Step 3 Find a diet buddy and what about a food diary?

In the absence of being able to or wanting to join a slimming group why not find a friend or group of friends to join you in this year's weight loss venture? There are millions of people like you seeking to lose weight. Ask around. 

If you are living together all the better but if your diet buddy is a neighbour then met up in the garden or go for walks socially distanced. If they are further afield, remember Zoom offers free video conferencing for forty minutes and you can make video calls with most mobile phones.

We’re social creatures and tend to mimic others, so if your partner, friends or colleagues could do with getting fitter or losing weight why not invite them to join you?

By including another person in your weight loss bubble you have another reason to think twice before eating badly or giving up and you can offer each other support and motivation. You can trade diet tips, recipes or exercise together. 

If you can involve your partner then you can cook one meal for both of you rather than cooking separate meals. 

If you are even slightly competitive you can motivate yourself by trying to lose more weight than your diet buddy. 

Another tip some people find useful is the filling in of a Wellness Diary,  Just note, for even the first few days, what food and drink you consume. You may be surprised by the diaries contents as much of the food we eat is consumed while on auto-pilot. The biscuit or slice of cake that accompanies the coffee you have six times a day, the four slices of toast that you ate at breakfast, the sandwiches you grabbed on the run, the bar of chocolate you consumed sat in a traffic jam. Knowledge is power. Empower yourself. 

Alert!  RTE's Operation Transformation starts today. This program takes groups of ordinary people and helps them transform themselves through healthy eating and exercise. 

#OperationTransformation is back with a new series today (6th Jan, 9.35pm @RTEOne

Follow it on https://twitter.com/OpTranRTE

Footnote: My Progress for day 3

At last a day I can declare a weight loss!

Down one whole pound and what I did was cut out the large meal portion for tea replacing it with a medium portion of chicken casserole.  I also had no biscuits with my half a dozen coffees throughout the day. That evening I still allowed myself a good-sized glass of red wine while watching the brilliant Queens Gambit, a new six part series on Netflix. Its the first series that has really engaged me since the lockdown began. We follow the life of an orphan girl, born in the US in the 1950's and who is seriously talented at playing chess, a talent she stumbled upon while watching the janitor of the orphanage playing during his break times. 

You can lose weight and have a few sins along the way!