Had a good first dieting day yesterday and had what I had planned. Did some exercise, and have done some today too. I am doing the 5:2 type diet, but every day for a while, until I get fed up of it anyway.

I had 50g porridge oats, made with water and 2 tsps muscovado sugar, about 6p
a bowl of home made butternut squash soup, about 20p
and slightly less than a half portion of Spaghetti Carbonara with some iceburg lettuce, cucumber and a couple of radishes, about 50p. A total of about 76p

Today, I am planning to have the same, tomorrow will be something different. Maybe a slightly less than half sized portion of Coconut Dahl, and possibly a 2/3 portion of Beef Pasta Bake, seeing as I have lots of that in the freezer

I don’t expect that many people want their New Year Diet to be this low in calories, so I had a look at Meal Plan One. The meal plans are arranged to feed 2 adults, one needing 2000 calories a day and another needing 2500. So if those same 2 adults wanted to diet, they could reduce their calories to 1200 and 1700 respectively, this would give these hypothetical people a 1-2lb weight loss per week.

To do this using Meal Plan One, all that would need to be done is to remove the Cakes and Bakes. So use the meal plan just as it is, but don’t make the marmalade sponge, fruit cake, fruit scones or oaty biscuits. This reduces the cost of the food used to an amazing £10.50 for 2 people!!

On Meal Plan Two, cut out the cinnamon fruity scones, cinnamon raisin biscuits and pancakes (making it £11.13 for the week), on Meal Plan Three, cut out the plain and tomato scones and the oaty biscuits (making it £13.40 for the week), and on Meal Plan Four, cut out the flapjacks, raisin scones and pancakes (making it £10.61 for the week)

Or you could do the same as me, having 600-700 calories a day by adjusting the portion sizes using the calorie information on the Recipes tab, or indeed, the 5:2 diet, which is where you restrict calories to 600 a day for 2, non-contigous days a week, and eat normally the rest of the time.

However you do it, eat healthily, eat well, eat something you enjoy, and if you are doing one of the very low calorie variants, please make sure your body gets enough protein, it needs it. Let me know how you get on, I will be boring you to death with my progress, or lack of it.

I am not a medical practitioner, so please treat this post accordingly