Occasional Scribbles

Skinny will from time to time be posting on this blog, if I let her get a word in edgeways.

I am making a promise today to her and myself which is that this shall be our final ‘diet’ EVER! (Her first and last of course). Yes, I have embarked on quite a few in recent years and it has to stop. I will never DIET again after this one. I hasten to add, I am not one those people who yo yo diet and try every new faddy one that comes into the general public awareness. I don’t do those celeb diets in fact I almost always do the same one and it is quite simple – I eat less, a lot less.

Much is written and discussed about diets and indeed there are a whole load of experts and ‘lifestyle’ people at the ready to impart words of wisdom on the subject. With child obesity on the increase and many of us leading more sedantry lives it is an ongoing topical subject and let’s face it, a real money maker. If you can convince people that you have the answer to their weight problems, either by selling miracle pills that purport to stop fat accumulating (fat blockers) or just selling people a way of eating which they could quite easily have worked out for themselves, you really are on to a good thing.

To me it is simple – eat less, exercise more, burn fat off, weigh less. And that’s it in a nutshell. I know there are people who say they don;t know about eating healthily but I don’t beleive it. There is so much information out there and virtually everything you buy has nutritional information on the packet, even if it is sometimes hard to understand. Who can really still say that they don’t know that you need to eat fruit, veg, protein (meat/cheese/dairy) and carbs (bread/pasta/rice/grains) in reasonable quantities? Who can say they don’t realise that chocolate, sweets, biscuits, unrefined carbs etc are best kept very limited? Who doesn’t know that if they don’t exercise they won’t keep up a reasonable level of fitness and burn calories?

I think exercise is more important than what you eat in some ways. A couple of years ago I was looking forward to going on a trip of a lifetime. To celebrate 50 years of marriage, my parents were taking the whole family on a cruise through the Norwegian fjiords and coastline. Being fat then too, I wasted no time in planning for the event and started a very strict diet. I had recently read that a well known man who was a larger than life character had decided to lose weight and went on a diet of 200 calories a day. In case you don’t know, the usual amount for an average man is around 2500 – 3000 calories a day. He decided he wasn’t going to pussy foot around losing a couple of pounds a week and didn’t want to spend ages losing it and so he put himself on this highly restricted diet to see if it was possible to do it. And it was. He didn’t fall down and die or suffer any real health problems. On the contrary, he lost a whacking three or so stone in about the same amount of months.

I recognised him as my sort of fellow and decided to do something similar. I didn’t go for 200 calories as I didn’t have as much to lose as him but I did limit myself to about 400/day and it was fantastic! In the first week I lost 7lbs, about a quarter of what I wanted to lose. I was so thrilled at this dramatic success that I went on to lose a total of 24lbs well within the time limit I needed before we left for Norway.

On a cruise there is not a lot to do other than admire the ever changing scenery and on this cruise it was superb – and eat. There are copious amounts of mouth watering foods on these ships. It is part of the reason for going really. Eating, sleeping, eating some more and then the same the next day. We had a buffet breakfast and lunch meaning you could go and have any number and quantity of different things and then there was a set meal in the evenings. Having lost a good amount of weight before we went away I was a bit anxious not to put it on again but the thing is I didn;t! Inspite of eating three meals a day and plenty of it, I actually lost a further 3lbs! The rest of the family pretty much put on a few pounds each as would be expected but not me. And the reason was that I almost never sat down the whole time we were aboard ship.

Each day I walked round and round the deck, I walked up and down the many stairs cases between decks and was constantly on my feet. The only times I really sat down were at meal times. I didn’t do this on purpose, I just found it hard to settle down. I thought I would get into a good book and had brought a few for the purpose, imagining the luxury of being almost forced to sit and read. But whether it was the constantly changing view or movement of the ship that kept me on my feet, I don’t know but I was nevertheless pleased to come home lighter than I went!

So exercise is the key without doubt!! And talking of which Skinny is badgering me to take her out for a walk!