I really thought I might crack on this one. I failed to get up for a pre-dawn breakfast, so actually I was fasting for almost 24 hours.

I popped this on the list, as I very rarely test my will power, and also because I am accustomed to grazing the entire day, now that most of my time is based at home. It is a bad habit, both for weight gain and productivity. I can rarely settle to any task without a cup of tea and a biscuit in hand. Bad news!

Doing without breakfast was fine. It is too busy dealing with the brood to get any pleasure from eating breakfast anyway. It was one less thing to think about and that was fine. But starting the day without a cup of tea is a disaster. I just never feel as if I have woken up!

By 7.30 am I relaxed my own rules to allow myself to drink water.

At 11.30 I relaxed them further to allow a cup of tea. It was the only way. I would have caved in otherwise. I was weak, grumpy and headachey. But with a mug of tea in hand, all was well again.

Missing lunch wasn’t really a problem. I had one more cup of tea.

The afternoon was challenging as I was trapped in a car with 3 children for 3 hours, while they munched their way through a ton of food. I almost ate their leftovers out of habit! But managed not to.

So, I just about got to sort-of dusk. By 7pm, I was tucking into 2 platefuls of dinner, and 3 puddings. I had arrived at the in laws’ house and needed to show my appreciation, you see. They certainly couldn’t have been left thinking they had cooked a bad meal! Though they may be reviewing their supplies for the weekend with some anxiety lest I maintain such levels of gluttony.

So I conclude that I can go without food for a day, but caffeine is another matter!