My easy-going chocolate-based diet

... or how I have lost one pound a month whilst still eating lots of chocolate

In the nine months since we've moved house I haven't been watching my weight, just getting on with sorting, unpacking, getting to know the area, making friends, improving the garden and planning what we'd like to do to make the house ours.  Oh, and looking after a 1+year old one day a week - exhausting but good fun!

Strangely enough, all this activity hasn't involved a great deal more exercise than before ... so how come I've steadily, if slowly, been losing (some of) that extra weight?

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps our diet is now more sensible - except for the chocolate.
  

So here's a sample of what I eat in a day:

• First thing: hot water with a teaspoon of honey and one of cyder vinegar.
• 8.00am: Breakfast:  a small helping of shreddies or shredded wheat, with two spoonfuls of mixed seeds, bran and nuts, served with soya milk.  (+ a piece of 70% dark chocolate)
• Mid-morning: a cup of real ground (decaf) coffee.
• Late-morning:  a small glass of almond milk or real fruit juice.
• 12.30pm: Lunch:  home-made vegetable soup* with one or two slices of wholemeal bread, with lots of cream cheese (not low fat). (+ two pieces of 70% dark chocolate) Sometimes, as a treat, I have sardines on toast or scrambled egg, with some salad.
• Afternoon:  a cup of coffee.
• 5.30pm: Dinner:  lots of steamed vegetables served with some meat, fish, cheese, beans or eggs. (+ a piece of 70% dark chocolate)
• Mid-evening: a cup of coffee or cocoa (no sugar)
• Evening: natural yoghurt (not low fat). (+ a piece of 70% dark chocolate)
• In between: at least a pint of water or herbal tea.

At the moment I'm on about stage two of this five-step process

* home-made vegetable soup: fry an onion in olive oil, add lots of vegetables, some meat- or vegetable-stock and cook, then whizz.  Could add beans or lentils, and possibly bits of bacon or chicken.  Whilst cooking the addition of a bay leaf or other herbs improves the flavour no end.

Perhaps if I ate less chocolate then the weight would fall off faster, but a few treats really do help.  

Incidentally, I didn't mention above but I do have one or two half-glasses of red wine a week, not sure if that's good or bad.

Ah, a sudden thought: Cutting out the chocolate and eat low-fat versions of the cream cheese and yogurt, will mean the weight would fall off much faster.  
But I'd feel deprived.  
Low-fat yogurt and cream cheese are grim and, as anyone who's tried to diet knows, feeling deprived is one of the first ways to fall off the diet and into the arms of excess!

Here's an apparently easy way to lose weight in the winter - shiver.   

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It may be the world's easiest weight loss plan, involving no exercise or dieting. Scientists claim you can shiver yourself slim simply by turning the heating down.  Most houses in the winter are heated to around 69F (21C) but researchers at Maastrict University medical Centre advise turning the thermostat down to between 59F (15C) and 62F (16F).

If we follow this diet we'll not only save money on eating less foot, we'll also use less energy heating our houses.

"A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it."

and here are a few more weight-related quotations:

http://funnysayings.webs.com/dietsbirthdaycake.htm#Diets