Eat, sleep, work, repeat.

Dinner - feta, beetroot and walnut salad with balsamic dressing

Have you ever written down everything you've eaten in a day, or even a whole week?  I mean everything, every Haribo ring and every stolen crisp; that cheeky chocolate bar and that one little crumpet. A dietician friend of mine said that taking a note of very thing you consume is one of the most successful tool for managing food intake and subsequently, managing weight.

I can confess that last Tuesday I ate, in addition to my normal breakfast, lunch and dinner; a slice of carrot cake, a mince pie (love them, getting in early), a Krispy Kreme and half a bottle of Sav Blanc. As someone who professes to be a 'health freak' and exercises strong self control I was quite frankly ashamed of myself.

Upset in my normal routine of late has allowed me to lose focus on what I consider to be quite important to me. I love sweet treats as much as the next person, but they are exactly that, treats. To be enjoyed once in a while and made special and not be in over indulged in ever day, or in my case, multiple times a day. The last couple of months I've got out of kilter and been allowing myself to skip the gym and say yes when I would normal say, no thanks.

I'm not punishing myself though, I know everyone needs a break every now and again and my life has been focused on much more important things recently. But it's shocked me how hard it is to stick to a routine as simple as feeding yourself the same stuff you always feed yourself when life throws complications at you. I realise that I put in a lot of energy and will power on staying focused on making healthy choices.

I'm going back to basics to get myself back into my normal routine -

• Getting a good nights sleep
• Putting the fun back in to exercise
• Meal planning
• Ditching the booze

Hardly rocket science is it but there are the basic activities that have been knocked out of sync with me recently and being more conscious of them is the best way for me to get back on track. Healthy for me really doesn't need to be tasteless and boring.  The salad above packs a punch of flavour, has a couple of portions of fruit/veg and is crammed with protein and fibre the essential ingredients for helping to stay fuller for longer which should stop me from reaching for the biscuit tin.