Without being rich, young or naturally beautiful, you can still look enviably fabulous.
It's a reassuring thought that even apparently flawless, effortlessly pretty women have figure problems. At least I have never met anyone yet, not even a model, who did not have something she wanted to put right. A small bulge here, a few rogue pounds there, are a cross most of us have to bear. Carelessly letting the pounds creep on means you have let go of one of life's great pleasures: the satisfaction of feeling and looking your best.
Major lifestyle changes towards a healthier diet might be the best answer, but when the problem is a small one, a crash diet is a joy. It is incredible to think that twenty or thirty years of happiness and satisfaction with your shape can be bypassed for the lack of a little willpower or direction, and many women spend years in the misery of a weight problem they cannot or will not address.
In this weight-conscious world probably the first thing we think when we say 'diet' is weight loss and sacrifice. For most of us, the best diet is lifelong, intelligent eating: keeping meals low-calorie, getting out of the habit of sugar in coffee or mindless snacks. It does not mean never putting a spoon into a pudding. It simply means compensating at the next meal and using common-sense.
Crash diets might have had a bad press but they are practical and let's be honest, none of us is so famished that a week of restriction will cause harm. Crash dieting is merely civilised, a nice compromise between the pleasures of the moment and the pleasures of the future. Indeed, if you have stored a little fat through eating too much starch and sugar and drinking too much alcohol, a week or two of restriction and simple, nutritious food is a blessed holiday for your overburdened body.
The mistake some people make is to start a diet as if it is the end of something. The simple truth is that a realistic translation of a diet is "now at last I can wear those skinny jeans...!"
LOSE THOSE VANITY POUNDS THE FASTEST WAY - WITH A Crash Diet.
Coming December 16th.
Available December 16th 2007