Secret to diet success: chilli flakes

DAY 28

Apologies for the promo-style title. But did you know, one mother of three lost five times her body weight using this one simple trick?

Yesterday was a 500-calorie day for me (known as a 'fast day' in the exclusive club of 5:2). It was particularly difficult because it was a bit of a bad day. The kind of day where you just want to go home and eat a whole packet of chocolate digestives. All I could do was go home and inhale the steam off some herbal tea, which is more pleasant than actually drinking it.

But in the evening I discovered something interesting (word used loosely). In my 200 cal stir-fry (24g of chicken, one 'nest' of noodles, garlic, tomato, mushrooms and soya beans), I sprinkled in an unusually and quite frankly dangerously large quantity of chilli flakes. I don't know what came over me. I suppose I was just feeling reckless (word used loosely).

The result was a dish that alternated between highly toxic and absolutely delicious. The initial forkful would be full of fresh, garlicy flavours but as I chewed and swallowed, my mouth and throat and chin (I'm a messy eater) would start burning furiously, and I'd have to take a big gulp of water and wipe the tears away and take a few moments to recover. In the end, it took about three hours to finish and, because I'd been taking every bite with a gulp of water, I was completely full up by the end.

The certainly were 'hot, zesty and intense', in much the same
way having your tongue nail-gunned to a recently-used BBQ might be.

So forget fancy diets - this is the real secret to weight loss: load your food with chilli flakes so it's a struggle to get through and you're relieved when it's over.

In other news, my boyfriend has taken on the role of personal trainer and is making me do new stuff at the gym. While it's quite embarrassing jumping around, sweating profusely and making disconcertingly masculine grunting noises in front of the only person in the world who needs to find me attractive, it seems to be working and I can feel myself getting stronger. And anyway, he's seen me drunk.

Oh, and if you're interested in how chilli really can boost your health (rather than my inane observations), then check out this blog by my friend and MASTER OF NUTRITION Louise Comerford - Six amazing health benefits of chilli pepper