Weekend not too bad. Had cocktails Saturday night at a friends, got totally drunk! I think that was my day off! Not very Lent like but I am trying! Still eating the fruit and veg and not finding it difficult. Gonna attempt a couple of days of juicing to get some weight shifted and get the incentive to keep going. I am out to lunch on Thurs with a friend, so will have to have something Vegan which is so easy its untrue. I wish I had converted to Veganism for Lent to be honest, I would love to be trying lots of Vegan recipes. Not found any Lent podcasts so I am ashamed to say I am getting little or no spiritual inspiration at the moment. Have downloaded loads of other really good ones on Veganism and some superb ones on self awareness and empowerment etc, very American. Anybody that might be interested in the Vegan side of all this, there's a new diet book out called The Engine 2 Diet, I have listened to an interview on my podcast with the guy that wrote it, Rip Esselstyn, it sounds amazing! Only 1 left on Amazon. Go buy it people. Got major PMT, I could kill! Eating avocados, dried fruit, natural peanuts, basically anything in the fruit bowl and loads of spinach.

Day 3. OMG! lost 4lbs already. Fluke probably. Feel fantastic. Today I've eaten half a melon and a banana for breakfast, or first thing I should say, I am a herbivore not a carnivore so I shall graze all day! Since then I've had some dried dates, fruit and nut mix and avocado, beetroot and spinach salad. Basically I've eaten all day and its wonderful. I don't feel hungry at all, if you think about it everything I am eating is nutrient dense so I don't crave anything, if that makes any sense, probably not! I am loving it, early days though. If I am 10 4 in the morning I shall be so pleased. I'm in the greengrocers all the time and it's not cheap. Couldn't manage this without avocados they make a massive difference. Drinking water and redbush tea, don't miss coffee at all, but, have to confess, had a tall de-caff with soya milk in Starbucks today and it was absolute heaven! Cheating probably but still no caffeine or cows milk, so still Vegan, nearly a week now! I imagine if I don't see steady weight loss I will get fed up. I may not be able to blog every day, but every other if not. I'm tempted to get on the scales right now but I mustn't, cus i'll be lighter in the morning, feel a bit windy from the banana anyway. Been invited out tomoz night, do I go or don't I go. Not worried about the nibbles, but I will have some wine, which I am not meant to be having. We shall see! Anyway, all is good in the hood!

Day 1! 10st 8lbs! I put on 4 lbs in a week! Distgusting, and I felt distgusting. I am so glad I am on a fruit fast, I would be mortified by that weight if I wasn't doing this 'experiment'. Anyway, today's been ok. I had intended to juice all day and then have solid food in the evening. Lasted til after 9 and wanted something solid! Unbelievable! Had a carrot, apple, ginger and lemon juice which was superb, but it just didn't hit the spot, so had some grapes. Throughout the day I have eaten 2 avocadoes, half a melon, some dried dates and some natural peanuts and raisins. Your all probably thinking may be no peanuts and I agree on reflection, try not to do that again. I am sure dried fruit is probably ok tho. For evening meal I had some spinach and beetroot - yes cooked beetroot and I realise I shouldn't have had that either! It's gonna take me a while I think to get my head around this! Feeling positive. Each day I will tweak things, eventually I would like to stick to my original plan of juicing during the day and a meal in the evening. Decided to weigh in every day, so back tomoz with my new weight! Not missing anything yet, not had coffee since saturday, no wine for 3 days. I only get Sunday off if I have lost some weight! To be honest I can't imagine wanting to go wild anyway, would just put it all back on in one day.

Pancake Day at last! Had another Vegan day today, loved it and have eaten loads. Bought plenty of fruit for tomorrow, looking forward to my detox. Had no coffee for 3 days and haven't missed it at all. Don't miss the dairy or meat or junk! Yoga was amazing last night, definitely going again, have got a couple of Yogalates dvds I may dust off (that means yoga and pilates in one workout). Feel a little bit under the weather to be honest, hoping all the healthy fruit and vegetables will kill off any bugs. I will have a weigh in tomorrow, think it will be pretty bad. Bring it on!

Two days to go! Turned Vegan yesterday, hoping that cutting so many different foods out might help. Really enjoying it so far, can imagine doing this after Lent. No meat, dairy, chocolate, sweets and loads of other things have animal products in them. It's quite instantly a healthy lifestyle being Vegan. Getting into juicing as well. I imagine I will juice during the day and have a veg salad and a fruit salad of some description in the evening, can't imagine not having some sort of meal at night. Not going to drink any coffee, just redbush tea and of course fresh juices. Decided I will drink wine on a Sunday, which supposedly is a 'day off' during Lent, see how that goes. Going to pop into Lush and get some Vegan products for myself, also been looking into making some natural products. All in all feeling pretty good. I know I've put on weight over the last few days but hopefully that will 'fall off' over Lent. Pancake Day tomorrow, I wont be having any because I am a VEGAN! Please don't anybody send me Vegan pancake recipes, I am not interested. Going to try as many different things as I can over the next few weeks, in any shape or form! Yoga class tonight. Have not done Yoga for a long time and really looking forward to it. Planning a BIG visit to the greengrocers tomorrow to stock up! I think this experiment could be costly. Shame it's not summer with all the lovely fruit!

Bring on Ash Wednesday. I want to be healthy! Went out to a dinner party last night, I ate everything! Knowing the sacrifice i shall be making I feel obliged to indulge. Going out again tonight and will probably do the same again. Seriously tho, need to start to feel excited about life and actually want to get out of bed in the morning, i'm hoping this diet will do that. Got loadsa decorating to do so gonna need good food to produce some energy. I know i've put on weight in the last few days too so Wednesday can't come soon enough. By the way I feel like sh*t today after over indulging, hoping never to feel like this again.

The last couple of days have been terrible! I can't stop eating. I'm convinced it's 'last supper' mentality. I feel sick. I just wanna get on with it. Decided to give up the wine through Lent. I don't think you can be healthy and drink wine, that's my opinion anyway. Not happy with the odd glass so gonna have to have none at all! Here's a list of what I am giving up:-

Coffee
Wine
Dairy
Meat
Fish
Pasta
Rice

The list is endless but I still want to do it. In fact I can't wait. I feel absolutely distgusting. I reckon i've put on 5lbs in the last couple of days.

Anyway, gonna juice all day tomorrow try and make up some ground. I'll let you know how it goes.

Been listening to Raw Vegan Radio on my ipod which is pretty inspiring.

This is me before the experiment, it can only get better.

Still eating fruit during the day and a vegetarian meal in the evening, really enjoying it. No chocolate, sweets or meat for nearly a week, no sweat at all. Want to bring on Lent now. Should I give up coffee and alcohol for Lent? Coffee would be a real challenge. Is wine not fruit? Excited about being Fruitarian for 40 days and nights, excluding Sundays of course! To me what I'm doing at the moment is not hardship but I do feel better for it, this may be something I could go long term after Lent. Going to get some photos on here tomorrow hopefully.

Didn't manage a post yesterday. Not a good start to my blog! Having major building work done, which seems to have an effect on our ability to use the internet! Anyway, it seems to be working at the moment so onwards and upwards.

Had a second juice on Tuesday as planned. I found the whole experience a bit traumatic to be honest, not really hunger based trauma, just not quite ready to give up the whole ritual of the evening meal. So had a re-think for Wednesday. Decided to eat fruit all day and have a cooked vegetarial meal of some description in the evening.

Wednesday morning had a weigh in = 10st 4lbs. I will call that my starting weight, no goals, let's just see what happens.

I had during the day a banana, a pear, some dates and had salmon and brocccoli in the evening, all in all an easy day and I enjoyed it too to be honest.

Did a karate class last night which was totally exhausting but loved it.

Today I had some dates for breakfast and a huge pizza for lunch. Nothing since, don't need anytning to be honest.

I decided at the beginning of the week that I ought to begin to give a few things up in readiness for my fruit fast. So far this week I've refrained from eating meat, chocolate and sweets, to be honest not difficult, not ready to give up booze or crisps just yet!

Sorry if today's blog is a little bit all over the place, as I am at the moment. Now was probably a bad time to start my blog and my 'life changes' but, it's always a bad time!

Given my living situation, I would normally have used it as an excuse to drink and eat too much, but the blog is helping me I think not to fall into that trap.

Anyway, have managed to download loadsa inspiring podcasts. Anything I hear that I find particularly helpful I will post on here.

I know I said I was not going to do any more research. I thought it might be a good idea to perhaps look at the balance, or possible imbalance of my fruit fast. I think I may well face criticism from some people so need to be armed or at least prepared with any necessary nutritional information to back up what I am doing. It is not my intention to make myself ill, quite the opposite! I will as far as is possible make sure I am getting the nutrients I need.

It's 11.30am, just had my first juice:-

2 apples
2 pears
4 carrots
piece of ginger

It was lush cus I was starving, feeling pleased with myself.

Thought I ought to touch on the Lent side of all this. I am not a religious person, that's not to say I don't 'believe' as such, this experiment is giving me the opportunity to perhaps open myself up to any possibility of spiritual enlightment. I have signed up to a daily podcast with Christian Aid which will take me through Lent. We all know the role of Lent but I am interested to see whether this fruit fast gives me an understanding of what self sacrifice might actually be like as I have no idea at the moment.

I am new to blogging, but it is my intention with the help of a young person, to get some photos of me on here, before and after etc! I will fill out my profile too.

Pancake Day is two weeks away, so what? you might say! well, get this! I have decided to do a fruit fast for Lent, crazy, I know. But the good news is, having undertaken extensive research, I have discovered that in the christian calendar Sunday is a day of celebration, so that means I get Sundays off, hooray!

The thought of going totally cold turkey on Ash Wednesday is already freaking me out, so, I have decided to start preparations early. Today I am going to juice fast! i.e. make my own juices and not eat any solid food. When looking at the bigger picture, not a huge leap of faith, but, have you ever done it? thought not! I will let you know what I have and when, and how I have felt throughout the day.

Now for some background and how I have arrived at this point.

IT'S ALL ME, ME, ME!

Same old boring story i'm afraid (but in a nutshell!). 'Put on' first diet at 13 by my lovely slim mother, I think I was about 10.7, she would probably remember if I asked her! In actual fact by today's obesity standards, not actually that fat. Fat enough, i admit! Then continued the serial dieting for the following 27 years! INSANITY! I cant help but wonder whether I may have naturally slimmed down given time. Anyway, needless to say, my weight has fluctuated ever since. Got fat having babies, then spent the next 15 years trying to get rid of it, you all know where I'm coming from, I don't need to spend hours typing what you already klnow!

Been on every diet under the sun, as has every other woman in the world. The only one thing that ever worked, I hate to say, was exercise. But, not a little bit here and there, but loads. And, as with diets, maintenance is the key. I kept it up and enjoyed it too, for a couple of years, got a bad back, then that was the end of that. But, as with everything we 'start' there has to be an end. My end of that period of my life was my bad back, I never managed to get into it again.

What I am hoping to achieve with this experiment is obviously weight loss. I walk my dog every day and that has to be enough, I don't want to go to the gym or go out for a run.

HOW DID I ARRIVE AT THE FRUIT FAST?

I fell upon an article on a raw foodie about 18 months ago. I was inspired by what I read. I then proceeded to research the idea quite extensively over the next few months. Failed hugely on a number of occasions when trying it myself I should add! But I still feel I want to give it a go. I have read reports on massive life changing experiences, increased clarity, calmness and any other new age expression you can come out with! I want that and I want it now! Here will be my experience, no more research I have decided.