The good...the bad... and the carbohydrates.

Generally I'm a fan of the low carb lifestyle. Any diet that allows you to drink cream freely, and stick your finger in the butter dish and eat it, can't be too bad. Some even advocate drinking champagne... that's my kind of thing. So this week I opted for a variation on a theme - the pig to twig diet.

You may think I was drawn in by the humorous name... but it was more the fact you can have Indian takeaways, and it encourages you to eat out at restaurants. I've eaten out three times this week and had a takeaway. Normally that would be excessive cheating, even by my standards!

But there are some strange things that happen to me though when I cut out the stodge - and attempt to survive mainly on scrambled egg and bacon.

Firstly I lose my appetite. One day I managed to survive till teatime having eaten just one boiled egg. I know this is hardly healthy, and wouldn't encourage eating of that sort in anyone, but I was busy and just didn't think about food. This is incredibly strange as normally I think about food probably once every three minutes, and actively plan my day around it... Even now as I write this I stopped for a moment, to think of what I might have for dinner.

The second is I crave cereal. When I was younger and low carbing it was frosties - now my tastes have matured slightly and it is crunchie nut cornflakes. Normally I wouldn't keep such evils in the house but we had guests over at New Year so I stocked up. (Note - having guests to stay is a dieters excuse to buy everything they wished they ate all year round, then not offer it, then have to eat it from fear of it going off)

My crunchie nut cornflakes had gone off slightly - I know this because I cheated. You knew it would come in there! I can't believe I've managed to make it look like perhaps I didn't for five paragraphs. Stale they were, but they tasted so good... which is why on two evenings I found myself shoving handfuls into my mouth. No milk, just dry. They tasted amazing. I wouldn't have been tempted by anything else... I ended up hiding them behind the sofa. Although out of sight, out of mind didn't really work - I just stopped typing again to think about them. Last night my other half was sat eating prawn crackers and I wasn't tempted at all. Had he been eating crunchie nut cornflakes or frosties... I might have gnawed his hand off. Perhaps even golden nuggets? My standards with food are generally lowered when I've had a few drinks...

Which brings me nicely to the drink. For the first two weeks of the pig to twig you're not meant to drink (alcohol that is...). I later read in the book this isn't because it screws up the diet, it's purely because you might be tempted to cheat. I thought, "Me? Cheat? Have you not read my blog? I can be trusted! I can drink the wine and not have the cereal" Clearly I was wrong.

So it is evident I am a cereal/serial cheater... I can see now that this will become my little weekly confession. But at least it's working... I left the important bit till last. One more week down, and one and a half pounds lighter.