What am I thinking of?!?!

What was I thinking of, when I decided to go on this entire year of dieting? Well, my health firstly, amongst many other things! I have always wanted to be a healthier size, but never really managed it. My problem? I love food! I love cooking and baking, I don't like to say no, and I was brought up in a household of good food. Although I've always wanted to do something about my weight, I just didn't really get that far, and I would give up too easily.

I changed my mind this year when I realised that all I need is a commitment for a good amount of time, to make a real difference to my health. I have recently found that my asthma is much worse, general fitness, and I get heartburn much more regularly. When I weighed myself, I was shocked to see I was the heaviest I have ever been, weighing in at 18 stone. Now I'm a short person, only 5 foot 2, so I don't carry 18 stone particularly well. Who would?! This was the shock that I needed to really sort myself out.

So, I decided that to make a real difference, I need to give myself enough time, not expect to go on one of these fad diets that make you lose a few pounds in a week or two, and then you end up creeping it all back on again. I decided to give myself a whole year. And how much of your time really is a year, when on average, you have about 70-80 of them in your whole life? It's not that long, if it makes a difference to my happiness and my quality of life. 

So, I started this year on January 3rd (I didn't start straight away on the 1st as I knew I had plans to go out and have dinner on the 2nd, and I didn't want to ruin my health kick at the very beginning. To start off with, I tried out a diet app that has a whole range of diets on it, with different lengths too. I've started on the salad diet, which incorporates rye bread/wholemeal muffins for breakfast, fruit/veg as snacks, and salad for lunch and dinner. Now they aren't just green salads - you can have grilled chicken, prawns, egg, tuna etc., so that you are getting the nutrients you need.

The salad diet only lasts for 3 days before I start something new again. I started thinking about this, and wrote my own diet plan, incorporating the salad diet mainly, but with a few changes so that I can enjoy the food I like in small portions, with a big flavorsome salad to go with it (hold the dressing!). I'm starting my new diet on Monday.



My first day was pretty tough - not so much in the day, as I had plenty of food, but in the evening, I was really hungry. I am a sucker for suppers, especially if I'm up late. 



The second day wasn't quite so bad, most likely because I was out for a lot of the day, and ended up having my last meal quite late. 


And today, I had breakfast of two pieces of rye toast and soft cheese, and I'm pretty full! I know they say your stomach shrinks as it gets used to eating less food. God I hope so!

So, to start it off - I weighed in on January 3rd, my first day of the diet, at 17 stone and 12 pounds. January 6th will be my next weigh in - stay posted to see if it really made a difference for three days (I have had a sneaky peek on the scales, but I'll make it official tomorrow morning!)