I LOVE food, but, like so many others, my relationship with food can be temperamental.

I wish I could be one of those people who eats what they fancy when they fancy, but I’m not.

I seriously have to watch what I eat.

It often seems like such a simple formula – eat sensibly and exercise.

But for me, I can very easily put on weight without eating much extra at all.

I eat relatively healthily, consuming plenty of fruit and vegetables, but my downfall is cake, particularly when my husband arrives home with a pack of two!

When I’m at work I don’t even think about it, but when it gets to the evenings I always crave something sweet or chocolaty and it takes a lot of determination to decline.

I lost about a stone before my wedding last year and, although I felt brilliant, it was a slow struggle getting there.

I had to be incredibly strict with myself and give up practically everything sweet or naughty for almost a year.

Inevitably, the weight crept back on afterwards, particularly as I wasn’t exercising as much during a period of being very unwell, and I didn’t have the motivation anymore to keep it off.

It felt disappointing getting on the scales to find myself almost back at the weight I started.

And it’s then impossible not to feel guilty every time I treat myself to something bad.

Everyone has their limits, and when I tip over a certain weight, or my clothes feel slightly tight, I know it’s time to take action.

Even when I’ve put on just half a stone I feel uncomfortable and I’m more conscious of my protruding stomach, which is where any weight I gain goes.

To those around me all the time, they probably don’t even notice.

But I hate the thought of being outside a healthy BMI, even if only just.

I know it is quite a crude measurement, and many people can be classed as overweight when they don’t appear to be, but actually I feel at my best when I am just within a healthy BMI, so it is something to aim for.

So I decided a few weeks ago to reduce my sugar intake in order to lose a few pounds.

I started out with determination, vowing not to eat any sugar at all.

But this was perhaps being too harsh on myself, so instead I’m allowing myself one sweet thing at the weekend.

However, there might have been the odd occasion when something sweet has crept into my diet during the week – it’s so hard to resist temptation sometimes, particularly during social occasions or when someone at work brings in cakes!

And then there are those times when you think you deserve some chocolate, or a cake, because you’ve had a particularly difficult day.

I know eating something sweet will temporarily make me feel better, even if that is the wrong attitude to have.

But generally I have significantly reduced the amount of sugar I consume, and the effort paid off when I lost a few pounds as a result, which spurred me to carry on.

I’ve always been quite competitive, and I see losing weight as a bit like a competition with myself!

There’s the buzz of achievement when you succeed and the challenge of reaching a particular goal.

I know it will be slow – particularly as the amount I need to lose is relatively small – but hopefully it’s a battle I will eventually win (again).