How to lose weight without dieting!
Dieting has never been our strong point and we were so touched by this rhyme sent in by a reader that we immediately sent her a copy of the new book Colour me slimmer that we find so inspiring.
I made this rhyme up in a fit of alcoholically fuelled despair walking behind two girls with lovely figures. It tells you as much about myself as I want you to know and more about how my mother dealt with my deep despair. Lucy Reckett
Fatty watty watty
That’s what they say
Fatty watty watty
It really makes my day
Fatty watty fatty
That’s what they say
Not matter what the day
I’m fatty watty watty
So I’m so fat
That is that
No matter what I say
It only means I weigh
More than you
More than you
Oh it’s true
I’m fatter than you
Fatty watty watty
What do I care
There, there, there,
My mum says fatty watty watty doesn’t
matty matty moo!
Colour Me Slimmer is about clever dressing for a fabulous figure, whether you are size 12 or 22. Here’s a book that banishes baggy tea shirts, rejects dangerous crash diets. This essential style guide demonstrates that by simply wearing the correct clothing for your body shape, you can shed pounds in seconds.
Colour Me Slimmer is published by Hamlyn, rrp £12.99
It’s available at all good booksellers and on Amazon Colour Me Slimmer: Clever Dressing for a Fabulous Figure (Colour Me Beautiful)
WE HAVE 8 COPIES TO GIVE AWAY TO IN BALANCE READERSMy Secret Life
I drive/ride … A white Prius, take taxis in London occasionally more often the Underground, less often the buses, my bike much less often, sadly
If I have time to myself … I wander round the garden pulling up unwanted plants, lie on the grass and gaze at the sky when I am feeling really drained.
You wouldn’t know it but I am good at … Strategizing
You may not know it but I’m very bad at … Reining in my enthusiasm
The person I’m closest to is … My husband, who has shown me what human kindness really means
Comfort reading … At the moment Slightly Foxed, Allotment Gardening, Carol Klein’s Grow Your Own Garden, Anna Pavord’s Growing Food
Comfort eating … Fresh mango, an apple cut into slices, honeydew melon, fresh peas in the pod from the garden – never many of those though! Chocolate biscuits, cream, bread and butter, toasted cheese sandwich, the list just goes on and on
Moving Pictures: Once were Warriors, Cage aux folles, Colour Purple
My biggest regret … I have never been ambitious
When I was a very young I wanted to … work in film as a continuity girl
I wish I had never worn … A secondhand evening dress donated by an overweight neighbour
All my money goes on … No idea, but it always goes there
It’s not fashionable but I like … Virol, rose hip syrup, thermal vests
If I wasn’t me I’d like to be … A 5ft 7 in, dark haired beauty with the brain of a lawyer
The best day of my life … My marriage to my husband John
Gadget I can’t live without … A kitchen knife that never needs sharpening but is as sharp as can be – it’s serrated and lethal
My biggest influence … My strong convictions of fairness, democracy and decency
The best invention ever is … The sun, I wish I knew who made it!
With grateful thanks to the Independent on Sunday for the use of their format
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS SERIES please send an email to me, the editor at editorinbalance@me.com
A Secondhand Life
Until recently secondhand was not fashionable, shopping until you drop was. Now, with worsening times on the horizon recycling may well become more the norm. Some of us have always been into second hand to some extent and we were interested in Val Fieth’s account of her Second Hand Life and her favourite websites.
I am child number 5 of five children born in the war and we grew up with second hand things.
I dreamed and prayed for a shiny new Pink Witch bike but neither God nor my parents heard my prayers, and I got a second hand blue non distinctive bike. I was so very disappointed then, being about nine but now I love the whole concept of recycling. We made everything from things we found. Including bikes. I bought my two year old daughter a much used and loved two wheeler bike with no stabilisers on which she rode confidently before she was three.
My house is second or eighth hand and I drive a second hand car. Both of these very important things have been so welcoming to so many people. I have driven my car to many places and I have even slept in it, cosy and warm and even in a second hand sleeping bag.
When my daughters were young, I wanted them to have music so I advertised for a piano in the local paper and three people phoned me. I rang a local brother and my sister to see if they wanted one and they said “Yes please” so I bought all three pianos. Another brother happened to be staying who lived in Australia so we rented a van, collected them all delivered the other two. I bought one daughter a lovely flute and the other one a clarinet.
I have been a guest at some wonderful places such as both Houses of Parliament, The Mansion House, 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace and to all of these I have worn secondhand designer clothes. These were very exciting and I wondered who had bought them first and where these clothes had gone. I had two lovely outfits for my daughter’s wedding and rehearsal dinner.
My dining room and kitchen tables are second hand and very many people have sat around these tables, eating, drinking, talking, laughing or playing games. I have some big tablecloths from Oxfam.
I worked very hard in LETS, Local Exchange Trading Schemes, where we didn’t use money as such but green currency so we had spending and/or bartering power to sell and acquire things. I have lots of single bed linen in exchange for my photo cards.
Quilting is such a beautifully creative hobby. We took lots of quilts made from second hand fabric, to a poor village in Mexico where we were building a clinic.
I made lots of damson, plum and raspberry gin to give as gifts and I was very appreciative that a local pub saved me screw top bottles.
I buy recycled paper. During the time when I took many photographs, I bought a second hand Press camera from a friend on the local paper. I had exciting learning experiences during those film years, challenging myself.
From my greenhouse have come hundreds of plants because people gave me their old pots and I could put my seedlings in them. I spent many happy hours there listening to my second hand radio. My crumbly dark rich home made compost is a veritable triumph.
Children’s clothes and games from jumble sales, charity shops and car boot sales have been very welcome to many people. I bought lots for my American granddaughter and sent and took them over. Sent some to my friends in Bucharest. Bought more for my new English granddaughter. It makes spending and giving so much more fun. Many lovely little girl’s outfits have been bought.
I have many books on many subjects and many of these have been enjoyed by generations of people as they are over 100 years old. I bought many second hand books from Amazon and gave many people the book I Hope You Dance
I love web sites like www.thestoryofstuff.com and am frequently amazed when I look around at all of the things I have acquired. I once could be moved around London from all of my flats by a friend with a car, and that included my 100 year old Singer treadle sewing machine.
I think that www.freecycle.org is a wonderful idea. I saw the film “The Age of Stupid” and I would like to be even better at recycling. Sadly my bike was stolen from my garage recently so I must find a second hand one.
My pond gives joy to many people. All of the original fish were gifts, and some more have been born here. The sleepers surrounding it once lay under the railway lines.
Who wore these clothes? Where did they go? Who did they meet? Who used this press camera? To take what exciting photos? Who lived in my house over the years? Who drank the wine in the pub and I have the small bottles to fill with pink gin as gifts? What a story my sleepers could tell. Who else played music on our instruments?
Val Fieth, Contributing Author
Coping with a Diagnosis of Cancer
Thursday JANUARY 8TH 2009 – The day Caroline Edmonds’ life changed forever: little did she think that within a week she and her family would be coping with a diagnosis of Follicular Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Grade 1 stage 4, a form of cancer
Caroline had been treated for a stomach ulcer for many years, occasionally suffering from terrible pains and then suffering bouts of nausea. It all came to a head that Thursday; Caroline had severe pains all day and was unable to sleep. Gary took her to the out of hours doctor who then referred her to the QE2 hospital in Welwyn Garden City, where she received morphine and was sent home. After a sleepless night of being violently ill, she returned to the doctor the next morning, who then referred her back to the hospital. She was finally admitted to hospital not knowing that she was to spend the next two weeks in there, including her 47th birthday three days after being admitted.
Caroline says “I felt like a fraud, as between bouts of pains and nausea, I felt fine”. During her first week in the hospital she underwent test after test, CT scans and what felt like every blood test known to man. It was in the afternoon of Wednesday, 14th January that the Consultant informed her that she had a suspected malignant lymphoma and needed to undergo surgery. On the night before her operation on Friday the 16th she said “The pains all over my body were so severe, I think every lymph node had enlarged. I really thought I was going to die”. She had nurses writing letters to her family as she feared that she would not make it through the ordeal.
During surgery they removed the tumour, surrounding tissue and part of her intestine. A week later Caroline received the news that she had been dreading; it was what they had suspected and further tests showed the cancer had also spread to her bone marrow and chest.
All this came as a blow to Caroline and her family, as she was self employed falling sick meant she would be unable to earn money to help support the family. Caroline along with her husband Gary have run a graphic design business – Edmonds and Hunt Advertising in the Hertford area for over twenty eight years. They have one son, Sam who is currently busy with his GGSEs.
Caroline is an active member of her son’s school PTA, Friends of Sele School. She attended every possible meeting and helped out at the various fundraising events. She is also a Councillor for Bengeo Parish Council. If this was not enough of a shock for the Edmonds to deal with, they also tragically lost Gary’s father the day after Caroline came home from the hospital. The family now not only had the worry of Caroline’s health, but also had to sort out the logistics that come with a bereavement.
On 1st April she started her first of eight sessions of chemotherapy. One every three weeks for a whole day. One of Caroline’s side effects was hair thinning; fortunately she didn’t lose it all. She was also put on steroids. “During the first week after each session of chemo I had to take 24 tablets a day, gradually reducing until the next session where it all started again” she said. The course of chemotherapy finished on August 28th and a month later she was told it had been successful. The doctors said if she could get through the next year and it returned they would put her on the same chemo therapy treatment again. This form of cancer is not curable, but is controllable. Should the cancer return before September 2010 she would have to undergo a far more aggressive treatment.
Throughout the pain and stress of being diagnosed and treated for Follicular Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, she tried to carry on as normal as possible but to make matters worse as Caroline was recovering and finally able to return to her business full time, the recession hit. Suddenly after being in business for so long and never having to look for work, she has had to look at reinventing the way she does business.
The first thing she did was join the world of social media and online marketing. She designed a web page, started using Twitter and created a Facebook page. She recently also started blogging. “Times are tough out there for graphic designers, but you have to look at what is trending, embrace it and move with the times” she said.
Caroline is an example to us all and is proof that even if you are dealt a bad hand, it doesn’t mean that you have to lose the game.
For more information of Follicular Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma:http://www.lymphomainfo.net/nhl/follicular.html
For more information on Caroline and her business:
http://www.edmondsandhunt.co.uk/
http://www.edmondsandhunt.blogspot.com/
Brigitte Houghton, Contributing Author
UPDATED 12 March 2011
Caroline has asked us to let readers know she is willing to talk to anyone who feels they would benefit from talking to her about their cancer experience. You can reach her by email at edmondsandhunt@hotmail.com
I Did It! So Can you! Give Up Smoking!
I was a 20-30 a day cigarette smoker from the age of 16. I shudder to think the condition of my lungs at 46 years old, 30 years later.
Smoking was enjoyable, mostly. A crutch to bridge the periods of boredom, the uncomfortable pauses in social events, to cover nervousness and to take away appetite, the relaxing effect after a meal. I used it and abused my body. Not that I ever thought much about that aspect.
Two things happened that brought it home to me just how unsociable smoking was to those who didn’t. One couple who socialised in their kitchen/diner would always put the extractor fan on when I lit up. I didn’t really notice because we were in the kitchen weren’t we, until someone else pointed it out and that made me so selfconscious I didn’t smoke in their house from then on.
On another occasion, on the way home from babysitting I realised I had left my handbag behind. I ran back to fetch it, and found my friends had opened all the windows and doors and were spraying odour killer around. I was horrified and somewhat ashamed that they felt so strongly about the smell of smoke.
So I could go for short periods without smoking when necessary which to me was almost as good as giving up.
However gradually my friends stopped smoking, and I was virtually the only in our group who puffed away. I began to feel selfconscious and the disapproval was palpable so I started to go outside to smoke.
All this happened years before the current smoking regulations came into force but I was determined to stop. And as Mark Twain said, it was easy, I did it lots of times!
I tried herbal cigarettes, herbal tablets, hypnosis but in the end it was sheer willpower, self disgust and exasperation that finally tipped me into the smoke free habit, together with using chewing gum loaded with nicotine. I gradually managed to reduce and have now been totally smoke free for more than 15 years.
In truth I would have much preferred to use a more natural product and when I heard of the new Rescue Chewing Gum I really wanted to tell everyone about, but especially anyone who is really desperate/keen to junk those cancer sticks.
Chewing gum really did help me, I felt calmer. Recent research has shown that chewing gum helps to relieve nervousness, improve alertness and reduce stress. Research also shows that chewing gum for an hour in the morning seems to reduce the appetite to some extent. But the reason why I am so interested in the Rescue Chewing Gum is the natural ingredients used, each piece of chewing gum has a liquid Rescue centre – the famous combination of five flower essences discovered by Dr Bach almost 80 years ago.
Suitable for vegetarians a month’s supply comes in a handy portable box ideal for taking Rescue on-the-go. Rescue Gum costs £3.95 and is available from Boots, Holland & Barrett, Lloyds Chemist, independent pharmacies and health food stores as well as grocery stores nationwide. For more information visit www.rescueremedy.co.uk
Why not buy some on your way home tonight and take the decision to stop smoking – It’s No Smoking Day tomorrow, let Rescue get you going!
Tips to help:
Keep an eye on your progress – keep a chart, by day
Keep your hands busy – get going on those word puzzles, sodoku, whatever that are in every paper these days
Give yourself targets of really positive treats – a weekend break, an active goal – climb that mountain! Yes, you’ll feel more energetic as all those toxins slowly leave your body
Acknowledging a dependence on nicotine and tobacco is a crucial first step and can be the all-important catalyst that smokers need to seek professional medical help and succeed in become smokefree.
There are Stop Smoking Services provided for free by the NHS. This support has been shown to increase a smoker’s chances of stopping by up to four times, compared with going it alone.
Why not join the million smokers who will use tomorrow to try to quit. It could just work.
Or perhaps you know someone who is desperate to give up smoking and might benefit from some help? You could make it your Good Samaritan deed for today! and tomorrow …. why not for the next twelve days! If you help just one person to quit smoking wouldn’t that be worth the effort?
Good luck!
Kate Campbell, Contributing journalist
GIVEAWAYS
Our contribution is to GIVEAWAY a month’s supply of Nelsons Rescue Gum to TEN In Balance readers.
To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with NELSONS RESCUE GUM in the subject box and your contact details in the text area. Make sure your entry reaches us by 18 March 2011. One entry per household. The draw is restricted to readers resident in the UK.
How do I look from behind?
Finding comfortable, fashionable swimwear for the well endowed can be a bit of a headache. Bulging out of a swimsuit is the least attractive aspect, especially if you can’t see what you look like from behind. So with comfort and confidence in the pool area a priority I was immediately interested to find out more about a range on offer from UK Swim Store and I asked Sarah Bohn to tell us all about it. Val Reynolds Brown, Editor.
When you think about it, there are few activities or hobbies, which you would do in public, that require you to wear so little. Normally when out and about, whether exercising or not, I like to keep my bottom and thighs nicely covered and my breasts safely in my bra.
So why is it then that to enter a swimming pool in the traditional view is to wear a garment that offers no support to your breasts, allowing them to pop out all over the place and that displays far too much of your lower half than you are comfortable with.
Fortunately this outdated perception is being eradicated by the increase of swimsuits offering women a whole lot more. The days are gone of swimsuits only coming in high leg or with gaping open back cut outs. Now women can cover their bottoms and thighs, suck in their tummies and secure their ample bosoms comfortably.
Suits such as the Speedo Sculpture Premiere Ultimate are such a fantastic revolution that I can’t stop talking about them. Firstly made in a material that is designed to sculpt the body, it holds you in. And with extra tummy control too it gives you confidence in the stomach department, so you can breathe out once in a while.
The next fabulous feature is wide adjustable straps and bust support given by a lining piece and not an underwire. This means the swimmer can tighten or loosen the straps to give a perfect fit, just like with a bra, and is supported without a wire annoyingly poking into the side of their breast when swimming. With a low leg, small opening in the back and going up to a dress size 22, this suit is ideal for some many women. At £45, it is not the cheapest suit available, but with a host of confidence boosting features in one suit it is well worth it.
The next revelation in swimwear that I simply must share with you is the legged swimsuit (sometimes known as a knee suit or boy leg).
Speedo Mindset Legsuit
This style of swimsuit is basically a swimsuit with legs or short style bottoms integrated into the suit. Many of these styles have bust support, offer great coverage at the back and even have adjustable straps. When purchasing a legsuit look out for the leg length or crotch seam measurement. The length of the leg will determine where the suit finishes on your leg. Some styles are quite long going down almost to the knee, others are particularly short offering a more sporty style, but might not give you as much coverage as you need. But with such a variety of legged swimsuits to buy nowadays, you will never need to expose your bikini line again.
A new breed of swimwear is also hitting the pools, swimwear separates that allow you to create your own level of coverage. Items such as ladies swim jammers, swim leggings, swim skirts, bra tops and tea shirt style tops all allow the swimmer to buy different sizes top and bottom and create the look and fit they need. Swimwear doesn’t have to be a one piece suit that might not suit your individual shape and coverage requirements.
For example you could add a swim skirt to your favourite swimsuit to give a bit of coverage to the tops of your legs. Or choose ankle length leggings to protect your legs from the sun on the beach, but wear with a bra top to expose your arms. 
Now your swimwear can be as individual as you.
Tips for buying swimwear for curvier women
- Think about back shape. If the back of a swimming costume is very open or strappy, you may feel like you are oozing out the back of it. Instead go for a closed back suit, or one with a small open back.
- Look at how much material there is under the arms. If the suit is very cut away or has a racing style or strappy back, then they may not be enough material to cover your breasts. This means when you swim your breasts may feel like, or may actually pop out the side of the suit.
- If opting for a legsuit, think about where the suit is finishing across the leg. Some ladies may find the way the suit creates a horizontal line across the thighs unflattering or even uncomfortable. A swim skirt may be a better option for some ladies.
Black is slimming, yes, but navy can also be slimming, and a warmer colour for some skin tones. Also patterns can be slimming too, a busy pattern can have the effect of hiding lumps and bumps.
- If you want a slimming style look for a swimsuit with vertical side panels or stripes which will give shape and definition.
- A detail under the bust is also very flattering and gives a beautiful shape.
If you are in-between sizes always go smaller in a swimsuit than bigger. This may seem strange advice, but a lot of materials will get ever so slightly bigger in the water. It is better to have a suit that holds you in, than one that is too loose and falling off your shoulders.- Look for chlorine resistant fabrics. This type of fabric has been designed to last longer in the chlorinated water. So once you have found the perfect suit it will last and not degrade (that horrible see-through eaten effect) like a basic elastane swimsuit can.
- To keep your suit looking its best for longer always read the care label instructions and rinse your swimsuit thoroughly after use. Avoid shampoos and products and hang up to dry as soon as possible.
- Sign up for the www.ukswimstore.com newsletter, to get regular updates on new styles and colourways in stock. If you have found a perfect style of swimsuit for you, it is always handy to know when it has been released in a different colour, or if alas is being discontinued.
- And my final tip that I give all women who ask for my advice is, once you are in the water no-one can see what you look like anyway. Just jump in and enjoy swimming.
Sarah Bohn Director of UK Swim Store and Founder of Bohn Swimwear
Mobile theft – So quick, So Devastating
Italian coffee
While having a coffee in Regents Street yesterday, I heard a woman sitting at my table suddenly say ‘He’s taken my mobile’.
She got up to follow him but he had disappeared into the passing crowd. She ran back and rummaged through her large bag in a vain hope that she was mistaken and pleading with her friend to call Vodaphone to cancel her account. It took a long time to contact Vodaphone and in the meantime the woman swung between anger to despair with copious amounts of tears.
Her mobile had been lying on the table next to her coffee and she had been rummaging in her bag when a man in a red tea shirt had just reached out and taken it as he walked by. She could hardly believe it had happened it was so quick.
I was deep into a newspaper puzzle and hadn’t seen it happen.
As I don’t like mobiles making a noise, when I do have it with me it is always on vibrate and in my pocket so I feel it when it goes off. So it’s unlikely I would ever put it on a table like she did. I felt a bit of a spare part, not having seen it happen and having nothing to offer in support.
The government has just called on the mobile phone industry to do more to protect handset owners against theft. Around 2% of British mobile phone users report they have suffered a theft in the last 12 months, although for teenagers the figure is three times higher.
Results of a Home Office crime prevention contest were announced yesterday aimed at making mobile phones less attractive to thieves. The winning designs will be shown at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 15-18 February.
Have you ever had your mobile stolen? Want to share your experience? Contact us
Your message has been sent
Incontinence – My most embarrassing experience
Incontinence sometimes feels more than embarrassing, it feels dirty, shameful and discourages contact with the outside world, in case you ‘leak’. This is not an unusual situation for a woman to find herself in, especially having had children, and more especially once you get beyond 60. Muscles have a tendency to lose their elasticity and this is when incontinence problems creep in. It’s not just the pelvic floor that is affected. Chewing your food where the jaw has lost some of its strength and doesn’t quite line up as it did before. This results in biting your tongue unexpectedly, or the inside of your cheek.
Much of this comes as a surprise to those of us who have kept fit and active. The effects of aging do vary, but they inevitably affect most of us.
For 40 year old Evie, it was when she was rushing along the platform at Paddington to catch the train back home that the first really humiliating accident happened.
It was Summer, and I was wearing a Nicole Farhi pale silk skirt, with bare legs and sandals. How could I forget.
I had had, on occasion over the previous couple of years, drips up until then – drips and sometimes trickles. But this time, as I ran, it was as if a bucket had upended inside me. It trickled down my legs and splashed onto my feet.
My skirt was stuck to my thighs. I kept running – it was all I could do. I had to catch the train – if I didn’t, I would be late picking my son up from school. I just hoped that if I ran fast enough, no-one would notice – I would be an indistinct blur, not a middle-aged woman who had wet herself … And anyway, I told myself, there’s no-one on this platform I’m ever likely to see again. Thank goodness. Once on the train I just rushed into the toilet. Not to go – no, I’d done that already. I pulled off the sodden and completely ruined skirt and equally sodden knickers. I tied my cardigan (oh thank god I had one) round my waist, and holding my bag (into which I had stuffed skirt and knickers) awkwardly in front of me, made my way to a seat. And at the other end, I just hoped for the best.
Since then, I have found out what it is all about. I have a prolapse due to a very difficult birth ten years ago, and it’s too far gone for pelvic floor exercises. I’ve had to come a long way in coping with it. Five years ago, it was getting worse, gradually. Crossing my legs when I knew I was about to sneeze, and sitting down if anyone made me laugh hysterically was just the beginning.
It’s now also affecting my bowel – the last taboo – but I have found ways of coping. The bowel was of course a terrible shock. I just didn’t believe it at first. Finding smears, I imagined, irrationally, I hadn’t wiped properly. For what else could it possibly be? When it became more than smears, I wondered if I had some kind of light diarrhoea. I felt puzzled, and a little frightened. I didn’t want to tell even my doctor, and I couldn’t tell my family or my best friend.
Urinary stress incontinence seems a cinch in comparison – almost something I mention in passing. They even refer to it on the adverts on the tv these days. Bowel stress incontinence is something else. It is, (and just don’t carry on reading if you can’t stomach it) exactly like leaving the top off a tube of toothpaste. That is the nearest way of describing it. Luckily, it only happens for 24 hours once a month, when my period is at its heaviest and the stress is at its greatest. And that, you will be happy to know, is as bad as it gets. The rest is good news.
You can, of course, have operations to put prolapses right. Most women can be fixed, and the kind of problems I have are something that usually much older women have to face, or anyone, like me, who for one reason or another, can’t have the operation. But there are ways of coping, and with the help of a good gynaecological therapist and adviser – ask your doctor to refer you – the problem is not unliveable with.
Pelvic floor exercises are the first stage, although after a while they didn’t work for me. I decided to try yoga. Upside down poses seemed to help, (well, it makes sense, doesn’t it?) and as I practised yoga every day my general fitness fitness improved. I learned how to do head stands and shoulder stands, and generally felt far more in control of my body. I used panty pads every day just in case, and support pants (big pants – who cares?) added to a feeling of ‘held in-ness’ and security.
When the bowel thing started, I despaired for a while. I felt dirty, and unfeminine. But then my gym adviser told me about Immodium tablets, which can be taken just on those one or two stressful days to hold everything in, and which work almost instantly. She monitored me carefully, making me write down a diary for a month, and then advised me to look carefully at my diet during the days leading up to my period. Less fibre and fruit means firmer stools. A football is less likely to fall out than peas – see what I mean?
Then, six months ago, I started jogging. Now this is something I had not thought I could do anymore – it was just too risky after the Paddington Station incident, wasn’t it? But I had a dog, I had a river with a tow path, and something made me go for it.
I prepare myself well. ‘Poise’ incontinence pads for ladies are discreet and effective. No drinks just before. A long T-shirt that reaches below my thighs just in case anyone but the dog is looking. A last minute visit to the loo, and I’m off. And something incredible and unexpected has happened. Having jogged a mile or two three times a week for several months, the pads have started coming home dry! I’ve lost a kilo or so, true, and I’m generally fitter. But I hardly ever leak, even running for a bus. I still cross my legs for sneezes and sit down for giggles, but apart from that one day of the bowel thing, I am absolutely fine – in control and fitter than ever. I’ve even discarded the support pants and only seldom wear a panty pad. It’s not cured, of course, and the problem could get far worse, apparently, during menopause. But for the time being, what is described as a purely ‘mechanical’ problem, that needs hoisting, stitching and mending, has miraculously got itself better by other means.
But I don’t tell anyone. No, not even my partner. There are just some days/nights when any kind of intimacy is absolutely strictly out of the question, and that’s that – don’t even go there, as they say …
And no, the skirt didn’t survive. Not even dry cleaning could help.
Author’s name withheld for diplomatic reasons
Incontact is the UK charity for people with bladder and bowel problems. Visit www.incontact.org or call 0870 770 3246
Do you have an embarassing experience you feel would benefit our readers to read about? Do get in touch – I guarantee absolute confidentiality.
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor, email editorinbalance@me.com
In Balance 