New fasting diet? It’s all alien to me

t’s January. It’s detox season. Everyone I know is having a dry month or trying to make up for the excesses of Christmas. I’m sure aliens would have a real laugh if they were to visit us. We get totally hyped up about Christmas, spend a fortune on presents, many of which are unwanted and will be returned to shops by now or end up in the local charity shop, and then we spend the next couple of months hard up because we have spent all our money. Not only that, we are depressed because we ate and drank far too much and we now have to survive on a lettuce leaf and celery for the next month to fit back into our clothes. We could of course buy new clothes, but we can’t because we spent all our money at Christmas. I imagine these little aliens laughing at us like they did in the Smash advert. Do you remember that? They were making fun of us making tatties. “They peel them with their metal knives. Then they smash them all to bits. For mash get Smash!” They would now be saying why don’t they just cut down on the presents? Why don’t they just have one box of chocolates and one bottle of wine? Gordon is one of the new year, new you converts. We watched a diet programme on TV which talked about the merits of each one. He decided that the one for him was the 16:8 diet. The idea is that we should fast for longer before we break the fast, so breakfast, as we know it, is later in the day. In other words, he fasts for 16 hours then eats during the other 8. He eats healthily but not a diet as such. He goes to work and then has his breakfast at 11am and then makes sure he has dinner by 7pm. He then has nothing else until the next morning at 11am. After the first week he has already lost 10lbs so it seems to be working very well. I don’t know if I could do it, I’m always ready for my 14 porridge as soon as I get up. Speaking of regular eating patterns, our new cat seems to know exactly when it’s time for her meals. She is fitting in brilliantly, it’s as if she is just part of the family now. She certainly rules the roost, getting the best position on the sofa every night and meowing to remind us when she wants something. What a life cats have. I’m rushing around doing the housework, cooking dinner and working and she barely lifts her head up off her mat. Maybe it’s all the household pets not the aliens who are having a laugh at us. It’s probably a bit like the film Toy Story when all the toys come alive. All the cats are probably phoning their friends as soon as we go to bed saying “did you see This Morning today? My owner was meant to be watching it but she was far too busy Hoovering so I watched it by myself.” The good thing about dry January and everyone watching the pennies is that hopefully everyone is staying in on Saturday nights and watching Let It Shine on BBC1. Let me know what your thoughts were? @yvieburnett if you are on Twitter. As you know, in TV it’s all about the viewing figures. The new ITV Voice was also on Saturday and the viewing figures for the two shows were very close. Let It Shine managed to pull in more viewers but who knows in the weeks to come which show will be the more successful. I keep thinking I will be out of a job and singing shows won’t be on TV any more, but we still seem to be switching them on every Saturday night. There is lots of exciting stuff happening on Let It Shine in the next few weeks, so keep watching. It’s back on again tonight and is lots of fun right from the very first performance. Hope you enjoy it. Have a good week. Yvie x The Press and Journal | Saturday, January 14, 2017