Shop Yourself Slim

Usually when I read surveys, I skim over them with a disinterested air and an urge to get onto some more constructive reading – such as what shoulder pad size we should all be sporting this season.

So I was knocked sideways when I saw a survey that thrilled me so much, I read it twice!

The basis of this revelatory read was that shopping can make your slim- oh yes! Apparently, during the course of a year, the average woman takes a trot round the shops over 130 times and that can result in 48,000 calories being burnt off over the twelve months.

Clearly if that's based on an 'average woman', then a shopaholic is going to be shedding a lot more pounds and ounces in her quest for the perfect purchase!

Yes, I know, there is a flaw.

For people like me who really shouldn’t be shopping, this is simply a case of shedding more pounds from my wallet than my waist.

But I have a solution…

If the shopping alone burns all those calories, just think how many more you’ll burn when you return all those goodies for a refund.

Loving My Lunch!

Much as I love them both, when it comes to food, I’m fed up mooching around M & S and I’m bored with Boots. And that can only mean one thing...

It’s time to start packing my own lunch!

Okay, so this isn’t the first time I’ve launched myself into lunch brought from home and on every previous occasion I’ve lasted about a week before I’m sick of the sight of soggy cheese sandwiches and a bashed apple.

Not this time - oh no!!

To keep me keen (and lean) I’ve invested in the cutest lunchboxes ever. They arrived yesterday and bring a smile to my face with the thought of all the dinky delights I’m going to pack into them.

They come from a brilliant company called Pinks and Green, and range from teeny yoghurt pot size up to fairly chunky sandwich size. You even get a boy and girl version - although I opted for the boy version as it has a dog on one of them (wouldn’t like to upset Hobbs with a cat).

Too cool for school!

You’ll have noticed by now that they are clearly designed with kids in mind, but why should they get all the fun when it comes to food?

Now what shall I pack in them first? Crudities with dip in the middle sized one? Some chopped fruit and yoghurt in the smaller one? Chicken and salad in the big one? Definitely some chocolate raisins in that teeny little one!

Posh & Her Dosh

Good old Posh - just as you think you’re starting to warm to her slightly, she does something else that has you wanting to bash her over the head with her own Hermes handbag.

She has just announced that she is a shopaholic and that it’s like a drug to her. A drug that she happily told us got her high enough to spend a cool one million dollars in just one day.

Shopaholic needing our sympathy
or just plain smug?

Being a recovering shopaholic myself, part of me can see where she's coming from, but instead of her using the media to get a serious message across, it feels as though she's just rubbing salt into our poor, raw, recession inflicted wounds.

You can see why I was struggling to be sympathetic towards the plight of poor Mrs Beckham and her million dollar trolley dash, when I was given the opportunity to talk about all things shopping and debt related on the Stephen Nolan Show on Radio 5 Live last night.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the rest of us Brits are stuck in the grip of another week of Arctic weather - and part of me is secretly pleased.

The reason being that it takes about ten minutes to get on enough layers just to walk the dog, so the mere thought of trailing into town and removing even one of those layers in a chilly changing room is enough to put me off the January sales forever.

So far, the only item I’ve forked out on is a pair of blissfully warm Marmot gloves to see me through the snowy season.

The big freeze is saving me a fortune!

Out With The Old, In With The New

New Year equals New Resolutions, written in my best handwriting with my poshest pen in a new journal bought specifically for the purpose.

Once done, I’ll blow the ink dry, close the cover and either instantly forget about them or beat myself up for a few weeks at my inadequacy to stick to them.

This year, there is no new journal and my poshest pen has only been taken from its box to write the most mundane of shopping lists. That sums up the only resolutions I have committed to this year:

1. To stop putting pressure on myself with endless lists of tasks and things I believe I should be doing, but know I will never get round to (hence the lack of a new journal to remove the temptation to start a new list in the first place).

2. Take all those things that I consider too expensive / rare / irreplaceable and use them for the purpose they were actually intended and not merely as decorative pieces (hence the reason that poshest pen has been dragged from its satin lined tomb and will be enjoyed at every opportunity).

And apart from my yearly promise to be nicer to everyone and less of a stroppy moo (never manage to stick to that one!), that is it.

Now, you’ll have to excuse me.

I’m going to look out my white fur (faux!) snow boots that have never seen a snow flake in their life. They’ll be just the thing to wear while I’m sledging on the chess board we commissioned about a decade ago but have never got round to finding pieces that matched it.