Giving away my old Diet books

On Sunday mornings I have my own radio show.  I do the Kitchen bit on the BBC Radio Northampton Kitchen Garden show every week from 10am to 11am.  I love it.  It’s fun and really pushes me to get out there and chat with people.  During the past year I’ve had all sorts of guests on the show, from the charming Wiliam Sitwell of Waitrose Illustrated to Ms Marmitelover, James Ramsden, the gorgeous Dan Lepard, Rick Stein, lovely Jules from the Secret Supper society and Gary Jones Head Chef at Le Manoir, Bryn Williams, Auther Potts Dawson and Peggy Porschen, Aldo Zilli alongside lots of local people such as Angelina Cupcake,  Waterloo Cottage farm from Great Oxenden, Ondine our very own Northamptonshire Masterchef finalist and our local Adam Grey.  I’ve been out and about to Oundle, Towcester and Northampton Farmers markets, covered the Northamptonshire food festival and chattered with so many people it’s been such a fabulous year.  I adore Kevin Saddington and Johnny Amos .. we make a great team and  I get so many comments every week from people who listen to the show!  That last time I asked about the listening figures I think it’s about 120,000 people locally, give or take a couple!

So as we were talking New Years resolutions last Sunday Kevin noticed that my diet books I had brought into the studio were all unused.  As I explained that I was always starting diets and then giving up in a fit of utter madness I agreed to kevin's suggestion to diet and chat about it in the show.  But not just diet, but stick to a plan and get weighed in each week live .. yes you read that correctly  ..on air.  .. for a whole year with the aim of loosing 1 lb. a week every week.  Even as I write this I am having a mini meltdown .. I must be a lunatic.   Writing it down right now it seems even more insane.  Why after a decade of trying to loose weight would I suddenly decide to say something so  …  well so ..  just so oh..  what have I done?

I spoke to my boss Mark a couple of days after the show.  I explained that despite all the listeners knowing what I had said I hadn’t actually dared to tell my husband. When I finally mustered up the courage it was as I thought ..  he roared with laugher and echoed Mark's response.  Something along the lines of well you’d better do it then!  -   It was a relatively kind response considering that he's seen me fail so many times before. 

I can’t do it alone. So I decided to sign up with my local Rosemary Conely Class.  I couldn’t face the start of the class so I waited until the end.  As everyone was walking out I walked in and went to speak to Gill who runs the class. I introduced myself and then before I know what happened I burst into tears. I covered my face with my hands and wept.  Wept in anger and shame.  Of all the people in the world who should be able to loose weight it should be me. I know more about food than most people yet despite every attempt over the years I fail over and over again. It’s internally humiliating and so I gave up believing. 

Not so long ago a friend stopped  .. well  .. being my friend with no explanation. It really upset me, and I found myself thinking  that if I was slim then she would still like me.  Of course my rational brain says otherwise, but the emotional me says the effect I have on people would be different if there was less of me.  So really I have her to thank for making me feel so low that there was nowhere else to go but up.

At the same time another lovely lady called Rachel sent me a book called Fat girl Slim in the post. It was a random act of kindness, and as I looked at the book I realized Rachel thinks I can actually do it.  As I explained the effect these two women had on me to Gill tears rolled down my face, She nodded, smiled handed me a tissue before showing me photos of herself before she lost 10 stone. Over half her body weight. Amazing.   For my own sanity I didn’t want to know my weight, so Gill weighted me in and gave me a ground 0 start point. There was no judgment just a friendly smile and understanding. So here I am writing a post I’d rather nobody who knows me reads, and yet in some strange way my tears were in part relief.  Relief that I have finally made my mind up to just do it.

So I am having a clear out of my old books. I am keeping the two Rosmary Conely Books, and the Fat girl Slim .. but the others might inspire someone else, so I am going to give the following books away.

The Dukan Diet

Japanese Women don’t get old or Fat

The Paleao Diet

Neris and India’s Idiot proof Diet

Atkins for Life

RULES

Please see competition Rules before entering. This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a UK mainland address.  The winner will be chosen using an online randomiser and announced on 1^st February 2012 You need to have a profile the allow me to get back in touch however please do not include your email in the actual comment as well.

There is one main way to enter and there are 3 more chances to win .. . and you must leave a separate comment for each bonus entry otherwise they will not be counted. 

For a chance to win one of these books please comment and tell me your top diet tip

For a second chance to win please tweet this post using the button below and you MUST comment with your twitter ID telling me you have done so.

For a third chance to win please follow @VanessaKimbell on Twitter and comment below to tell me you have done so.

Please say which book you’d like in your comment!

Each comment counts and an entrance you can make one comment per follow and details of what your top tips are and you may tweet this article daily.  The winners will be picked using a randomizing website.