This afternoon I gave a talk on the benefits of having a Circle of Friends and the audience were lucky I turned up. I don’t mention that for egotistical reasons, but simply because I am geographically challenged.

Driving anywhere outside my comfort zone is usually off my agenda.  However, having invested in one of those GPS things where a voice speaks as an arrow on a map points you in the right direction, I made an exception and amazingly found my way there and back safely.

I was asked to arrive about 12.30 p.m. so I could have lunch before I spoke. As it was half term, I took my autistic son with me, and he was delighted to try the various sandwiches, cakes and nibbles.

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I must confess I’m not one for “diets”. Have you ever wondered why there are so many different types around? Could it be they just don’t work?

Now before you say, “Ah, but I lost three stone on the cut out everything you enjoy diet”, just consider whether you put it all back on again, and more, once you stopped. Or maybe, you haven’t stopped and are still consciously thinking about, and cutting out, certain things from your daily diet.

How boring!

Of course there are certain foods, which really are junk foods and do you no good at all, but some of these fad diets are quite ridiculous. If you really think about it, the manufacturers of the diet products don’t actually want you to lose weight anyway otherwise they’d lose their market. Weight loss or gain is big business.

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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  I haven’t lost weight though as muscle has been replaced by fat – plenty of it.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 was.

I watched a programme on tv over the festive period which was probably cleverly scheduled to prevent people from eating too much over the Christmas break.  It was about a poor man who had to lose 30 stone or risk dying.  He had reached the point where he couldn’t even get out of bed and his whole life was spent in the confines of his four walls.

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