Judith Wills
I can never understand why many women's magazines run articles just before Christmas on how to calorie-count and choose slimming foods and drinks for the duration so that our diets and waistlines aren't ruined come new year.
Christmas is just a very few days out of the year, a time for celebration, fun, relaxation, families and socialising. Why on earth would anyone want to be worrying about the calories in every morsel of food, making special low-fat mince pies, drinking only soda water and generally being a pain in the butt to anyone who happens to want to actually enjoy themselves?
OK, I could do with losing a few pounds, having spent much of the past couple of months not being at my best healthwise and therefore not having done my quota of exercise (or indeed anywhere near my quota of exercise).
But I am damned if I'm going to be a diet dragon at the dinner table or a pooper at the party and I'm most certainly not going to be parsimonious in the kitchen or, worse, make the authentic versions of all the traditional dishes for the rest, and sanctimonious low-cal versions for me.
No – I'm having normal festive fare and I'm going to enjoy it all. All I will do, is eat in reasonable rather than greedy quantities and avoid the few items I'm not that keen on which also happen to be hugely fattening. I can pass on the chocolates, the brandy butter, the icing sugar and the salted nuts.
And that will leave scope for all the rest, with little guilt attached.
I'll also be trying to brave whatever weather Christmas and the New Year brings, and get out there walking.
Have a great holiday everyone and I'll be back on January 4.
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