for one day." 

Particularly, as I read last night in Ernest Hemingway's book, A Moveable Feast, he described how on the days he could not afford to eat, the resulting hunger heightened his senses and he believed that this in turn improved his writing.  If it worked for Hemingway......