Many of you will already have forgotten your New Year's resolutions, be it giving up smoking, cutting down on alcohol or losing weight.

Incentives to knuckle under and work at our goals are made harder than ever these days with advertisers tempting us to buy the latest chocolate bar or Alco-pop.

With so many channels on Sky flooding our homes with docu-soaps, you can find yourself so busy watching other people's lives there's simply no time to get out there and have a life yourself. Exercise simply falls off your agenda. Excuses, excuses

Well I have found one female who's willing to put money where her mouth is, having decided for 2003 she will transform herself and no excuses.

Helen Wilman, as some readers will remember, is the first class beauty therapist I wrote about at the beginning of last year. She spends her days making the rest of us look and feel better and yet, until now, has never taken time to consider her own well-being.

At only 21, Helen weighs 15 stone and needs a UK dress size 20.

Like a lot of young people, Helen hasn't paid much attention to her diet. She enjoys take-aways at the end of a night out and will be the first to admit she can drink one too many lagers.

Helen often misses breakfast, leaving herself over-hungry by lunch-time always a mistake. Suddenly the fatty foods in the staff canteen become mouth-wateringly seductive, to heck with the jacket potato! Helen will resort to burger and chips or pizza most lunch times. She also eats her dinner quite late at 7.30pm, choosing easy ready meals' followed by crisps and fizzy drinks. Add to this the nights out, and it's a weight gain waiting to happen.

Helen has an active job - she works hard at being one of the best masseurs around and puts a lot of energy into perfecting her treatments but, even with her active job, she has become four stone overweight.

"Being based at the Beauty Clinique, in the Low Wood Leisure Club, I've got everything to hand - the gym has all the latest equipment to burn off the calories and tone up at the same time, I could get the help of one of the fitness instructors to work out a programme and even see me through it. The pool is 20 feet away from my room and is really tempting when you come in on a freezing cold day. I guess I just haven't ever really been ready to lose the weight, you've really got to want to go for it."

What really pushed Helen to do something about her weight was having her personal fitness report done. She says: "With the introduction of an advanced body and fitness analysis called The Fitness Report, our fitness instructors are given a really good picture of what we are doing right and wrong for our bodies. They can measure our total fat content, see if we are drinking enough water and work out our ideal weight. It's really detailed but to get accurate readings you do have to be honest. Phil asked me what I snacked on, savoury or sweet, how much alcohol I drank during an average week and if I did any form of exercise during my leisure time.

"He explained that the alcohol I drank was actually dehydrating my body." As 70 per cent of us is made up of water, the body's need for it is second only to our need for air. Water is lost through evaporation in breath, sweat and urine.

"While many foods contain water, eg fruit and veg, we should drink at least one litre of still/tap water each day. As women, we should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week (men up to 21 units).

"Look at these figures:

- 1 pint beer/lager 170-300 kcal

- 1 vodka and orange 300 kcal

- 1 gin and tonic 140 kcal

- 1 whisky 90 kcal

- 1 glass of white wine 85 kcal

"Phil also told me I was drinking too much coffee. He explained that caffeine is a stimulant that provides a pick-up' during the day. However, it has an immediate effect on blood pressure and heart rate. Research now indicates that more than five small cups of coffee a day is excessive."

The average fat content for Helen should be between 20-24, at present she has a reading of 31. This average changes according to your individual height, age etc. (For example, my acceptable range should be between 23-28, at present I read 22.7 so I guess I can have chips this week).

Flexibility is also measured, as being supple helps you avoid injury and makes you less likely to have aches and strains. The sit and reach' test gives a good indication of overall flexibility.

There is a strength test, blood pressure test, resting heart rate test, lung capacity test and stamina test. In fact, it's as thorough a test as I've ever had.

Helen's weight loss goal of four stone by the end of September means she must lose an average of one or two pounds a week. She has decided on some very positive steps: "I am going to walk as much as possible, especially if my journey is less than a mile. I will cut right down on the lager and avoid take-aways. I'm going to keep bowls of fruit around the house to snack on and will replace my chips or some of my potatoes with more veg. I am going to make the most of the fab facilities at work and take advantage of the new eight-week weight-loss classes Ailsa has begun here."

To add to her incentive there will be a notice placed on the club board for all to see, with a petition to sign to sponsor her. All proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Campaign.

I shall be checking up on Helen each month for her weigh-in and body check, so watch this space in Looking Good (first Friday of each month).

To sponsor Helen, donating proceeds to the charity, you can call in at The Low Wood Club reception (the club is next to the Low Wood Hotel, between Windermere and Ambleside).

To book your own Personal Report body and fitness test at £30 for non-members (free to members, membership to Low Wood Club starts from £21 per month) call 015394-39344.

February 6, 2003 11:30