Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind 2

Yesterday afternoon as usual I went and picked up my daughter from school, she was buzzing with excitement and happiness, loved her lessons, loved her mates, talk of parties she's been invited to, lots of things to tell me, chatter, chatter, chatter, happy adolescent child - my idea of perfect bliss.

When we got in she ran upstairs, changed her clothes, cuddled and chatted to her beloved hamster, Lily, came down and drove the dogs mad with her happiness and then came into the kitchen where I was trying to decide what to cook us all for dinner.

"Mum can I have?"

That eternal question from child to Mother.

She wanted crisps, she'd been to school, she'd walked around all day, she'd exercised, all very good points which she was only too happy to tell me and I happily agreed with them all, BUT I decided that there was a lesson to could be learned here, one which I have only grasped myself in the last year ... and so began the lesson, from loving Mother to beloved Daughter.

"Okay you can have crisps, no problem"

HUGE SMILE.

"BUT, there are conditions".

Smile dims, just a little, and then brightens again, because her brain kicked in and said "she didn't say no".

"You can have whatever you want, crisps, chocolate chip brioche, a slice of jaffa cake, a Mars Bar, biscuits, they're all in the cupboards"

HUGE SMILE.

"BUT ... you have to be aware of the calories in whatever you choose ... AND ... you have to get on the Wii and burn those calories off".

This she found hysterical, very funny, "yeah, yeah okay, what can I really have?"

Then it begins to dawn on her "you don't really mean that do you? But I did PE today"

"Yep, I know" BIG SMILE - mine this time.

There was banter back and forth, but all good-natured luckily, and when she realised that I wasn't going to give in, "no exercise, no snack, food is fuel", she agreed, because she still, STILL wanted that snack.

So we had a search and dug out 3 different types of crisps and a chocolate chip brioche in the cupboard. Each with different amounts of calories, the brioche 140 calories, and the crisps 165, 125 and 84 calories, her favourites? 165.

Lots of giggling and indecision followed and big puppy dog eyes, "really?" "really?".

She chose her favourites, with such bravado, "yep these, no problem I'll do it after I do my homework".

After homework and after dinner, I handed her the Wii remote.

"A deal's a deal baby".

It took her - 2 hours to get rid of 170 calories.

Did she think it was worth it?

NO.

Did she regret eating the crisps?

Surprisingly also a NO.

But when she packed her lunchbox to go to school today there wasn't one single snack in there that wasn't fruit. And she's gone off saying "and I'm not having any more snacks either".

How long will it last?

I have no idea.

BUT ... it's a lesson learned ... and it was a GREAT LESSON!

I can't speak highly enough of the powers inside this tiny little box. If you do the exercises it does work, you can choose Aerobics, Yoga, etc. etc. all within the boundaries of fun and family togetherness, we love it, many an hour is spent giggling and trying to beat each other's scores. It will keep an eye on your weight, it tells you if you've done too much exercise in one go, gives fitness tips, and you can set 2-weekly weight targets, it works out your BMI and gets very excited on your birthday, wearing a party hat and throwing streamers - cute, fun and effective.

• The Wii Fit is definitely more of a fun package but having recently damaged by ankle my Physio was delighted to find that we had it and told me to do all the Balance exercises as it's a great physiotherapy tool.

• The Wii Active is also a superb get fit package, can't fault it really, but it's not for the faint-hearted this is downright sweat producing hard work.

• We have both - but it's the Wii Fit that is always in the machine.

As I have said in my hub entitled Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind 1, I don't believe in dieting to lose weight. I believe that if you really want that piece of chocolate, the beautiful cupcake or that yummy bag of crisps then you can have it, but, you have to make a conscious decision about what you've already eaten and are likely to eat during that day, you need to know the calories and fat content of what you're eating, I also think that what is in the food you consume is ultimately important, if you eat rubbish you'll look and feel like rubbish. It's not about having everything it's about making choices and if you choose to have more calories than you should that's okay just up your activity levels to burn it off. You want the food, what you don't want is to have weight problems and the fat around your heart, be sensible, live well, be happy and live a long life.