Hannah Borno

We’re in the Azores for a fortnight to recover from the move. Some time ago we used our savings to buy a tiny tumbledown cottage here. Our aim is to move here full time and turn it into a lovely, peaceful commune where we can write and be healthy. We arrived yesterday at midnight and Gary and Pia our Swedish friends greeted us with our little white dog, Smudge. The house seems relatively dry – and though ten of the pumpkins we left behind us have rotted; three are ok.

We get up exhausted and lie in a field all day. Then go to the vegetable patch to find something to eat. We’re in luck, it’s full of turnips and greens. So that’s dinner then. Luckily on our last visit we left a cupboard full of red wine. Though the gardener has sneakily drunk the half bottle of single malt we had stashed there before we left.

I’ve popped my crystals in a bowl of salt water to cleanse them as instructed by Sandra. I’m absolutely determined to spend the next two weeks living healthily, meditating, de-stressing and, most importantly, losing weight.

My new cast-iron Mindless Eating rules:

Only eat from a small plate.

Eat what you want but each plate needs to be half-filled with vegetables and salad first.

Only eat chocolate and other snacks at the kitchen table.

Drink alcohol from flutes (note – buy some flutes).

Serve food from the stove, not the table.

Eat until 80% full.