Since I posted my weight on Friday I have had several phone calls and a couple of emails, basically saying, sorry to see that your experiment has failed, and this is from people who know me. I was thinking about this last night, and all I can put this down to is, my not explaining properly what my aim is, which I will attempt to do now.

Let me say first that I am not looking for a quick fix, you see them all the time, lose 10 lbs in ten days and look great, or how I lost 28 lbs in a month and got ready for the beach. If you want to go that route that’s fine, and obviously a lot of people do, because in the US alone the diet industry in 2014 grossed over $60.5 billion, and the sad part is only a tiny proportion of the people spending that money achieved their goals. The problem is dieting is big business and they want your money, over and over again, which is good business as far as they are concerned. I have been on this merry-go-round, and the problem is like the majority of dieters at the end of the day you end up even heavier.

Having tried so may different diets over the years myself and failed, I have arrived here, and this is not a good place! You have probably heard that old saying, “Failure Is Not An Option” well in my case the way things stand its not an option, because if I fail I will probably die, and it will be sooner rather than later. The problem is I have been putting on weight fast for a long time, with a few short exceptions, and it has taken its toll. I have type 2 diabetes and some of the side effects that go with it, plus the weight is putting a strain on my heart, and to make things worse walking now is very difficult, so you use the car more, and things get even worse. So this experiment is not just about losing weight it is about changing my whole lifestyle, and surviving, because I still have a lot of things I want to do.

Now it’s not all doom and gloom, there are some positives, which I am pleased about. The most important thing so far is that I have managed to stay on my new eating plan, and that for me is a big step. Using the same program that I used to stop smoking, to get my head in the right place, has worked much better than I ever expected, and for anyone interested it is covered in my post entitled, Weight Gain and the Festivities, posted on the 11th January. The other really big positive so far is that I have STOPPED putting weight on, and started to reverse it, OK I only achieved half of what I would have liked, but even so I have lost 4 lbs, but that is a positive to build on. I knew that I would have to make adjustments and I think a lot of it will be portion size, but that will happen gradually, I also know I have got to cut back on some of the fruit, mainly oranges and grapes, and that does not mean cut them out only reduce the amount, but the really good thing thing is I have broken my old eating habits.

One of the other big changes is the way I feel, I no longer get the headaches that I was having nearly every other day, I sleep much better, and I have more energy, and now I have stopped eating the fatty crap, I no longer get diarrhea which I was suffering on a regular basis. I also generally feel much healthier, and this coming week I am determined to start walking again, it just takes that first step. I hope my explanation has now helped to understand my goal, and over the coming weeks I am going to be trying some less conventional ideas to try and accelerate my weight loss, which could be interesting, so stick around to see how it all pans out, and for now my best wishes go out to all of you…