3 January - No alcohol & No love handles

Well if entire states in India can be dry, then so can we for a few days. I find it surprisingly easy, given that my consumption is usually low and that I never associated alcohol with having a better time than without. Besides, as with giving up cigarettes, I was once told that these kind of substances are only addictive for a few days and if you get past a week or so, the craving does subside. The rest is pretty much all in the mind. Toph has decided to buy himself a pair of continental swimming trunks as was tired of having white legs wearing those surfer dude big loons. However the trunks are very unforgiving in the waist and belly department (though delectable in the groin one) and the love handles are lovingly recorded for posterity on digicamera. I promise him repeatedly that no alcohol is all that's required. He goes along with it and here, in the heat, it's easy. We're not beer drinkers and wine is truly not the best think to enchance veggy curries and fish. Of course, like any woman on a diet, he would like to see results immediately but I know from previous experience that it's between the 2nd and 3rd week that you start to dry up. I promise, I promise. I could also recommend an indian fortnight or more to anyone who wants to kickstart a new health regime. I know am boring, but it's the combination of walking, not overdoing AND seeing toned yoga bods everywhere around you, plus skinny indians (ok not in the South perhaps), that truly hightlights and shames your lardiness. Ok, nazy health police announcement over.

I do get some unexpected help from the ayurvedic doctor where we stop by to book some massages. He very bluntly tells Toph that over 40 is practically next to dead in terms of managing your body effectively and predicts all manner of sexual dysfuctions if one doesn't control diet and weight (he's referring to cock not performing I gather, not any perversion). Toph is suitably scared, he knows I'm a bit demanding in that department. Plus it can't have escaped him that in his examination of moi, ayurvedic doctor found nothing to berate me about. I'm on a winner to start with when I declare the I don't eat meat badge of immunity. Toph gets his own back later on at ashtanga yoga masterclass where I fail to complete even the first series and he's clearly a yoga god. Darn. He can't believe the love handles crept in despite the yoga, till I remind him that his attendance has dropped to once a week from previous regular 3 to 4 times. Am so kind to him non?