I know I made a very public pledge to these commitments/resolutions then it all went suspiciously silent. It really does reek of an epic failure.

Well…no. But not exactly a resounding success either. Let’s review them one by one. In reverse order:

7. Culture/reading: A good friend visited recently. She is really into art, architecture, urban regeneration, a culture vulture if you will. She’s also into wine. We drank FAR too much (see 5: drinking) but I also got to really explore and experience Manchester and Stockport as a ‘tourist’ again and loved it. It’s made me determined to do it much more often. I’ve tried to make time for a ‘proper’ paper once a week to keep up with what’s happening in the world. I haven’t read a book yet but that’s next on the list now I’m making time to sit down. Must do more.

6. Family/friends: I have a phone phobia. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I heard Fearne Cottton (DJ) talk about it recently. So keeping in contact by phone is not my strong point. I’m not great by text either. Seriously, I don’t know where twitters/tweeters find the time, I can’t even keep up with people who are important to me. But I’ve tried. I’ve picked up the phone a few times and I’m trying to email people in rotation. Fair effort.

5. Wine: Important disclaimer – I didn’t commit to 5:2 on the wine front. 4:3 was the best I could offer and I’ve stuck to that. See No.7 for excessive booze weekend but I made up for that bender with a relatively quiet weekend after. I still had a drink on 3 nights but shared a bottle with Alpha Male rather than getting through a bottle myself. Room for improvement.

4. Exercise: Hmmmm?….I still haven’t seen the inside of a gym and my feet have yet to feel the inside of a trainer. But it’s not completely hopeless, we’ve taken to going for a walk of an evening. We walk almost 3 miles and as we head out straight after work we’re both so desperate for dinner that we practically sprint it. There has also been some serious gardening and scrubbing/sorting this ole house. A holiday is on the cards, that should be an incentive to do more exercise. Must try harder.

3. Money – no spend twice a week: I always bring breakfast and lunch to work so this is an easy win. Then it normally works out that AM and I take turns doing a grocery shop so that only hits the purse once or twice a week. Success (even though it’s no real change on before).

2. Screen life. Cutting out TV twice a week was easy peasy lemon squeezy. Okay, hands up, I rarely watch TV. But AM likes us to sit together late evening while he watches TV. So instead I’ve read a paper or magazine while he watches a rubbish film that I have no interest in whatsoever. The hardest part is avoiding the tablet/laptop. The morning after I posted the 5:2 blog, I kept thinking of notes and updates. But each time I had a thought I immediately went to key them into the phone, tablet or laptop. I’m back to pen and paper. Major reconditioning required.

1. 500 calories two times a week: I launched into this the morning after first writing about it.
Crumpet, poached egg and tomatoes for breakfast, salad with a handful of chickpeas and not much else for lunch, a bowl of green veg for dinner. I went to bed hungry and woke up starving. Even though I cheated. I didn’t count the calories in any of the salad. I was shocked at the calories in veg – a (large) bowl of broccoli, peas and green beans = 189 calories!! 2 strawberries were 8-10 calories, I wasted 150 cals on chickpeas. Even 2 drops of balsamic had calories in it. I ate 522 calories (plus a mountain of salad) but I lost 3 lbs in one day. It’s a definite result but I don’t really need to lose any more weight than that. I put on 3 lbs every weekend and I’m healthy during the week so that I shift it in preparation for enjoying the next weekend. I’ll read up on the other benefits of the 5:2 diet but if I do this it’ll be a maximum of one day a week for me. So 6:1 for the 500 calories. Life is way too short to be counting calories in vegetables and salad.

Progress report: Fair to middling! Let’s call it a work in progress…