Original entry:

It all started when I realised I had a life expectancy of a further twenty to thirty years. It's obvious, I want to enjoy this time, so the least I need to do is to be fit enough.

I packed in smoking, on this the umpteenth attempt, I finally cracked it and it was easy!! Oh, Yeah!! Then the next concern was the horrific risk of putting on weight. So I decided the best form of defence is attack.

The easiest to change is to more from beer (bad + bad for you) to red wine (good for you). This on its own started reversing the decades of mis-treatment!! Like half a stone, man. For various reasons I'd stopped sailing the previous year, so I got an allotment. Lots of digging, lots of physical work, lots of fresh air and then lots of fresh vegetables and fruit.

The biggest problem is the body, because it seems to immediately defend the present status. Any attempt to lose weight, the body thinks it's being starved and goes into defence mode, and you can actually gain weight!! The body defends itself all day and every day, it needs to be gently nudged into a new preferred state. If you do any exercise don't do it two days running as the body goes 'Hey Up' and starts building the body ready for the new work!!

With losing weight (3 stones now), with doing the extra exercise walking over the Downs, with doing the digging the allotment, the body reacts extremely positively. The body actually tells you it's loving the new regime, you feel more alive, quicker, food tastes better.

But it's still hard to keep on reducing. The good news is that the body gradually changes shape, so for example I can now wear shirts with a smaller collar (hard to achieve) and my trousers have a reduced waist (easy to achieve.)

You try every trick you can think of, 'drink four litres' of water a day, brisk walk three miles every day, no processed bread (it really is difficult to digest) Burgen is great, lift bricks and paviours to make a path, lots of salad, light meat, fatty fish, cheeses, lots of fruit, new potatoes not old. Eventually created a CJ Choices lists of foods.

Looking back, I come again to the view that the second most important thing to do (second after changing from beer to red wine) is to have a great breakfast. Even with the GI diet I can have orange juice, three rashers of back bacon, large helping of scrambled egg, fried tomatoes, two spoonfuls of mushrooms, wholegrain bread toast and marmalade and black coffee and next day I was at my best weight yet. Isn't it something to do with metabolic rate? I follow the breakfast with sensible elevenses, a good lunch and a light evening meal.

And still the body is constantly on watch checking that it's not being starved. For me it's an on-going battle of wills and wiles.

Went for a nine mile walk yesterday and put on two pounds!! 120806.

Don't forget, you're already on a diet; and you can decide to stay on that diet OR you can decide to change it just a bit. It's your diet, you do what you want; you eat what you want. Great isn't it!!