Tis the bikini season

Oh er it seems many of you are equally gripped by the idea of honing and toning without resorting to celebrity style constipation over a diet, courtesy of the Make Do Diet. I was quite touched by kind comments and would like to reassure anyone who thinks I might be delusional that I do have 5 kilos to lose which is the equivalent of 11 pounds. This is truly fat not my imagination. I am not one for body dimorphic tendencies as I've always loved my curves. Trust me when I say it is pure fat!

The wonderful Rachel has kindly written a stage one on losing those pounds which are presenting a problem. From now on there will be an update every week - and next week I'll include some pics to make it more visually pleasing but for this week it is all about getting down to it!! Remember no money is required and no diet book to buy.

The Beginning - first week of the Make Do diet

Day One – ok, let us try to make a start on the whole dark art of “losing weight”. First things first, your body is made up on many things, and the weight that you weigh on the scales is the total sum of that – so we need to be smarter in our desire to change body shape, by listing it all.

Date

Total Weight

Bust 1 Fullest part

Bust 2 Under bust

Waist 1 narrowest part

Waist 2 across belly button

Hips 1 on hip bones

Hips 2 widest part of bottom

Thigh 1 top

Thigh 2 middle part

So, fill in the details – you can measure and weigh either all metric or all imperial. We will repeat this every week.

Secondly, we need to remove temptation.....interestingly, a study showed that if there was a box of biscuits on your desk, you would keep eating each time you saw them, you ate less if they were on the desk across the room, and even less if they were in the cupboard out of sight. So, step one, is to remove from your view all of the calorie-laden-no-nutritional-value stuff that we like to pick on when feeling fed up/bored/L’Oreal advert (cos I deserve it moment)....mine will be crisps....

Even more interesting is the psychological study done on “wanting” something...so, if there were 2 jars of biscuits, one with only 2 “special” biscuits in that you were not allowed to eat, the other full to the top with biscuits, us humans, would crave to have the “special” biscuits...and would sometimes even reject the normal biscuits! So, be aware. So don’t be surprised if you crave the thing “you can’t have”. It is like being dumped by your boyfriend...you will be pining for them. Be kind to yourself – distraction techniques work to a certain extent so phone a friend, take a bath go for a walk etc etc.

Whatever, please, allow yourself a treat at least once a week, but make sure that you exercise the total quantity of the item (s) you wish to consume on that day (and in addition to your other exercise). However, if we do eat things that are close to hand, please make sure that you have a bowl of fruit somewhere obvious where you will walk past and pick one up, that you have a bowl of chopped veg in the fridge right in front of you as you open the door (put in as many colourful veg that you can – peas in their pods, green beans, red or yellow peppers, radish, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks etc). Nuts and seeds are also good for trace minerals, so a tub of them (with a lid on so that you don’t eat too many...) out on your kitchen top.

The third and final bit of day one will be to do some exercise. We know that even a single bout of exercise can immediately change the level of fat swimming around your body, and that repeated bouts of exercise will let you access your fat stores quicker and for a longer. So, wake up your body’s fat burning potential by doing some exercise – the good bit is that it can be anything, as long as you enjoy it – and try for at least 30 mins.

Day One Summary

1. Weigh and measure
2. Remove all temptation that will encourage hips from hell and replace with heavenly hips temptations...
3. Kit-kat workout – work out how much exercise for a treat and burn it off before you get it.
4. Exercise for at least 30 minutes

That's all folks on the diet front. More next Monday and a big shout out to all the diet followers across the globe, America, Spain and Australia as well as the UK.
Tomorrow, I do a product reveiw....

Baring all!

It was suggested that Rachel and I bared all regarding our bodies as they currently stand prior to our fitness kick to fight the flab. I took this to mean a quick photo showing my muffin top but no ...Rachel sent me three shots, front, back & side views.

I took a deep gulp, a very deep gulp and re-enacted the same shots. It was a hideous experience and writing this post I feel quite queasy and for once it is nothing to do with drink. I am 5 foot 6 inches, I weigh 62kilos and am a size 10 (top end everything is very tight). I also took my measurements but I won't bore you with them.

I do feel that baring all is a big step forward and it made me face the fact that the weight has been creeping on and I've really not tackled it. One could argue that as I'm fairly slim I shouldn't worry but all the evidence suggests I should. I need to get down to 58kilos which will make me middle end of my weight range, I'm currently top end. The more weight you carry the harder work it is for your body. The excess weight would tend to indicate fatty deposits around liver, heart etc.

My bra and knickers are a lovely combo which should look far more flattering than they do, due to my current weight and therefore shape. I give you Rachel first (she's more toned & honed but needs to drop a dress size) then me. No laughing ...okay and don't look if you've just had breakfast!!






Glad that is over, I hope to show you an improved side view in a few months after a sometime invested in the Make Do diet!

The Make Do Diet

Over the years Mrs MDS has shamelessly eschewed diets and diet books for superior knowledge from one of her bestie's Rachel Hubbard. Of course there are a couple of favourite reference books, The China Study and Can We Live 150 Years?

Rachel, however, has always managed to provide a simple programme that involves no expense. Really she should have her own book out. The trouble is she is worried about me publishing photos like these...

Mrs MDS & Rachel a self portrait (Wales v Italy)

Luckily for you and her, there is always a camera malfunction when it comes to the evening!

In essence the diet you need to follow for fighting the long winter flab and getting fit for you hols is thus:

The Rachel Hubbard diet

30 minutes of cardio exercise a day, six days a week.
100 sit ups every day

A hearty breakfast - load up on carbs etc in the morning.
Fruit/veggies for lunch, rest of day
A very light supper - i.e. make your portions small - you could just have a small piece of steamed fish, veggies & salad for example

Basically you have to think of food in groups

Your essentials = vegetables, fruits, complex carbs, lean protein, low fat yoghurt
Fat inducers = cheese, sausages, bacon, red meat, full fat dairy, crisps, chips (need I go on)
Luxuries = alcohol, chocolate, cakes etc.

Choose essentials, stay away from fat inducers and really limit luxuries.

If it is just a flatter stomach you are after then simply no alcohol, no bread and do sit ups.

By not following a complex diet book and keeping it simple you can just be focused. It is hard at first as you make that commitment to exercise (a 30 minute walk counts) and decreasing your bad calorie intake. Note, nothing is banned nor is there only allowed items. You are in charge of your health kick and in six weeks, if you stick to it you'll see a big difference. Mine starts today!

Flexible Vegan

Our potato crop was very disappointing to say the least. The return on our investment of bags, soil and starter potatoes was a deficit! Still we had some very tasty small potatoes for our Sunday evening al fresco dining. The fresh from garden runner beans were extremely delicious and due to the bountiful supply of these, peas, spinach, rocket and lettuce the garden has provided plenty. Everything is late this year due to the long cold winter.

Since growing produce I've been driven more and more to think about what I put in my mouth. When I ran a couple of posts earlier this year comments by fellow bloggers led me to investigate this matter further. The reading material they suggested led me to two books. Both pretty hardcore.
1. The China Study: T. Colin Campbell
2. Can we live 150 years? : Mikhail Tombak

What I don't understand is how I can be completely blown away by nutritional books. I read them because I couldn't read a novel after so many academic books. Even reading Grazia proved a chore. Anything other than pictures made my brain switch off. Yet these two books engrossed me.

The net result is I've turned into a freak. Well what I would consider a freak. I am now a flexible vegan! Feel free to titter! My friends and family are guffawing with abandonment. In fairness I've showed much reluctance to all things 'alternative' and 'sustainable' most of my life. I've been a robust recyler, I buy fairtrade products and cycle a lot but ethical fashion has passed me by. I try to be good on this matter but I'm still not completely convinced although I grew more appreciative of this from my time at LCF. Where all manner of projects concerning textile development, ergonomics and sustainability takes place. I also got to meet some Fashion and the Environment MA graduates so I promise to take more of a real interest in this area from now on.

Evolving Textiles at London College of Fashion

Also, I do fall in to 'the not paying that for Stella McCartney shoes because they're not leather' gang. Opps.

But Stella would be proud of me now as I convert to a predominately vegan diet. The China Study did it for me, all those diagrams and empirical data swung it. The reason I'm flexible is due to the 0- 10% ratio of acceptability on the eating of animal produce. I'm not going to choose to eat animal produce but if I'm in a situation where it is included I'll put up and shut up. I couldn't bare to be one of those people who attend a dinner party and say I'm vegan and then pick at only salad and mushrooms. I have never been a big meat eater but I do like dairy produce so I do miss it a bit but I'm surprised at how little it has bothered me. I think this is due to growing things in the garden - there is a supply of produce to eat and it is only fruit and vegetables. Mind be harder come the winter months.

I'll still cook meat but we've agreed only on weekends and when people come round but I won't eat it at home. Being flexible prevents me being a convert bore and I don't want to impose my choices on everyone else. It does mean I'll have to take Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D in the winter but that is it. Sharpening up my nutritional intake hasn't resulted in any deprivation, it isn't a diet of counting calories. It is really simple. I like simple, shame I can't reduce my fashion fixes with such ease. This always requires enormous will power and focus. How about you, can you give up certain things with ease but not fashion? And how bonkers am I - on a scale of 0 to 10? Okay don't answer that one...

What has happened to Catherine Zeta Jones?

It could be the clothes but I don't think that is entirely the reason. Catherine Zeta Jones looks scrawny and old. This is a women in her early 40s who should be, given her lifestyle, looking glamorous and healthy. But to me she just looks thin and not in a good way. Am I being mean?

I completely understand the need to look slim/toned and particularly when you are in the entertainment industry. Why yesterday as I was sourcing clothes for the forthcoming events I had an experience in the changing room mirror that was truth uncovered. I need to reign in the expanding girth. This happens once in a while and more so as you get older. But I might want to look svelte but I don't want to look thin. The idea of looking scrawny like CZJ above or SJP is in my book a step to far but how does it happen? Do you lose any sense of self and become completely about clothes sizes.

image:Sky Showbiz

Thought for the week - focus!

I continue to not spend any money on anything! This is becoming easier. I am forced by circumstances to not spend but because I started off on this with a no fritter attitude rather than a spending ban I think that helped.

A reminder - the point of not frittering for three months is to save what you would have spent in shops on lots of little amounts. This should generate a more substantial sum, enabling you to purchase something wow that you love. If I did have a pot then I'd buy something from Dolce & Gabbana

I've managed to not increase my debts and have begun to really pay them off. If I'd frittered then I would have added to them. It does mean I can't get a wow item but I'm doing really well, aided by capsule wardrobe week to use what I have effectively. Even though I been out styling private clients and basically dressing them in what I would buy, (because it suits them and it is of course visionary!) I have not succumbed. Yah! This makes me feel good and has broken a habit, the magpie habit. It also has meant I have had to be motivated to do other things.

The other things I have done are exercise more and revolutionise my diet. The diet has changed. Thanks to the marvellous comments on my size matters post I was challenged to research dietary issues more thoroughly - thank you Deja Pseu.

I ended up with a book called Can We Live 150 Years by Mikhail Tombak.

It is a brilliant book, but not for the faint hearted when it comes to digesting matters of bodily functions. I have to say no one has made me understand or get eating properly. The man is a genius and although I pale at the thought of self administering an enema, the moment I have a spare pound or two I'm off for a colonic irrigation. Apart from the cost of the book, I've managed to improve my well being, turn the tide on my fat hips and smile my way through no money.

In and out

I'm always quite impatient for the paperboy to arrive on Sunday. It is a new phenomena having the paper delivered as for many years I had the luxury of living next door to a shop. At 8:30am I consider him to be late. A routine has developed, I keep one ear out to hear him drop The Sunday Times on the mat outside the front door. I open said door (usually in dressing gown), Gareth (he gave us a Christmas card - ingenious as you leave one out for him with a tip or else how would you enjoy your Christmas lunch) re mounts his bike and mutter some unintelligible comment - it could be morning or p*ss off, who knows. I think (about G.) 'couldn't you have bought yourself an ipod with your Xmas tip money'. He annoyingly cycles round delivering the papers with his mobile phone playing tunes.

Cup of coffee in hand, I sit down to read the paper for the next hour before my run. My routine follows the same pattern, Style magazine, Money and then News Review. Not every single article is digested I do that later and also move onto the Sunday Times magazine and then main news bit - by Tuesday. Now, I realise my habits, reasonable or otherwise are of no earthy consequence to you. The reason for sharing my morning's method of procedure is to take you to the point I almost leaped in the air with delight. I certainly exclaimed 'Oh yes!'. Because - with must gusto and a more forthright manner than I could muster, AA Gill stated exactly the same point as I made in my book Make do & Mend, in this weeks Table Talk article.

Now I love AA Gill - he is as direct as Jeremy Clarkson but with more panache and fortitude. Well, they both have an equal firmness of mind, just Jeremy tends to employ stream of consciousness - unthinkingly!

Mr Gill was pouring forth on the banality of diet and certain peeps relationship with their bodies. Anyway one paragraph says it all:
'So, here is my broken resolution, and a final word on size and food. Pay attention. All diets work. When I taught cooking, people used to say that recipes didn’t work. Well, all recipes work, if you know how to cook. The Kama Sutra works, if you know how to shag. It’s not diets that fail, it’s you, you miserable, spineless, sticky-fingered fridge magnet. All diets come down to the same sentence: more in than out, you get fat; more out than in, you get thin. It’s not rocket science, it’s bicycle science.'

For the full version ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/a_a_gill/article3150287.ece

Ah happy days, see page 32 of my book which reads, 'Basically the same principle of income and expenditure is translated to food. What you put in and what your expends equals your weight.'

And for those of you who won't stop badgering me about sales bargains, count to 10 and think about if you'd still love said item in 6 months. If you have to cave into your weak wills, then on-line Matches.com offers plenty of designer handbag bargains. If your lucky enough to live near Esher nipped to Bernards of Esher - yes ignore the name it is a great little emporium, more stockbrokers wives than footballers. That said if you want a great bargain of a Marc Jacobs bag - Bernards is your destination. But please do read Hunter Davies in Sunday Times money first and then think about your credit card bill.