The zip did up on my 'thin' dress today. You have to understand that by 'thin dress' I actually just mean a dress that used to fit me 12 months ago when I was - for about two weeks - a size 12, but it's still a good sign. As is the fact the dress I bought back in September from Warehouse that never zipped up almost zipped up today. By the time I get on that plane to Oz (in 18 days!) it'll fit perfectly. I promise.

One of the reasons I'm managing to lose inches so quickly is exercise. Not just my usual walking (incessant, never ending walking) but 100 crunches, 100 bridges, plenty of stretching and enough arm and shoulder exercises to leave my upper arms aching the following morning, but fine by the evening (when it's time to start again). I'm really proud I'm sticking to this. I just keep thinking...three weeks, bikini, three weeks, bikini. It's amazing how well that works!


The upside of the exercise is that I can drop pounds by still eating amazing things like the above. Thai green curry with prawns, fresh cod (yum), peppers and coriander. I overdid it a bit on the sauce, but you can never have too much sauce, right? I used the recipe from Cook Yourself Thin, which cuts down on calories by using reduced fat coconut milk and bulks out the dish with veg, not meat. I added the cod as an extra (after seeing Rick Stein put monkfish in his) and it tasted absolutely amazing. It's all about the fish sauce, kids!

I also tried the Cook Yourself Thin recipe for tomato, basil and chilli soup. If you ignore the fact I scalded my hand because I can't work a blender correctly (and thus lost one of my four servings all over the kitchen worktops, the hob and the floor) it turned out quite well. It's quite thick and rich, but I'd add more chilli, more salt and possibly a bit of stock instead of water next time, as it's a bit bland. I sloshed in a bit of soy sauce to combat that, and now it's great, and really filling. To beef it up a bit I chopped up a chicken breast, fried it off in some flaked chilli and mixed herbs and distributed it across the three bowls of soup, which works really well. Soup's a great diet food as it takes ages to eat; by the time you've finished it your body has had time to go 'yep, I'm full now' so you don't go on to stuff yourself. That said, Nigella is now cooking chocolate cake on the telly*, and Kevin's Oreo cookies are calling to me...

*yes, now I've got the cooking bug all I do is watch UKTV Food ALL THE TIME.