Day 29 - not doing so great

Well, I am blushing after Amy's comment - what a lovely compliment! In fact that - along with the fact that I know Sandra's doing IPD too - is what has motivated me to post. I really haven't had the inclination to be honest - and you know what THAT means. Yes, I couldn't face myself or you with things that I know in my heart to have been poor choices. Can't promise to be witty though!

Sandra - update your blog! Would love to read how another battler is getting on with IPD. Sick of cream? Well done you! I have had to forego mascarpone after developing an obsession. I even picked it up in the supermarket at the weekend and had to force myself to put it down. Have you found the forum www.pig2twig.co.uk? It's great! As is the cookbook which you might find gives you fresh inspiration (although there are alot of recipes on the forum too). I do think this is a good diet for me as it deals with the whole sugar/insulin thing which I definitely have problems with. Sugar in any form is not good for me, however.....

Last weekend, after Green and Blacks-gate, b/f bought chocolate. Somehow I was compelled to also buy chocolate - not my chocolate of choice but something that I dressed up as IPD compliant, Prestat dark chocolate with orange oil. And it probably would be okay for Phase 2, a few squares at a time. But I'm on Phase 1 and I ate the whole flipping bar (375g I think). And pleasant though it was, it was no nicer than Terry's chocolate orange which was a third of the price! I think my sweet tooth is giving me gip again, big-time. Not so much a sweet tooth as a sweet fang. And just in time for Easter which in true pagan style, for me is all about chocolate. With flowers and fluffy bunnies in second place.

I have bought b/f, mother, neices, nephew and god-daughter-to-be Easter chocolate and managed not to eat it (not easy) and asked b/f and mother not to buy me eggs. But b/f's mother bought us a small Thorntons egg and I have today eaten 2 chocolates and about a third of the shell (delish). And I know there are 2 puddings in store this weekend - one as near IPD compliant as damnit (b/f's parents are coming over and I'm making individual strawberry pavlovas, mine with splenda rather than sugar - that's okay, the cream is okay and the strawberries are nearly okay (phase 2)) and one not - my mother's amazing super sharp and zesty lemon meringue pie . And I put on 1lb this week - meaning my total for 3 weeks is a loss of a princely 1lb. This makes me despondent which makes me eat which makes me despondent - a vicious cycle indeed. But post Easter I will STOP the chocolate, STOP the excuses and buy my sweet tooth off with sugar free jelly for a bit whilst sticking to IPD 1+ (the odd gin and diet tonic is okay after 2 weeks and I'll go back to having that at weekends but I'm going to give myself a hard core 2 weeks again first).

Other food planned for Easter is okay. Meal for b/f's parents - lamb shanks slow cooked in port, garlic and rosemary, new potatoes (probably won't have any of these) and purple sprouting broccoli, then the pavlovas. Easter Sunday eve at my mum's will be asparagus and rocket salad, fish pie made with a celeriac cheesy mustard mash topping and courgettes and then the lemon meringue pie. Damage limitation is in force - and I feel quite good about that, even though I know it means that next communion with scales of doom is likely to be a bitter one. I'm looking ahead though to the one after that when all my pigeons will come home to roast. I mean roost.

And we're still going with the running - one more run to complete week 3 scheduled in for tomorrow morning (in the cold and wet by all accounts). And a long dog walk on Sunday with my mum's labs.

And the 16 trousers I bought in December are really too big now. Okay, I tried another pair of 16s on in M&S and they were too small but I'm ignoring that. Or trying to. That elephant in the room is not me! No!

I'm on duty Saturday morning and all day Monday (likely to be busy) and in the office on Thursday but otherwise off until a week on Monday. We were hoping to do lots of walking but the forecast is awful. Perhaps the weather pundits will change their minds yet.

Have a lovely Easter everyone, focus on the bunnies and the flowers, not the eggs and buns!