Announcing The Dietgirl 9th Birthday Sell Out!

January 15, 2010

This here blog turns the crusty old age of nine today!

It has been a grand old time and I wanted to say thanks again for coming along for the ride. I have made some amazing pals through this beast. Thank you for all the laughs and inspiration and wonderful comments and emails. Again I sincerely apologise for not being able to keep up with the replies, but I do read them all and do a little chair dance!

Over the years many people have asked why there's no advertising or giveaways on this blog. Is it because you're an artiste? An elitist snob? A raging communist?

It could be the above. Or it could be I'm too lazy to figure out how to fit ads into my templates. Or it could be, to paraphrase Mr Darcy, that PR companies so very rarely get in touch with anything handsome enough to tempt me. 99% of press releases are completely irrelevant to me and/or you lovely readers.

A typical request:

Mr Diet Girl,

Would you like to write about  Crazy Bob's Tastee Granola Bar that's only available in the USA and is laden with dodgy sweeteners and orangutan-destroying palm oil?

In exchange for 500 words of copy and 16 links in your sidebar we will give you one (1) Crazy Bob's Tastee Granola Bar...

So there you have it, nine years of non-commercial bloggery. If the Fage people offered me a trip to Greece to visit the yogurt plantations... that might be a different story.

All that said, today I am going to break tradition. For the big bad birthday, I'm busting out a giveaway!

After years of offering feck all, now I'm trying to make it up to you, like an estranged parent with an ice cream cone.

For one week only, may I proudly present...

Sell-out
The Dietgirl 9th Birthday Sell Out starts this Monday 18 January. I'll be giving away one prize per day, for nine consecutive days.

Basically all I did was ferret through my cupboards and think about what stuff I liked to eat and do and wear and whatnot. Then I became a shameless hussy and wrote a megaload of emails to the people that make these various products. I asked if they fancied donating a prize to The Dietgirl 9th Birthday Sell Out? A number of them responded favourably to form a delightful hodge podge of prizes.

We're not talking OMG Oprah Put A Car Under My Chair kind of prizes, but they are cracking wee things that I absolutely adore that I was highly tempted to keep for myself, made by some really sound companies.

Best of all, most of these giveaways are open to readers from anywhere in the world. None of that crushing USA ONLY stuff around here! Well, a couple are UK Only but how often does the UK get to lord it over everyone since the Empire crumbled?

Anyway, if you want to join in The Dietgirl 9th Birthday Sell Out, be sure to come back this Monday 18 January when the first prize will come up for grabs. All you will have to do to enter is leave a comment with a valid email address. Winners will be chosen by a random number generator. Giddyup!

Two Fit Chicks Episode 07 - Getting STARTed in 2010

January 11, 2010

For your aural pleasure!So much for my resolve not to leave things to the last minute. The weekend went wonky thanks to an encounter with some evil White Russians on Saturday night but I had made a side-resolution to get off the couch be more social. What do you do when two resolutions collide?

Somehow after 9 hours, 7 cups of tea and one fat wedge of Christmas cake the podcast was distilled down to just 35 minutes. And I'd well and truly busted the internet curfew. Bugger!

Today's episode is called Getting STARTed in 2010, the uppercase letters being one of Carla's natty acronyms! We also chatted to a bunch of great bloggers about how they got started on the road to healthier living.

By the way, we hope to chat to lots more people in 2010 so if we've not hunted you down yet please don't think you're not LURVED!

» Check out Episode 7 over at the Two Fit Chicks website

Here we go again

January 04, 2010

Happy-new-year
Two thousand and ten. Rhymes with pen, den, hen, Sven, and Here We Go Again!*

Happy new year, groovers. Are you resolutioning this year?

Last year I made three No Year's Resolutions, a.k.a. The Minimum Standards Agreement:

  1. Write down what I eat
  2. Exercise a minimum 20 minutes a day and
  3. 10.30PM internet curfew.
This started out excellently then degenerated as the year went on - especially the bloody internet curfew. I am bring the curfew is BACK as of now. Here be my vow! So we'll need better time management, no more eleventh hour deadlines, and less email and social media faffery.

I'm back on the case with Item 1, for both dietary and documentary reasons. I still like having a record of what I ate - words to transport you back to places and meals of yore, as opposed to obsessing over calorie counts.

Item 2 is back in place, technically. If you count incidental walking to and from the bus stop, I make the minimum! This year the goal is to chill out. I'm cutting back my gym sessions from four to just two (both kickboxing) and the rest will all be done at home. I ran myself stupid last year trying to squeeze everything in, at the expense of other stuff. And I've missed the wee home "gym" so much. After three weeks of inertia I did a new Cathe DVD this week and pow, the home gym love was back. Especially the bit where I flopped to the floor for abdominals and got to stick my nose in the nice new clean carpet. Hubba hubba!

Last year I also resolved to read 52 books in 52 weeks... fail! I read 36 - still more books than I’d read in the past five years combined. I won’t be attempting this one again. I found myself picking easier or shorter books just so I could read them quicker! Where's the fun in that? This year I am just going to read whatever I fancy and to heck with the quantity. I want to start with a big fat Russian classic.

So no big goals for 2010, aside from properly addressing why 2009 became quite a shambles and being more thoughtful about how I do things. I want to think before I act - trying to say Yes to the right things and No to the wronguns.

I might make more concrete goals later in the year but right now I'm just enjoying the snow and the feeling of the world slowly coming back in to focus.

Thank you also for your comments on the last post, you rawk and it is always comforting to know you're not alone.

* your accent may vary.

The First Step

January 01, 2010

I wrote this two weeks ago but got busy with Christmas and forgot to post. Doing a helluva lot better now, but methinks an update is in order! Hope you are all having a happy new year. Rock on 2010!

It's been almost seven weeks since the Ranting Orangutan entry and it almost took that long to finally do something about my depression. I'll just come out and use the Big D word now. Looking back though the archives the other day, this started brewing over two years ago, and if I'd been bold enough to admit it earlier it may not have got so messy.

Continue reading "The First Step" »

Happy Festivus

December 25, 2009

We've had a cracking Christmas Day here at Crooked House. Champagne with brekkie followed by a huge snowball fight and building our very first snowman. Then we cooked the mother of all Christmas lunches and now we're flopped on the couch like seals on a beach.

Hope you're having a good Friday, wherever you and whatever you're up to! Thank you for stopping by this year :)

Snowman
The snow started to melt this arvo so the poor lad's arms fell off.

Two Fit Chicks Episode 06 - Farewell to the Noughties

December 14, 2009

For your aural pleasure!It was treacherously icy this morning. I went flying down our driveway with not quite as much grace as Torvill or Dean. This is my seventh Scottish winter and I always forget that it can get icy until I'm sprawled on my arse.

I shuffled to the bus stop just in time for the bus to sail past. A grumpy old man in the queue was grumping to some grumpy old women, "I knew I should have emigrated!"

In other news, it's podcast day! In our final episode for 2009 we review the healthy living highlights of 2009 and the decade! Plus your questions about dumb diet rules, maintenance & weird weight machines.

A huge thank you to everyone who gave the podcast a try in 2009. It's been fun doing something a wee bit different and I appreciate you coming along for the ride! Thanks also to Carla for being a hoot to work with.

» Check out Episode 6 over at the Two Fit Chicks website

Ready to relaunch

December 04, 2009

When we move to Crooked House* next week, I'll have a room of my own. There'll be a desk in one corner and bookshelf in another and a pile of dumbells in another. There'll be a proper place for my Swiss ball so it won't fall on top of Dr G's head. I've got a giant 2010 planner with 365 hopeful blank squares, ready to whack up on the wall.

I'm so bloody burned out, comrades! I'll drag my arse through the next 19 days until the Christmas break begins, then I'll snooze and read and write and drink port and watch Roman Holiday.

I'm ready to get my shit together. You know when you know you need to get your shit together but you don't have the oomph to actually do it? I'm just about ready for the doing now. Yeah!

* so named because the house has so many crooked cupboards, walls, tiles, etc from ye olde slapdash renovations. That will all change under my watch, dammit!

A quick note for Two Fit Chicks listeners

If you've had problems accessing the podcast, you can now play or downlaod all epiosdes directly from the Two Fit Chicks website. We've had serious Issues with our hosting provider this week. It all seems to be back up now, but we're shopping for a new host. Apologies for the ongoing kerfuffles!

Review - Cathe Workout Downloads

November 27, 2009

CatheDo you like working out at home in your pyjamas? Good news - home fitness queen Cathe Friedrich has just launched Cathe Downloads.

Her entire 150+ workout catalogue is now available in digital format, so you can watch your downloads on any computer or video-enabled mobile device, like an iPod.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post or a PR conspiracy. I wanted to share this as I know many of you are fellow home workouterers. Cathe doesn't even know I'm alive! Sniff sniff.

I wasn't terribly excited by the Download idea at first - what's wrong with old-fashioned DVDs? But it's proved to be very, very handy:
  • No more shipping or customs fees - more affordable than DVDs, especially for non-US residents.
  • Extra lazy option - When I work out at home I usually play the DVDs on my computer, and cranking up a DVD takes so many seconds, man. Downloads are a mere double click into action!
  • Good for travel - a couple of workouts stored on my laptop squashes those feeble dang I left my DVDs at home! excuses.
  • Tailored to your taste - all Cathe's multi-disc series are broken down into the individual workouts - you don't have to purchase the whole set. I can skip stuff I don't dig (like high-impact Step) and just buy the bits I enjoy.

For example:

  • I got a fab 15-minute Stretch routine for $3.97 that is a wee component of her massive Shock Training System series ($299 for 40 DVDs). I like Cathe stretches when I'm not in the mood for proper, la-di-da yoga. Also good for a quick stretch when I get home from kickboxing.
  • I got the Kickbox part of her 4-Day Split series, $15.97 - I've wanted this one for ages but wasn't willing to fork out $79.99 plus shipping/customs fees for the entire 4-disc series.

image from www.dietgirl.org Shopping
You can browse all the workout categories via the Products menu. There's sample video clips too. You can purchase with PayPal or a debit/credit card. To download the workouts you need a good internet connection.

Viewing
To view the downloaded files you need a computer or a video-capable mobile device, like a phone or MP4 player. Apparently you can watch them on television too if you have an iPod/Phone and an AV cable. There's plenty of support and tutorials on the website.

Quality
I'm not a technical person but the video and audio quality was great on my MacBook and Gareth's aging PC laptop. The workouts have chapter points like the DVDs, so you can skip past any too hard bits.

I haven't tried them on my iPhone yet - I don't know when or why I'd need that. Perhaps if I could listen to a weights workout while I lifted at the gym? Or watch a workout on the train and wiggle my feet around a bit?

Conclusion
I like my Cathe downloads - they're more affordable, convenient and ideal for trying out something a different, since you don't have to buy a bigass DVD series.

If you'd like some ideas, here are my favourite Cathe workouts:

And some ideal for beginners:

UPDATE June 2010: I've now become a Cathe Downloads affiliate, so if you purchase any Cathe workouts using this link, I'll receive a small commission. Any sales will go towards hosting fees for this blog so if you fancy supporting Dietgirl.org I will love you for life. Thanks for your consideration! :)

Excuse me while my head explodes

November 25, 2009

Stinky Summary of recent events:

  1. Dr G and I bought a house!
  2. Upon collecting the keys we discovered it stank. In the literal sense.
  3. We're frantically trying to de-stink before the move on December 9*
  4. Some bright spark said, "If we're ripping up carpet, we may as well re-paint!"
  5. On Sunday I was most comprehensively defeated in a kickboxing tournament
  6. It was one part life-altering thrills, one part Dear Lord Sign Me Up For  A Lobotomy To Erase The Horror.

These stinky smells and psychological scars are discussed in the latest episode of Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone. It's been impossible to write between work and kicking and endless coats of bloody Sandstone Matt emulsion, so I hope you don't mind one in delirious audio babble format!

Carla and I also talk about coping with the holidays, from food to families. It's only a 30 minute episode so if you're feeling brave or bored, why not give us a listen

* ETA: We've yoinked all the carpets out now and the smell seems to have departed with them! They were old and manky anyway, so I'm glad to be rid of 'em! Glad but broke.

Better living through The Baby-Sitters Club

November 20, 2009

Bsc The thing I miss least about being a kid is all that longing to be someone else. Oh to be anyone but grotty swotty ginger-haired me!

Like many younguns, I found my escape in books, particularly The Baby-sitters Club series. I didn't want to join the Babysitters Club so much as I wanted to shed my own skin and be one of 'em. I deliberated over whom I aspired to be; which one I most resembled. Kind of like the shrieks of some women in the late 90s: OMG I'm totally a Carrie! No I'm the Carrie! You're the Miranda!  Except less fecking annoying.

When I was ten I wanted to be Stacey. She was so cool, hailing from New York City and all. She also had diabetes. Every time I was busting for the loo I'd think, Dude I must be getting the diabetes like STACEY!

Then I had a Dawn phase. She had blonde hair cascading right down to her bum. I went for a haircut and the lady wanted to give me a bob. I said "sure!" then instantly died inside. CRAP, I was sposed to be growing my hair like Dawn's!

And of course there was my favourite, Claudia. Artist and master accessoriser. We had nothing in common but the desire to stash candy under our beds.

I thought long and hard about this stuff, I tell you. Here is a handy chart to summarise my pre-teen ponderings: (click pic to view full size)

Baby-Sitters Club chart

The only BSC character I actually had anything in common with was Associate Member Mallory Pike - she had red hair, was insecure about her appearance and wanted to be a writer. But she was also very annoying. And she liked to read horse stories. Horse stories! I did not want to align myself with that.

In my research I found out that after I bailed out of the series, Mallory got an Australian boyfriend named... BEN HOBART. I will be bwahahaha-ing over that morsel for months.

Tea, coffee and biscuits provided

November 15, 2009

A flyer whooshed through the door this week for the local Fitness & Friendship Club. Check out the bicep on this smiley face!

Fitness
The F&F Club is basically fitness classes held in various community halls. But it's not all about sweating...

Fitness2
There are few phrases in this world that give more comfort and joy than TEA, COFFEE AND BISCUITS PROVIDED!

Alas there were no refreshments at Squad Training this morning. "Squad training" is what our coach calls convincing all us kickboxing dames to get up early on a Sunday* for three hours of torturous activity:

  1. One hour of running
  2. One hour of old-school exercises (cardio/strength mixed up in painful ways, stuff like squats to burpees to jack jumps, punches, evil push up variations, evil ab moves, etc etc etc)
  3. One hour of sparring... pow!
Followed by collapsing into a pile of whine for as many hours as you please.

(It feels rather nice to be part of a squad, I have to say. We are getting team hoodies and everything. With our name printed on them!)

* UPDATE: Just to clarify in response to some emails, this is not something we do every Sunday! It's 3-4 times a year, tops! Most Sundays I am lounging around watching the MotoGP.

Instead of running outside, today we did an hour-long cardio machine circuit in the gym. I hate running, but cardio machines rank even higher on my CardioSucksOMeter. But this session was actually quite cool! We only had to do five minutes on each machine, so just when you were starting to foam at the mouth with rage, you could disembark and move to the next machine.

I need to do more cardio, so this might be something to adopt for the winter. Maybe a 30-45 minute circuit, some groovy tunes on the iPod... it would be over before you can say how the hell do you work this fecking stair machine. Of course I'd have to do it when the gym was quietish so my machine-hopping wouldn't be too annoying.

I can feel my body seizing up from today's efforts. Ow ow ow. But it was goooood... exercise has been helpful this week. Last week it was a messy, weeping my way through every class sort of affair. So onward and upward, dear pals.

Any cardio nerds out there curious about the circuit we did, I'll post it in the extended entry :)

Continue reading "Tea, coffee and biscuits provided" »

Two Fit Chicks Episode 04, featuring the Weight Zapper 5000!

November 09, 2009

For your aural pleasure! I am so bloody excited about today's new episode of Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone, least of all because I FINALLY got things working so that if you listen to the show on a iPod or iPhone or other video contraption, you will see our logo on your screen! GEEKGASMS AHOY!

This podcast almost didn't happen as when we went to record on Saturday my new microphone refused to work and I chucked a wee tantrum, but we carried on and it was rockin' good fun! It's great to have a new project to sink your teeth into. I love the planning, the collaborating, the chatting, the hours of nerdy editing. Three cheers for MizFit Carla for being such a good partner in crime. If anyone out there is tuning in, I hope it's okay for you too :)

Today we answer a megaload of your questions: how not to quit, staying positive, body weight workouts; should I eat breakfast?

Tangents include: secondhand advice from an Everest climber, Carla and I discover a mutual loathing of kayaking, and dealing with PR emails.

» Click here to check it on TwoFitChicks.org!

Ranting Orangutan follow-up

Hello dear groovers! I just wanted to follow up on Friday's Ranting Orangutan entry. This time I know it's not the blues or a bad day or Seasonal Affective Disorder (unless it's of the quattro stagioni variety!). It's not about houses or hormones or a terrible secret illness. Nor is anyone having a torrid affair, but thank you for the theories and diagnoses! :)

Most of all I know it's not about weight or food. They are more like symptoms. Or what Martha Beck calls your designated issue - the go-to surface issue that you distract yourself with when you're trying to skirt around something deeper. I need to stop tinkering around the edges and face things I've buried for many years.

Blogging as therapy is sort of okay when you're 23 and completely anonymous with two readers. But when you're 32 (eep!) with your entire family, boss and landlord aware of your blog, it's not a wise or appropriate tactic. I need to seek proper help and open up to those closest to me.

I want to say a massive thank you for your comments and emails. Not just for the Ranting Orangutan, but all of your words and stories and support over the years. Thanks everyone who has plundered the archives or read that pesky book. I love this blogging lark and the community - the Two Fit Chicks podcast has reignited the love in a huge way and it feels good to be all giddy again!

So I'm not closing up shop on Dietgirl and I'll update on this topic, but I need to be a grown-up here and deal with things in a more quiet and mature way.

Shauna xxox

It ain't just a river

November 06, 2009

ThinkingThere is a mutant breed of Positive Thinking that is called Denial.

Like if you decide to focus on the many many many great things in your life, and ignore the black cloud that's hovered over for months and months.

Or if you write selectively about that one good day or that one cool thing that happened, and forget about the twenty good days that didn't happen because you were hiding from your friends and eating toast on the couch instead.

Or if you focus on that one kick-arse kickboxing class you did this week, and ignore the five sneaky chocolate bar wrappers in your handbag.

Or if you tell yourself you really love this dark baggy daggy sweater, it's not because you want to be invisible. You were never one for dressing up all foxy-like anyway!

Or if you smile when a colleague comments on your Ultra Healthy Lunch, even though you're contemplating a cupcake run as you fork in the lettuce.

Or if you admit to your excellent husband, I feel as low and hopeless and lost as I did way back when I was 350 pounds... but since you're fitter than ever and your clothes still fit (ish) and chairs don't collapse beneath you, you've got nothing to whine about really!

Or if you've fancied writing a ranty blog entry about feeling awful, but don't do it because you know you have no real reason to feel awful and you'll get a Get Over Yourself email from a stranger, and what's the point because after all you're only One Good Day away from feeling fantastic again!

But how bad do things have to get before it's bad enough? How rubbish do you have to feel before you treat yourself with some kindness and self respect again? Does it have to be an extreme like morbid obesity or can't-leave-the-house-depression before you DO something?

Dude! You can tell yourself that you're a Glass Half Full person but if the glass is full of crap, that's not a very appetising beverage.

Happy Halloween!

November 01, 2009

We carved the homegrown micropumpkins.

The Great Lanterns

October 29, 2009

Our beginner's luck in the garden has run out. I should have known better than to crow about the tomatoes and salad leaves so much!

Gareth had carefully nurtured three pumpkin plants from the seed packet with a view to carving his very own pumpkins this Halloween. They were truly thriving for awhile there but I think we started the process about 2.5 months too late so now we've run out of daylight hours for them to grow.

So here are the results of the pumpkin harvest with a matchstick for scale!

Pumpkins

Maybe we'll draw some faces on 'em with markers and they can spook the sparrows.

I've never been one to apologise for not blogging because it sounds bloody ridiculous, like you're some sort of media baron with slobbering fans are hovering by the computer clicking reload all day long when in reality everyone has 100 other blogs to read not to mention jobs and lives and stuff. But my efforts this month have been shambolic and I just wanted to say it's not because I'm wildly busy and/or have nothing to say; I do, but I can't seem to get the words out in the right order. I've got three drafts on the go of equal rubbishness. I'll have another crack on the weekend.

Hope you all have a rockin' weekend!

I struggle with the technology

October 27, 2009

Hello! If there is anyone out there who subscribed to the Two Fit Chicks podcast in iTunes over the past month or so, you may not have automagically received the latest episode because... well, I'm not quite sure. I was trying to add a picture to our iTunes listing and I tweaked the title so it used the word and and not an ampersand (&) and I think that screwed it all up.

So if you Unsubscribe from the podcast, then search for us again in iTunes or click this link, then re-subscribe, it seems to fix it!

This is the Podcast Help Desk equivalent of Turn The Computer Off Then Turn It Back On Again.

Thanks Diana for the heads up :)

Honestly! Podcasting tip: If you're going to badger people to listen to your amateur productions you should really get the fundamentals sorted first.

Episode 03 - Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone Podcast

October 26, 2009

There's a new podcast episode today! And unlike Episode 2, this one didn't take 14 hours to edit because I finally managed to record the audio properly. Woohoo!

The theme this week is goals. How do you approach them? How do you make 'em happen? How do you make sure they're  not quietly abandoned like the great knitting project of 1987 or that bloody Hundred Push Ups Challenge?

» Click here to listen to the podcast on the official site, TwoFitChicks.org

Give me a shout if you have any problems listening to it, if you should feel so inclined to listen, that is.

Another entry tomorrow, and I promise there won't be too much bitching about the end of Daylight Saving and this crippling darkness, even though it's an annual blogging tradition.

for your aural pleasure

Fitness Fantasies

October 12, 2009

I want to know about your fantasies. Tell me every filthy detail!

Don't worry, this site hasn't been hijacked by a sleazy spammer! I am talking about fitness fantasies.

You know how people say, "well it's all very well for Oprah with her personal chef and trainers and all!" blah blah blah. Well let's just pretend we're in an alternate universe in which money and time are no object. In terms of fitness and healthy livin', anything is possible. Anything at all. Nothing is too ridiculous.

What would you do? Who would you like to meet? Where would you go? What would you purchase? What would you like to try?

  • I would go on a poncy yoga retreat (for beginners) on an exotic island where you get massages and tropical fruits between the bendy classes.

  • A gym would open up at the end of my street with Body Jam, Body Pump, yoga, Pilates and spinning classes at times very convenient to me.

  • Just in case I couldn't be arsed walking to the end of my street, there'd be a magical home gym in my fantasy spare room. It would have one mirrored wall, gobs of free weights and kettlebells, a punching bag, a spinning bike, a treadmill and a cushioned floor so I bust some kickboxing moves. Oh oh oh and a widescreen wall-mounted telly to do workout DVDs.

  • I would visit Cathe Friedrich's gym in New Jersey and attend some of her classes.

  • I'd have a personal training session with Bob and Jillian here in Scotland. It would crack me up no end to walk up Dunfermline high street with Jillian Michaels and see her WTF-ing at Greggs The Bakers et al.

  • Before she nipped off back to LA, Jillian would make me a personal MP3 workout so I could do cardio with her yelling, LAST CHANCE WORKOUT, GINGER! I really need heavy-handed motivation when it comes to cardio.

    Note to Jillian: have you considered selling downloadable audio workouts, a la iTrain or CardioCoach? So cheap to produce, so much less work than that fancy WiiFit stuff!

  • I would have a wardrobe makeover with a crack team of fashion experts, They would bring the clothes to me as shops make me grumpy.
  • I would have an Access All Areas pass to the London 2012 Olympics. Just to watch, mind. No athletic delusions here.

  • I would have a column in a mag like Zest or Self for which I'd be obliged to try a different and wildly expensive sport every month and it would pay so handsomely I wouldn't have to do anything else.

  • I would have an endless supply of ultra-flattering Ellie Gray contour gym pants.

  • And non-skanky quality gym t-shirts.

  • And it would be great if they could all be self-laundering.

  • I would have an endless supply of TJ's Crunchy Roasted Almond Butter.

  • I would have a massive vegetable garden where everything always grew properly. There'd be delicious selection of baby salad greens growing all year round regardless of neglect and snails.
  • Someone would invent a bra as effective as the Enell but not in that creepy fabric.

  • I would have the Mother of All Fitness Gadgets strapped to my wrist. Stylish heart rate monitor GPS route planner barcode scanner MP3 player Swiss Army Knife... that's another post altogether.

  • I would posses a gym bag that can actually contain all of my kickboxing sparring gear PLUS my yoga mat... so on Monday night everyone at kickboxing can stop making the "Whoa, are you going camping again?" jokes every time I tumble into the room like a packhorse

I could go on all day but I will spare you.

Dr G has shared his fantasies too:

  • To be totally fit and buff without any effort and/or drug abuse on my part to avoid putting on my annual "winter coat" of lard.

  • To be able to consume copious amounts of real ale, crisps and chips with curry sauce without any effect on my waistline.

  • To have time and health to complete all 283 Munros, including overcoming vertigo to do the really dodgy ones.

This post was inspired by the amazing Angie of You Look Fab who recently wrote about her fashion fantasies.

So... do you have any fitness fantasies that you want to share? Please be as elaborate, wild and unrealistic as you like. The wackier the better!

Get the whole story - Dietgirl book out now!

Fat Stats

  • Scale
    Before: 159.2 kg / 351 lbs / 25 st
    After: 79.6 kg / 175.5 lbs / 12.5 st
    Loss: 79.6 kg / 175.5 lbs / 12.5 st

    Wardrobe
    Then:  26  (US 24)
    Now:  14  (US 12)

    Other
    Height:  173 cm (5'8")
    Legs:  2
    Neuroses:  Assorted

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