For the first time ever in my life I've finally reached a feeling of equilibrium with my body - most women fight against their desire to consume vast quantities of chocolate and pies as it will make them horribly fat and therefore unattractive - of course. I'm not even going to get into the arguments about female body image, fashion, size zero, blah, blah, blah. We all know, we've all read it and quite frankly I'm sick of it. The fact of the matter is I'm happier when I'm slim, fit and healthy because my clothes fit better, look better and I feel better and look better. Right now I've got a good balance between eating and exercising - in the last week I've done around 20 miles (mainly off road) on my bike, about half a kilometre swimming and climbed around 120m. None of these are particularly impressive but they mean that I don't have to worry too much about what I'm eating. If I want to have that bar of chocolate I can. I'm a great believer in all things in moderation and eating what I chose to eat, when I want to, is all part of it.
For my part I believe that being healthy is far, far more important than being skinny. I don't want to be skinny. I want to be fit. I like having enough muscle to be able to pull myself up a wall or cycle hard up a hill. If during the process of all that exercise I lose some flab then that's terrific. I don't want bits that wobble, but equally I don't want my bones showing. Women, and men for that matter, all look better when their skeletons are not visible but their musculature is visible a little. I'm not keen on over muscled bodies, male or female, but both climbers and cyclists tend to have little fat and great lean muscles. That's the look I'm after - lean but most importantly, functional. No point at all, to my mind, in having either skin and bone or bulked up pecs. I want to see people who look as though they could work outside all day lugging around things or throwing themselves up or off things. I believe that's the idea for the human frame. In fact so did the Greeks and Romans...when I was doing my A levels I spent many happy hours looking at ancient sculptures....
There is of course a huge pressure on us all to look a certain way. The pressure isn't entirely fuelled by the Media as I believe a good deal of the pressure is from within - because I like the athletic look I want to emulate that. Likewise if I thought that the likes of Jordan or other glamour models were beautiful - which in many ways they are - and more importantly, ideally achievable, then I'd be working towards looking like an Essex Babe. But that doesn't do it for me. Added to which the day to day pressures of just what's going on in our lives does have a bearing. I'm not afflicted by fame - despite my magazine column with accompanying photograph - so I don't know how I'd deal with the constant hounding that some stars seem to attract. Stress always has an adverse effect on some personality types leading to either the gaining or losing of large amounts of weight. Drug or drink habits don't help. 
I can't stop being reminded of a picture I saw the other day of Amy Winehouse - not the terrible spotty one, but the photos showing the change she's undergone in the last few years from beautiful young woman to a bag of bones. It would seem that there isn't much hope for her as she appears to be self-destructing right before our eyes.
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