Pounds and Inches

Over the years I have tried numerous diets, accompanied by all manner of exercise regimes — all with varying degrees of success, or failure.  So when it was recommended three months or so ago that I should try a diet which included plenty of pasta and fish, I began to take renewed interest.
The objective all along, of course has been to lose weight and to shed a few inches around the waist.
At one stage I took to running regularly, then there was a daily swim, and visits to the gym three times a week. And cycling, as well as walking.
But here we are today with a bowl of pasta;  Italian tortellini from Bologna with a generous sprinkling of pepper and dried herbs, and I am indulging in one of my favourites. But, whoever thought that pasta would help me lose weight.
I can understand the presence of fish in a diet, along with salad, tomatoes and a so-called Mediterranean diet is a well established part of our menu.
Well, I suppose pasta has Mediterranean associations, but I would never have considered it contributing to a loss of inches. Accompanied by a regular daily walk of up to seven miles.
Yet suddenly find I can wear shirts that haven't fitted me for years, my trouser waistband size has reduced by an amazing six inches, and somewhere I have shed 18 kilos — that's a shade under 40 pounds!
I love tortellini; spaghetti and clams is another favourite; or that elaborately named bow-tie pasta with feta cheese and beans.
To my mind this is the most unlikely of all diets, although the proof appears to be in the pasta . . .  and those pounds an inches I've shed.  
But it's going to call for a lot of will power to decline a second helping of tortellini!