Newspapers and magazines are constantly referring to dress sizes – they express shock and horror if they find out that a celebrity is a size 14!  However, if that celebrity is 5' 10" tall, then a size 14 is a reasonable size to be, and if she was a size 16, then that wouldn’t mean that she was overweight either. A woman’s dress size depends on height, age, and general body shape, so the media are causing many women to feel stressed about their dress size, when it is not a true indicator of whether a woman is a healthy weight, or not. Some women think that they are overweight if their midriff bulges slightly over their waistbands, but it may be just that their abdominal muscles need exercising, and if they lost weight, they would be too thin, and be putting their health at risk. Therefore, if you are in any doubt as to whether you really need to lose weight, or whether you just need to tone-up by exercising, ask for your doctor’s opinion – don’t be influenced by newspapers and magazines.

As suggested in the guidelines, it’s less stressful to make gradual changes to your diet, and making gradual changes also has the advantage that other people are a lot less likely to notice and comment on the changes – which is useful if you also want to change the way your family eats, without them making a fuss, or don’t want work colleagues to start asking if you’ve lost any weight yet.

If you live with other people, or you have to eat in front of people at work, you may feel self-conscious if anybody comments on any changes that you make to your eating or drinking habits – and they may try to encourage you to eat or drink things which aren’t good for you. There can be several reasons why people do this – e.g. because they don’t realise that being overweight usually leads to health problems which get more serious over time, or they have a strange sense of humour!

If anybody comments that you’re not eating or drinking your usual items, you could say that you just felt like something different, or use your imagination. For example,  you could say that you’re drinking mineral water instead of a sugary canned drink because you’ve found that it quenches your thirst better, or if you’re munching on strips of peppers, you could say that you were looking at them in the supermarket, thinking how nice they looked, and a woman came along and told you that they’re so crispy and juicy that she eats strips of them as a snack - so you bought one, and now you’re ‘hooked’ - get the idea? Don’t mention that you’re hoping to lose weight, or it could prompt everybody to discuss their own failed attempts to lose weight, which can be demoralising. Somebody could also try to convince you that being overweight is your ‘right’ or something similar – when it’s your right to be healthy and reduce the risk of being ill in the future. However, you could tell them about this website when you do achieve a weight that you’re happy with!