At the beginning of all this it felt like we would never get to this point. Now we are four weeks in, and there’s four weeks to go.
Today is day twenty-eight and we are halfway to the end.
Time, then, for a brief celebration:
- For four weeks I haven’t eaten a single biscuit.
- For four weeks I haven’t let a single piece of bread pass my lips.
- For twenty-eight whole days I have avoided eating cereal.
- For four weeks I have been reading and researching everything I can about this miracle diet and others like it – and I’m still not bored.
- In the last four weeks I have had alcohol on only two occasions.
In the last four weeks (twenty-eight whole days – the duration of February (non-leap year)) I have felt better than I have in a long, loooong time. I have felt happier. I have felt more peaceful. I have felt more content. I have enjoyed my food more than I used to even though there’s less of it and it’s not always the food I would choose to eat. I have made my peace with turkey mince and have eaten it twice without wanting to throw it in the bin (which is what I did with it the last time I cooked with it). I have eaten more eggs than I can count, more frozen berries and full-fat yoghurt than ever before. More almonds than I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. And I’ve had less alcohol than when I was pregnant (just kidding – I didn’t drink at all). And I have never, not once, felt cheated or like I am missing out.
Of course, I have been hungry at times. But I have made my peace with that. We’ve had hot days and I’ve watched the boys eating ice creams with saliva dribbling down my chin, resisting the urge to rugby-tackle my three-year-old and lick the ice cream from his face. I have actually really craved a banana at least once (I usually don’t like bananas unless it involves dairy - banana flavoured ice cream or milk shake), but haven’t eaten one. I have eaten apples and enjoyed them more than I have in my whole life to date.
Of course, I’ve had a few rice cakes here and there but now the packet has gone I won’t be buying any more for a long time. I’ve even snuck in the odd crisp – emphasis on odd. But generally I’ve been good. I think this diet is working well, it’s not too hard to stick to, and most importantly it seems to be doing the job for my type 2 diabetic mother, who seems to have changed a lifetime of bad eating habits in just four weeks and she hasn’t had a single metformin tablet in all that time.
Added to this, both Mum and I have voluntarily become more active. Mum is walking at least five miles a day, when she can. And I have been running. And, I might add, I have been going out running without having first felt that dull feeling of resignation while I put my trainers on because I have eaten half the tin of biscuits and I really need to try and make the effort to burn off at least one of those twenty I have consumed… I have enjoyed running and I have not noticeably struggled at all while only consuming 800 non-biscuit calories. It has, inexplicably, been easier and more enjoyable.
Tomorrow is day twenty-nine. Tomorrow morning I’ll weigh myself ‘officially’ (that’s the weight which gets written down) for the fifth time. Hopefully I’ll have lost another pound. But I must not lose sight of what is important in the hypnotic Cheshire Cat grin of the scale’s digital readout. Losing weight with this diet is, for me, a happy side-effect. What’s most important is that my mum’s blood sugar is being managed with diet alone. What’s important is that both Mum and I are exercising more frequently and of our own free will. What’s important is how happy my insides feel and as a result, me.
And what’s really important to me is that if even one person who reads this blog decides to buy Dr Michael Mosley’s book, read it thoroughly and think ‘I can do it’; take control of their nutrition and in doing so, their life, to me that would probably be the best thing ever.
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