The right shoes for looking slim!

Round-toed shoes can make legs look stumpy by breaking the "line" of your leg.

Wear shoes with pointed toes - heels or flats, it doesn't matter - to create the impression of a longer line (and thus, a longer, slimmer leg).

That's what the women's magazine said! I probably agree to some extent.

But looking at today's shoes, I'm not sure whether our girls will have healthy feet, (look at the tiny point of impact in the centre of the person's heel - all their weight - wonder if they'll get spurs later on in life?) or healthy spines (have you seen how they stand and lean forward when walking?). I guess they're willing to take the risks just to have "fashionable footwear" and must-haves. Take a look at a couple.

OK, yes, we wore stilettos in the "old days", but not quite so high. Oh no. And women even wear this type of shoe driving a car! The mind boggles. Don't they ever think that the heel is going to stick between the accelerator and the floor mat?

Smile!

Todays quote:

"Smile! It improves your face value!"

Want to get in Shape?

Find yourself a new lover says an Italian research team.

The "heady" feeling (all to due to chemicals in our brain and our body) of romance has been found to have the same effects as chocolate and other sugary treats on the body!

I guess it all depends on what you really need. As you satisfied with the lover you have? Then all you need to do is to enjoy chocolate.

If you're not satisfied with your lover, then finding a new one (and keeping him!) might do the trick.

Don't get "needs" mixed up with "wants" though!

You can say what you like!

I'm on a mission. Well to be totally frank with you I'm always on a mission. Whether I achieve what I set out to do is irrelevant, because it's the fight and the chase that I enjoy. Especially when I believe I'm in the "right".

Well, this is a tiny little mission this time. It's to get people to recognise the important place that "snail mail" should hold in our lives. You know, ordinary letters and cards that go by postage and travel by train, bus, freight-truck, plane, ship, and even in some places bicycle!

With the advent of electronic technology and I'm not questioning the value or otherwise, because I use some of it everyday, so I'd be a hypocrite if I did complain about it, but .......

People have forgotten (or is it intentional?) to telephone. Now, this doesn't sound so serious does it, but you ask around and you'll be surprised at the number of people who no longer have anyone ring them, to talk to them, to listen to them. Everyone's too busy (and I suspect they're too busy because they're spending too much time on the computer or one or more of the other contraptions now in use).

People have forgotten (or is it intentional?) to write. Oh yes, everyone writes emails these days. Whether it's a 20 page tirade or a two word (usually abbreviated anyway) communication. So impersonal. So direct and instant, yes. But so cold and calculating in many instances. Of course I don't include the fun things, or the urgent messages, or the little newsletters (which of course I write mountains of). We'd be lost without emails - well many of us anyway.

But what I mean are:

(a) the little hand-written "thank you" notes - thanking people not only for a gift, or a special item, but thanking them for their friendship or their love, or being there when needed.

(b) the little hand-written invitations to a baby's christening, or engagement party

(c) the little hand-written messages of comfort when someone is in urgent need

(d) the little hand-written note that says, "please be happy and well"

(e) the little hand-written birthday card (or other celebration) - it's too easy to send an emal with a couple of lines.

I could go on and on. But you know what I mean.

'Cos there's nothing quite like going to the postbox and lifting out a little envelope with hand-writing that you recognise, and opening it, and reading words that have been written from the heart, and by hand. Someone who has taken the time to pick up the pen and card, or paper, and sit down and write the words personally.

You see in this modern world, everything is a race against time. And that's foolish, because time just cannot be stretched no matter how much a magician you may be. But it's what we do with our time that's important.

And I believe that a simple little thing like hand-writing notes, and cards, and sending them through the post, bring so much joy to people. Small children, teenagers, adults, older people. Everyone benefits.

People - believe it or not - still collect cards and hand-written notes. Show me how many people print out a message on the computer and "collect" it in a scrapbook or favourite little box? Or am I so old-fashioned that I'm starting to show my age, by what I believe in?

There, that's my "say" for this morning!

Isn't it about time?

There's a lot of discussion going on about being overweight or fat, or "obese" which is a most horrid word, and should never be used when describing people!

But it seems to me if we want things to change for the better, and that means for size acceptance to take place, then each of us has to stand up for what we believe in - ourselves, and do something about it.

Why do I say this? Because nothing much has changed over recent years to have made a great difference to how we are “seen” by society as a whole.

Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that there have been some small changes, but when it comes to those changes benefiting the plus-size person, then you’ve got to look pretty hard at the whole picture to see what has occurred. Someone said to me the other day, well Rome wasn’t built in a day. That’s obvious. But getting society to change it’s attitude on size is taking far too long, because with every forward step we make, society (and I include the media, fashion industry and the medical profession, and now the government) punches us fair and square in the face and tells us, “no, you’re never going to be accepted, so stop bothering us”.

The latest news is condescending and concentrates on WLS; the the promise (or is it really a threat?) that the government is being lobbied (by who I don’t quite know) to subsidise WLS for “obese” patients. The inference is - obese people have to have it whether they want it or not!

But WLS has to be done for the right reason, and this includes being of benefit for the person involved. This is a matter for any plus size person to discuss with their own personal doctor.

It requires a lot of research, it requires a lot of discussion and it requires a lot of questions and answers, for a patient to get to the stage of agreeing to it.

What you don't hear, or see, are the negative stories about people whose lives have been ruined, both physically as well as emotionally, by unsuccessful WLS or stomach banding. Of course there are success stories, and I applaud those who have successfully gone through these procedures and are living healthy and happy lives. But it’s when I see for myself the scars of patients even years after the surgery and hear how people can’t even nibble a biscuit without feeling bloated and nausea, that alarm bells start ringing. Too many so-called "successful" WLS results are soon negated for the simple reason that the person undergoes a reversal! (If they're healthy enough, that is!) For let’s be honest here, not every patient is suitable for this type of surgery in the first place. There may be other health issues at risk.

Celebrities such as Les Twentyman,a youth worker well known for his charity work here in Victoria (Australia) and the 2006 Victorian of the Year, is today battling for his life in an induced coma after suffering a poisonous infection. He was undergoing lap band surgery at the Alfred hospital on Wednesday when surgeons noticed he had an unrelated double hernia, which had burst. While recovering from the surgery Les’ condition deteriorated dramatically and he underwent corrective surgery for the hernia, but had to be placed in the coma to stabilise his condition. He was in a critical but stable condition in the Alfred's intensive care unit last night. Every-one is hoping that Les overcomes this setback and recovers fully. This is not to say that he is in this condition because of the WLS, but it goes to show that things can go wrong, and often awfully wrong.

But for a Government to actually think about subtly insisting that obese people should undergo such surgery because they’re an unaffordable “drain” on the economy (they’re not so silly as to say it outright) and that these surgeries may be subsidised in the future, smacks of hypocrisy.

In a world where plus-size people are ostracised, ridiculed, ignored and shunted around like no-bodies, this is just too much. We need healthier options, we need positive options, we need a lot more research into the fields of why we are getting fatter (and don’t even suggest it’s because we’re eating too much or the wrong food, because I and thousands of others will scream!) We’ve been told this for too long now, and it’s not true. Otherwise why, just tell me why, we have small babies who are overweight? Are they eating Big Macs? Are they eating Domino pizzas every meal? Are they drinking fizzy drinks and eating sweets, non-stop? And why are children becoming more allergic to foods these days - why have the numbers increased not only in peanut intolerance, but intolerance for almost every thing imaginable. Surely the so-called experts are looking in the wrong direction. Why doesn’t someone, somewhere look into what is IN the food, not just at the food itself?

It’s not often I get up on my soapbox and stamp my feet. It’s not us, the people who are told we are overweight who are out of control, it’s society and governments and the unacceptable attitudes by people and organisations that could be doing more to help the situation than to make it worse.

And making it worse only puts us behind the eight-ball. We’re sick and tired of being told we’re fat and therefore we get what we deserve. We don’t deserve all this nonsense. We deserve to be respected as much as the next person.

I don’t know about you, but if we are serious about getting our views and beliefs heard and published, then as I said at the beginning of this tirade, we have to do something ourselves