Hi

It’s my first day today. I’ve Weight-Watchered for a couple of years and seen the same stone or so go and come back and Slimming World seems full of dodgy messages about food – calling things ‘Sins’ and so on. 5:2 appeals because I don’t have to count anything other than the calories on my fast days and because it doesn’t require me to have masses of willpower. If a glass of wine and a piece of cheese is calling at 9pm then all I have to do is remind myself that I can have that the next night. And tell myself that the camomile tea I’m making is just as tasty!

5:2 makes sense for me in lots of ways. The health benefits are hugely important as I found out last year that my birth father had a massive stroke and died aged 54 and he’d had heart problems before that. I’m 46 on Saturday (which won’t be a fast day!) and I’m starting to be aware of getting older. In my head, I’m about 33, maybe 37, but I’m realising that there’s so much I still want to do with my life and that if I can make to a ripe old age I want to be having fun and doing things.

I also want to lose weight so that I don’t have joint pains any more and find it easier to take exercise. I like feeling fit and strong and I want to get back to feeling like that again. If I can lose half a stone or so and feel as though I’m on my way and can start walking further then I’ll start going to the gym again. At the moment I feel fat and don’t want to go there. Half a stone may not even be that noticeable but it will make me feel better about being surrounding by all the skinny minnies.

So hello and here we go!