The “what would happen if I don’t eat this” question is proving to be one of the best motivational tools I’ve ever dreamed up! Chuffed is the local word.

Of course, as with any other weight loss tool, it only works if you work it and I’ve let life get in the way for a couple of days. And, of course again, you don’t have to tell me that life will always always always get in the the way of weight loss if that’s how I want to play it. Always.

If I want to take off these last 10 pounds (and I do) then hills, ditches and quagmires are for navigating over, around and through – not for providing excuses to lie down and quit.

So what if my hormones are now providing non-stop entertainment for a full two weeks per month.

So what that it’s 11:30 am and I’ve already been up for 7 hours.

So what that I’ve got to bake sweet things for company and for a funeral tea.

So what that this is akin to handing matches and some dry kindling to an arsonist.

Did I mention the hormones?

So what to all of it!

I need a plan:

I will probably not be in any “losing mode” as far as calories go today but, when faced with whether or not to put food in my mouth, I will keep asking, “What would happen if you didn’t eat this?”

I will be kind to myself but not by soothing my stress with food.

I will drink plenty of fluids and eat little and often.

I will think about what I want to be wearing and how I want to be feeling on Christmas day.

I took another break from journalling yesterday and just ate according to what my body seemed to want. That included a piece of cheese mid-morning and peanut butter on crackers mid-afternoon.   I would normally have eaten an orange or a banana at those times but I went with what I wanted rather than what I “should have”. Permission to not be perfect rules during hormone week.

This morning, I decided to journal it all in retrospect and found that,  by listening to my body, I ate smaller portions more frequently and ended up eating just within the weight loss range. I ate only 78% of my 5-a-day fruit and veg but other than that I was really pleased with the outcome.

Now – if my house had had any junk food at all, the outcome would have been different.  But I suppose that’s another measure of how far we’ve come in our family eating habits.  There was a time when, after dinner,  we’d get that wicked co-dependent glint in our eyes and someone would be on a junk food run before you could say “how many points in a giant Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar?”  But it didn’t even cross our minds yesterday as we snuggled down on the sofa for the evening.

Oh dear – that’s kind of depressing.  It reminds of my first ever Weight Watchers leaders.  And I sort of hated them.  But that’s another story.

It’s hormone week in Millie World.  My first clue was how much and how often I’ve wanted to eat over the past 48 hours.

This is week it seems easiest just to give in, take a break and face the scales philosophically next Saturday.  But this journey is about doing something other than what I’d normally do.

So I’m going to question the long-held personal wisdom that I need to feed fluctuating hormones.  Instead I’m going to feed my body and try my best to ignore the raging need for carbs.  No – I won’t ignore them – I’ll acknowledge them and write about what I’m feeling.  I’m going to try to be really honest here and I know this might not be a great week for losing weight. But I need to do something other than stuff my body full of excess calories for one week out of four.

I’ll check in each morning to see how it’s going.