It is a truth not yet universally recognised, but dieters love stationery. There is a distinct joy in buying a lovely blank new notebook in which you know you are certain you are going to chart your weight-loss success. Definitely this time.

Diet Doodle Diary was originally going to be a blank book with inspirational quotes and tips throughout for dieters and health-conscious fitness loggers.

The book grew and grew, much like my waistline, until it was utterly crammed full of illustrations, humorous observations about the trials of losing weight, and genuinely useful diet tips. Don’t take my podgy word for it that these tips really work. We got them from genuinely successful slimmers who have lost weight and kept it off. I was also keen that this wasn’t going to be one of those “if you feel hungry why not brush your teeth?” kinds of diet book. It would have pictures of normal looking people. People who sweat and wobble when they go jogging. People who come next to last at the 5K but who are just delighted they did it. People who if they have one chocolate they want the whole box.

My role, thankfully, was not as a diet guru but to find an artist with the right style, think up the themes and brief the artist, plan the way we wanted the layouts to look and edit artwork to make it do so. I found Julie Mackey through her work as a designer for a recyclable wrapping paper company Evergreen (rather sadly I think they are no more). I love Julie’s quirky style. It’s very feminine without being frilly, and very funny. She is especially good at dogs. For no good reason you’ll find several dogs in the book because they pleased me. She was very delightful to work with and rose to every challenge.

As to my diet progress … mind your own business.