That figures

I've done the maths and basically the reason this diet is working is because of its balance and flexibility. No matter the choice of food or activity, it seems to be effective simply because we aren't worrying about points, colours, 'free foods' calories, or twisting ourselves up in guilty knots if we have a rather indulgent day/evening. And I stand (or should that be walk or run?) by my initial diet method of 'eating less and exercising more'.

Not a climbing frame in sight

On reflection I could be losing weight more efficiently. If I cut out the cream from my coffee, chose healthier menu options when out etc it would no doubt drop off me but where would the enjoyment be? Mon-Fri, I am more abstemious because exercise is much harder to squeeze in. Weekends are compressed versions of my week, only without the early mornings and desk work, obviously. I eat/drink more but then I counterbalance that by getting more sleep and ensuring a figure tightening amount of exercise, both of which are proven diet helpers. For instance, there may have been a Sunday sausage sarnie (on forbidden buttered white bread) but then Saturday I'd managed a 9k run around a new and unexplored part of watery Wapping.

At the risk of sounding like one of those tedious alternative fad diet promoters, this weekend I've also tested the benefits of laughter, mattress wrestling, bathroom cleaning, rope climbing and intense artistic study of the athletic Principals of the Royal Ballet. Now they really did have figures to die for but they are professionals after all!

Which leads me on to a different type of figure. As my ever decreasing flatmate is very clever, she has been using a new system of code to write an excellent converter of weight. So she can now tell you who much you weigh using 38 different systems from kilos to baby elephants via conch shells and apple pips. It looks rather marvellous and there have been mentions of 'graphs'. I wonder if I can get her to calibrate, plot and triangulate the disappearance of that Pythagorean dirty cheese with how much time I'm in the flat on a weekend?

Last night's walk was hysterical. Micoach was clearly off on a frolic (more triangles) as we approached the water and skewed everything. However a brisk grown up walk at sunset around Limehouse basin and degenerated into a childish romp. It wasn't our fault that someone had erected a spider web climbing frame in Mile End park - it was inevitable that this would leave both me and her in stitches. Yes, despite advanced decrepitude (apparently) she managed to climb to the centre and boing boing around whilst I failed utterly to climb anywhere. I suffer knee crumbling vertigo and my wobbly leaping off the apparatus left me with palm tingling rope burns.

On the bright side, laughter and (lack of) flexibility will continue to help us on our way to zipping up figure hugging frocks with ease.