IF YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION IS TO LOSE WEIGHT?

What do most of us Resolve to do, be, next year, as the clock strikes midnight.  I'm now in my 56th year and wondering whether to ignore it, and watch re-runs of The Big Bang and sing Oh Danny Boy down the phone if anyone dares to ring me, probably hiccuping from pink wine and eating dates, because a) they must constitute at least 2 of your 5 a day, and experience has taught me, that their visit will be fleeting.  Besides,  it is probably the only night of the year you can get away with throwing caution to the wind and drinking and eating what  you like, and getting away with it, on the the whole 'its only one day a year' card.  All the rest do not count, though worth giving a go, on the odd occasion.     

Anyway, I digress, the most popular New Year's resolution is lose weight.  Who'd have thought.  Personally, I have never made it as far as February with my free membership of WW (Weightwatchers) with that one.   There is only so much sugar free jelly you can enjoy.  There are just too many things that are look absolutely scrumptious when I drool over them behind glass cabinets in most supermarkets.  (Obviously designers have been all too aware that an open cake display could prove too tempting for too many otherwise law abiding citizens.  

As we get older, many of our usual sources of divine pleasure start to drop off on - on many levels.  Mostly through our ill health and need for further and further medication that doesn't agree.  Our decaying teeth deny us the pleasure of toffee allsorts - oooh, the sheer joy of biting into unknown, unaware whether it will be mint or vanilla, and looking forward to the next lucky dip.  Ditto, Werthers Originals, is anyone really patient enough to resist the urge to bite it while it is still like a bullett? Anway, they are but a memory, although I might give making fudge a go, yes, I know, I will have to brush immediately after, but worth it I think.  I always thought dentists were lying to us regarding the whole sugar thingy, but turns out it is true.  

It is possible to lose weight, with a bit of resilience, and without giving up the weekly bear claw.  I have discovered the walk to the nearest Greggs to buy one, cancels out the actual eating of it.  Plus the actual walking is increasing the vigour, and soothing the mind. 

But I was just musing.  Misery induces lethargy, I guess many physical ailments are exacerbated by state of mind.  I won't join WW again, I'll just carry on doing what I am doing, which seems to be working, I'm told.  It includes one day, at least, devoted to cereal.  Fortunately, I love porridge made with water, and sprinkled with fake sugar, ok, also with a dollop of cream, but in fairness, the entire day is devoted to cereal.  Apparently diet, and exercise does do the trick, and it wasn't a trick played on us by Hanoi Jane who may or may not have been a double agent in the sixties.  

Anyway, I am quite enjoying becoming healthy, so will settle for carrying on full steam ahead with what I am already doing.  Its no healthy cabbage diet, to be honest, but I never got round to making it.  I was working in an office at the height of its 'latest diet' popularity, but I knew enough about bodily functions and the effects of vegetables, to know it would be very risky on the flatulence front.  The Fibre diet was a bestseller and I had already encountered those who had read the book - usually in lifts.  

Well Happy New Year to all my readers, and hope some of the above may be of use to those of us aiming for health and fitness next year!  


Ps.  None of the above to be taken seriously. 

Pps.  Ainsley's Spring veg, cup a soup is divine, and pink and whites (though tasting like cardboard) are virtually calorie free if eating is the only way you can survive til 5.30, without attacking your boss with a rusty rake.  Oh, I do miss the old tips, around the office water cooler.........