The active life

TennisI am no revolutionary when I say that the benefits of healthy eating are greatly enhanced by physical exercise. I know I feel like a caged animal if I haven’t had at least one chance to run around outside for a while each day. So it’s not just about looking good but about feeling good too.

To counter our ever more sedentary lifestyles, sitting as most of us do for hours each day, we pound the pavements, invest in expensive all-weather cycling gear, spin like hamsters on wheels in extortionately expensive, sweaty basements, and stack our bookshelves with yoga videos which promise us the flat stomachs of our teenage years. Continue reading

Epiphany – or a better day in the office

When I first started working in London for a company which openly celebrated slenderness (a recognised and disturbing theme in many organisations), I found myself skipping lunch most days and dining on a small bar of Galaxy chocolate and a packet of crisps whilst walking down Tottenham Court Road on the way to meet friends in the pub. I was short of money and trying to lose weight. The pressures of work and socialising didn’t leave me with time to exercise with any intensity, so deprivation it would have to be.  Continue reading