Summer Holidays

The busiest time of year for me is May – early July. Why? Because the summer is arriving and shortly people are going to have to lose those carefully cut clothes they wear in order to disguise the blab beneath.

So, I find, people work hard to reduce the blubber and indeed do look an awful lot better for it by the time they are deposited a frazzled heap by Ryanair in a nice hot place.

And then what on earth happens??????!!

They Eat. And Eat. And Eat. And, of course, Drink.. Well, they are on holiday, you say to me disbelievingly. What else are holidays for? It is utterly amazing. So all that hard work they put in goes for absolutely nothing. They generally re-gain any blab lost plus a bit more. They arrive back in Blighty like pink porpoises and wobble their way back to work, depressed and lethargic. Never mind, winter is coming and it all gets carefully hidden again.

I suppose it shows the unhealthy relationship people have with food. Cakes, Jammy dodgers and Ice Creams are all known to turn you into a fatty so are eaten with a degree of guilt. But, when on holiday, people wolf these forbidden foods down in order to relax.

So perhaps on your next holiday, if this sounds a little familiar, you could go there thinking of other ways to de-stress. This will involve doing something nice for yourself – you know, the usual stuff. Something that you don’t do at home because there isn’t time – or, even better, it seems a waste of time. Reading a good book, having a nice massage, taking a nap in the afternoon, going for a long walk, having a bit of sex. Food is meant to be enjoyed – and were we all lean, then I wouldn’t be ranting. What isn’t realised is that life is made of choices - discipline doesn’t come into it. When we make poor food choices there is always something driving that choice – and it isn’t lack of will power.