In the UK, there is a pretty good programme on TV on Friday evenings, last nights' was very good, there's another programme next Friday. It's Victoria Wood's Fat Documentary. She's a person who has battled with weight problems and image problems the whole of her life - she mentioned last night that she spent 30 years on one diet or another from the age of 12.

One of the major things that came over (well to me anyway) was that people went to slimming clubs for the social side of it, rather than any major desire to weigh less (although that seems to be a beneficial side effect). The other really astute observation was that you have to actually sit down, on the end of the bed as it were, and look yourself in the face. If you don't like what you see, then that is probably the reason you are caught in the 'eat because I'm unhappy, unhappy because I'm too fat, I'm too fat because I eat too much' circle. Once you identify this circle (or whatever it is that drives you to eat too much/the wrong foods), then you can identify the way out. Once you decide that you do like the person you are, the feelings that drive you to excesses should lessen and you can control them.

The last thing that struck me, was that it was the 'diet or die' choice that drove most people to a serious weight loss. Many of the people she spoke to (UK MP's Nigel Lawson, Anne Widdecome to name two) were given the option of losing weight or having serious pain/dangerous health problem for the rest of their lives.

I know that's what drove me to losing weight, and still pushes me towards my final goal. I don't know what that goal is yet, I'm still taking the baby steps.

LTS