Earlier on this year I did a food diary for a few weeks. I hated every minute of filling it in - counting and recording everything. The annoyance of looking up foods on the Internet. Throwing away wrappers and then having to fish them out of the bin again to record the statistics. Trying to cook simple meals so all the math wouldn’t take too long.

It wasn’t fun, it took a lot of time and effort and there’s no way I could do it for long.

It was, however, one of the most useful diet-related exercises I have ever done.

It blew me away.

You get set into a diet that is reasonably healthy and you stick to it. Slowly over time, if you’re not very careful, you start to stray from it. You add a little something here. Take away a little something there. And slowly over time it morphs into a slightly more “comfortable” version of what you started off with.

My food diary revealed that my eating habits weren’t too bad at all (though of course there’s always room for improvement!) but it was my drinking that was letting me down. Not alcoholic drinking (I barely touch the stuff) but rather the fruit juice, energy drinks, coffee and so on.

Do you have any idea how many calories are in fruit juice?!

I nearly died! I assumed in the past fruit juice was a pretty safe bet. No siree!

If it *weren’t* for my drinking, I would have been well within my desired calorie count but it was this drinking that was pushing me way, way over the limit (by hundreds of calories).

I had a very hard time changing. I now survive on average on plain water with the odd decaf coffee or skimmed milk to drink. That’s it. Gone are the sodas and energy drinks except once in a blue moon for a treat.

So consider what you drink on a regular basis - could you be drinking yourself fat, and what can you do to change that?

Popularity: 24% [?]

Browsing in a bookstore last week I inevitably stumbled upon the weight loss section. And when contronted with a range of good diet books I do like to have a little browse to see if anything catches my eye.

I figure - I’m always willing to try a new idea and anything which might help me (or you, dear reader!) is something worth aiming for.

In amongst the usual selection of books generally categorized as “read it” or “you must be joking” was one I’d never seen before entitled the “Duvet Diet”.

Never before have I heard a more unbelievable book title. You lose weight by getting yourself down the gym, not by lying in bed. The claims seemed so “out there” I decided to buy a copy so I could read it at my leisure and discover if there is actually anything to it or not.

The main premise, as far as I can see, is two fold. Firstly, if we’re sleepy, we’re more likely to not have the patience to cook proper, nutritious meals and instead are likely to rely on junk food. Fair point, but hardly earth shattering.

Secondly that sleep affects out hormones, so lack of sleep can result in weight gain. The first part I agree with, the second however doesn’t naturally follow for me. Maybe I’m missing the point or being overly unkind but there just isn’t enough hard science for me in this book.

It seems like the author of The Duvet Diet - Jane Worthington - has come up with a crazy sales ploy of inventing a diet that claims essentially that by being lazier you will lose more weight.

Great marketing, poor diet.

There is a lot of padding in the book, which could have been half the size or smaller in my opinion and I think any results gained from this book are mainly because the author recommends 30-60 minutes of exercise each day plus a reasonably calorie-controlled diet.

I say reasonably because in the acceptable snacks list are such foods as beer, Smarties and ice lollies!

Oh, and according to her tables, I shouldn’t lose any more weight as I am at my minimum, though as the pictures featured here recently show, I have quite a bit more to lose.

In my opinion this is one diet book to steer well clear of!

Popularity: 9% [?]

The closest thing I could create to that instituation - the fast food restaurant.

We took some beef mince and kneaded it together with carefully shopped red onions and red pepper for flavor and color. We added in butter to help the mixture stick and to also add a nice texture and then took small golf-ball sized balls of the mixture, flattened it gently and placed them onto a grill tray.

Oven cooked until brown throughout these took around 20-30 minutes, with a small amount of grated cheese added a few minutes before they were ready to come out.

The “fries” were simply butternut squash, cut into thin strips and coated in sunflower oil and assorted herbs.

Served with a little sugar-free mayonnaise this Atkins diet recipe really went down a treat!

Popularity: 17% [?]

This meal is the closest I could come up with to a Chinese takeaway meal (which I love!) which would still stick within the guidelines of the induction phase of the Atkins diet.

The meal consists of roast duck in the center - cooked in the oven at 200′C for 20 minutes per 500 grams of weight plus 20 minutes (which clocked in at around an hour and a half for our duck).

Accompanying the duck are water chestnuts and yellow pepper for color and added bulk.

Next, the slices of cucmber added a welcome coolness and worked really well both with the duck and the sauce.

The sauce for this Atkins diet recipe was single cream gently reduced down on the hob with chopped garlic and grated ginger added to it. Leave it on for 5 minutes or there abouts until it has thickened up ot prodice a thick, creamy sauce as shown and serve!

Delicious, and one of our all-time favorite Atkins diet recipes!

Popularity: 17% [?]

Here is a creation of mine which is fully Atkin’s Diet compliant, looks pretty good and tastes amazing.

Indeed, my girlfriend recently commented that she feels we eat just as well if not better on Atkins Diet than without it because (a) we are able to enjoy some “naughty” things like cream and cheese, and (b) we are forced to create interesting dinners from limited ingredients.

Previously I would never have cooked (or even considered) turnip, and asparagus was just an ocassional veg, definately not an everyday food.

But here we are. A chicken breast wrapped in smoked bacon and baked in the oven at 200′C for around 30 minutes. This is accompanied by lightly boiled, butter-drenched asparagus and a delicious mash made by boiling turnip for 10-15 minutes then mashing it with butter and grated cheese.

Very, very tasty indeed and according to our “back of the envelope” maths, only 6 grams of carbs to giving us an amazing 14 grams for the rest of the day!

Popularity: 13% [?]