To celebrate getting into Ketosis the Podgy Princess took herself the to Royal kitchen and selected a caramel flavoured shake, "this is either going to be OK or seriously foul" she said to herself.   Again she added the powder to the water and shook the shaker, and poured the liquid into a glass.   Once more she was pleasantly surprised another shake that actually tasted ok.   She quickly finished the glass, and then had 2 more glasses of water.  

The Podgy Princess realised that her feet were freezing, she knew that she would not be able to get them warm before bed without having either a bath or a shower, and she knew if she went to bed with them cold she simply wouldn't be able to sleep.   She debated both options, and decided that she was going to spoil herself, and have a long hot soak in the bath.   She enjoyed the sensation of the hot water warming her and relaxed letting the stress of the day soak away.

Once she was a slightly prune like Podgy Princess, she drained the water out the bath and took herself off to bed.   She snuggled down, and realised that her feet were cold, and without her Prince to warm them on, she realised the only option was SOCK!  Prince Charming would be happy.....well as long as she didn't wear them when he was around.

The Princess slept and had lovely fluffy dreams, dreams of sunny days, right up till the dulcet tones of the smallest small subject gently squee'ing her little head off woke the Podgy Princess - a full hour before the Podgy Princess actually wanted to get up.   The Podgy Princess ignored the happy chattering of the baby, and day dreamed some more of being slim and being full of energy.

The Princess went to the bathroom, and again saw the scales, she had a quick internal dialog.  "mmm maybe they will show that the 2lbs down was a blip and that they will show no loss, do I really want to deal with that knock back?"  she sat on the toilet and realised that her will power not to weigh herself wasn't actually that strong.   She stood up and after finishing the job at hand, and of course washed her hands, she took a deep breath in and stood on the scales.   Her eyes widened in disbelief.   She stood off the scales, and then stood on them again, still the same number showed on the dial.   Once more she stood off and then back on and finally she allowed herself to smile.  The scales showed that she was now 2 days completed of her diet and was rewarded with 7 lbs off in total.  

7lbs down means REWARD time.   The Podgy Princess loves shiny things!  So every 7lbs down she gets to place a new charm on her charm bracelet!   So today the Podgy Princess chose a castle, she smiled at herself and thought "see told Prince Charming I had a castle...."

Once more the daily tasks of getting the small subjects off to school had to be done, and again the Podgy Princess didn't find time to have breakfast until she got back with the smallest small subject, who then decided to be a bit high maintenance.   And the thought of milk shake for breakfast didn't appeal, but she knew that she really had to get into a better routine with her meal replacements as she really did need to be not eating so late at night.    She then set herself the goal for the day to have a shake for her breakfast, then she would have a meal replacement, and then either a soup or a bar once the small subjects were all settled for the night.

The princess went off to make the smallest subject her second bottle of milk for the day, and pulled up her big girl pants, and selected a cookies and cream shake from the box of mysteries.   Again as if by magic it mixed into a smooth shake - a world removed from the lumpy shakes of yesterdiet!   This one was not unpleasant, but not really a taste that the Podgy Princess was overly keen on, it was a bit sweet, but this was the Podgy Princesses game plan this time to actually try many of the products from the range and then just reorder the ones that she enjoyed 

day 2

The sun rose it's head and the smallest of the small subjects woke the house with her cries obviously starving to death.   The Podgy Princess "muttered grumpily" and she thinks she is hungry.   She tried to block out the yells but that was not going to happen, so she got out of bed.   She traipsed to the bathroom, and saw the scales staring back at her taunting her "I will sort you out" she thought wickedly, she used the loo (yes even Princesses Podgy or not have to wee) and stood on the scales, a smile formed on the Podgy Princesses mouth, 2lbs lighter than yesterday.   2 down 82 to go she thought.  Felt a bit depressed at the huge battle she had to wage on the bulge, but then thought now what would both of the Princes say to me - "well done - it is a start" was her conclusion and with that thought on her mind she lifted the smallest small out of the cot and headed downstairs yelling at the other small subjects that it was time to get up for school.  "Well I am up everyone has to be up" she thought and then laughed.

The small subjects all had their breakfasts and the Podgy Princess walked the small subjects to school and pushed the smallest small subject back to the Royal Residence.   She realised that she was hungry and that she was not really looking forwards to breakfast, the lumpy grey shakes still slightly too fresh in her mind and not quite believing yet that she could have actually found a diet that she could enjoy rather than just endure!   But it had to happen, so she chose another chocolate bar - the decadence of having chocolate gave her a kick.  "Mmmm what shall I choose" she said to no one in particular.   "Maple Fruit and Almond, how bad could it really be" she thought to herself.

She flopped down her throne, and peeled back the silver wrapper, and bit into it, she chewed the bar, not really paying attention to it as she checked her email, she found herself biting in the bar again without thinking about it,  carried on reading her mail, and another bite vanished - she suddenly realised that she was actually relatively enjoying it.   Again not anything as pleasant as chocolate that she would chose for decadence however she carried on eating the bar and soon it was gone.    She found herself thinking "will definitely be looking forwards to having that again"

She pottered around the castle for the rest of the morning and then had to go and attend to some royal business out in her kingdom.  She decided that she would just take some water to drink and would eat when she returned.  

On returning to the Castle it was time to collect the small subjects and to supervise the homework, make dinner, again she managed to avoid nibbling anything that she shouldn't have, and felt rather proud and empowered by her will power.   She busied herself tidying and sorting and cleaning.   The small subjects were all bedded for the night, she went back to the brown box of delights, she chose "chicken curry noodle soup" slightly disappointed by the small amount of water she had to add, she contemplated having 2 sachets and having the 3 "items" over and done with,  but decided that one would be plenty.   She opened the sachet and thought "well it smells nice enough, in fact it reminds me rather of those dreadful but rather delicious pot noodle things of my student days"  she mixed the soup and left for the prescribed time and a little longer to let it cool.   "yum" she thought " I so can eat this"  it had texture, it had taste it was actually food and more than just palatable!

She sat on her throne, watching TV and suddenly realised her feet were freezing,  this brought a smile of hope to the Podgy Princesses face, "maybe just maybe I have actually already got into ketosis" she thought hopefully.  A bigger smile crossed her face as she remembered Prince Charming calling her "his little ice cube" and skipped off to the loo to test her theory......

"RESULT" she squealed in delight, KETOSIS!!! "go me" she thought and enjoyed the feeling of her freezing feet.

Day one - the evening....

The Podgy Princess sat on her extremely comfortable and nicely upholstered, very well padded bum.  Suddenly she jumped as her mobile phone shrilled with the warning that a message was waiting for her attention on her mobile phone.  She swiped her delicate Princess like finger over the shiny device, and her bingo wings wobbled in support of this movement.   The message was from Prince Charming.

"How's the diet going?"  the message hung in the air.   The Podgy Princess picked up her mobile "oh you mean my delicious new food stuffs" she jollily typed back, trying put off the inevitable concerned messages that would arrive from Prince Charming.  His reply text read "Err....Yes?" The time really had come and the Podgy Princess had to admit to her short coming "seriously not as good as I should have done, but from the other direction,  have only managed to eat 2 "things" rather than 3, and not drank enough fluids"  She continued to explain "I simply wasn't hungry and really couldn't face the thought of the 3rd item, but the bar was OK and the soup was OK"  His reply came quickly "thoroughly confused now,  you haven't eaten as much as you should?"  "yes" she replied and then continued "I had one bar and one soup and I should have had a 3rd thing"  "Have you had anything that you shouldn't?" he texted quickly back "no" she replied "That's a result then, obviously not something to do day after day, but a good day one, well done my love" She read the reply and smiled, he truly was her Prince Charming and she knew that she would be relying on him for support during this battle, and it was so reassuring and lovely that he was giving it to her from day one.

The Podgy Princess and Prince Charming chatted on about their days, both raising smiles from the other.   The Podgy Princess felt that she really should push herself and raise her game and tentatively put out there "debating going and having a shake" Prince Charming came back with "well the choc bar was better than you expected, so was the soup" "yes" she replied.   "So really you should sample the delicious nutritious shake really, it might be totally  grim, but it might be a pleasant reply my love" The Podgy Princess could really not fault his logic, or come up with any counter argument.  The couple then discussed the merits of the various flavours available in the end The Podgy Princess settled on Prince Charming's choice of "Cafe Latte"

She measured the water out and put it in with the sachet of powder into the shaker, she shook the mix and then poured the liquid into her glass, she stared with disbelief - where was the lumpy grey disgusting thick gross drink she had prepared to gag down, instead there was a smooth, lump-less reasonably appealing looking drink.   It smelt quite pleasant - she tentatively took a sip, certainly not something that she would choose to order if she were out and about, however it certainly could go down easy enough.

Prince Charming was full of praise for her effort, and the Podgy Princess basked in the glow.   Having been a long day with The Scruffy Prince being off in a foreign land fighting dragons the couple said good night, and the Podgy Princess clambered the wooden hill, up to the royal boudoir.

Let The Battle Commence...

The Podgy Princess, woke as the alarm ran,  she quickly shut the annoying little device up, cursed a few expletives and snuggled back down in her cosy fluffy quilt and filled her head with daydreams of her very own Prince Charming.  She could hear the noise that heralded the rise of the small subjects and quickly stuck her head below the pillow and contemplated suffocating herself with it for 3 nanoseconds.  The time had come there was no more respite to be offered from the warm cosy bed the royal day had officially begun.

The Podgy Princess swung her considerable thighs along with her very dainty Princess like feet over the edge of the bed and sighed.   "Something has simply got to be done about this"  the princess muttered to no one in-particular "One can not simply carry on being so damn podgy.  The Podgy Princess often could be found chattering to herself,  this was for a couple of reasons, one the Podgy Princess was rather a chatter box, and two living in the house with the small subjects she generally found that no one usually listened to her anyway.

She waddled to the bathroom, and scowled at the scales, they rarely seemed to offer her any good new these days.   She took a deep breath and stood on the scales "oh bugger".  She then quickly stepped off frowned thought for a second, then had a wee, brushed her hair, undressed and took another deep breath, then blew all the air for her lungs and then stood on the scales once more, just incase the 3mls of wee, the 18 loose hairs and the t-shirt and considerable sized knickers could make any real difference to how heavy she was.   "Oh poo!"  no difference.

This wasn't really news to the Podgy Princess since she had started courting Prince Charming she had managed to regain some the weight that she had slain in her last battle of the bulge, and clothes that had been hanging off her curvy hips were now a tad on the tight side.   She had been brave and sent for royal approval a pile of delicious nutritious meal replacement products, and today was the day that she was going to finally open the box!

The podgy princess chose a chocolate bar for breakfast - it was quick and easy and with the 4 small subjects all home for the day as the castle had been snow bound overnight and could not get the small subjects off to school for the day.   She chose a Milk Chocolate Trufa bar.   It was OK not brilliant and certainly not a rival for a non diet chocolate bar, but edible and stopped the Podgy Princess feeling hungry.

There was some rather splendid and simple guidance from the diet company in the box, and the Podgy Princess read it and was filled with good intentions.

Lunch time came and went and bar a chat with the soave and rather lovely if on the mature side Prince Charming nothing much happened.   She couldn't quite get the enthusiasm that she needed to go back to the big brown box and find something else to eat.   Following many displacement activities and feeding and attending to the needs of the small subjects the day passed in a blur, of not much fluids and extreme will power for the Podgy Princess not to eat any of the chips that she made for the small subjects,  a hush of sorts fell on the royal kingdom, well apart from the sound of the Podgy Princess shouting up the stairs to the small subjects that it really now was time for them to go to sleep.

The time had come, she really could not put it off any longer, as it was Prince Charming was going to have words about the fact that she only had managed to have 2 of the 3 permitted meals and had not done just as well as she really needs to do on the drinking water front either.  She went to the box put her graceful little princess sized hands and wrist, along with the not so graceful podgy arm into the box of delights and pulled out a vegetable soup sachet.   She mixed it well and followed the instructions.

She suddenly felt a strange sensation - hope!  It didn't smell bad at all.  It didn't even look grey or lumpy.   She carried the mug which made her smile - it had a huge very yummy looking cupcake on it. She sat down and let the boiling liquid cool.   She played a few games on her phone, she tried to put the moment off, but then thought that cold disgusting soup has to be worse than hot disgusting soup right?

She lifted the mug down, it was thick.....she stirred the mug, and thought oh look it looks and smells like hospital soup.    She really didn't know if she could do this, but she had promised that she would try and fit into the gown that she wore the first time Prince Charming had saw her for their anniversary date, which was still 4 months away so a very achievable goal.   She stirred the mug, stuck the spoon and and tasted the liquid.   It was pleasant!   Well perhaps that was pushing it a little but it certainly was OK.

"I can do this"   she muttered to the dog,  "I really can"