Thyroid medication should make my body burn down fat normally again but, just in case, I thought it would also be good to reduce my calories intake so on Saturday I dug out an old diet that my GP gave me ten years ago. It worked very well at the time, it's very simple, flexible and easy to follow, it's balanced and gives good results. No fads, just sensible. Wish me luck. No, wish me willpower. This grease-stained piece of paper will be my nutritional bible for the next six weeks:

Needless to say, the night before starting the diet I celebrated the end of my all-you-can-eat evenings with pizza, cheesecake and 30 Rock Season 2:

What kept puzzling me was that some days (most days, in fact), right after eating, I would crave more food. So I'd have my afternoon piece of fruit early. And then I'd have my early evening handful of almonds early. And then I'd pop down to the canteen and go crazy. Other days, I would feel full and not think about food all afternoon.

I have kept a food journal for the last seven days and I noticed that apart from one day, whenever I eat my lunch in the kitchen (a thirty second walk from my desk, but at least it is not my desk) I feel fuller. When I eat at my desk instead (sometimes working, often just checking personal email and feeds), my brain probably does not even register that I have eaten at all.

I remember hearing somewhere that one should always sit down to eat at a table – and no, a desk is not a table.

I called the surgery back and booked an appointment with the other doctor that comes in once a week on Tuesday.

I saw her today and she told me that:

• my thyroid is sluggish (it runs in my family) and although it does produce just about all the hormones I need, it does needs a little help;
• yes, I will have to be on medication but all it does is top up the natural hormone levels with a synthetic version, and it will very likely rid me of all the symptoms I went to see the doctor about in the first place. Go on, I know you are dying to say it: 'Luca's on HRT';
• my cholesterol is only very slightly above the recommended level, but this is usually associated with a slow thyroid function and it should go back to normal soon.

It's not just what you say, it's also (mostly) how you say it.

Now, in the future I might always ask to see her, and be limited to only get appointments on Tuesday, but I think it's too much hassle and I have decided to change surgery instead (a friend recommended a very good one that's near home too).

What would you do?

After seeing my GP, I felt like walking part of the way to work just to boil off my frustration at him. 3.6 miles.

That evening after work I got out of the tube to check the WWDC keynote live on my mobile, and walked the rest of the way home. 3.6 miles.

On Wednesday I walked part of the way home from work because of the tube strike. 4.2 miles.

And today I walked to and from work (at a different location in Central London). 3.5 miles each way.

Which means that during the last four days I walked 18.4 miles. That's 29.6 kilometres.

I had already walked to work a few times the (10k) but it is a long distance and very time consuming (1 hour 40 minutes). Doing it half-way is much more manageable and I intend to do it more often. Just as well, as my tolerance for unwashed tube passengers is greatly reduced during the summer months.

I would like to be fit and active for as long as I can, and walking sounds like the kind of activity I could do well into my old age. Oh, and if incidentally my next blood test results come back OK, it would be an added bonus.

'work expands to fill the time available'.

With that in mind, when you set yourself a goal it is useful to pick a date that is realistically achievable, but not too comfortable.

This is why when I decided I wanted to run a 10-mile race (never having run longer than 10 kilometres), I gave myself four weeks to train up to that distance (including the Christmas break).

As a result, I ran twice during my short Christmas break (and discovered a beautiful trail around some artificial lakes near Stuart's parents in Staffordshire).

Unfortunately, I was wearing trainers that were inappropriate for a countryside run, ended up injuring my right foot and could not take part in the Tadworth Ten 2009 10 mile race in early January.

Sounds more like Sod's law than Parkinson's law. But my last training run was 10 miles. Success.

Anyway, lessons learnt:

1. Do not save money on running shoes. I now wear a pair of Asics GT-2140 worth 85 pounds. You do not need to spend as much, I did because my foot demanded it.
2. If even just one element of your run is new, go easy, be it type of surface, location, gear or climate.
3. If you leave it alone, it will go away. I went to see a doctor just to make sure it wasn't anything serious, and a little over two months afterwards my foot was fine again. I had, however, to stop running for the whole period.

Yesterday I was surprised at how easy I was finding it to stick to 2,000 calories a day – I should instead have shut up and braced myself. For today it was well hard, but I stuck to my meals so far (they were all ready for me to eat, and that helped enormously).

The evening is usually the hardest part of the day for me to go through without eating, but as part of my cunning plan to lose weight I also thought that if I go to bed early I lower the chances to hang about and raid the kitchen cupboards for something to snack on. So the past three nights I started doing my ablutions at 10pm (the habit I am developing this month) and I spent some time reading instead.

Right, here comes the evening then. I am ready. Bring it on (with a side of canned carrots).

Today's Italian word is difficile, which means difficult.

I have been eating tinned food for the last thirty-six hours. There's a reason – and a plan – for it.

Over the last two months I stopped monitoring closely my food intake and, unsurprisingly, I put on two stone (twenty-eight pounds, or approximately thirteen kilos). I went from a tried and tested system of 80% control over food / 20% freedom to eat anything, to total anarchy.

I thought I could go back to the old system and very slowly lose the weight, but I feel so uncomfortable carrying these two extra stone around (not to mention that it has made my running an ordeal) that I decided a diet was needed.

I also realised that the way I feel about this is very similar to when I wanted so much to stop smoking but kept failing every attempt and was livid with frustration. So it just made sense to apply the same approach I used when I finally succeeded to stop smoking – six years ago!

During the weekend I wrote down all the ways I could think of to remove or change situations that lead me to overeat, for at least a period of time (this is not a diet that I intend to stay on indefinitely):

• walking past 'forbidden' food while shopping for groceries
• wondering what to have for breakfast/lunch/dinner
• becoming so hungry that food has to be had – now!
• letting blood sugar spike and crash, which starts a vicious circle

I also took into consideration a few elements that can interfere with optimal nutrition or dieting, such as:

• believing that I cannot have a good diet on my current tight budget
• hating cooking for myself
• resenting cleaning up after cooking
• fearing to lose muscle as well (or instead of) fat
• not having enough energy for sports

Enter Tim Ferriss. I recently read his book 'The 4-Hour Workweek' (which I highly recommend by the way) and was intrigued to find out that he had also applied his unique approach to nutrition, and in particular to nutrition for men who are focused on fitness results like himself. His method consists of deconstructing any challenge to get to the core and obtain quick results, and he has successfully applied it to language-learning, ballroom dancing, swimming, martial arts, and of course business, where it all started. The moment I watched him prepare his three-minute 'slow-carb' breakfast I knew that this was going to be the inspiration for my own fat loss (and quick breakfast).

His fat loss diet lists a number of foods that you can eat as much as you want of, but I wanted to set a limit because I know myself and unfortunately I can eat too much of anything, just for the sake of eating. I did not want to spend my days weighing stuff, so I thought that for a while I could live off tinned food. Pre-weighed, pre-calorie-counted, cheap and convenient.

On Sunday I added and subtracted quantities several times on paper until I reached what I believe is a good combination of nutrients (again, as a diet, therefore for a limited period of time). There's fish and chicken, pulses and vegetables, oil and eggs. All good. There is no bread or pasta, nor rice or potatoes, and I know it is not ideal, but these are my trigger foods and just as I stayed away from pubs and clubs when I stopped smoking, I need to stay away from them for a while.

I repeat, some nutrients are missing, but I intend to catch up on Sunday, which for the time being I am maintaining as a day when I can let go of the rules.

So here is my 2,000 calories eating plan:

Breakfast:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tin sliced carrots
• 1/2 tin garden peas
• 1/2 tin green lentils

Post-workout:

• Protein shake (2 scoops)

Lunch 1:

• 1 tin tuna in spring water
• 1/2 tin sliced carrots
• 1/2 tin garden peas
• 1/2 tin red kidney beans
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Lunch 2:

• 1 tin tuna in spring water
• 1/2 tin sliced carrots
• 1/2 tin garden peas
• 1/2 tin red kidney beans
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Afternoon snack:

• Protein shake (1 scoop)

Dinner:

• half a pack (250g) chicken thighs
• 1/2 tin sliced carrots
• 1/2 tin garden peas
• 1/2 tin green lentils
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

After dinner snack:

• Protein shake (1 scoop)

Repeat for six days, take one day off, then start again. However, as I expect to be completely bored with it by Thursday, I am already putting together a comparable plan with different food for the following week.

I shopped for all those tins for a week over the weekend (I could not carry them all home in one go – and I live across the street from a supermarket!), and now I intend not to set foot in a shop unless absolutely necessary. I even considered leaving all cards and cash at home, but my Oyster card (London transport pass) doubles up as a credit card and fast-pay, so that card is the only thing in my wallet now.

I also cooked all the chicken yesterday, made six portions and froze five.

In the evening I open all the tins for the following day and put together the meals. I usually microwave my eggs in the morning, but I keep two hard-boiled ones in the fridge if I am in a hurry and cannot spare even two minutes. And that's because I want all the chances on my side so that I do not need to think of food. If it's time, I know what I should eat and I have it ready for me right there.

I got the idea of a second lunch from Tim Ferriss too. I have it between 4 and 5pm (three to four hours after lunch) and it keeps me going until dinner time without becoming so hungry that I jump on the first quick fix I can find.

The best thing about all of this? My four meals a day for six days cost me (protein powder and herbal teas included) forty-eight pounds.

I am just one and a half days into this project and I have no idea if it is going to work, but I have got a very good feeling about it. I will definitely let you know how it goes.

The programme was not particularly full of incredible revelations (Sweeney goes to Hollywood where an agent tells her to drop several dress sizes if she wants to get any work – doh). I stuck with it though because it seemed to mirror what has been happening to me recently: after years of carefully checking daily food intake and exercising regularly, I gave up for nearly two months (no time, no energy, no concentration for either) and ballooned too.

Like Sweeney, we are at our best when we control what we eat. Our bodies simply do not know what is good for them, so we must consciously use our brains to talk some sense into them. And very much like her, I am now finding it incredibly difficult to lose the weight, and exercising has become more strenuous because of it.

Today's Italian word is cibo, which means food.

I had trained hard for it because it is a longer distance than my usual runs. I followed a sensible plan, running distances that were 10% longer every week, and even went running on Christmas morning (a necessity really, as damage control for the upcoming lunch).

Then after my longest run, on December 28th, my right foot started aching. I have no idea what I've done wrong, but it still hurts and as I limp a bit, my dodgy left knee is getting a battering too. I might have to go see a doctor.

I obviously skipped yesterday's race. I am gutted but I am still proud of the way I trained towards this goal because it's all about the journey, not the destination.

Today's Italian word is delusione, which means disappointment.

And I eat. A lot. All the time. Day and night.

Surprisingly, although far from ever being skinny, I have so far never been obese.

I thought I simply had a a very active metabolism, but a team of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco suggests another explanation: snoring makes you burn on average 373 extra calories a night (the equivalent of a vigorous thirty-minute gym workout).

On the flipside, snoring also causes sleep deprivation makes you sluggish during the day (thus less inclined to exercise), and more prone to overeating (because of diminished willpower). Check, and check.

I had been considering visiting a sleep clinic to figure out if my snoring can be cured. However, not that it turns out that if I stopped snoring I would put on 3.2 pounds a month, the question is: have I got more chances of holding on to my boyfriend by stopping snoring or by maintaining my figure?

On a related note, Dr B. has recently coined an endearing term for me, I'll let him tell you in the comments if he reads this. I'm not particularly fond of it but it beats being kicked in the shins in the middle of the night so that I wake up and stop snoring.