What does a girl have to do to get a compliment around here? You folks might be getting your fill of plaudits but me? Well, I know I married a man of few words but let’s just say it’s been a little too quiet of late. Before I get going on my mega-moan I would like to point out that I have joined the tide of pre-Christmas desperate dieters. My husband, who is irritated by the world’s self-imposed Christmas deadline sniggered when I announced I would only be having one potato with my Sunday roast instead of the usual 45. “You love your carbs too much, you’ll never do it. Who’s going to notice anyway?” well not you obviously… “So let me get this straight, you’re going to try and lose as much weight as you can, as quickly as you can, then you’re going to stuff yourself silly for a week and put it all back on again.” “…mmm yes” I offered, weakly. Annoyingly, he had a point but there’s nothing like a doubter to spur you on. So it was with a rumbling tum that I retired to bed that night having refused seconds and a mouth-watering sticky toffee pud. My regime of diet and exercise was born and not surprisingly the pounds started to drop off. I was in the zone! I knew it was going well when I noticed that the waistband on my jeans was no longer cutting into me like a cheese-wire. When I mentioned this to my husband he told me ‘helpfully’ that jeans do stretch if you’ve had them long enough. A few days later I came home traumatised after having seen myself in a shop changing room mirror. All my glee at losing a few pounds had disappeared. I was handing it to him on a plate now, this was his big chance to tell me how great I looked and how all those mirrors are just pure evil. “Oh no”, he started – it was promising – “maybe you should do the sit ups every day instead of just on gym days?” Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, his failure to see what was right in front of him turned out to be my biggest success as I strove harder to get noticed. His light bulb moment finally arrived at a relative’s 80th birthday party. Hair and make-up. CHECK. Little black dress. CHECK. Looking me up and down like he’d only just met me he declared “you’ve got the best body out of everyone in here tonight.” In a line-up of little old ladies I should hope so, but it’s a compliment and I’m taking it. Now pass those bloomin chocolates!