Back in pre-history when the caveman's main munch was as much woolly mammoth as you could get your chops round no one thought about diets or fads or even fighting the flab.

Obesity is one of the biggest health problems facing the UK

Now it's the 21st century and one of the biggest health problems facing the UK is obesity.

I never had any of these issues. I could always take food or leave it and my weight would barely change.

But as the years pile on so do the pounds and after giving up smoking and an operation back in 1999 I gained a stone and a half over the subsequent few months.

I always put it down to stopping smoking and decided to work gradually towards getting the weight off. But it just wouldn't shift.

'Healthy food'

I went for more and more 'healthy' foods replacing meals with fruit and snacking on fruit every day.

I counted calories and knew the fat content of almost every product on the supermarket shelves but instead of it all falling off me even more went on.

I was in crisis - I joined a gym, and then I decided I had to have a diet plan. I've never been into diets. The F-Plan, the Hip and Thigh the Cabbage Soup all seemed to belong to a different type of woman than me.

I've observed my mother on constant diets since 1974 until the present day and she's only ever put weight on!

Stacey Webb

Besides I've observed my mother on constant diets since 1974 until the present day and she's only ever put weight on!

So now I'm about to embark on the Atkins diet. I've read the website and a lot of it seems to make sense. Apparently I have a carbohydrate addiction. My carbohydrate monster is fruit (of all things).

It's about carbs not calories

Yep, those lovely, juicy, low-cal bundles of fruity gorgeousness (can you tell I like it?) are off limits in fact for the next two weeks I'm not allowed to eat ANY fruit at all.

I AM allowed to eat as much fat and protein as I like so it's going to be tough as I try to eat foods that I've educated myself to hate all these years.

And that's what brings me back to those cavemen - surely they were eating huge hunks of protein and fat rather than the carb-rich diets we all go in for today. Well if Dr Atkins' theory's right then I'll be a happy bunny:)

OK - so my target is to lose seven pounds before I go on holiday. I'll keep you updated with regular diary entries and I'll let you know if the Atkins diet did it for me!

»Stacey's diet diary - part 1

»Stacey's diet diary - part 2

»Stacey's diet diary - part 3

»Stacey's diet diary - part 4

Are you on a diet - or about to go on one? If you would you like to share your diet experiences with BBC Gloucestershire we'd love to hear from you. You could write a diary like Stacey or contribute to these pages by sending your comment to gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk