'One thing I thank you for,' said my daughter, 'is that you were never on a diet, mentioned the word or suggested we should not eat/eat certain foods to lost weight.
It had never occurred to me that this was the case. It wasn't deliberate, but our natural way of evolving within our household. She continued to say that she felt that she and her two sisters had grown up with a good attitude to food. This, from a grown woman who, when she was two years old, ate little else but chips and weetabix. Shows what growing up can do for you!
It is true, though, that dieting has never been in my psyche. Brought up by a mother who maintained two pregnancies in the war and survived rationing with a slim figure - have you ever seen any pictures of the war where the people were fat? I doubt it.
No, I have never been on a diet, except for aonephase in my life when I lacked energy and I followed the food combining diet whereby proteins and carbohydrates are not eaten at the same meal. A few weeks of this eating plan did make a difference and the whole family ate the same together totally ignorant of why certain foods were not on their plate.
While my daughter may thank me for her 'no-diet' upbringing, I do thank, in return, my two elder daughters for having introduced very healthy eating and drinking habits into their homes. This means that, as a grandparent, keen to stay in favour with my grandchildren, I have to resort to other means rather than turn up with a plate of cakes, packets of sweets and biscuits. Crisps and other nibbles are also not welcome. If Mum does decide to produce crisps at a family event, then that is fine - she is, no doubt, balancing these with the other healthy options on the table. Snacks for the children usually comprise cucumber, carrot sticks, apples and pears and they drink only water and bedtime milk. The only time they do have a flavoured drink is when they visit me (hmm) as I have found unsweetened peach drink by Robinsons to be very popular. But I always ask in advance if this is permissible. I have never sneaked chocolate, sweets or crisps to the children as I know some grandparents do.
I have five older grandchildren who are like stick insects. You certainly can't pinch an inch on them. But, they are not lacking in energy. In fact the opposite is the case. They are also all doing well at school, their brains fed plenty of fish, oily or otherwise and a variety of vegetables which they have eaten as finger foods since they were 7-8 months old.
My younger daughter is following in the footsteps of her two sisters. She has the baby of the family and boasts a shelf full of books on babycare including many on cooking healthily for toddlers. She updates me on my visits as to the amount of sugar in apparently healthy, low fat yogurts and many other snippets of acquired information which I do try to remember.
So what do I take on my visits. Well, there are good 50p books in charity shops, the occasional comic and the very occasional small chocolate bar to share, with the parents deciding the time they can be eaten. On their visits to Swanage they are treated to ice creams like any other child but there are no pasties or sausage rolls eaten from the local bakery. Other Half and I save those for our child-free days.
After moving to the south west in 2001, Other Half was under investigation for a variety of niggling problems which raised a question mark over the health of his heart. At a stroke we stopped all cakes, crumbles, pies and other foods ridden with fat. Instead, we ate salad, brown bread and jacket potatoes, casseroles and roasts cutting down on the roast potatoes and Aunt Bessie's. We had a border collie so exercise was plentiful or so we thought.
I attended a weekly yoga class and swam twice a week in winter at a local pool and most days in the sea in the summer. So, with the dogwalking, and chasing toddlers round the playground, I expected to lose weight. I didn't. In fact, the weight gradually increased, some due to certain medications and a contented semi-retired life no doubt contributed to this. For ten years I have been puzzled at my inability to lose weight. Then at Christmas 2010, I was horrified to see five pounds more when I stood on the scales and, no matter how much I reduced portions, abandoned biscuits, chocolates or puddings, nothing seemed to work.
Even some of my less generous size 16 items failed to meet at the waist or at the blouse buttons. More and more items were taken to the charity shop as I resorted to baggy tops, loose trousers, elasticated skirts, black clothes, brightly coloured scarves to distract - well anything comfortable.
Last October, Other Half and I embarked on our first serious walking holiday, travelling to the Peak District and enjoying a week of sunny weather punctuated by some cloud but only one morning of rain. To occupy ourselves in daylight hours, we needed to walk between 5 and 9 miles a day. Evenings were spent sitting watching the television as we were too tired to venture to the local pub and preferred to drink our own wine. Walking was the best way to see this wonderful part of our country and certainly the ideal opportunity to get good photographs, essential for our hobby competing in the local camera club.
We returned energised, both of us feeling exceptionally well and 'sharp'. Our fuzzy brains had disappeared in the week and we enjoyed our new sparkle. We therefore decided to continue walking long distances when we returned. One day we took the bus from Swanage to the Sandbanks Ferry and walked back via Studland beaches and over Ballard Down to Old Harry Rocks and then down via Ulwell back to Swanage. This walk is reckoned to be between 8 and 10 miles. It took most of the day with refreshment stops and a picnic looking over the wide expanse of Poole Harbour. Other days I walked over Ballard Down and back through Ulwell, the whole walk offering generous portions of beautiful views. Twice we walked over the Down to Studland and took the bus back.
By late November we realised we were both losing weight albeit slowly but more exercise was on the cards. My friend and I joined a Country Dancing class and enjoyed it enough to make it a regular Tuesday evening activity. We then ventured together to the Zumba class one lunchtime each week. As well as losing a few more pounds over the first month or two, we both felt invigorated and it was noticeable that I could walk up the hill to my home without the usual stop for a rest half way up.
My job has for the last twelve or thirteen years involved sitting working on a one to one basis with further and higher education students but shortly after Christmas, I decided to leave and pursue my writing. The job was involving one or two days of sitting and inactivity for a period of nine hours each day which included a one hour bus journey each way. Instead, I volunteered in a local charity shop, responsible for the books, my passion. My four hour stints are spent on my feet either sorting the bookshelves or serving behind the counter.
My other passion is our local musical theatre company who, this year, are putting on Hello Dolly. Our director seemed to put the show 'on the floor' earlier than last year with the result that a second evening a week was spent on my feet.
Soon after Christmas I found I had lost 9-10 pounds since my new active lifestyle began in October. This has now, in mid March, increased to the loss of a stone, my weight dropping from 12 to 11 stone. The best part of this weight loss was dropping a dress size and wearing size 14 clothes for the first time in nearly fifteen years. But the creme-de-la-creme is my flat stomach of which I am quite rightly proud. I can't resist a glance in the mirror as I pass and seeing my reflection in shop windows is no longer a depressing sight.
Another change in our lifestyle was in November when we were allocated an allotment. To get the ground in shape for spring sowing has taken a lot of effort and even painting our second hand shed had helped keep both of us active.
All this without any attention being paid to diet. We eat healthily so nothing has changed except our appetites which have increased. In fact we now feel we can eat a large slice of cake or a few chocolate biscuits either at the allotment or on our return without any damage to our figures.
However, one change has been a reduction in alcohol consumption which, combined with our activities, has contributed to our weight loss and my own lowered blood pressure and a pat on the back from my doctor.
So if you feel you are joining the ranks of the overweight or nearly obese, try increasing your activity levels. As I said at the start, we thought we were active with our swimming and walking but it is the type of exercise that is important and the amount. Three 45 minute walks a week is NOT enough either for good health or for weight loss. Zumba and Dancing have certainly made a positive difference .
When people say, 'you have lost weight,' I now say, 'Look, no diet!'
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