GEORGIE - ARGHH 11 days and counting!!

I know you all find my feast/famine lifestyle quite amusing - I've never professed to being someone who can stick to something for very long. Healthy I am, but the pig gene always prevails and it's never a long straight and narrow road.

So here I am with a new job starting in a week and an on air date of 11 days time. It's panic time. I don't feel telly ready!! To much of Mummy Bingham's cooking, not enough exercise and a few months of Suffolk living and I am DYING to get back to a routine of gym and work. But I also need to feel ready to look my best and that's where there's a LEETLE tiny problem. I don't have the time!!

In the past I would simply have crash dieted. Experience tells me that isn't such a hot idea. Sure I might look good for a few days but then normally my skin cracks up, my hair gets mega greasy and my body rebels against being starved. So I'm being sensible and here's how:

I'm back down to 1300 calories a day. This may seem very low to some of you but with the lower calorie count comes a return to the very low carbohydrate diet that I know works for me. I find that cutting out bread and sugar helps with my yeast intolerance and leaving out pasta's rice and potato which I generally try to stick to anyway really helps. I tend eat Ryvita and oatcakes if I need anything substantial and get my sugars from fruit and that's plenty. There's good carbohydrates in many vegetables and that's quite enough for me and 1300 calories a day of protein and vegetables etc works a treat. It's a mild form of detox too.

No more booze for me for a while. Always the easiest way for me to lose weight and clear my head. In my case, boozing really shows on my face - I get a bit puffy cheeked and jowly chinned if I party too much and I always feel more rested if I abstain because I sleep better.

Water Water and more water. Drinking and then refilling a large Evian bottle everyday means I drink a minimum of 3 litres which helps flush it all out

Sleep! 8 to 9 Hours a night and on the advice of Mummy Bingham, at least two hours before midnight. Mum is obsessed with getting to bed at a good hour and read once that hours slept before midnight are twice as valuable as hours slept after midnight. Being a good girl I always follow that advice.

Meditation - OK - I lie- not meditation - but down time. 20 minutes of it before sleep. I take a bath, turn of my mobile and laptop, and sit in bed. I'm not good at emptying my mind - having a flitty fly brain means I dot from one thought to another. So I am not ambitious about this - I simply take time to lower my heart rate and relax. If you close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing then over time you can breathe slower and bring your heart rate down. While you are concentrating on breathing you can manage to free your mind of all the things that might stop you sleeping well. (in this case pre new job anxiety). Try it once...

Sun and fresh air - before I head back to the big smoke I might as well get as much of it as I can in Suffolk. I'll spend a few hours a day this week running and cycling and getting up a sweat that works so well for my skin.

Finally - I am back on the vitamins. Just the basics, a multivit,hair skin and nails formula and fibre powder. Kick start the system into action!!

Wish my luck I'll report back in a few days.