My New Best Friend

I woke up this morning, filled with regret for the generous dinner heartily consumed the night before. There have been a lot of those lately. I blame the weather.

 But as I lay there in bed, prodding the extra poundage that's been gradually creeping back over the last year, I realised I was going to have to Do Something About It. My clothes are getting tighter. Buttons are complaining. And frankly, there's only so much you can ask of Lycra.

Having tried and failed repeatedly to get back to the low carb diet that helped me shed many pounds 5 years ago, I decided it's time to try another approach. Maybe just eating less would do it. But that will mean feeling hungry and I really hate to feel- hungry.
'Just get over yourself', that testy internal voice that we all suffer with, intoned.
 The voice continued.
'You'll have to adjust your mind-set. When you feel hunger, you'll be losing weight. Think of Hunger as your Friend.'

And so I left home this morning for a long walk and as lunchtime approached, and the protest grumbles began in my disgruntled stomach, I kept repeating to myself:
'Hunger is my Friend.'

I stopped in the Indian shop to buy some ginger tea and looked wistfully at all the lovely packs of Na'an bread and Parathas. A little pocket of drool threatened to escape. I could just taste that warm, flaky, buttery bread; hopefully, with some curry.
I shook my head and rebuked myself:
'No. I don't really want them. Hunger is my Friend.'

In the supermarket, searching for some mundane household product or other, I longingly lingered by the Hot Food cabinet. Those roasted ham hocks looked awfully good.
Sternly, I reminded myself.
'Hunger...' well, you know it by now.

I finally reached home. Salad was waiting in the fridge. All I had to do was chop it up.

And sadly, that's where it all fell apart.
 I opened the fridge to grab the salad - and saw the cheese.

I have a new mantra now.

'Grilled Cheese Sandwich is my New Best Friend'.