I decided - again - that something must be done. I was talking to my Aussie daughter about this and she, who works in health policy, suggested an online programme called Noom* as it has, apparently, had a lot of good results.
You download an app and sign up for a trial period of a fortnight, which I think cost me about £15. It's not particularly cheap but I think it costs less per year than Slimming World or Weight Watchers. After my fortnight was up, I paid £139 for 8 months. It points out that it's not a diet but an attitude-changing programme which enables you to manage your food intake and exercise and hopefully improve your health along the way. Almost inevitably this will involve losing weight. There's quite a bit of psychology involved.
It's very American, but once you've got over that (and if I can get over that, I suspect that pretty well anyone can) it is helpful. It forces you to think about what you are doing. Every morning there's about 10 minutes' worth of reading about stuff. You weigh yourself every day and log it in the app. You log all your food and it counts your calories for you. There is a step counter embedded in the app, but there is a way of linking it to your fitbit, which I use: I've always got my fitbit in my pocket but don't carry my mobile phone around everywhere. Foods are divided into 3 categories and given green, amber and red colour codes, the red being the highest in calorific density.
So - does it work? Well, I started on the programme in early July and in that time I've lost about a stone. It's been pretty gradual but that's fine. I quite like the programme and the way it makes me think about everything I bung in my gob. No foods are off-limits, but there is obviously a quid pro quo. I suspect that I will be subscribing for life. It lacks the weekly weigh-in and the way that tended to lead to fluctuation for me when I was with SW and, most days, you weigh exactly the same as the day before. It costs me about the same for 8 months as I was previously spending on booze in about 2 months.
Oh, after your trial period is over, you are introduced to a group of like-minded "Noomers". My group is all British, mostly women, and there seems to be a larger-than-the-national-average number of teachers in there. We are still at the stage that we are quite formal and stilted with one another. There's a forum-style conversation pit overseen by an American Group Leader.
*So named because you ask yourself "How big is my bum?" when looking in the mirror...?
