Beaut.ie diet diaries: e-diets REALLY works

Okay I'm ready to give you my absolute straight up recommendation for e-diets

It works.

I've lost 7lbs in the last 3 weeks.

7lbs! Half a stone! Only 3lbs to go! Sing hosannas, sound the trumpets, let the fireworks explode into the night sky.

This is an event unprecedented since my pre wedding panic diet when I was so stricken with fear I couldn't eat anyway. No chance of that happening now! I've tried loads of diets (usually for about two days at a time I have to admit) but I found this one surprisingly easy to stick to. There's lots of different choices - you can choose the GI Diet, Mediterranean Diet, low fat, high fibre, vegetarian, dairy free... there's no excuses!

It's dead easy to get started. Click this link, choose the Irish flag option at the bottom of the page, enter your height and your weight, e-diets gives you your recommended weight loss, you say which diet you'd like to follow - and - that's it!

You weigh in once a week at home and enter your weight online. A chart plots your weight loss as it encouragingly drops - and it will if you follow this diet. You can get online support and encouragement from fellow dieters in the chat rooms and you can ring e-diets staff on the phone too if you're so inclined. I never was, but they're there to answer any questions.

I picked the GI Diet and it's really healthy. The food you eat is chosen to regulate your blood sugar levels and there's lots of fruit and veg and wholegrain bread and cereal. You can even have a few drinks a week. You have to eat a proper breakfast to get your metabolism going and keep your blood sugar steady and you've got to drink lots and lots of water. That's a really important part of this diet.

The part I found the best was the shopping list. Each week your meals for the week are generated after your weigh in. If you don't like any of the food on the meal plans you can change it - this is a bit time consuming but worth it. When you're finished you click to get the shopping list which contains all the food you need for the week, including all the ingredients you need to make any recipe you've picked. It's funny how confident this makes you feel about actually sticking to the diet.

Honestly, if you had a New Year's Resolution to lose weight and it's floundering a bit, try e-diets. It costs a few euro a week and it's SO worth it!

Let us know how you're getting on with your diet - I know there's a few others on e-diets too, so give us your tips!