Tag Archives: slimmer

Get back into those skinny jeans – top tips

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London: Still got a pair of jeans in the back of the cupboard you can’t wait to get back into? You’re not alone….

A nice pair of jeans ticks both the boxes when it comes to fashion and comfort, and as the years have gone by they’ve remained an enduring style staple in many a closet.

Over a third of women (35%) admit to owning trophy jeans, a pair they used to fit into and aspire to fit into again in the future. These jeans –held on to as physical reminder of when they felt they looked their best – are frequently used as an inspiration to women to lose weight.

There are close to 130m pairs of jeans across the UK, with each woman owning an average of five different pairs. But these perfect jeans have been with many of us for so long that we have celebrated a crystal anniversary with them! One in ten women aged 55+ say they’ve held onto their jeans more than 10-15 years, according to new research.

These trophy jeans are also seen as offering the promise of more happiness than many of life’s seminal moments. One in five women say the elation of fitting into their goal pair could evoke more euphoria than attending their best friend’s wedding (21%) or even winning the lottery (20%). In fact, around one sixth of those women (16%) would forego more than £10,000 just to fit into their slim jeans! 2.3m women said achieving that jean dream would be better than a £25k lottery win.

As fashion is cyclical, chances are many women’s goal jeans will be back in fashion in 2010! On average women have held on to their goal jeans for 3 years with one in six women holding onto their trophy jeans for the length of time they’ve been at their job (18%), and a further one in ten women admitting their perfect jeans have outlasted their longest relationship, according to the research by Kellogg’s Special K as part of their Love Your Jeans Again campaign.

Psychotherapist Elisabeth Wilson said, “For many women having a motivational milestone is absolutely vital to their success and moreover their sense of achievement. 70% of the women surveyed said they would consider fitting back into their goal jeans a considerable achievement they’d be very proud of and it’s well documented that visualising themselves wearing their goal jeans is the kind of positive imaging that will help them achieve great results. This combined with the power of positive thinking, support from others and a plan to kick-start a healthy lifestyle leads to real results.

Find out more here Fit into those jeans

For more information visit www.myspecialk.co.uk

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National Bike Week – 14-22 June

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London: Bike Week, the UK’s biggest mass participation cycling event, is this year challenging families to get out of their cars, step away from the TV and get on their bikes. The call to action is ‘Free the Family’ and rediscover how much fun you can have together on a bike.

From Bristol to Belfast and Edinburgh to Eastbourne, thousands of free cycling events will provide the opportunity for everyone from total novices to passionate cyclists to get on their bikes. This year’s focus on the family means there will be children’s rides, free bike safety checks and advice on getting started.

Andre Curtis, Manager at Bike Week said; “Plenty of parents have forgotten how much fun cycling was as a child. This year’s Bike Week will help to revive those memories and encourage families to spend quality family time together, have fun and get fit at the same time. We hope that taking part in a Bike Week event will act as a catalyst for people to cycle more regularly and enjoy the long term benefits of a healthier lifestyle.”

Why not join the 500,000 people who came along last year? To find out what is taking place in your local area, visit www.bikeweek.org.ukand enter your postcode. If you’d like to take part but don’t have a bike – this shouldn’t stop you – you can simply search for your nearest bike rental outlet on the website. All participants get the chance to win a Center Parcs family holiday – giving another reason to get on your bike!

For further information, or if you’d like to organise your own event, log on to www.bikeweek.org.uk or phone 0845 612 0661 (within UK)

Five reasons to get on your bike:

1. Cyclists live on average at least two years longer than non-cyclists and their fitness levels are equivalent to being ten years younger – so forget nip and tuck, think pedal and push!

2. Cycling is the ultimate family activity; it’s healthy, fun and encourages children to be independent.

3.Twenty minutes of gentle cycling burns up to 100 calories, so if you cycle to work, you’ll be able to have that afternoon treat without feeling an inch of guilt!

4. Studies show that car drivers are exposed to five times as much polluted air than cyclists, making cycling good for the environment, as well as your health

5. In a rush? Cycling is often much quicker than public transport or taking the car – even better, you won’t spend a penny on public transport, road tax, parking, MOT or fuel.

Bike Week will run from 14-22 June 2008
Bike Week is one of the UK’s biggest annual promotions of cycling and provides a national umbrella for locally organised events and activities up and down the country.

Bike Week began as a grass-roots organisation in 1923 and receives funding from the Department for Transport, Cycling England, Transport for London, Northern Ireland Executive, The Welsh Assembly Government and The Scottish Government. Bike Week also receives funding from the cycle industry via Bike Hub.

The partners that run Bike Week are drawn from the whole cycling community including the cycle industry, Cycling England and Cycling Scotland, Sustrans, CTC and Cycle Campaign Network. More information can be found at www.bikeweek.org.uk

First diet pill approved by the FDA goes on sale in US

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Los Angeles: The first over-the-counter diet drug approved by the US Food & Drug Administration has gone on sale. In some cities there were stampedes as the drug called Alli sold out.

Alli is a lower dose version of the prescription-only drug called Xenical that blocks absorption of fat. It works by disabling some of the natural enzymes in the digestive system that break down fat for absorption. When those enzymes can’t do their job, excess fat passes through the body.

Those who use alli “may recognize it in the toilet as something that looks like the oil on top of pizza,” according to the product Web site – www.myalli.com Nutrients absorbed from carbohydrates and proteins are not affected

The drug blocks about one-quarter of fat consumed. When used along with a healthy diet plan and regular exercise, about half of people taking Alli in clinical studies lost 5 percent of their body weight in six months.

But the drug has some unpleasant side effects. Digestive side effects include gas with oily spotting, loose stool, and hard-to-control bowel movements, reports its manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline.These side effects are more likely when a person consumes more than 30 percent of fat in a meal.

The drug is relatively expensive at $40 to $50 for 20- and 30-day starter kits may have put customers off.

Women who work are less likely to be obese

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London: Holding down a job and being a mum in a steady relationship helps keep women healthy and in good shape over the long term, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

A career as a homemaker seems to increase the chances of becoming obese, indicates the research.

The authors base their findings on data from women participants in the Medical Research Council National Study of Health and Development. This tracks the long term health of British men and women born in 1946 throughout their life.

Health at the age of 26 and in mid life at the age of 54 was assessed using a validated questionnaire.

Information about the women’s employment history, marital status, and whether they had had children was also collected for every decade from the age of 26. Their weight and height were also measured at regular intervals.

Analysis of the information showed that by the age of 54 women who had been partners, parents, and employees were significantly less likely to report ill health than women who did not fulfil all three roles.

Women who had been home-makers for all or most of their lives, and had not held down a job, were most likely to say their health was poor, followed by lone mothers and childless women.

Women who had worked during several periods of their lives were less likely to be obese than women who had rarely worked. Weight gain tended to occur at a faster rate among the homemakers.

Obesity was most common among the long term homemakers (38%) and least common among women who had fulfilled all three roles (23%).

These findings were not explained by the women’s earlier health nor did health status in early life influence whether the women became employees, wives, or mothers.

The authors conclude that good health among women is more likely to be the result, rather than the cause, of adopting several roles.