Saturday 1st March - Avoir du Pois and Lent

Ohhhh Yes! All that sitting around for three weeks has made a difference to my weight.

Not much, but those pounds can't stay there - if every chest infection results in a weight gain of 2 pounds, and then there's Easter on the horizon, and Summer and ice cream, and then, later on, Christmas

Those pounds have to go.

I've been reading an article in my mother's Good Housekeeping magazine about how someone lost 42 pounds in 42 weeks. Without dieting. Without doing anything more spectacular than being sensible and patient and determined. In other words, common sense. No tricks, no magic methods, no obsessing with food.

After all, we all know what makes us fat. We all know what we shouldn't eat.

So far, this week, I have walked away from one toasted teacake opportunity, two biscuit moments and a toast temptation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spiced_teacakes_29429

Unfortunately I have given in to two hot chocolates and two (but not three) glasses of sherry. I suspect flat white coffees should be rationed too.

I could give up chocolate for Lent, but that would be breaking my New Year's Resolution. And I'm not going to give up biscuits and cake. In my line of work I need occasional chocolate and biscuits and cake to keep me sweet! So, I shall take up MODERATION for Lent.

My other Lent challenges are to OBEY THE RULES, and to DO IT NOW (instead of procrastinating).

I'm also planning to replace hours frittered away on Free Cell with getting a couple of my on-going half-finished craft projects completed.

Not very spiritual, you might say. Well, I've been reading quite a lot of "spiritual" and "religious" stuff, one way and another, and I think that these challenges are right on target.