Monday, June 21, 2010

Fixing The Wobbly Parts



I have been fascinated by the swimwear that started to appear about two years ago that claimed to make you look 10 lbs thinner. In actual fact, it does make one's torso tighter and trimmer, so from that perspective it does do what it claims to do.

So, if I was an apple shape, I would be totally happy right now, having had this swimwear successfully reduce me from a large Macintosh to a small Fuji.

Unfortunately, I am not a Macintosh apple, I am a Barlett Pear.

That means that although I work quite hard at keeping in shape, what excess baggage I do carry around, sits contentedly at the top of my thighs. So you can imagine what I look like when I put on a piece of this Longitude Swimwear. Totally trim and beautiful through the torso and hips, with a couple of small protuberances laughing gleefully at me from the top of my thighs.

However, I have to admit that Longitude has done its best. After all, to resolve all the shape problems that women have to face, we would have to return to the bathing wear of the 1920's in which we were covered from shoulder to mid-calf, and I am not sure that even I am ready for that.

Come to think of it, if I did 100 laps of the pool a day, rather than my regular 50, I might not even be concerned about which parts of me can be artificially reduced by wearing super tight swimwear.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Double Disaster



OK, so I have been away for a while, but if anything could shake the Frustrated Female out of the bushes, it is KFC's Double D sandwich.

As a woman and a mom, I know that I am not alone in trying to keep my daughter on a positive path to a healthy lifestyle. She is a beautiful girl who is a little on the portly side, so I am constantly walking that fine line between wanting to help her make healthy food choices and not wanting to give her a complex about her weight.

So it is of no small matter to me when a company as large as KFC - and my daughter loves it by the way - instead of introducing a healthier option to their incredibly greasy chicken, goes the other way and launches the Double D. For any of you that haven't encountered this gastronomic delight, it is basically two large pieces of fried chicken that have replaced a regular bun, sandwiching a combination of bacon, mayonnaise and a number of other delights in between them. Alone, it contains more salt than it is recommended the average person consumes in a day, and almost 40% of the calories.

So far, I have managed to keep the Double D off my daughter's radar screen, but if KFC is going to convince me that it is a restaurant and a brand that I should keep in my repetoire and have warm, fuzzy feelings about, it is definitely on the wrong track. Especially since women account for over 60% of all fast food visits - either with or without their kids.