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First the numbers of an obsessive maintainer...

Weight that I decided to maintain at: 85.0kg (13st 5)

Average weight since getting to my target: 83.3kg (13st 2)

Average weight in the last month: 82.9kg (13st 1)

Average steps in the last month 10,029

In my last blog I was a bit worried. We were just about to leave for an all-you-can-eat cruise (aren't they all!), with three days in a hotel just before setting sail. This was the longest period I had had without doing the cooking myself since my weight loss journey began, and I was concerned that I would come back a lot heavier than when I left.

A quick summary is that things went pretty well. I deliberately lost weight before leaving (I was down to 82kg) and when I got back I was just under 85kg. That's not bad, because several times I've come back from quite a short trip away and been over 85kg. In the five days since my return I've returned to my normal eating, and this morning I was 83.5kg. So after all that scoffing on holiday, I'm only three pounds more than when I left.

The question in my mind is what did I do right? Maybe surprisingly, I managed to exercise even more than I do at home - there was a walking track on the ship, and we had booked the most active shore excursions, so I did more than 10,000 steps every day. I also did quite a bit of swimming (in the pool, not the sea!), which is very unusual for me. That's all good, but I know all too well that it takes a lot of exercise to undo overeating, so was my scoffing slightly controlled as well? It didn't feel like it at the time, because I ate more or less what I wanted to. But...

...once we got home I had a good think about what I had eaten, and I reckon that - although I did eat what I wanted - what I want to eat has actually changed! If that's true, it's extremely good news! So, as examples:

1. For breakfast I still had porridge, which I now love.
2. I also had other things for breakfast, but mainly muesli, and no fry-ups (which I'm not interested in any more).
3. For lunch I had pizza, but just a couple of slices, rather than a whole one, and with a big salad of raw ingredients.
4. There was fish and chips one evening (for the Brits!), but I didn't bother with that - possibly the first time in my life I have turned down fish and chips.
5. They had an ice cream bar, but that included no-sugar-low-fat versions, so I had those.

And so it goes on; I could give a hundred other examples. The selection was incredible, and I could have had anything, but what I wanted to eat was often low-calorie. Not always - I had a huge curry one night - but my many low-calorie choices were just what I wanted, and I think they stopped me coming back a stone heavier. And seeing what the other passengers were eating, I bet a lot of them were going home at least that much plumper!

For me, this is yet more encouraging news.