# 4 Not a resolution

Not losing weight and not exercising with intention is one of my resolutions although thanks to Twitter I do appear to have become a part of the very exclusive 'Aroma Diet Club'. I hope it includes the in-gestation of large amounts of high end coffee.

I just can't be bothered worrying about size anymore. I'm not planning on letting everything go - maintenance is the key word here and I still have my 'upper weight' limit. But I have procrastinated about my size since I was in my teens and that's a while ago now. I lose interest in diets very quicky since I love food and not surprisingly, nothing has ever been a permanent success. I am still exactly the same size I have been for the last 10 years. Instead I have learnt moderation in everything. Now I concentrate on the important stuff like 'life' which gives me more satisfaction and seems to be far more in my control.

Sadly this has only been a recent revelation. Berating myself about doing too much of one thing, or exhausting myself by over use of another has only lead to misery and ultimately certain failure.

So I drink on occasions (I've never been an excessive drinker anyway - honestly), eat sensibly and home cook 90% of the time. I exercise only when I get the urge which does actually happen since I am a big fan of the treadmill and I try to lead an active and varied life so that food does not become my comfort zone.

Homecooked: Organic Ham - Handcut Chips - Eggs from my Bantam Hens - Peas

Of course dieting is not a new phenomenon. Regency heart throb, notorious poet and my personal hero Lord Byron is well known in historical circles for being a yo-yo dieter and fanatical starvationist, sometimes living on nothing but dry biscuits and vinegar to lose a whopping 5 stone. Of course, it took its toll, his health was atrocious and he was dead before he was my age.

Many of the Dandies of his time had an unhealthy preoccupation with their weight. Beau Brummell weighed himself over 40 times in a 7 year period and dropped 2 stone. This in the days when you went to see your Wine Merchant to check your bodily progress rather than hopping on your Salters in the bathroom.

Lord Byron: Diet freak

Since I have stopped worrying, my weight not surprisingly has remained consistent - now there's a thing. So years of obsession made no difference whatsoever. Caring about my health instead appears to be keeping things on an even keel. I can live with that. Love me for who I am, because you're not getting anything else anymore.