Why the blog?

I quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol on the 1st of January 2012. I've done it before and usually get to about 60 days before I cave in - first the booze and then the fateful evening where having sanctimoniously pointed out to my fellow drinkers that I don't need to smoke, in the midst of an alcoholic haze I then light "just the one". To prove to myself that I don't really smoke I then traditionally scrounge an occasional cigarette for the next couple of days from my fellow drinkers until they tell me to bugger off and buy my own - which, of course, I then do. However at this stage you should know that I have been as good as gold.

"Can't you be moderate Ben?" a question I have heard enough times that the alarm bells should have been ringing about 20 years ago (I'm 43). The answer it seems is "no". When you use the term "all or nothing", I'm the guy that you are talking about.

To compound the problem - I'm not exactly shy with my food. My wife and I seem to have a social life that revolves around lunches and dinners. Check out one of her blogs and you'll get a fairly clear idea of our devotion to food. Recently we had some friends over to dinner and they were kind enough to bring a Tiramisu with them. I have a weakness for Tiramisu. My wife also made a cheesecake and, as she always does, she catered for 20 people when in fact there were only 7 of us. Naturally we couldn't finish all the food and most of it was wrapped in cellophane or put in tupperware and stored in our new immense fridge. For the next week, I ate well. However at the end of that week, my wife pointed out that my belly was beginning to hang over my belt. It wasn't just sticking out, it was in fact sagging. "How attractive" she told me in her most sarcastic voice.

Our bathroom scales are from Ikea, they go from zero kilos through 119 kilos and back to zero and of course when I stood on them I discovered that I weighed exactly zero kilos......."oh lordy!".

From a health point of view - I've been feeling old. My body will not do what it once could and I find I move gingerly. When I gave up alcohol for prolongued periods in the past - the weight would fall off. Not any more. So I have reached an inescapable conclusion - I can't put it off any longer, I'm bigger than I have ever been, I have smoked for 30 years, I'm going to die young if I don't do something about it now. That is what this blog is about. I have decided to document my progress so that my loved ones can admire my iron will power and gradually decreasing size but also so that they can pillory me when I slip up.