I’m soooo happy!  At weigh in this morning, I am back below 10 stone!  In the 6 weeks of the blood sugar diet I have lost 12lb, which is massive, as my goal weight is 9st 7lbs.  The approximate weight one can expect to lose during the 8 weeks of 800 calories steering clear of the “forbidden five” (bread, pasta, rice, added sugar, processed foods) is 10% of ones starting weight.  That was 15lb for me.  So although it’s highly unlikely that I’ll drop a further 3lb before next Friday, my starting point dietary wise was probably a better starting point than for most who are completely changing their diet.  I rarely ate bread, potatoes, pasta and rice.

This week I have been busy with the media – trialling a new Blue Badge Parking app.  SIMON can be downloaded onto a smart phone or other device, and works in a similar way to GPS showing the location of VACANT blue badge parking bays on public roads.  The vacant part is clearly quite vital!

This weekend I am off to a conference at a hotel near Heathrow.  It’s an annual event aimed at beneficiaries of the Thalidomide Trust.  I’ve been a pivotal part of getting it all together, so to be honest, I’ll be relieved when it’s all over!  I’m going to be speaking to people in a workshop about the “Fit for the Future” weekend that was held in April this year.  We will hear from one of the participants who has made some massive huge lifestyle changes in the 6 months since April – not just weight loss, but exercise, emotional well being and taking up new social activities.

I’m aware I’m likely to be straying over the 800 daily calorie limit, but I’ll stick to the principles….

I’m always sad to see the end of the Summer (I love the sun!) but Autumn is my favourite season.  There’s something about those sharply cold and often dark mornings and evenings.  When it’s dry and sunny (which it has been so far) I want to leap out of bed and get on with my day.

I think that the Blood Sugar diet is something to do with it.  It may be coincidental that around three or four days after I started on it, I was waking in the morning feeling energetic and ready to go.  Just a few weeks ago, I felt quite different.  I would have been quite happy to turn over, snuggle back under the duvet and snooze.

This past week has been a very draining one, emotionally and physically.  The start to my week was supporting a lovely friend who was going through a bit of a crisis.  But my efforts – and by her amazingly cheerful attitude, alongside the (hopefully positive) outcome made it all very worth while.

Then mid-week, my step-father was rushed into hospital with a very slow heart rate (just 30 bpm).  He required a pacemaker to be fitted, which is risky surgery for him given his present health status.  There was some uncertainty whether the risks were worth taking.

The consultant was happy to go ahead, the surgery was a success (heart rate up to 60 now) but a partially collapsed lung has meant that recovery has been far from straight forward.

Far from derailing my attempts to follow the diet, it actually spurred me on.  There is nothing quite like being surrounded by patients in a cardiac ward to spur you into making changes to your diet and lifestyle.