I can honestly say I felt at my best when I was in my thirties.  I was physically, mentally and emotionally at my peak and firing on all cylinders.

Since then, it’s definitely gone down hill and I’ve lost plenty of brain cells and lean muscle.  I haven’t lost weight though as muscle has been replaced by fat – plenty of it.

Over the years it’s crept on.  I’ve gained a pound here, a pound there, but regrettably haven’t taken action to get rid of it straight away.  Now over the past twenty years those pounds have turned into stones, so no prizes for guessing what my New Year’s resolution is going to be.

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Recent surveys have shown that one in four of us are completely confused with the official guidelines on healthy eating.

Take red meat for instance. Does it cause cancer or is it good for us?  Is alcohol bad or good in moderation and should you stop drinking if you’re pregnant. How about tea and coffee – is the caffeine bad for us or not?

Then of course, there’s chocolate.  Does the feel good factor and the antioxidant properties in some brands make it worth risking all those calories.

We all know processed food contains lots of saturated fat, salt and sugars, as well as colourings and flavourings so we shouldn’t eat too much of it, but we’re now told we shouldn’t eat the good old English breakfast either.

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The last few days have made me realise how important it is to live for the day and value your health.

One of my friends was celebrating her 70^th birthday.   I went to visit her and was shocked to see how much weight she had lost since our last meeting.  She is fine though and eats sensibly but is just exhausted.

She is a full time carer for her husband who has prostate cancer and has also suffered a stroke, which has left him physically helpless. He spent several weeks in hospital and my friend had a fifty mile round trip each day just to visit him.

Eventually, she put a lot of her possessions into storage, made the necessary adaptations to their bungalow and got a support system in place so she could look after her husband at home.

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