Day 10.

Well, Day 10 has arrived and I am now into double figures. It's been an emotional rollercoaster this far, and the next couple of days look set to be even more rocky. Especially if I don't stop having dreams about eating forbidden foods by accident.

I've been a bit down over the last few days. One of the effects of the Cura Romana diet is to purge the system of artificial stimulants, such as sugar and chocolate (I should know better, I know), which had been keeping my heart rate high. As all of the toxicity and stimulation is slowly leaving my body my resting heart rate has dropped from 73bpm to a much more healthy 56bpm. The effect of this is that I feel a bit down. But as my detoxing phase is slowing (and with it the scarily fast weightloss), my body should be starting to adjust to the new regime. No chocolate. Check. Lower heart rate. Check. Normal level of toxins. Getting there.

During this period of low mood, I've been rather handful. I've had to lean on my husband quite hard for emotional support, as well as being absolutely useless due to working through my fatigue deficit. Even the rabbit has wanted very little to do with me. He came up for a good old sniff at one point, but I later realised that was because I'd been chopping celery and was smelling a bit like lunch to him. I had wondered why he get going up my sleeve. He's warming to me again a little now, but I think he's still suspicious of the changes that are taking place inside my body.

I'm still feeling quite low, but now the miserable phase seems to be interspersed with periods of actually feeling quite chipper and positive. This is a relief. One thing that has really helped me has been to make a Bliss List. I sat quietly for a while and made a list of all of the things that make me feel completely blissed out. Not a little bit happy, like the feeling I get when I realise there is a new episode of House on the Sky+ box, but properly blissed out. Now that I've identified a few, I need to do one every day.

Some of the items on my Bliss List are easy to incorporate into a daily routine, such as finishing an assignment in whatever course I am studying at the moment, or getting so engrossed in a book I sit down and read for the whole evening because I can't bear to go to bed without knowing how it ends. Some of them are less easy. For example, I would be hard pushed to take an hour out of my life to sit in the sun (or just out of the sun) in lightweight clothing with a good book today. At least, not without turning blue and feeling thoroughly unblissed.

Looking down my list I see that the word 'Christmas' appears repeatedly. It's a little bit early to go looking at trees, or walk around a shopping centre with their decorations up, so I've decided to have a little bliss moment by playing some of my favourite Christmas tunes while I write my blog. I'm not going to name any - that would be far too shameful - but the whole ensemble is making me want to cry with happiness.

And that's how I know I've reached my bliss.

Cura Romana.

Over the next few months, I hope that there will be more blog posts. However, I will be hijacking my own blog a little. I have been introduced to a process called Cura Romana, which is essentially a detox diet combined with a homoeopathic remedy that trigger weight loss, improved health and a sense of mental and emotional wellbeing. I am looking forward to it, as these are all things I desperately need, and I want to document the journey and share it with other people who are interested. To do this, I will simply blog regularly as I undergo the process.

I recently met a therapist named Shirley, from Transition Therapies (http://www.transitiontherapies.holisticlocal.co.uk/). We were chatting generally, and the subject of my weight and health issues came up. She recommended Cura Romana, having tried it successfully herself some time before, and lent me her copy of this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cura-Romana-Weightloss-Plan/dp/0593066731/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317813287&sr=8-2 . I very quickly felt that this was something that I needed to try, and now have my own copy. I have been saying for years that I feel like I just need to hit my reboot button, and this seems to be a protocol that will allow me to do this.

So after having a massive clear out and eBay frenzy, I have managed to get the money together to get started. Leslie Kenton offers a free consultation via her website (http://www.lesliekentonhcg.com/), and if you are interested in trying this for yourself you will find that she is a wonderfully positive, non-judgemental person, who takes the same attitude towards hard sell that I do. She doesn't want to just leech money out of people and make a quick buck; she wants to see people's lives transformed, and so will choose to help those for whom the protocol will be massively beneficial over those who seem to be faddy, yo-yo dieters. If you can only accept so many people onto your programme, you want to choose those who will provide the best success stories.

At this stage, I am a little nervous. The protocol allows so little food per day. How can I possibly not be hungry? And it is almost entirely successful, as long as you follow the protocol precisely - what happens if I make a mistake? What if I get ill? What if I can't manage it? What if I am away from home, and can't eat the appropriate food? There are so many worries going through my mind. But the feedback is universal from people who have tried it - you CAN do it. It is easy. It is considerably easier than you could possibly imagine.  And I am so ready to lose weight, lose pain and lose fatigue that I can be ready to make the other necessary lifestyle changes to ensure that I can make it work.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go buy some scales.