Weight Loss Survey

Just a real quickie (as they say, Missus!) ... We've set up a survey about weight loss which has had pitifully few hits: if you've followed the linke so far, could you spend another three minutes (which is the maximum it'll take you) to complete it for us? It could help you by making you think, and it could help others when we use the results! Thanks http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1134663/A-look-at-weight-problems-inside-out

Imitation is the sincerest form of frustration

Flattery? I'd rather have fortunes in the bank! Ok so this all boils down to the difference in marketing clout between a big name 'celeb' and somewhat smallfry writers such as myself and my co-authors. A little while back - in fact just before logging into Blogger - I had a Facebook message asking if I was watching Loose Women because Paul McKenna was on the programme talking about his hypnovirtualmindgastric bandthinummyjig book. Clearly I wasn't - we have no wifi and I got the FB message so I was up here on't Toshiba. But although I could possibly have got off my backside and watched, I decided it was too depressing an experience. After all what would I have been watching? A very plug-orientated slot publicising the latest book from Mr McKenna about a subject brought to the market place by OUR book not in the Hay House, 2013, edition just launched, but YEARS ago!! We wrote our initial book, Shirrans' Solution - The Gastric mind Band, in 2009/10 and self-published in August 2010. So when I say we're the first and original, we have dates (and Martin and Marion have the case studies) to back it up. After a flurry of interest on both sides of the pond following Martin's sterling efforts with publicity, we continued to sell above and beyond most other books from the AuthorHouse stable.(the least said about that experience the better) And when we were looking to publish a second title, we were lucky enough to interest mainstream publisher Hay House who took on both books. No complaints there! But it's really quite dispiriting to send email after email after email, Press Release after Press Release, to Pin to within an inch of my life, Tweet and Tweet again, FB until my contacts must be thoroughly and completely fed up with my output, and alongside that try to keep my blogs vaguely contemporary....with seriously limited success; while at the same time watching the news spread from a number of months back that Paul McK's book would be out (surprise surprise) within days of ours and knowing in my gut that the one getting the column inches would be his. Sun, Loose Women, you name it he'll be there.... I suppose I could stop there with a cocked-eyebrow and a 'rant over'. But (a)My rant will continue! and (b) We're told by our publishers that there's a good chance our book will piggyback off his (some irony there, methinks) ... that people interested in a subject will buy more than one title..... and not forgetting that Martin and Marion developed the method and have not far short of 10,000 hours of one-on-one clinical experience with overweight people keen to learn from the GMB method; and that people with a modicum of brain will recognise that. So. I'll hoist my chin from the floor, beat my depression around the chops with a damp teatowel, KEEP CALM and CARRY ON REGARDLESS

World Diabetes Day aka cue JOKES ... ??

So I'm doing my early morning google preparing to tweet, pin, FB and so on, and realise it's World Diabetes Day. I suppose I should have known, truth be told, given that I've co-written a book featuring the development of the disease resulting from obesity; not to mention that my OH has Type 2 and that itself was possibly triggered by obesity..... but I didn't, and found out this morning. Not long after that I came across some fairly acrimonious postings on Pinterest, to the effect that anyone suggesting sweets and diabetes were connected should go forth and multiply. Well it's not fair or true to say that eating sweets causes Diabetes (either Type 1 or 2). And as some were accurately highlighting, Type 1 is not 'caused' by any outside factors. And as some others were accurately saying, not all Type 2 is caused by, triggered by, or related to, obesity. BUT - and it's a very big but (and maybe butt) ... eating sweets and other sweet things can be contributory factors to obesity, which in turn is a high risk factor for Type 2 Diabetes. Fact. So why verbally beat up on people referring to Diabetes & sweets? The comments arose out of a diabetes cartoon, which of course couldn't spell out every last if, but, and maybe of how people get it, whether or not their lifestyle has contributed and how much they suffer as a result.....surely comics aren't now to be expected to put caveats into all their scripts? So: prepare to be offended/amused/unaffected in equal measure: Why did the vampire bite the diabetic? Because he had a sweet tooth! Who is the patron saint of diabetics and railway stations? St Pancreas A Diabetic walks into a bakery as asks the guy behind the counter, “Whaddya got that is safe for diabetics?” The Baker says, “Everything. As long as you don’t put it in your mouth.” A police officer pulls over this guy who's been weaving in and out of the lanes. He goes up to the guy's window and says, "Sir, I need you to blow into this breathalyser tube." The man says, "Sorry, officer, I can't do that. I am an asthmatic. If I do that, I'll have a really bad asthma attack." "Okay, fine. I need you to come down to the station to give a blood sample." "I can't do that either. I am a hemophiliac. If I do that, I'll bleed to death." "Well, then, we need a urine sample." "I'm sorry, officer, I can't do that either. I am also a diabetic. If I do that, I'll get really low blood sugar." "All right, then I need you to come out here and walk this white line." "I can't do that, officer." "Why not?" "Because I'm drunk." A woman is terribly overweight, so her doctor puts her on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least five pounds." When the woman returns, she's lost nearly 20 pounds. "Why, that's amazing!" the doctor says. "Did you follow my instructions?" The woman nods. "I'll tell you, though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day." "From hunger, you mean?" asked the doctor. "No, from skipping." Apologies to those I've *borrowed* these from - DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) and tudiabetes.org.

Bonzo Dog Dooda...............

Was that a sufficiently stupid post title? Having spent quite a lot of the past four years in company with therapists, I should know better than to feel guilt as it's a pointless emotion, but I feel thoroughly guilty about not keeping this blog up to date. Having recently - well about a fortnight ago, which tells the tale of how bad my procrastinatory tendencies can be - read how important it is to Blog because Google and other search engines pick up on newly-amended posts, I figured cometh the hour to pull the proverbial finger from its orifice. TADA! So much has happened it's pretty nigh impossible to do a thorough update but essentially we've within the past week put GMB to bed AND heard they're actually printing, because the new Elite outlet in Bahrain is having its launch in three weeks or so and want copies there .....(where a few Royal shoulders might rub with Martin & Marion, we hear) There's also a new outlet in Denmark, and the bouncy Mie was here in Spain a couple of weeks back. She proved quite handy in the 'brainstorming' department when we were trying to come up with online marketing ploys for (son of GMB) PBT and the PBT Book. We've wangled mention of Prof Philip Zimbardo, he of Time Perspective Theory fame, in the book because he's written a foreword for PBT. So of course since there's a page about the PBT book in GMB, so Prof Z gets a namecheck too! Amazing how important Google, search engines, and other phrases too deep and meaningful relating to social media, have become! I'll post more as and when. Probably the best way........ Ciao for now Fiona

Not Pining, honest guv....

Seems my keyboard is sneaking up to bite (or is that byte) me on the bum........... was I pining this morning? Well apart from OH and 10yo being in the UK, as of course are my DS1 and DD, ... no I wasn't. I was PINNING LOL !

Dignity and Impudence Explained (at last!)

It would be good to think someone reads these, though clearly I have my doubts. Either way I must plough on because one day I/we/they can look back and see the course of the journey mapped out. In my case I create real 'no through roads' or potholes in the route map because at my advanced *ahem* years (not THAT advanced, you understand - I DO have a 10 year old son!) I've had to grasp the phrase social media by the scruff of the neck, add the words 'marketing' and 'brand awareness' and hope that I can start to do justice to some mix of the lot of 'em!! Hence not blogging as frequently, nor as 'engagingly' (a SM word I've picked up along the way) as I should. I was Pining this morning and watching the dogs - Roger, a cross chihuahua/small fluffy thing; and Zorra (literal translation female fox, because of a facial mark when she was a pup and the mark of Zorro..... but means something more 'street' in Spanish which we didn't learn until she was named) anyway, the size differential and the annoyance R was and has been causing Z since his arrival struck me as something my mother would have dubbed 'Dignity and Impudence'. For whatever reason, this morning I googled it. Lo and behold, there's a painting by Edwin Landsee of that very name. Cairn terrier or something snuggled up alongside a beagle/labrador/something much bigger and grander, in the same kennel. Friends at last! So that's where the phrase came from. Oh, the book? Thanks for asking!!!! Well we know we'll be starting the editing process because our editor Debra, who proofread Pause Button Therapy, has emailed us.... so we've JUST finished PBT and with no breathing space because we then got launched into prepping for media stuff, we are now flung headlong into GMB. Complain? Moi? Not a bit of it. Just saying................

GLOBESITY.... says it all.

Apparently coined in 2002, I just today (August 12 2012) discovered a new, simple and totally self-explanatory word. GLOBESITY. Global obesity... I doubt it needs further discussion because if you're reading this you probably have some interest in weight/weight loss etc., so here's the link and, as they say, 'nuff said! http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/obesity/en/