I always smile on a Monday morning as that was my 'diet day'. I would always plan to start every diet I ever did on a Monday morning when I woke up, the main reason being it gave me licence to eat what I wanted over the weekend as I was going to deal with afterwards. The amount of 'last suppers' I had on a Sunday night was quite astonishing, I would even have a few bowls of cereal before bed on the Sunday night as my final 'treat' before I started my starvation diet on the Monday. And Monday would come and I would wake up with huge enthusiasm as I went to work with a carefully crafted packed lunch of an apple, some dry crisp things and a salad...

I would usually start to crumble on the Monday night as I convinced my wife and myself that it was ok to have an extra yoghurt as I had walked a bit in the afternoon. I would 'secret eat' when my wife wasn't looking and sneak a bit of cheese or a wafer thin slice of ham out of the fridge. And by Tuesday night the diet was totally on the rocks as I swapped to a low carb approach to trim off a few pounds as I could strip glycogen quickly out of my body which would make the scales look good. I knew if I ate protein for a few days and avoided bread that my weight would go down by four to six pounds which I used to kid myself that I was losing fat. And as the week went on I got less and less motivated and more intent on stopping the diet. Eventually I would 'bin' the diet as I was out the weekend anyway and plan the next 'diet day' for the following Monday, I did this for literally years and years and years without ever really stepping back and thinking 'this isn't working Mike!'

But no diet was ever going to get my mind in the right place, get me to focus on my real goals and motivate me to be the real me. Only you can decide to be slim and then go pick the diet that gets you there...sure I can lock you in my basement (if I had one!) and feed you lettuce for six months and you will get slim but this is all about long term weight maintenance and for that you must get your head in the right place.