My first challenge

My mum came round for dinner last night. I don't really want to tell her about the diet yet – she'd only make a big fuss about it, and I can't deal with that yet – but dissuading her from bringing a box of chocolates over was, er, difficult. (Christ only knows why I feel comfortable about posting details of my diet on the internet so that, potentially, thousands of people can read all about it but I can't tell my mum. Obviously some deep psychology involved there somewhere...)

Organising a menu that would work for her proved a bit of a challenge, too. The idea was for us to sit down to a dinner that would fulfill my dieting criteria while still appearing to be a 'real' dinner from her perspective. I settled for lamb cutlets, cooked rare on the griddle (no oil used). She and Mark had two cutlets each. I pleaded a lack of appetite and gnawed on a solitary cutlet. We also had one of my fave mashes – chickpea (works beautifully with lamb) – and a ratatouille to accompany the meat. You'll find a recipe for the chickpea mash below (I think the ratatouille may become a bit of a favourite, so I'll publish the recipe at some later date). I even sipped at half a glass of Southern French red, without ever quite finishing the glass – just for effect.

But time, perhaps, to explain the basic rationale of my diet. I'm not a great believer in calorie counting – it's never really worked for me in the past for several reasons, among them the fact that it's easy to get obsessed about what you're putting in your mouth and how much of it you should be eating. And I always end up hungry between meals anyway, further enhancing my obsession with food, all of which makes the diet unsustainable.

I've also tried variations on the Atkins diet, but I've come to the conclusion that eating fats, meat proteins and leafy green vegetables, to the exclusion of starchy carbs and fruit, is not really a great idea, particularly on a sustained basis.

And as for anything quite as dumb as cabbage soup diets, Israeli army diets, replacing meals with diet shakes/soups/cereals... Well, I'd just be setting myself up for a fall.

The diets that seem to make the most sense to me are those based around the concept of the Glycaemic Index (GI) or Glycaemic Load (GL). The reading I've done seems to suggest that following these principles – no simple sugars; eating little and often; balancing proteins, complex carbs, vegetables and fruit; controlling portion size – may well be the best way of balancing your body's glucose levels, thereby controlling feelings of hunger while shedding weight.

In order to make this work for me (given that I'm probably going to be following this diet for at least a year, if not for life) I have to be realistic. Because of my work, temptation is going to rear its ugly head pretty frequently (damn you, temptation), so I'm going to allow myself one meal a week where I can eat or drink what I like (within the bounds of moderation, of course).

And as well as coming up with my own recipes, I'm going to be taking plenty of inspiration from as many interesting foodie diet books I can find. You'll find images of three of my favourites on the left. Of them all, I find Ruth Watson's Fat Girl Slim the most appealing – it's written by someone who clearly loves her food, and the recipes (or at least all the ones I've tried so far) are delicious. Ian Marber's Food Doctor series is a little more earnest, but (I suspect) gets relatively quick results. I'm also intrigued by Antony Worrall Thompson's book, although I'm slightly disappointed by some of the recipes (I suspect the book was largely written by the team of nutritionists who get a mention on the back pages) – but it's worth using as a basis for experimentation.

If and when I find more interesting books, I'll let you know about them.

Chickpea mash for one (just multiply the quantities according to the number of people you're feeding)

1 400g can of chickpeas
1 tbsp 0% fat Greek yoghurt
1/4-1/2 tsp Spanish pimenton (spicy smoked paprika)
juice of 1/4-1/2 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain most of the water out of the chickpeas, but leave a little bit to keep things moist (I used one can's worth of water for four cans of chickpeas the other night). Pour into a saucepan.

Heat over a medium flame, then mash with a spud basher. You want to keep the texture a little chunky, so don't worry if you miss the odd chickpea.

Stir in the yoghurt, the pimenton, the lemon and seasoning. Chickpeas can be fairly bland, so check the flavourings and adjust according to need and taste.

It's easy to burn the chickpea mash if you keep it on a high heat, but it retains the heat fairly well, so if it's ready in advance, just put a lid on the saucepan and reheat gently, if necessary.