Sugar Free Jelly

While dieting, I've discovered a few godsend low calorie snacks which I'd like to share.

First up is sugar free jelly - the dessert you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite!

Available in ready-to-eat pots or in sachet crystal form, a typical serving off jelly weighs in at less then ten calories! And jelly is far better that you remember it too! We've generally got at least 10 pots in the fridge at any one time, in a variety of flavours.

Top of the pots is raspberry flavour. And of the sachets, raspberry is again the king, but with honorable mentions for orange and lemon & lime.

Hartleys also have a range of "posh" jellies in larger pots, such as cranberry & raspberry. What I wouldn't give for a packet version of that flavour!

Oh, one last tip. For an extra indulgent treat, we add a little bit of low fat squirty cream. 20 extra calories, but it certainly lifts the jelly up a level!

The Big "Secret"

So what's the big secret to my weight loss?

There isn't one. Eating less calories and exercising. Hardly rocket science, and yet like many, many other people, it's obvious logic that I never took on board, yet often complained that I couldn't lose weight.

Since January, I've been limiting myself to 1500 calories per day - 1000 fewer than the average recommended daily amount of calories for a man and 1500ish fewer than my personalised RDA according to an online calculator.

A quite key motivator is a daily diary, which I used to record weigh-ins, along with details of everything I've eaten that day.

The calorie counted is supplement by a regime of exercise, more on which later.

Target reached!

In the three weeks since my last post, I've shed another nine pounds - 43 pounds in total since starting the diet. You think I'd be happy as Larry, but as my long-suffering wife will attest, I've spent the last week or so complaining about how slowly the weight was coming off.

So I've hit the target to sign up for the Himalayas and yet I still find myself hesitating. I'm certainly fitter than I've been for a long time, still following the exercise plan religiously and have added cycling into the mix, but I still don't feel as fit as I think I should to embark on the challenge.

Hopefully it's a case of "watch this space"...