It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog. I’ve been keeping very busy; I think that helps me cope. Someone asked me the other day how I was coping in isolation. I replied that I was doing well, I’m quite content indoors with my dressing gown and my Ugg boots. ‘So, are you a bit of an introvert?’ I chuckled. An introvert couldn’t be further from who I am. I love hanging out with my friends. I love boisterous laughter, inappropriate jokes, I hate small talk, I love cutting right to the chase and getting in deep on those conversations that help you know someone that little bit better. I’m not ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, my youngest daughter finally lost her first tooth. After years of watching her older brother and sister lose their teeth in return for cash, it had been a long-anticipated moment in her almost 7-year-old life. Shortly after her tooth came out, it dawned on me that I had no small change. As we were in ‘stay at home unless it’s for essentials’ lockdown, I was suddenly filled with panic. Now I’m going to fess up here and admit that in the past I’ve raided the kid’s own piggy bank to effectively self-fund the loss of a tooth, but even those means had dried up. Our collection ..read more

“We’re all going to be so fat when we come out of isolation!” “I need a lock on my fridge, I can’t stop snacking, I’m putting on so much weight!” “I’m getting so flabby; I really need to get back on my diet!” “Don’t let your leggings lull you into a false sense of security, try your skinny jeans on at least once a week to keep track of yourself!”   These are just a few of the things being ‘joked’ about in memes, as posts and as general banter about food and diet during Covid-19, but I for one am not buying it! Over 3 years ago now, as a 42-year-old, well-educated mother to 3, I came clean ..read more

Last night my 9-year-old asked if we could have a private chat. This isn’t an unusual occurrence, we have private chats whenever she needs to get something off her chest, but it’s always about something that is very important to her. We sat down in her room where she began recalling a conversation that had taken place that morning with her 6-year-old sister and her 11-year-old brother. They’d been brushing their teeth, and somehow the conversation had turned to Survivor, a show they all enjoy watching, and about Brooke, the ultra-thin, strong, capable, pretty young woman on the show. My son ha ..read more

They were the words that would break any mother’s heart. Earlier that day, I had been observing my 9 year old daughter at her party. Surrounded by her friends, she appeared almost to be playing a character. She oozed a cool girl persona, a too cool for school girl, someone I didn’t recognise. That evening as we sat on my bed, I shared my observations with her. “Did you feel like you were being yourself today?” I asked gently. “What do you mean?” she asked. “It looked to me like you were trying to be someone else, almost like someone you watch on your shows, someone trying to be cool. You just ..read more

I don’t know about you, but I feel like diet ads are all over the tv at the moment. There’s a new one around at the moment, it’s the diet that promises it’s not a diet, but a ‘lifestyle’. It’s so sad that we still buy into it even though all the research proves that diets don’t work long term, they never have. One of the craziest things I learned when I started my journey into the diet free world after decades of chronic dieting, was that we were actually dieting ourselves heavier. WTF??? I couldn’t believe it; it was insane to me! If you want to learn more about that, just look up set point t ..read more

With the warmer weather approaching, and now with a few hot days under our belt, I’ve noticed a few children at the schools I’ve worked at, as well as older students on their way home from school, wearing jumpers and jackets in the heat of the afternoon. My heart breaks for these students, the ones so uncomfortable in their own skin, so unhappy with their body’s that they’d prefer to swelter under a heavy jacket, then let their bodies be seen. To some extent I was one of those kids when I was growing up, except for me, it was wearing an over sized t-shirt over the top of my bathers. I felt inc ..read more

I don’t think I’ve written a blog for at least 6 months. Somewhere along the way, I started believing that I’d run out of things to say, and perhaps more than that, I stopped believing in myself. When I left my job back at the end of 2017, I jumped head first- or rather heart first, into my Mirror Movement business. I had such grand plans… Looking back, I feel like I made one mistake after another. I think I focused on the dressing instead of the ingredients, and along the way I got lost. Was my story about eating disorders, was it about the impact mothers have on their daughters, on body imag ..read more

Today, May 6th, is International No Diet day, a day that if you’d told me years earlier, I’d be celebrating, would’ve brought with it, raucous laughter. After growing up with a mother who dieted, it seemed only fitting and natural that I would follow along that same path. Weight Watchers, Keto, you name it, I’d done it. Two years ago, this month, that all changed. Sometimes there are moments in life that have the power to change the trajectory of your life; for me, this was one of them. After coming clean about secretly living with a hidden eating disorder for the previous 20 years, and now as ..read more

So recently I’ve seen myself in photos. It’s so interesting. We all have an image or idea of how we look in our minds, and it can be shocking and confronting to see an image that conflicts with that idea. Seeing yourself in a photo is enough to send most people spiralling into a mindset of needing to go on a diet and lose weight. We feel ashamed that what we see before us is so different to the way we thought we looked, and inner panic ensues. I have undergone a huge amount of personal growth over the past few years. I was someone whose mood was determined by the number on the scales, and some ..read more