I am quite stumped by this conundrum?

I am also confused as to why they show us close up pictures of the “skinny”, and yet the fat person’s photos are never shown, neither does their health really get addressed, except to go out to visit Lisa in the hospital. I love her hair, the colours are so funky!

But the best thing about this programme is the girl in LA.

Last nights episode was funny, the skinny guy put on a whole stone in 12 weeks, I reckon he remembered that he liked food…. Hope he doesn’t go the other way!. The fat bloke was such a good looking lad. I felt really sorry for him. Hopefully he will lose his weight in a year or so and will go on to lead the life a young man should!

Then went out on the pop last Saturday, and drank far too much vodka! Got on the scales and have put on another 5LB - yes that’s right five pound in a week! Disgusting eh!

Being off work all last week probably didn’t help either, didn’t have my usual cereal for lunch on ANY day….

Still, back to the grind… even though I was very upset I managed to do half an hour on the wii fit, after telling me I had put on so much weight it had the nerve to tell me I was a good runner, and that I was “rocket fire” at boxing!

Back on the cereal lunch today. Hopefully it will be something light for tea. I will try to update you on my progress, and hopefully soon I will have some good news to report.

Let me think?

Well, there was that take away Southern Fried Chicken and chips on Friday night, the big plate of spag bol on Saturday, the sandwiches and crisps eaten for lunch on Saturday and Sunday, the piece of shortbread, and the Belgian chocolate? Maybe that had something to do with it?

Unfortunately all this extra food clashed with the cancellation of my belly dancing class so the nearest I got to dance exercise was when I made Todd and Hayley practice my waltz and midnight tango with me. Laura’s excuse is that she cannot dance Man (rubbish, she can – but she would rather not methinks!) Saturday is also my night off from Wii fit, so that would not have helped either.

I did my wii fit on friday though, and sunday. The same half hour I always do.

But I am not going to let one bad weekend spoil my new regime. Onwards and upwards. THINK THIN!

Not sure how my diet went today. I think it was relatively healthy? For breakfast I had rice crispies, for lunch I had cheerios and for tea I had a 2 egg mushroom omelette with oven baked salmon. It was yummy.

But the best thing about today was I went to my dance class and I finally cracked a series of steps in my waltz which I need to master for my silver. I was like a beautiful swan gliding around the room (well for the 30 steps that I have learned anyway!) I was tought tonight by a lovely lady called Louise, she made everything seem so easy.

I also leaned the steps to a Midnight Tango, all I need to do now is polish it up a bit.

Laura came, and she was really proud of me!

No wii fit tonight. Paul was out so I had the TV to myself.

Back on the aerobics tomorrow of course!

Another thought, the trial refers to “slimmers” who took a tablet with every meal – so you have to be actively slimming as well – so these active “slimmers” who will also be exercising and eating less lost an average of 10lb – does that justify being housebound and becoming afraid of your digestion system?

Not really!

This tablet only works because it makes you afraid to eat anything! In effect, it forces a fat free diet. All to lose an average of 10lb.

2. Pick a goal, any goal. You might want to drop a couple of dress sizes, lose a specific amount of weight, be able to run 100 metres without collapsing in a heap! What do you want to change? How will you measure your eventual success? My goal? I want to fit into a size 12 dress by the end of May

3. Focus on the small stuff. Remember that old saying “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”? Well, we are not going to ignore the pounds! We are going to celebrate every single pound we lose, because we will only lose 1 or 2 a week. All regimes that can be relied on in the long term have one thing in common. They are all slow. You will only lose a pound or two a week – but most importantly, it will stay off! Any idiot can starve for a week and lose 5lb, but what happens the week after – of course you know as well as I do, you put it back on and then your body rewards you by putting on an extra lb or 2.

The key to losing weight slowly/successfully is in the little decisions we make through the day. These decisions decide whether we will lose or gain weight or gain.

• Don’t have that slice of cake that has been left over
• Use the stairs – lifts are for lazy people
• Only eat if you are actually hungry
• Choose a healthier option
• Don’t eat between meals

4. Start exercising. Find something you like. It doesn’t matter what it is. My personal preference is Wii Fit and Ballroom dancing, but it doesn’t matter what you do so long as you do something every day. The heavier you are, the harder you will find it to exercise, but you could do something gentle.

It is very important though that you don’t overdo your exercise, only do what you can. Don’t hurt yourself by pushing yourself too hard. Find something you will be happy to stick at.

Here are a couple of things everyone can do:-

• Sit up straight. Yes – now at your desk. Immediately you look like you have lost weight. Sitting properly will also strengthen your back
• Watching TV? Get a tin of beans for each hand and do some arm curls. Watch them bingo wings fly away!
• Go for a walk – if only to the end of the road and back
• Ad break on TV – have a “step” class – walk up and down your stairs a few times.

I am keeping within my limitations too. So as much as I love dancing, I am not fit enough to jive, so I don’t do that. Maybe next year I will be able to though!

5. Eat breakfast. This is really important. Never mind about being thin or fat. Every single healthy person I know eats breakfast. And now that includes me! I generally have a nice bowl of cornflakes with skimmed milk. I don’t put sugar on mine, but I am sure a sprinkling (1/4 teaspoon) wont do any harm if it makes you more inclined to eat it.

You would not expect your car to start in the morning if it had no petrol. Your body needs fuel too.

6. Have a small treat . No-one is telling you that you can’t ever have chocolate. But, don’t buy a big bar. Look for sweets for little children, like Cadbury Fudge, Curly Wurly., Buttons. Have one once or twice a week if you really want it. If it is someone’s birthday in the office have a piece of cake, and enjoy it. But remember your goal, a treat is not a treat if you have it more than once every now and again. Be flexible. You still need to live your life. Don’t let it take over your life. Don’t bore your friends too much because you won’t go anywhere or do anything.

7. Do your food shop online. Yes, its costs at least £4 for Tesco to deliver to your house, but I can guarantee it is worth it. Plan your menu for the week ahead and buy everything you will need in one go. This serves a double purpose.
• You will be less likely to get home and find an empty fridge (which we all know leads to a phone call to the local Chinese!)
• You will not be tempted by the so called bargains – why is it always biscuits and crisps that are buy-one-get-one free?

8. Don’t eat for the wrong reasons. Think about your “triggers”? Do you eat because you are tired, bored, angry? Try to identify the real feeling and address that instead. I always want something to eat at 9.30pm. This is what I call a “snack attack”. I have a drink of warm water instead and it usually goes away. If on a rare occasion it hasn’t gone away, I will have something but I don’t fight with myself over it.
9. Carry healthy snacks with you. Get a small Tupperware box and fill it with raw vegetables, nuts and seeds. You can pick on this and it will not have a detrimental effect on your diet plan. In fact, it will help, it does not pay to let yourself get madly hungry.

10. Don’t pay too much attention to scales. People fluctuate 2-3lbs over a day, and women can fluctuate a lot more. If you do weigh yourself only do it once a week, at the same time of day wearing the same clothes.
11. Set up a rewards system. Challenge yourself. Set yourself targets. Reward yourself when you reach them. Remember - Food is not a reward!! – You could perhaps buy a nice nail varnish or lipstick for each half stone lost – or a glossy magazine on a Sunday to celebrate a week that you kept on the wagon! You don’t have to spend, maybe do something you don’t often do, like have an extra long soak in the bath with candles glowing. Crack open that fancy bath set you got for Christmas!
12. Bad Days. You will have some. Just pick yourself up and keep going.

If anyone is looking for a quick fix, this is not the site for you. But if you want to watch how my weight loss is going over the next few months then stay tuned!

First, Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am 40 years of age, I have been from fat to thin, to very thin to very fat - and am definitely at the fattest that I have ever been. At 5 foot ½ inch (that half inch is important) – I weigh in at 12 stone 9, which is a very large amount for someone as short as me.

I have tried every diet known to man, and not one of them worked long term. So this “diet” I have now embarked on is my last ditch attempt at getting down to a manageable weight – which I have decided for myself is 9 stone 7. I hope writing a blog will help in two ways – it will serve as a diary for me, and will also give any readers out there comfort that they are not on their own!

I hope you follow my journey over the next few months and that I can come on here at the end of May and report that I have finally tipped the scales at that long hoped for weight - 9 ½ stone.

I can report that Laura and Todd danced at the above competition, and whilst they were not recalled into any further rounds, they both did themselves proud! They got 7 marks for their modern and 8 for their latin, which was only a hair’s breadth away from the much wanted callback! Ah well, that’s dancing for ya! But nobody minds losing to people who were of such a high standard, I was stunned by the standard of “beginners” in this competition! I could dance every day for 3 years and I would never come close to being as good as some of these kids. All of them were bigger than Laura and Todd as well, so we took a bit of comfort from that.

We flew to the UK on Friday morning, and then got a cab from the Airport to the Blackpool Hilton where we would be spending the next 2 nights. The taxi driver we got was a lovely man, full of chat and very friendly. I wish I had his number and I could recommend him to you all. Checked in quickly and found our room 352 – which was lovely. Nice and big with a flat screen tv, fridge etc. However, as is usual in these hotels there was not enough coffee sachets, and we had to ask both days for these to be filled. The windows opened fully (which was a first) and our room was much bigger and better than the others in our group had. Probably because we were a group of 3

We then decided to hit the shops – unfortunately this time of year is the end of the sales, so there was not that much to buy. However, Laura got the 3 things she wanted ie a Berghaus Jacket, a Peruvian hat like N’Dubz and a pair of black Velcro strap Nike trainers for school. All quite specific purchases, but she is that age where she knows EXACTLY what she wants! I got lots of bargain cheap stuff, but nothing particularly nice. Stopped off for lunch at KCF, got kids meals which fits in just about with my diet. Back to the hotel and we all went swimming. As under 14s are not allowed in the pool without adult supervision, I had to go as well…. Boo hoo! Didn’t want to! . Had a lovely carvery meal there that night, think it was about £22, but the kids ate free, which always saves a few quid. We all ate too much and felt sick. Staggered back to the room, but could not get to sleep until about 2am because of the internet machine constantly beeping. Didn’t dare turn it off at the wall – too scared of technology.

Anyway, the comp itself. Let me tell you about it. This was held on 10 January in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. I have heard a lot about this location, and how big the floor is, wonderful to dance on etc – yet I felt slightly underwhelmed? Maybe I have been spoilt by attending dance comps in the Villa Marina every month, which in my opinion is much posher!! My kids comp was on at 9am, so we had a very early start to say the least. Up at 6am to do 2 lots of hair, fake tan, make up etc I was tired before I even began! We had a rover ticket, so didn’t get seats, but we made ourselves a little base outside the Arena bar, and were very happy sitting on the floor playing with our Nintendo DS’s. You can tell by that statement how seriously my kids take their dancing can’t you! Everyone else around us was watching to look for tips on how to improve, but my gang were involved in Cooking Mama competitions, and Picto Chat! As they did not get recalled, we were free for the afternoon. We headed off to the amusement arcade to fill the slots and lose all our loose change which we did very successfully, then went back to Primark. The Blackpool one is not a patch on the Liverpool one to be honest. Still, I managed to find a few things that made it into my big blue net basket.

In the evening there was a display by Hazel Newbery and Johnathan Wilkins, but we were knackered, and just could not face going back out again. Oh, if you stay at the Hilton, it is quite a way out, too far to walk. You can get a taxi for about £4.50. There is also a Bus No 1 which goes up and down. This will be better value if it is just yourself – an adult single is £1.50.

Sunday came around too quickly. Booked a taxi to get us to the airport, but the driver was the most sour faced woman I have ever met. She stood there and watched us struggle with the cases, and then did not say a word all the way to the airport. She also had her heating belting out so the car was that hot, I felt like I was going to be sick! She didn’t get a tip from me, that’s for sure!

We checked in and were lucky enough to get a free upgrade into the Executive Suite. That was probably what the kids found the most exciting thing about the trip! Free food and drink – they were besides themselves pretending they were pop stars waiting for their private jet!

I don’t think we will be going to the UK to dance for a while though! It’s a very easy way to spend a grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, better late than never eh!

Should he have gone? The forums are full of “Keep Austin in” “Erin deserves to win” etc. but I think the viewers have actually forgotten that this is at its heart a show where there can only be “one” winner, and we arrive at that winner by knocking somebody out each week. Was it Austin’s turn? Lets consider the case:-

Tom’s rumba was not brilliant – but he is a newlywed. How can he be expected to dance this with any conviction! Luckily he was saved by an outstanding foxtrot.

Lisa’s Jive was all over the place, sloppy and messy. But better than I expected! I thought she was going to fall out that white and silver dress!. Excellent TV though when Brendan stormed off and left Lisa stood on her own. Good old Tom to the rescue. Their waltz, however - absolutely marvellous!

Rachel did a really highly placed Tango (probably too highly scored in my opinion) and cha-cha which was not great either (Most odd), not enough hip for such a slow cha-cha. Judges love her though, so she will be okay!

Austin salsa. Poor choreography and he went on first, which always seems to be a death knell! Erin’s hair fell out in the dance off ! I think she is like Anton – her ballroom is a lot stronger than her latin, and it shows. The judges did not like his American Smooth – was not showy enough for them.

So according to the judges :- Tom did one good dance and one okay dance
Rachel did two good dances
Lisa did an excellent dance and an okay dance
Austin did 2 poor dances.

Austin was bottom of the leaderboard, and obviously didn’t get enough public votes.

So yes, it was his turn to go. Them’s the breaks!

Two dances each – wonder how they are going to cope?

Rachel and Vincent . I don’t know what the song was. I actually thought this was the tiniest bit dull, and I agree with Len, it is difficult when you can’t see the dancer’s feet! Remember the fuss when they couldn’t see Karen’s Tango feet when she was dancing with Bill (and her feet are irrelevant as the professional, I would have thought) Len managed to get in his reference to “Cheese” as per his conversation earlier in the week with Claudia!!!
Score: Craig 9, Arlene 10, Len 10, Bruno 10. Total 39.

Rachel and Vincent - Second Dance Did a passable Paso to The Final Countdown. Disagreement amongst the judges, Len hated the cape (surprise surprise), quite mixed comments. I think she suffers the same as Christine, in that she finds softer dances easier. But that is because she is NOT an actress (SCLUB7 show does not count!) neither does she have testosterone surging through her body. Bruno loved it, Craig gave it 7. He wanted more aggression – so did I.
Score: Craig 7, Arlene 8, Len 8, Bruno 9. Total 32. Overall total 71.

Lisa and Brendan were next. They did an amazing foxtrot. I actually voted for the first time this week, and yes it was for Lisa. I cannot understand how she is scoring so low with the public – what do we want from her that she isn’t giving us!!!??
Score: Craig 9, Arlene 10, Len 10, Bruno 10. Total 39.

Lisa and Brendan - Second Dance – Amy Winehouse was quite an odd dance to cha-cha to, but it worked strangely enough. Judges raved over it. However, I thought it was a bit “under 16ish”, but it is nice to see a cha-cha that looks like the sort of thing I could do myself –ie not too fussy or complicated. We have had a dearth of decent cha-cha throughout the whole series and it is fair to say this is probably one of the better ones – but I personally think it was overmarked. Wonder why they are all finding it so tough? Congratulations go out to Brendan on his recent engagement. Best wishes to them both.
Score: Craig 9, Arlene 9, Len 9, Bruno 10. Total 37. Overall total 76.

Christine and Matthew – oh a song I know! Pity I don’t like it! Poor Christine just does have the strength to perform a good tango. Why didn’t she have an updo – that might have helped – I personally hate to see hair flowing around and sticking to make up like it was. But anyway, back to the dancing……..In Tango, the girl needs to be just as strong as her lead, and Christine was way off! She reminded me very much of when Colin Jackson had that puppet on his feet. That is not a good thing. However, I am sure she tried her best. It is hard to be tough and aggressive when you are a gentle little soul!
Score: Craig 6, Arlene 7, Len 8, Bruno 7. Total 28.

Christine and Matthew Second Dance Salsa to Cosmic Girl by Jamiroquai. Ah, bless her!!. The struggle of having to learn two dances has really taken its toll. If you are reading this Christine, you did yourself and Northern Ireland proud, and I reckon you are going to get absolutely loads of work from appearing on SCD. I have actually watched The One Show on a couple of occasions in the last week to see you! (not that chatterbox Adrian I have to add!) As for the dance itself, it had pretty much everything I would have expected to see from salsa, except for it was a bit messy for my liking – but that’s just my personal opinion. I don’t like salsa as a dance, so I suppose it would be quite hard to please me. It’s mainly because I can’t do it myself. See Craig said it was stompy, he should see me – I can leave holes in the floor with my salsa stomp!
Score: Craig 7, Arlene 7, Len 8, Bruno 8. Total 30. Overall total 58

Austin and Erin Foxtrotted to that song that the Chanel No 5 advert with Keira Knightly has KILLED!!! L.O.V.E. (don’t know who sings it) I had high expectations for this dance, and I was very impressed, probably more so than the judges seemed to be anyway. Craig said he had “sickled” feet – I hate that word! Foxtrot is HARD, mostly because it can degenerate into looking like walking around, if not done properly.
Score: Craig 8, Arlene 9, Len 9, Bruno 10. Total 36.

Austin and Erin Second Dance Paso Doble. I had to laugh at Len saying it was like a Spanish waiter, because I was thinking the exact same thing – or like someone showing you to your seat in the theatre. I loved the start BIG TIME!!! Beautiful music – it was crammed with paso superiority – don’t let that bull know you are scared of her!! Funny how the choreographers on the panel raved over it, but the expert was not so keen? I suppose it was a bit showy – but we want a performance, and we got one. I like my paso to have paso – is that expecting too much? Overmarked again I feel – how can it be worth 3 10?? 4×9 maybe?
Score: Craig 10, Arlene 10, Len 8, Bruno 10. Total 38. Overall total 74.

Tom and Camilla another Waltz. This time to Moon River which is a song everybody loves from some Audrey Hepburn film. Tom needs to get him bum under, but I know he was poorly all week so I am going to cut him some slack. Tom got his first 10!!! Out of the two waltzes, this is the one I liked the best.
Score: Craig 7, Arlene 7, Len 10, Bruno 9. Total 35.

Tom and Camilla Second Dance Samba YES – this is probably the best samba of the series so far (I will have to check my records on this though) Tom tries very hard, and in that funny old British way, we like to pull him down for it… I think by his reaction when his name was called he fully expected to be in the dance off.

DANCE OFF

No surprise – Christine and Matt versus Rachel and Vincent. Christine went home. She was very gracious and said she expected to be voted out the first week. I will miss Christine. But the right one has gone.

I have lost my score sheet, so you will have to find your scores from somewhere else this week sorry!

First out tonight were:

Jodie and Ian Jodie has had a very bad week, she was totally full of the flu – but as usual for her she remained pragmatic and hardly a whimper was heard from her and she tried her hardest to give us a good jive, which, by and large, I feel she succeeded in. Again, this is a difficult dance for the taller people among us. Shorter people have less length in their extremities to control, which makes the whole thing tidier. I thought I was going to have to watch this from behind my cushion, but NO. I was pleasantly surprised. Jodie is such a lovely girl. She is, in my opinion, what this programme is about! She wore the dress that we saw on the original publicity shots, the silver one with the fringe sewn at thigh height. What was their song again?? Can’t remember?!

Of course you will know she has gone now. As soon as I saw she was in the dance off I thought “that’s it”, and I wasn’t wrong! But she did herself (and Ian) proud. Remember back in her first group dance how awkward she looked in that beige and black dress – who would have thought she would blossom into the lovely mover she did!

Lisa and Brendan A beautiful quickstep by a beautiful couple. Brendan has surprised me so much this year. Have they hidden the “old” one and replaced him with a clone? Lisa managed to execute some quite complicated steps, and to be frank, I have no real criticism. Surprised to see her in the dance off again. I really felt for her when I saw her little face crumble. Come on Lisa fans, get voting or you will lose her!

Christine and Matthew From doing so well last week, Christine crashed to the bottom of the leaderboard with a lacklustre and lazy cha-cha. It was almost like she left her “funk” at home or on the couch with that pest, Adrian. I know she has so much more to give us! She had a really easy song to dance to “I like it like that” – I defy anyone to keep their hips from moving – yet she kind of did? I actually marked Christine as my “winner” from the start, and I am going to hope that this was just one bad week – otherwise my winner will be the loser. Again, those horrible leotard dresses – give these girls a skirt please – or at least a bit more coverage with the fringes.

Austin and Erin I was so excited when I heard they were dancing to “Its Raining Men” – but I feel the excitement of the song was lost somewhat in the performance of the vocalists. Mind you, how many of us can say we can sing as good as the weathergirls! Poor Austin sustained a dance injury to his finger whilst doing his performance. Not that you would have known from watching it. Well done! Agree with Arlene about his arms – its almost like he can only put them out “so” far, like a pensioner with a frozen shoulder.

Rachel and Vincent Well, what can I say about this?! The fact that they got a perfect score says it all I think! Rachel could well win this if she keeps up such a standard. It is difficult to do a foxtrot that wows the audience, but with Vincent at her side, she couldn’t go far wrong! Saw some lovely heel leads, good leg extension, beautiful neck and top line… WOW! Foxtrot is a dance where you have to be perfect in your technical elements (you can’t hide behind pizzazz). I had my 10 paddle out as well for this lovely couple. Quite an old fashioned dress, but these big dresses are actually all the rage out on the dance circuit at the moment believe it or not. Quite a twee song, “close to you”, but it worked.

Tom and Camilla Did a tango to a brilliant song called” Mrs Jones”. Loved Camilla’s dress. Yellow and purple clash in such a fantastic way. Tom pulled his face, but it worked for this dance haha! Still no 10’s for Tom. Maybe the judges are doing a bit of reverse psychology on us viewers – if they started raving over him there is every chance we would make him pay for it, so perhaps he should think himself lucky that they are not fawning all over him.

Of course, on Saturday we also saw John and Kristina do their farewell dance. They did their first/best dance, the waltz. They got a standing ovation, except for the judges who remained steadfastly in their seats. The judges have been getting quite a bit of stick regarding John and I have seen calls for resignations because of their treatment of him. I have three thoughts about the John situation:-

• If anyone is to blame for him becoming an “icon” it is actually the BBC in the way they portrayed him right from the start. Remember when all the girls would chase after him and pretend they fancied him - they built him up into the anti-hero. So they can’t be surprised when voters went along with it!

• He never for one minute thought he would be in this long, and has booked his diary accordingly. He had hoped to be “out” in plenty of time to do his cruise, and given the choice of remaining in the contest to be blamed for everyone else going – or keeping his contract with the cruise, it’s a no brainer.

• The judges were no harsher to him than they have been to anybody else. John himself was probably not bothered by their comments, it is the media (a lot of which is the BBC) that is to blame for whipping up this frenzy. If judges are forced to leave when then they are only doing the job that is expected of them, it will be a sad day for all reality tv shows.

Cant write much at the mo. Come back later for a full report or, go to the Daily Mail Website

cant believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!