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.

(Read the rest of this post)

Exercise is clearly the secret to long life and in the past I have often used my age and lack of time as an excuse for not doing much.  The result is I am unfit and overweight, so hearing about Buster Martin who is almost twice my age has made me re-think my position.

This incredible man was born in 1906 and says he is too cantankerous to die. Currently he is training to run the London Marathon.

(Read the rest of this post)

I have a friend who is considerably overweight, infact she is obese.  Her doctor has said her metabolism is the equivalent to that of a  sloth, and since those mammals who are indigenous to the South American Rainforests, rarely ever move, it’s a pretty frightening statement.  

The sloth spends most of its life upside down and eats leaves. Its digestive system is so slow it can take up to a month to digest a traditional meal.So why am I telling you this? Well, it’s because I think I am turning into one too.No, I haven’t started swinging from the trees (yet), but have just been on holiday to Florida and returned with a weight gain of ten pounds.  I only actually went for ten days,  but in light of how uncomfortableI felt in the seat on the plane coming back it’s probably just as well.Last year my friend flew for the first time.  She was very anxious about it.

The problem was not the actual flying but her concern she wouldn’t fit into the seat, or worse still, having got seated, because of her size and the excess weight she was carrying, she wouldn’t be able to get out again.

(Read the rest of this post)