According to a lovely GP, years ago, I am supposed to eat a low carb diet. I have a fabulous thing called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome – PCOS for short – which basically means that fertility is scarce (thankfully I care not) losing weight is not easy at all, and I am prone to acne, depression and excess hair. This could also be the result of coming from a family of short, round, fluffy Greeks but it never helps to have another reason as to why I’m fat. Oh, yes, along with PCOS comes insulin resistance, so unless I fancy being diabetic later on in life, I had better stick to this way of eating.

Now, most of these things can be fixed or hidden, but the losing weight thing, well, that just doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter what I do, it takes me three times as long as anyone else to lose a pound in weight, and that is that. Believe me, I have been to enough diet classes and weigh ins to know this. It is one of the most frustrating things in the world to watch other people start Weight Watchers or Slimming World and after a few weeks have lost a stone or more. Me? Doesn’t happen. It took me a year to lose two stones on Slimming World and then another year on very strict Atkins to lose another two.

After ten years of Atkins, and more or less staying the same after that initial weight loss, I gave up. I’d had enough. I missed rice. I missed cooking ‘normal’ meals and being able to eat the same as the other people I cook for. It might seem like a small thing but when you have to cook two meals all the time, it’s a real pain in my large but lovely arse. Slowly, very slowly, the weight crept back on. Of course it did. That is what happens when you stop a diet regime and just eat what you want. Thank goodness not all of it did because even when I fall off the diet wagon that low carb fairy is still there, poking me in the stomach and telling me that pasta, sugar, rice, bread and potatoes are evil. I cannot eat those things without feeling a tremendous sense of guilt about it.

Last month I decided to get back on the wagon after a fairly disastrous month of comfort eating. I don’t usually comfort eat, but it was a bad month encompassing all the hormones in the world and some pretty rubbish emotional stuff. I wondered if the PCOS was starting to play up because of it so that was that. End of the line for YOU carby goodness. Back on the wagon for me.

The first week was easy, almost a relief to be honest. I bought the lactose free milk for work as that is lower carb (2.7g per 100ml as opposed to 4.7g per 100ml for regular whole milk). Soya milk is much, much lower but it isn’t quite the same in tea, and I drink a lot of tea.

I stocked up on things that I can eat, the difference being this time I am allowing myself beans and pulses though that might have to be revised. We’ll see. I’m loathe to give up houmous you see. I am allowing myself a few ryvita or a Dr Karg’s cracker if I need quick food, because low blood sugar leads to severe crying fits for me and no-one wants that. Anyway, my love of pulses and all things beany aside, I took photos of my lunches, mainly so I could remember what I’d eaten and prevent boredom setting in. Here they are, for your delight and excitation. This will probably only be fun for me but it is a nice record. Some days were repeated and needed no photos.

I won’t say that this is easy, because to be honest it is a lot of work for very little visible reward, but at least the food is good!