Well - I haven't got much further - my free pedometer broke!  I have, however, worked eagerly on item number two (Eat what you want) - ha! ha!

After the first two weeks I did actually lose a few pounds and my trousers felt a bit looser.  But that weight can fluctuate daily - we are talking about such a small loss that the reading on the scales is unreliable.

I have been a bit busy the last few weeks, but will now try to get down to adding exercise to my daily activities, and work on the other three items.  Watch this space!  If anybody else would like to try out this plan and report back on it here it would be much more fun!  I feel like Billy NoMates at the moment, blogging away to myself!

When this nice weather came I got out my summer clothes and decided I needed to lose some weight!  Of all the thousands of words of dietary advice out there I think Paul McKenna sums it up best for me with these 4 simple principles:

1. Eat only when you are hungry

2. Eat what you want

3. Eat mindfully and enjoy every mouthful - slow down!

4. Stop when you feel you are full

If you can stick to these 4 principles alone they should make a difference within days.  You will get even better results if you add some regular exercise.

EXERCISE - INCREASE YOUR NUMBER OF STEPS EACH DAY

I decided to start using a pedometer that I was given as a free gift some months ago and had never used.  I found that had to experiment with the positioning of it at first - it works on the movement of the hips, and for me it works best clipped to my waistband at the side.  I checked the accuracy by counting the steps and comparing with the reading on the pedometer.

Apparently some doctors recommend that you should try to do at least 10,00 steps a day.  I was shocked to find that on  a normal day sitting working at my computer or doing Shiatsu or Acupuncture treatments I did not do more than 2,500 steps!  So I began to devise ways of increasing my steps.  I measured my steps when hoovering or mowing the garden - hmm...only about 500 steps each.  So I went for a three quarters of an hour walk - 2,000.  Then a round of golf - I was disappointed that was only 3,00 steps.  Best of all was a ten mile bike ride - 5,000!  But interestingly I found that I could increase my steps by just not being so lazy around the house -for instance, instead of leaving things at the bottom of the stairs to take up next time I go up - I now take things straight up! The house is suddenly starting to look much tidier!

At the recent Shiatsu Society Annual Congress I was giving a presentation on Social Media Marketing and who should walk in to attend - our honoured guest for the weekend, Ohashi!