The difference between men and women

One of the favourite New Year resolutions is to lose weight.

It made me smile when I read results of some research that NY resolutions rarely work. A tiny proportion of people succeed in keeping to them as far as the end of January. What a suprise.

Personally I think resolutions have more chance of succeeding if you know why you want to make that change and that you have framed it in positive terms  - rather than doing it because you think you should (or even worse – someone else does).

So when I also read that when men decide to lose weight it is for practical purposes – to make clothes fit, be less breathless etc – and - when woman decide it is embedded in all sorts of emotional stuff – often linked to “when I lose a stone ( or some other arbitrary amount) I will do something else that somehow seems impossible.

The papers have been full of “anti-dieting” articles this weekend and here’s a summary.

• Dieting does not work – eating less and taking more exercise does.
• Your body has been capable of “detoxing” since you were born – so you don’t need to pay out for help now. 
• A regular walk can have the same impact as a gym membership – in fact even more because, as well as paying the membership you have to actually go!

This time last year I decided that I would start eating only when I was hungry, eating what I wanted, enjoy my food and stop when I was full. It was incredibly liberating. I dropped a bit of weight and felt fine.

More of the same in 2008.