I wrote about a renewed approach to dieting on this blog restarting this year in January. Those of you following this blog will know that I lost a considerable amount of weight in 2011 and 2012, first by completely changing my exercise regime and diet, and then focusing on diet further to get over the last mile. In October 2012, I hit 76kg, the lightest I've been since I was a teenager. Furthermore, by the spring of 2013, I had a 34" waist - the smallest I've been since I was 18.

This year I've reduced my weight from around 85.2kg to around 81kg. The least I weighed was 78kg. What really counts to me is the body fat of which I've managed to shift about 1.5kg.

I have been following the Slow-Carb Diet featured in Tim Ferriss's book The Four Hour Body. I've been following it more or less. The problem is the less. I haven't been following it to the letter and here are the key failings.

1. I've been allowing myself cheese. A little bit of cheese is allowed on the diet, but I ended up having it daily - feta in salads, cheese in omelettes and so on.

2. I've been allowing myself wine. A little bit of dry wine (up to 250ml a day in fact) is allowed on the diet, but the bottle is open and between two people a bottle becomes 375ml - one and a half large glasses. Yes, you read that correctly, one and a half large glasses of wine is half a bottle. On a Friday night when the TV is on or when a good book is in the hand, it's possible to do further damage.

3. Multiple cheat days. On the diet, a cheat day is allowed one day a week and I usually do this on a Saturday. There are reasons why a cheat day is needed but also allowed. It stops you going nuts. When I successfully followed the diet, I had epic cheat days and the weight still fell off. The weight spikes immediately after the cheat day but this is usually caused by water retention. I've failed here for a number of reasons, but the main one is the current situation of being at home all the time.

So what to do then? Well, I know that the Slow-Carb diet will work, but at this point, it is probably not the right diet for me. A definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So let's try something different - I am going to try fasting. We finished our meal last night around 6pm, watched some television and settled to bed earlier for a long night's sleep. I'm up this morning and I've had coffee. We will not eat until this evening.

I will be eating one meal a day this week subject to life going to plan. We will substitute alcohol with herbal teas or sparkling water. By and large, on one meal a day we will be able to eat what we want providing we are sensible, however, we are likely to focus on meat, fish, salads and vegetables. I will drink plenty of water and if I run into trouble, I will have some light chicken broth.

I will publish my progress here - you guys can keep me in check! The spiked weight is due to Saturday's cheat day.

(The featured image is a full English from Saturday... I won't be having one of these for a while unless it is an evening meal...)