It's a simple enough question and one that for most people should begin to spark their imagination and at the same time their taste buds. A curry maybe, perhaps a nice rare steak, a...

...and there's where I hit the problem. I'm sitting here trying to think of anything that might come next in a list of appealing meals and am hitting a perpetual brick wall. Since starting the Glucophage (Metformin), the mere suggestion of food has become about as appealing as shaving 3 times a day, probably less so if the truth be told. My food intake is now a largely mechanical function, something I know I have to do, but in which I am struggling to find any real enjoyment or pleasure.

For the last 4 years, since the angioplasty, our diet has been modified to do the sensible things of increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables, cutting down on anything with saturated fats, minimising the amount of meals that involved frying, and all very sensible too. I was quite happy with that and succeeded in losing a few excess pounds into the bargain. Not so with this one though. Add into the mix the need to re-balance the proportions of carbohydrates vs protein and throw a few foul tasting tablets on top and all of a sudden, things just don't taste the same, or at very least I find them difficult to swallow and there is often a slight sense of nausea (this is common with Metformin I gather). Eating now takes a concentrated effort, unless it somehow contains readily accessible sugars...

And there lies the rub. All the stuff that supposedly I'm supposed to be eating remind me of an over-boiled hobnail boot and are about as palatable. Chicken reminds me of chewing rubber, salmon of... well, to tell the truth, I'm not actually sure, but it's not nice. I can though happily munch my way through a fruit salad, chocolate or toffee vanishes in seconds, I can't exist on that though and neither should I.

About a month back I bought one of those home blood-glucose test meters. Nice little kit, American rather than British read-out, but that's an easy sort, just divide by 18. Oh and then there's the usual Saudi complication, buy fancy equipment, but can't readily get the replacement test strips or lancets. So far what it's regularly showing me is that my blood-glucose levels are on the low end of where they should be. My guess is that only recently having been diagnosed with diabetes and only just being in the range that is considered as such, the tablets are actually too strong for my current needs. Further changes to what AM and I are eating are just compounding the problem.

Which brings me back to the original question, to which my answer these days is becoming and increasingly terse "I don't know" and the inward thought that "I don't fucking care either". AM is now wholly disinclined to try anything new (from her extensive recipe book library) and I find myself unable to help - there are times when just the sight and smell of food just makes me want to throw up - is that how a bulimic or anorexic feels I wonder? Whatever it is, it makes me about as useful in the food decision department as a breezeblock.

One way or another, I guess this has to sort itself out, but right now it's not proving an awful lot of fun. On the positive side, I've lost a few more pounds. Wonder where they went?