Weight right there

Since living with the boyfriend, I have definitely put on weight. It's not an excessive amount, but as someone who has always been fairly thin, I can feel the difference (and so can my jeans when I squeeze myself into them). I've tried eating healthily but it's so much hard trying to lose weight when living with someone else. When I would often just opt for a sandwich, or something small, he fancies a proper meal and we end up having meat and two veg, or something similar. When you live with someone, every meal is an event, whereas when I lived alone, I could eatone slice of cheese on toast for tea quite happily.

I've tried exercising more, but it's hard when you work full-time, study, and own a dog. My exercise craving quickly subsides once I have walked the dog for an hour: I just can't be bothered to go for a run as well. And after eating, I try to sit down and do some Psychology work, so don't have time to also go for a run, followed by a shower. I have managed to go for a run a couple of times in the last couple of weeks, but it's not going to make much difference if I'm always eating massive portions.

So, in order to break habits, and get myself out of the vicious cycle of gaining weight, I need some rules. They need to be achievable, and not going to cause poor health or obsessive eating (I've recently been studying Anorexia as part of my course and it's grim). So here are my new dieting rules. I've realised in order to lose weight, some food will be wasted and I need to not feel guilty about that.

Rule 1 - Stop eating when I'm not hungry anymore. It sounds easy, but when you're half way through a big plate of sausage and mash, it's hard to put down your knife and fork and walk away. Yet, I don't need a big portion. I would make this rule about plating up, but if my bloke has cooked, he'll plate me a massive portion. I will try and keep anything I've left on my plate for another day. Which brigs us to rule 2...

Rule 2 - Don't eat leftovers on top of another meal. If this rule isn't followed, rule number 1 is pointless. If I've left half of yesterday's dinner in the fridge, eat that when I get in from work, and then eat my dinner later, I'm still eating the same amount of calories. Therefore left overs are only to be used as dinner the next night, or lunch to take to work.

Rule 3 - Eat healthy nibbles. No chocolate, crisps or cake. Snacks can be nuts, vegetables (celery or bits of pepper) or similarily healthy treats.

Rule 4 - Drink more water. I am terrible at drinking enough. I don't feel thirsty very often, forget to take milk to work to make tea, and don't have cups to drink water from at work either. Often I will go a whole day having only had one cup of tea before 6pm. My body probably craves food more just to try and get the fluid from it because it's so thirsy. I need to make a conscious effort to drink much more a day.

Rule 5 - Break naughty habits. I eat fish and chips every Friday because there is a fish and chip van that pulls up outside my house, and it's yummy. This is the ultimate in temptation, it's literally right outside my door! If I can't resit, perhaps I can buy a fish, but have it with salad. It may not be completely guilt free, but a step in the right direction.