SO I've made it to the half way point of my diet and I've already lost more than a stone and a half.

But I'm even happier to report that on top of that, my health and fitness plan has helped me lower my blood pressure, drop two dress sizes, halt my headaches and left my skin glowing.

Not bad for just six weeks worth of willpower eh?

I have to admit that willpower has been my only requirement on this plan - as I'm doing my particular diet the "A-lister" way.

I'm signed up with new Manchester company Soulmate Lifestyle Consultancy, who have brought a tried-and-tested American concept to the UK and have promised me a "Life Makeover" in 12 weeks.

It means, a la Jessica Simpson and other such Hollywood stars, I'm getting all my meals delivered direct to the door, I have a personal trainer three hours a week, and I even have my own life coach helping me to work on my inner beauty too. My goal at the outset was to lose two and a half stone and to drop three dress sizes - and they've tailor-made a programme to make sure I succeed.

Christian Coates, the company's managing director explains: "Dianne has been given a diet that helps her eat regularly, to stop her getting hungry. We have reduced her sugar and fat intake, while regulating carbohydrate and protein to suit her goal. Allowing her to graze throughout the day means she is not starving herself like other diets, has a constant supply of energy and reduces her irritability and tired spells/crashes later on in the day.

"The food is low in calories to promote weight loss, while giving her an optimum level of carbohydrates and proteins, as she would be more active than normal, and is varied with different recipes and styles of food to keep it interesting."

On the fitness side, personal trainer Mikey Smith has been making sure I go for the burn in the gym - and I've been enjoying the running so much that I've even started going out for jogs with my best mate at home at the weekends.

Mikey says: "We have combined resistance (weight) training, cardiovascular (CV) training, core stability and flexibility. Resistance training has been used to increase Dianne's muscle mass. The reason for doing this is the more muscle that you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) will be. This means that even while watching TV or relaxing in general your body will be burning more calories than someone who had less muscle mass. Plus more muscle mass means less body fat!"

I'm pleased to say that it's all helped me to lose 1st 9lbs so far. I've reduced my heart rate by 10 beats per minute (meaning I've helped reduce my risk of heart disease) and my blood pressure is now in the "normal" zone after starting out slightly high.

And I've lost a total of 49cm off my whole body - that's almost half a metre!

As any dieter will agree, the best bit of all this has been being able to dig out all those "thinner" clothes that haven't fit for ages.

I even managed to squeeze into a dress I've never been able to zip up since I bought it - and I proudly wore it to a work event last week.

Meanwhile I've been working with Soulmate's Lifestyle coach Max Kohanzad on "visualising" my new slimmer self and achieving my goals.

It might sound a bit new age, but strange as it sounds, on a week when I was depressed and feeling fat I lost just 1lb, yet on the following week when I was determined to "think thin" I lost 5lb.

Max says: "My goal with Dianne is to help her create a real sense of purpose and inner happiness that will shine from within, so that together with the outward change and beauty, we will also be able to see her natural and obvious inner beauty. She is definitely on the way to making real and life-long changes to her lifestyle and I am really pleased by her progress."

So, gold stars all round for me I think.

Just another six weeks to go…