Cough, cough, cough, cough... and a diet!

If it's not one thing, it's another! Just when I thought I could stop sneezing with all the dust that had been kicked up while the tiles were being replaced...... Now it looks like half that dust found its way into my lungs and I have been coughing almost non-stop since last week. On top of that, it has brought on a pretty bad bout of asthma which has been with me for a week now. I think it is easing up now, but still got a ways to go. The good side of all the tile work is that now the bathtub drains properly and is completely dry within a couple of hours of showering. HUGE relief!

So, what else has been happening?

Well, still on the subject of bathrooms, my lovely contractor (Athelea) was finally able to get me towel rails that are longer than the norm, and I now have two of them affixed to my bathroom walls as of today. Phew!

The other piece of 'news' is that, after struggling to shed weight via exercise and drastic cutting down of food, and NOT succeeding, I finally signed up for a medically planned diet, which includes regular 4-weekly follow ups. Yes, I have... Yes, believe it! I started this diet on 16th April. I have been very very good at following it almost to the letter. And I have so far lost 4 kilos and a helluva lot of inches! Today I wore (comfortably) a pair of trousers I have not been able to wear for almost 8 years! And this is only the beginning folks. If you want to find out more about this diet for yourself, google COHENS LIFESTYLE DIET.

And you know why it has worked so far? Well, with other diets I have tried, I always end up starving hungry and give in to any and all cravings - this despite the fact that I actually don't eat sweet stuff much! On this diet you not only have to eat 3 proper meals, but you also have snacks and fruits to eat in between...... My schedule is something like this:

- 8am breakfast
- 10am snack (2 crackers)
- 12noon snack (usually an apple, or a portion of mango)
- 1pm Lunch
- 3.30pm snack (2 crackers)
- 5.30pm snack (fruit again)
- 7.30pm dinner (with another cracker).

Each meal is usually made up of a protein (meat, chicken, egg, seafood) and vegetables. The portions are all weight controlled and since I started on this I have been cooking at home!! Yes, I can see the shock on the faces of all those of you who know how much I dislike cooking... but this is the only way I can be sure that I eat only what I am supposed to eat. No sauces, no sweet things, must drink loads of water (at least 2, preferably 3, litres of water), you can have unlimited coffee and tea but with no milk and no sugar. You can even have up to 1 litre of diet drinks... but this is all in ADDITION to the water - however much tea, coffee or diet drinks you consume you STILL have to take at least 2 - 3l of water.

So what happens if I have to go out for dinner? Well, so far, I have been out about 3 - 4 times. Once I was over at my parents home, and when I told them about my diet my Mum made sure the maid cooked some vegetable that I could eat and they did not try and make me eat anything else. Twice I went to Ms Read's Delicious restaurant, where I had the Balsamic Wild Mushroom salad with Feta cheese (WITHOUT the pine nuts). All the contents of this salad are on my list of things I am allowed to eat. Once I went to a Chinese restaurant, and while everyone else had dim sum and noodles, I had crab claw and mushroom clear soup (both crab and mushrooms being on my allowed list). So, yes, it is possible to eat out... if one is careful, and if one has supportive family and friends like I do :-D.

So... help me out folks. This process can take anything from as little as 3 months, depending on whether I can stick to the diet without deviations, to 9 months - if there are deviations in between brought about by travel, illness, etc. So, when you meet me - don't ask me to eat something I don't want to eat. This is as much for my health as it is for vanity's sake... though, I have to admit, the asthma has a lot to do with it, as it has been getting steadily worse as I put on weight. Almost like all that extra weight is just pressing down on my airway and my lungs. So that's it in a nutshell.... a diet that is actually working WITHOUT any discomfort :-D

Till next time....