The Rules

I should probably lay out what my rules are in terms of losing weight.

Yes, I know there are those who say it has to be lifestyle change yadda yadda yadda, you can't restrict yourself too much blah blah blah.

But I know what works for me and I need structure, I need boundaries.

Eating small meals throughout the day makes me pile weight on, even if it is nutritious, healthy options, it's just how my body works.

Eating no grains makes me sad. Eating no fat makes me sadder.

So I'm doing a blacmange of a few different things.

The first is no carbs and protein together, and when I do eat carbs they have to have a low GI. I followed this regime and this regime only around 19 years ago and dropped 20kgs. It was manageable and I didn't feel like I was denying myself.

Having kids broke me of it but now they're older I feel I can return to this principle.

The hardest component of this for me is bread. Stunning fresh sourdough laden with cultured salted butter. I reassure myself that once the weight is off I can have it every now and then, but in the weight loss phase, no.

The second is doing the 5:2 thing. This most recent 6kg drop was largely due to that. I was pretty hopeless at the 2 thing but my calorie intake was still way down on what it had been. This time around I'm going to really work at getting that calorie intake to a bare minimum on those two days.

The thing is, I really like it. It makes me feel like I'm back in control. I know feeling hungry is a good thing and I am having a real psychological battle with myself that I am not going to die and I do not have to be miserable just because my belly is empty.

The third prong is no eating from 8pm to 12pm. I am doing this following hearing about it on the health report on ABC national. Studies have found fasting from that period every day resulted in more sustained weightloss than 5:2 alone and the weight was kept off more successfully.

So that's it.

Embrace the hunger
Back away from the carbs
Lots of soda water
Heaps of veggies

I haven't talked about exercise yet. Mentally I'm just not there. I know in myself I need to lose more weight first - I want to be back in the 80s before I start. Some will say no no no, get out there! And I'm working on the "ignore the emotion, do the action" theory, but I just need time on this one.

Onward.