Control What You Eat (and trick your body into losing weight), Pg 80

Eating seems to be a big factor in health articles this month, and New Woman is concentrating on hunger - is it real, or are you being a slave to food cravings?

I like the format of this one, since nutritionist Samantha Gowing answers questions from readers, so rather than having to read a huge amount of information in one go, you can scan the pages and check out what you’re interested in.

At the bottom of the page is a food diary, which is a recommended tool to help you work out how well you’re eating. I often suggest this to my clients, and most of the time they don’t even need me to look at it to tell them what they’re doing wrong - it becomes fairly clear once it’s written down. The nice thing about this food diary is a) it’s someone else’s, so you don’t have to feel guilty, and b) there’s instantaneous feedback on what they’ve done wrong - and you still don’t have to feel guilty!

On the last page, there are reader’s suggestions on how to curb your appetite when you might not feel like it. They’re actually all good, and easy to implement.

Nice article, great format, good suggestions. I give it ***

What He Really Thinks Of You Naked, Pg 98

Not a health and fitness article per se, but something I found really interesting. Three women are asked to rate their bodies, both with and without clothes, and describe what they like and dislike about them. Their partners are asked to do the same.

All three women rated themselves 4/10 or below without clothes, while all their partners rated them 10/10 - both naked and with clothes. What’s really disturbing is two out of three of the women don’t really like anything about their bodies. The third rated her feet as her favorite body part, mainly because she spends a lot of time making them pretty.

A cynical person might say the guys felt pressure to give the highest possible score to be seen in a good light, but are women in general really so unhappy with their body image they can’t think of anything positive to say about themselves? Only one of the three women felt comfortable being naked in front of her partner, odds which I think are totally wrong. What’s the general consensus out there?