The Sound of Silence

Radio silence is not usually a good sign in blog-land. It seems generally quiet out there – perhaps everyone has entered the Christmas fray already? I am certainly feeling Christmassy although trying to dampen it down as it is only NOVEMBER. It doesn’t help with the ‘la, la, la, Christmas? Really? Who’d have thought?’ approach singing in two choirs – we’ve been carolling since September.

My own silence has been an illness and a general listlessness – and a lack of time. Not great reasons. But not the classic fatblog-silence which means a falling off the wagon in epic style. In fact, although I did have my frisson of hedonism which I embraced with a little too much alacrity, it was a blip and not a trend. Notably, I over drank at our pre-anniversary – I’ve not been that drunk for at least 8 years and although I didn’t have a cracking hangover, I did feel very feeble the next day and indulged in a (medicinal) obscene hot chocolate with maltesers AND marshmallows AND flake AND whipped cream. And then felt thoroughly – and deservedly – sick.

Since then I’ve been doing Phase 1 of the Harcombe Diet which means no sugar (including fruit), no caffeine (including no green tea!), no alcohol and no dairy. You do that for 5 days. The average weight loss is 7lbs and the record is 19lbs; I lost 3.5lbs. Now I’m on Phase 2 where essentially I don’t combine carby meals with fat/protein ones. Still no sugar, siiiigh. I can start adding other things back now though– I’ve added dairy so far. The odd chunk of cheese, a bit of cream in a nightly decaff (I still feel I need a full-stop after a meal) and I had some mascarpone last night and today. Last time I did one of these types of diet, I developed an unhealthy obsession with mascarpone, but now I find it unpleasantly waxy; I won’t be buying a second tub. Next week I’ll add a couple of portions of fruit a day- firstly berries and then maybe some pears. And monitor my weight. Then – oh joy – some very dark chocolate (probably too dark to enjoy).

PS I actually hate Simon and Garfunkel but (or maybe because) my dad was a big fan and played and sung (off-key) their songs a lot when I was growing up.