Goodbye to all fat

Apparently, people expected their January health kicks to last for 78 days on average, making today – March 18th – the day most people finally crack under the strain of their New Year’s resolutions and fall off the diet and fitness wagon.

But I say why have they punished themselves for even this long? Now, I am not a doctor but I think I could write a best-selling diet and fitness book with my fail-safe way to lose weight and get fit. The only problem is that it would be very short because the secret formula is only four words long: eat less, move more.

Take yesterday as an example. For reasons unbeknown to science, but mainly just because I wanted to, I ate – as well as my proper meals – a muffin, a slice of carrot cake and a mini chocolate roll. Oops! Without being a maths whiz – which is lucky because I definitely am not – even I know that all of that adds up to more than the balanced calorie intake for someone of my age, height and weight.

So what’s my solution? Well, number one is to say “what the hell” and not feel guilty, and number two is to eat sensibly and normally – perhaps even ‘under eat’ slightly – today. Oh, and move lots. I think that probably just about balances it all out.

No fads, no cabbage soup, no crash diets, no food elimination, no counting anything, no measuring and not much in the way of denial really. Just a bit of balance and a lack of guilt at sometimes having a bit more of an appetite.

Just one more thing. You may have noticed that this post is illustrated with a photograph of a gingerbread man – or, as they refer to it on the PC packaging, a ‘gingerbread character’ – and yes, I did buy it today for that very purpose. You may also be wondering if I am going to eat said gingerbread man today, given that this is supposed to be a day of ‘less’ to make up for yesterday’s day of ‘more’. The answer is, I don’t know. No gingerbread crumbs have passed my lips yet, but if I feel like dipping his head in a cup of tea and eating it later on I just will. No big deal; I’ll just see how it goes.