Aren't you sick of women's magazines too?

I hobbled into the Co-op today, having forced myself after last nights 'body pump' class to endure yet another 45 mins of hell on earth. I cannot go tonight for the session as we have yet another parents night. Taking advantage of the fact Susie (18) was ill, I got the twins organised and fed and left them playing happily with her to go to Bootcamp.

On the way home I needed washing powder (wow what fun my life is), hence why I was hobbling into co-op. As I was for the first time in ages child and baby free, I hovered over the newspapers looking at all the headlines before skimming the magazines.

So what made me feel so sick?

We had front page covers littered with stars who seemingly have lost weight in a flash. Amanda Holden, 19 days after her near death birth experience going back to work looking like someone else had been pregnant for her. The headline could be criticised on so many levels, but having come from a gym full of mothers sweating their arses off for months on end to shift the pregnancy weight this seems wrong. It is these images that feed children's and teenagers obsessions. We do not buy into these stereo typical images however they are out there. Martha (then 13) visited me in the hospital shortly after I had given birth to the twins and commented genuinely shocked 'mum, you still look pregnant'. I tried to explain that this was all perfectly normal (and I have been pregnant 14 times resulting in 11 children!) but in her mind filled with stars who shed the weight so fast this seemed wrong. It made me feel a fat failure even though I am not, and worse still these girls will grow up expecting this miracle to happen to them and when it does not will be very disheartened.

So too the next before and after image of one of the girls from 'Little Mix' the winners of X factor this year. She had taken a lot of flack throughout the series for being a very normal size, although to the rose coloured stick thin eyes of the press obviously too fat! She has spend 3 hours every day in the gym and has dieted and lost two dress sizes. Okay, fair enough and well done to her, but please! who in normal life can afford (both money and time wise) to spend this amount of time each day working out. Again it makes girls feel they have to achieve this level of fitnesses and emulate her.

And finally dear old Kerry Katona. Lord! how many dress sizes has the woman been over the years. Once again she is featured looking radiant and size 8, having spent each day running for two hours and then a further 2 in the gym. Okay, she has 4 young children. My question is what is happening to them whilst she works out? Undoubtedly, she will be featured at some point over weight once again as well.

The magazines scream at us, 'do this and you will be happy', 'eat this and you will be thin'.....

The harsh reality as I have found out through weeks of hard work, aching muscles and healthy eating is very different. Looking that way will not make you happy. I freely admit to all my students as a teenager and then again in my 30's I was anorexic. I had the joy of walking into any shop and looking good in anything I put on. Yes it was great, a real adrenaline rush. Was I happy, no. The two times I have suffered this disease have been the two most stressful points in my life. Looking like a supermodel does not bring you happiness. It is also for most of us an unrealistic goal.

Loosing weight, just like gaining it happens slowly. No get thin fast fad will keep the weight off for life because we have not re educated our minds and changed our life style and habits. Getting fit is hard, hard work. I thought I was very active, running around all day after children, at work dashing around. I never sit still but neither do I burn up much fat! Going to bootcamp has made me appreciate how unfit I am and also what an unfit life style I led. As most of you know I have small babies. I want to be around and be healthy to see them grow up and get married. I won't if I carry on in my old lifestyle.

I wish these magazines would stop projecting all these images. As I walked along the shelves they seemed to scream out everywhere. Either those who have lost weight and are now happy, or those who have gained and subsequently are not. What material values are we trying to sell to our children? Yes we want to look nice and be healthy but not at these extreme costs. Looks and figures before looking after children and a family life?

I must admit I hobbled away glad I am generally too busy to stop and read such things. I hobbled away happy that although each bootcamp session is dam hard work, I am achieving my goals slowly, my children can see I am doing things healthily and keep complimenting me on how well I am doing. I hobbled away content I may still have a belly but my children are aware pregnancy is hard and draining and it takes time for your body to recover. I hobbled away feeling deeply sorry for the stars and the image they will now have to maintain for however long they remain in the spotlight.

Julia Roberts quotes in 'Notting Hill' - ' I have been on a diet for two decades'.....I do not want to follow that! but rather to be happy, to be a reasonable size, and to more importantly be fit, and content both in my body and my mind. I want to be like the older lady I see at my body pump classes who, well into her 70's can lift weights three times havier than mine. That's the type of person I admire!