Diet: a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons. “I’m going on a diet”
synonyms: dietary regime, dietary regimen, dietary programme, restricted diet, crash diet

I bet I can guess how the majority of your conversations are going this January.

Let me see….

Someone is doing dry January. Someone else has joined weightwatchers. Another friend has given up sugar and a different one is rebelling against it all and scoffing everyone’s left over Christmas chocolate.

Am I right?

And yes, all of these things are well and good, and being healthy should be encouraged, but I am becoming increasingly annoyed by the fact that most people are doing these things because they feel pressured to lose weight. Because they have been conditioned for years and years to believe that if they are not slim then they are not healthy or attractive or good enough. The diet industry and advertising work hard to make us monitor every morsel and scrap of food we put in our mouths and then feel guilty and like failures when we do not achieve ‘slim’ status.

And I for one have HAD ENOUGH.

For starters being slim does not equal being healthy. Many diets encourage you to rob your body of vital nutrients, which then, along with having a 95% failure rate anyway, damage your body even further, and make it highly likely that your metabolism will be permanently screwed and you’ll end up gaining weight in the long term.

And anyway, who decided skinny was the ultimate make of body in the first place?

When I meet with my girlfriends the majority of the conversations we have focus on our bodies, and our self-loathing of them. Someone is always trying to ‘be good.’ Someone else is also always complaining about how fat they feel. No one is ever happy.

But also no one ever seems to address their health, mental or physical, with the same level of importance. When we greet each other we say, ‘Oh you look well,’ or ‘have you lost weight?’ Never ‘Oh you look happy today!’ or ‘have you been inspirational lately?’ We always focus on what we look like on the outside and it is ALL wrong. And it is also an unhealthy way to behave as it perpetuates the belief that unless we are skinny we are not attractive, are lazy and greedy and not good enough.

But we are all good enough. Our bodies are the most magical and amazing things no matter what shape or size we are. OK, yes, being morbidly obese isn’t great and in that case a sensible plan of eating and exercise is without doubt what is needed, but most of the people I know who feel like a fat piece of crap are way below the average size of a woman. And yes, I know it’s also ‘all relative’ and about how that person feels about themselves personally, but again, I reiterate, who the hell decided skinny was the goal we should all strive for? When did curves become a bad thing? Who decided curves needed to be photoshopped out of existence in magazines and posters?

If you are doing dry January or are giving up refined sugar then I applaud you, but please do it for your health, and don’t for one minute think you’ll be happier if and when you are skinny. It doesn’t work like that. We’ve been conditioned to believe it does and that skinny = perfection, but I want to challenge that. Body image at the moment is messed up and we are raising a generation of girls who are becoming anxious about their weight as young as seven.

Stop focusing on weight and focus on health. On feeling energised. On enjoying life for it is often too painfully short.

You’re all blooming gorgeous – believe it!!!

This post also appeared on The Huffington Post – http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/../../jen-faulkner/since-when-did-skinny-equ_b_14101574.html 

It is precisely 26 days until my birthday…that’s 26 days which I can use to actually get up off my bum and do something more active! I eat well, but exercise always eludes me. Once I get into something regularly then I’m focused…especially if I have a goal. So, seeing as I will be 37 (eeeek!) in a few weeks – and on my birthday I have to attend a friend’s 40th birthday party – I have an incentive and need to start now!

Here is some advice and guidance from BRITAX about a thirty day fitness challenge…I might just give it a go! 😉

GET BACK IN SHAPE WITH THE NEW BOB 30 DAY FITNESS CHALLENGE!

We all love to begin the New Year with the best of intentions, vowing to ditch bad habits and have a healthier and happier year ahead. But as we all know, will power can dwindle all too quickly. Many people will already have abandoned their resolutions just weeks into the New Year – in fact Friday 24th Jan is ‘Fail Friday’ – the day where resolutions are most likely to be broken!
Are you committed to sticking to your New Year’s resolutions this year? Resolutions often sound easy but are harder to put into practice – resolutions like spending more quality time with the family, planning regular date nights with our other halves, eating more healthily as a family and exercising more to shift those extra baby pounds. We start with the best intentions to keep to them but they can often fall by the wayside.

We believe the key to successful resolution keeping, is to keep it simple, make it enjoyable and ensure its meshes with your everyday life!

That’s why BOB have teamed up with fitness expert, Laura Williams, to create a realistic 30-day fitness challenge for busy parents, designed to help you burn calories and tone up simply by doing everyday tasks around the home.

This 30-day calendar can be printed and kept somewhere you can read it every day – such as the fridge door. It will provide mums and dads with daily hints, tips and motivating advice that will not only make you smile but get your heart beating too – best of all, everything can be done whilst with your little one!

Check out more information on the exciting BOB range and don’t forget to print your very own plan and get active today! You can also get some more amazing advice and ideas from the Active Parents website!

This post has been brought to you as part of the BRITAX Mumbassador Programme.

Gain: Resources or advantage acquired or increased, profit . The act or process of gaining. An increase in amount, magnitude, or degree.

So, it’s #slinkylinky Friday; nearly a whole week after I have come back from a very indulgent holiday where, if I’m honest, I had a bit too much to eat. (no surprises there!) I mean I was on holiday, so it was ok right? It was quite liberating to not have to count calories and feel guilty for eating things I knew I shouldn’t be. I wasn’t a complete pig, but just having a glass or two of wine every night which I don’t do at home, was enough to add weight on. And the food in France is so tempting. I love hot buttered toast for breakfast, but French bread is something else. And it has to be eaten with proper butter…and jam!! We didn’t eat out much, but when we did we soon discovered that the portions in the restaurants were gigantic. I ordered a salad one day and when it arrived there was easily enough on my plate to feed an entire family for a week, in dressing alone!

So I knew whilst I was away that I’d put weight on without a doubt, the question was…just how much. It’s easy not to care when you’re on holiday and you are relaxed and in a different place with no access to scales. Wearing loose summer clothing that never feels too tight round the waist, no clue to the inches that are building up. And then you come home, try and put your jeans on with no luck and come crashing back down to reality. I made the silly mistake of getting on the scales on Sunday night, a few hours after I’d got home, and the result wasn’t pretty. 11stone 9pounds. A whole half a stone more than when I left. I wailed, had a small tantrum and had a brief moment of anger at myself for being so careless over the last couple of weeks. And then I got a grip (there was plenty to grip onto) and put it in perspective. It was a holiday. An amazing holiday. One that was much needed and every pound that I’d put on meant more food and more of the holiday that I’d enjoyed.

But now I am back, and back on the slimming #slinkylinky wagon. I’ve been quite good this week and have been back to some of my old eating routines, eggs for breakfast…not too much bread and NO cheese! I promised that I would weigh this morning and post. Needed to kick myself up my lardy arse and the scales said…11stone 5 and a quarter pounds. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Phew. That was better. Sometimes I think with me that the quicker I put it on the quicker it can come off. And I’m quite lucky like that. I’ve had no alcohol either which must’ve helped.

After weighing I decided I needed a plan for losing some more as I’m still classed as overweight thanks to my BMI and I’m still stupidly unfit, I really need to exercise more. Earlier in the week I bought a Weightwatchers magazine for some recipes and in it there was an article about the ’40 best ever weight loss tips.’

I have chosen 5 that I am going to stick to this week and thought it might help to share them with you…

1) Be prepared! I am so much better if I write a weekly meal plan and stick to it, less opportunities to eat too much! I like a plan!
2) Eat slowly! This one will be tough as I am always wolfing down one meal as I’m so busy, but in the evening I must do this, it does help!
3) Stop blaming yourself! Apparently it’s not willpower that let’s us down it’s being surrounded by the wrong sorts of food, there are adverts, fast food outlets, billboards all around tempting us to eat rubbish! And I’m also not going to have that stuff in the house, then even if I’m tempted I can’t do anything about it!
4) Talk to someone! It says that when you’re having a bad day to talk to people going through the same thing, on Twitter for example! Perfect for me!
5) Play with your kids! Now I do obviously do this already, but could do it more. Instead of watching my daughter jump on the trampoline in the garden I could actually get on it myself. And before we went to France we were going for bike rides in the evening which we could start doing again. I definitely need to be more active.

So, those are my five things for this week! I feel quite positive about it all at the moment and am pretty focused. Let’s see how long that lasts! *starts making a meal plan for next week* 😉

Thank you as always to @ladyemsy and @Mrsfinn86 for the inspiration and support!

Slinkiness: sleek and sinuous in movement or outline; especially : following the lines of the figure in a gracefully flowing manner (a slinky evening gown)

So, as I am writing this post I have returned from a weekend at my mum’s. A weekend that started with a hangover and a Macdonalds for breakfast and continued with a birthday party and family Sunday lunch. Not a weekend for losing weight at all, and as always I exerted absolutely no willpower and stuffed my face so full that by Sunday I felt physically sick. Like a child in a sweet shop my eyes were bigger than my stomach and by the end of the weekend my stomach was bigger than pretty much anything else.

Now I’ve been meaning to link up with the new linky in town for a couple of weeks. The #slinkylinky where two lovely ladies @ladyemsyand @Mrsfinn86have started their baby weight loss adventures and are blogging about them, encouraging others to join in. However…I have been coming up with many excuses, like; I’m going to France (today!!) so there is no point in starting before then or…I’ve had a bad day I deserve a treat or…I’ll just eat all the bad stuff in the house so it’s not here anymore and then I have any temptation, before going out and promptly buying yet more unhealthy food. Food has always been my comfort and ever since I put on over four stone with my first pregnancy, going from 9 stone to 13 stone, I have battled with my weight and regularly yo-yo up and down. I have tried all sorts, intolerance diets (which worked but was bloody hard work) Weightwatchers, South Beach, Slimming World, 5:2 (for about three hours before realising it is ridiculous!) and whilst I am very good at losing weight, I am not very good at keeping it off and it always creeps back on again, usually along with some more! Each time I have had a child I’ve ended up at 13 stone again and now I know I am not having anymore (probably) there is no excuse!

So….this slinky linky has come along when once again I am at my upper limit for being happy with my weight. I am not happy. Whilst I am not ridiculously huge my BMI is 27, which is classed as overweight, and my clothes are all far too tight. I can’t stand to see myself in photos and generally feel very uncomfortable. My tummy still very much looks as though there is a baby still inside it!

So…today is the day I am finally going to link up and start. I can’t promise I will be any good at this when I am in France, for cheese is my greatest weakness and I cannot ever resist it, even though I am properly lactose intolerant! But I shall try and when I get back I will endeavour to kick some lardy ass!
Starting weight…11st 2 and a 1/4lbs

Target weight: 9 stone 7lbs (Oh how I hope I get there lol!)

Thank you @ladyemsy and @Mrsfinn86 for inspiring me! X

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