Men don't do queuing!

Today we fly home and I'm bracing myself for the 'airport experience'. Mike doesn't like airports or queuing. We don't arrive too early, so that we don't have to queue for long to check-in. We will be the last ones to stand up to join the queue to board the aircraft - which actually is quite a shrewd move as the last on the coach to the plane is first off when you get there. we will probably be the last ones to get off the plane and then we will have to queue for Passport Control at East Midlands. Let's hope there is a full complement of Passport Control Officers on duty today.

Mike isn't unusual - all men hate queuing. And that is exactly why men won't attend 'men only' slimming classes even though the majority of the male population would find attending a class a very effective way of shedding their excess baggage.

Men prefer to attend a gym because they can select whichever piece of apparatus that is available, chat to their mates and make their own decisions about what activity they want to do that day. Sometimes they will attend classes there but often find this difficult because men are not as naturally co-ordinated as women and they are reluctant to potentially embarrass themselves. This is a shame, because with practise they can be great movers.

Often it has been suggested to me that we open our classes specifically for men and twice we have tried and failed. We even had one instructor who was a retired professional footballer but still, it didn't work.

The good news is that , with the growing obesity problem, more and more men seem to be happy to come along to our predominantly female classes because we do fitness as well as weight-loss. Some come with their wives and others brave it on their own. Last October we had no less that four male Regional Slimmers of the Year along with the twelve women who had lost massive amounts of weight. One of them Neil Davies is featured in the current issue of my magazine. Neil, a traffic cop, has lost almost seven stone and now feels he is a new man. He feels fighting fit and life is a whole new experience for him now.

Neil explained that exercising in the class initially was hard but the women were always encouraging and enthusiastic about his achievements. Men make great slimmers and often take on the challenge of losing weight as a new competitive sport - seeing how many Slimmer of the Week certificates they can win. Once they get over that threshold into the class, there's no stopping them, even if they do have to queue to get on the scales!

After Easter - a good time to slim.

Anyone wanting to lose weight will find their greatest motivation to start on their diet after a festival where they have eaten lots. That's why the New Year, after the Christmas binge, is the number one recruiting time for members to slimming clubs and gyms and Easter, after the indulgence of Easter eggs, is the second. Would-be slimmers feel they have had their treat and they are fired up ready for action to lose weight in time for the summer. Today is a key day for dieters.

Yesterday's story in The Sun newspaper was reporting the story of a 15 year old Welsh girl who had managed to shed an impressive 12 stone in nine months at a Fat Camp in America. At 33 stone she held the unenviable title of Britain's Fattest Teenager. Thank heaven she was given a scholarship to attend the Camp where she has been following a low fat diet and taking exercise. Most importantly, she has changed the way she thinks about food. Good luck to her! I really hope she will continue to reduce her weight and enjoy living the sort of life she should be for someone of her tender years. I so hope everyone will support her once she comes home and that she will keep up her new healthy habits.

For most of us we don't have anywhere near that sort of weight to lose. It doesn't matter whether we have ten pounds or ten stone to lose, it MATTERS to us and we need to find the motivation to take that first step to a changing lifestyle so we can lose some weight.

Unlike other slimming clubs, we have always incorporated diet AND exercise in our classes because if you want to lose weight faster and tone up your skin and body, exercise is a must.
If you fancy coming along to one of our classes, check out our website for details of classes near you. All of our instructors are professionally qualified to teach safe and effective exercise to people of all abilities and fitness levels and they are very caring and special people. No-one is made to feel embarrassed and everyone is made exceptionally welcome. Good luck!

Gary Player

If ever we needed convincing that staying fit and eating healthily keeps us young, veteran golfer and three times US Masters champion Gary Player's extraodinary achievement to have completed at a record breaking 52 US Masters proves the point. At 73 years of age he has finally retired after an incredible 162 tour wins and last night celebrated his remarkable career with a braii — a South African barbecue — for over 200 friends in Augusta.

Apparently Gary Player does 1000 stomach crunches a day! He must have the strongest stomach muscles in the world too! He is meticulous about what he eats and only eats natural food.

I remember applying for a job as a catering manager at the Gary Player Golf Range in Leicester some 39 years ago. Gary Player was at the height of his career before I had even started mine! I didn't get the job (not surprisingly as I had no actual experience as a catering manager). Instead I got a job as a secretary.

So, this puts into context the length of the amazing career of Gary Player. He has been at the top of his game for over half a century and he has achieved his dreams by having talent, perseverance, dedication and discipline - and putting a healthy diet and staying super-fit as a priority. He would not have achieved what he has without it. Well Done Gary! You are an inspiration to us all! A true sporting hero.

Easter Eggs

It's Good Friday and across the nations most of the world is on holiday for the Easter weekend. And lots of folk are looking forward to eating their Easter Eggs and spending time with their family. Let's hope that if you are trying to lose weight, your loved ones gave you something other than chocolate to celebrate this most important weekend in the Christian calender.

The problem with chocolate is that it is incredibly more-ish and I find that if I once get the taste of it, I just want to eat more, so, rather selfishly, we don't have Easter Eggs in our household!

I'm not against Easter Eggs but I do think it is a great idea to involve some activity to balance the indulgence. Many families engage in egg-based activities such as Easter egg hunts around the garden, egg painting and egg-and-spoon races with an Easter Egg as the prize for the winner. I'm all for finding any excuse to help children get moving around and if we can make Easter Eggs an added bonus after activity, that has to be good.

If you haven't bought your Easter Eggs yet and are planning to buy them tomorrow, check out my latest magazine to see which ones offer the least calories, and therefore the least fat, so you can still have a treat but without doing too much damage to your weight loss progress. Then, when you've eaten it, go for a long, long walk!

The increasing cost of obesity

So the NHS are having to invest in super-sized beds, super-strong operating tables and lifting equipment to cope with an ever increasing size of patient. We have known for years that the cost of obesity to the NHS is astronomical and unless we turn the trend of the nation becoming fatter, potentially, obesity will break the NHS bank! It is no surprise then that the latest report from the government is highlighting this point in another attempt to encourage us to take action to change our lifestyles and become slimmer and fitter.

We are very fortunate in the UK that if we become ill a doctor will see us and a hospital will admit us for treatment if necessary, free of charge, in an attempt to make us better. But there are so many illnesses - heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers as well as painful joint problems - that could be prevented, or at least greatly reduce the risk of developing, if only we were to feed ourselves healthily, reduce our weight to a healthy level and do more physical activity as part of our lifestyle.

Interestingly, research has proven that if we reduce our weight by just 10% we can significantly reduce the risk of all of these conditions. Why not visit http://www.obesityawareness.co.uk/ to check out your health/weight rating.

Within our organisation we have every resource, every support and service to help anyone to lose weight and become healthier. Check out our website if you need help.

Home cooking

As reported on TV this morning, there's a trend away from buying ready-made meals and towards preparing meals at home to save money. Excellent! This is one of the upsides of a recession - people become more resourceful and push back the boundaries of habit.

In recent years chefs cooking on television has attracted huge audiences and, not surprisingly, as we Brits seem to have an obsession with food. Whilst watching celebrity chefs concocting some exotic and exquisite dish can be inspiring, unfortunately it can have a negative affect on our confidence to cook at home - we don't have the skills, ingredients, panache and well, confidence, to try something that exciting to present to our families just in case it is beyond our capability and they don't like it. TV chefs tend to use copious amounts of oil, butter and cream - not exactly helpful when we are trying to lose weight.

But cooking at home doesn't need to be complicated and we don't have to use any ingredients that could be classed as remotely exotic or difficult to find in our local supermarket. Anyone who has made recipes from my magazine or my low-fat cookbooks will testify to that. I work with a chef, Dean Simpole-Clarke, who is happy to work to those parameters, designing recipes that are uncomplicated, low in fat and delicious as well as easily do-able. Check out our website for details of the books available and if you are a complete novice, try my Step-by-Step Low Fat Cookbook which will teach you how to cook.

I am going to cook a chicken stir-fry here in Portugal tonight for Mike and our friends who are staying with us. I will cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and dry fry them in our non-stick wok without any oil or fat. When the chicken is almost cooked I will add chopped red and green peppers, crushed garlic, chopped celery, red onion, sliced mushrooms and when almost cooked I will add some grated fresh ginger and fresh coriander. I will add a ready-made stir-fry sauce I have in our store-cupboard and then I'll serve it on a bed of boiled basmati rice. It is Mike's favourite dinner and I love cooking it because it is so easy. My only tips for this dish is to make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the vegetables are not over cooked and soggy. They need to be crisp.

Views of the recent Vitality Show at Earls Court, London

Some views of our Stand at the recent Vitality Show held at Earls Court, London. A great time was had by all who attended and it was a pleasure to meet so many of you there! We are now looking forward to next year's event.