It's a disaster, I've put on half a pound!

Well, perhaps it's not exactly a disaster, and it is the first time I have put weight on in two months, but it feels like I have undone all my good work after one weekend - and a big bag of Minstrels.

But dealing with weight gain while I'm working my flabby backside off to try to lose weight, is a difficult issue.

It is hard not to feel a sense of disappointment when you step on those scales after trying so hard all week to avoid piling on the pounds, to find you have gained weight.

A sense of perspective is what is needed and I have to keep telling myself that putting on half a pound is by no means a major set back, especially after losing a full stone.

What I am beginning to realise while I am on this journey, as they say, is that it will take a long time and like any health issue you have to think of the progress made, rather than the bumps in the road.

One of the biggest issues that I have been able to conquer, which has been at the heart of my success so far in losing weight, was dealing with a condition called obstructive sleep apnoea.

It is something I have written about in Tuesday's Evening Post and I would think it is something a lot of people in my position would be able to relate to.

I had been feeling tired and run down for quite a while before I went to see my GP who told me back in April that it sounded like I had obstructive sleep apnoea.

It is a condition that causes sufferers to stop breathing in their sleep, up to 60 times an hour in my case, or even double that in extreme cases.

They stop breathing because airways are crushed, usually because they are overweight and their neck is pushing down on their throat.

To avoid suffocation, the neck muscles strain and contract in an attempt to keep the airways open, which jolts the sleeper awake, although not fully.

This happens throughout the night, depriving sufferers of decent sleep, causing them to feel exhausted and sleepy the next day.

It causes all sorts of problems in the rest of your life from being able to do your job properly, to driving and even staying awake at the dinner table.

I found I was falling asleep all over the place, at my desk, in the bath, in front of telly, on the bus, even to the extent I would feel on the verge of collapsing just standing in the lift travelling five floors down.

More worryingly my girlfriend told me that I stopped breathing in my sleep for between five and ten seconds at a time, and my snoring could have probably drowned out a small jet airliner taxiing down the runway at Bristol International Airport, which is all linked to the condition.

But it also contributes massively (no pun intended) to weight gain.

It is something that usually develops in overweight people, particularly men, but it pulls you into a viscious cycle that is almost impossible to break.

When I started to feel more tired in the daytime, at work, I would usually try to deal with it by having a big breakfast, which I thought would give me enough energy until lunchtime, but it never did.

After being at work for a couple of hours I would start to flag and make the first of many trips to the vending machines. (I seriously think those things should have something on them to stop me using them. Maybe a set of scales to tell me I don't need any more chocolate flapjacks.)

I would eat two or three chocolate bars through the day trying to get some energy from the sugar, as well as several bottles of Coke, Lucozade and cans of Red Bull.

But I would still fall asleep at my desk or in meetings with editor, which probably isn't a recommended career move.

Then I would get to lunch and because I still felt hungry because of being tired, I would go for a big sandwich, crisps and chocolate as well as yoghurts and fruit thinking I was being healthy, and the obligatory fizzy drink.

When I got home I would munch on whatever was in the fridge until my girlfriend got home when we would have dinner. Which would be followed a couple of hours later by a little snack before bed.

Then I wondered why I was tipping the scales towards 19st.

Now, I'm not saying it wasn't my own fault, of course it was, I was the one shovelling food down my throat all day. But what I can say is that since I have been treated for sleep apnoea, by wearing an oxygen mask in bed to help me sleep, all those hunger pangs have disappeared, literally overnight.

I did try to exercise during the time I had sleep apnoea, but because my metabolism was totally wrecked and I couldn't stop eating, I barely lost much weight at all, certainly not at the rate I have been recently.

So I cannot stress enough just how important it is to check yourself out if any of the above is familiar.

It is the most depressing cycle because the more weight you put on, the worse the sleeping condition becomes, which in turn makes you more tired and more hungry, which puts on more weight, and makes the condition worse.

If you are overweight, feel excessively tired and sluggish in the day for no good reason (drinking six pints of lager and eating a curry the night before not included), snore like a bear being strangled and stop breathing in your sleep for a few seconds at a time, it could be that you are suffering from sleep apnoea.

The test is very simple to establish if you have it, and if you do the treatment is not only 100 per cent effective, in my experience, and will give your life back but it can also dramatically help you lose weight.

Do yourself a favour, get tested for it.