The Lovely Huw

Doggie politics kicking in both of them wanting to be co-pilot! Shelagh not impressed with Minty's boldness...see the resentful glare! Also quite hard to steer...

Ah, that's more like it - there's only one co-pilot on this boat....and it's not that upstart Minty!!

Nice sunny pub with flowers and fruity Pimms.....God it was good!

Those sailing boats took up a lot of room, we were nearly in the reeds trying not to get in their way.

Very chatty African Grey parrot in Upton. We used to have one in Nigeria when I was a kid so it took me back.

Glam Girl admitted in her blog recently that she couldn't do it on her own so she was going to have to give in and had signed up for Personal Training. She seemed to think it was a bad thing. I don't understand it.

I've been going to personal training with The Lovely Huw (TLH) for 2 and a half years now. Twice a week in his studio gym just a mile from home from 7am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is the most consistent I have ever been with any form of exercise and I've seen the biggest changes in my physique as well. It is definitely a "non-negotiable" in my life and I only miss for very good reasons (holidays, death...and...er, that's it). It's so embedded that all my colleagues know not to book me in for a meeting before 10am on Tuesday or Thursdays either.

TLH is a really nice guy. God knows what he makes of my early morning stream of consciousness chatter on every subject under the sun but he seems to enjoy it! I wouldn't have thought that I'm the chatty type at 7am but apparently I am! Although I chat about everything (I mean it - everything!!), it's particularly helpful to be able to talk about food and exercise. And those huge mirrors mean that I have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide on the weight front. I can see pretty quickly when I've gained and enjoy the thinness when I have dropped weight!

In terms of concrete, objective proof that it works....well, we do the weighing and measuring thing every now and then. Probably not as often or as systematically as I should to be honest but it is helpful to be able to look back and see exactly where I was over the last few years.

The week after I finished filming for the Sky show, I asked him to do a full set of weights and measurements to act as a fresh benchmark. My request followed on from what Steve Peters had recommended I do - have an external, objective base so that my chimp can't fool me into thinking that I'm doing okay if I'm actually straying.

Having taken skinfolds and measured etc TLH caluclated my 5 body fat at 29%. Apparently the normal/okay range is between 20 and 30% so, for a still largish lass, 29% is not too bad. We had a look back and found a previous measurement from last spring when I weighed almost exactly the same (within 1kg) but my fat % was 33%! So, I may have gained and then lost weight over the last year but I have definitely reduced the percentage of me which is fat!

I can see the change in my clothes too. I know roughly when I weighed this much over my life - it's not difficult - last spring; around the time of my wedding in 1994 and when I was at Law School in 1991/2. Looking back at photos of me from those dates I know that I was wearing a bigger size in clothes. In 1991/2 and 1994 I was a size 18, maybe a 16 in some shops or styles. Last spring a size 16 and now a 14/16! And that size 14 is not just in the "generous" shops (we all know who they are). I mean a Dorothy Perkins size 14 on top and bottom! I still have to buy 16's if the style is tight on the legs and hips, say skinny jeans but everything else is fine in a 14.

So, that truism which gets trotted out to every dieter as an excuse for not losing weight, that "maybe you've gained muscle?", might be actually true??!

I'm thanking TLH anyway: without him pressing 12.5kg weights into my hands and ordering me to knock out those shoulder presses or get on with a few hundred split squats, I would NOT be wearing sleeveless tops (due to my - what was it Peridot called them - Bingo Wings of Doom??) and my bum would be even bigger in this!!!