Latest stupid fad diet: Sugar can help you lose weight!

I just *love* fad dieting. I mean, who doesn't love to eat only raw food, or only red meats and fats, or only tofu. It's awesome. So, that's why I'm soooo excited that The Metro reported this morning that a study has shown that "low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet containing sucrose combined with physical activity achieves the greatest health benefits in overweight people". This differs a bit from all of the other diets that say sugar is the devil. However, I can't help but think that now people are going to be pounding down sugar all day because it "helps you lose weight".

What about fruits and vegetables? And the "good fat"? And bread? And water? And WORKING OUT! Or the fact that diets don't work! Oy vey.

[via The Metro]

A Healthy Attitude: Living With M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

A good impression.

After the last few years with M.E, I can confidently say that I've progressed from being really ill to being... not very well. They may sound like the same thing but actually they're light years apart. Being 'not very well' as opposed to 'really ill' opens up a new realm of opportunity for one simple reason: you can trick people into thinking you're well, and thus experience some aspects of "normal" life. (Even though in my case, I'm nothing like normal, ha ha ha).

When I was bed-bound, sofa-bound, or housebound, crumpled in a heap both mentally and physically, no-one could have mistaken me for a well person. But now I'm (to use recent examples) going to a wedding reception, booking a holiday to New York and meeting friends in cities that are not my own, no-one would ever think I had a debilitating neurological condition.

No-one in the world gets fat, ugly or old... except YOU!

I love books. I love chick lit. I love non-fiction chick lit and books about other cultures. But am I the only one who thinks a certain genre of book has gone too far?

I mean, I get it that a lot of women (including me!) want to be thinner, prettier, stronger, faster - whatever. And I get that French women ooze style, so I understand the popularity of the book French Women Don't Get Fat. But there are now so many sequels and spin offs: French Women For All Seasons, Entre-nous, Two Lipsticks and a Lover ... (Yeah, I kinda liked that one). I can appreciate these books, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, or ignore most of them, but when I spotted a copy of Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat, I snapped. I might even have shouted: "Well bloody good for them!"

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

Net worth

Last time, I talked about losing friends thanks to ill health. (They want to party, you want to nap...) It can be incredibly painful, but it's not all bad: who needs fair-weather friends like that, really? And more importantly, it leaves room in your life for fabulous new people!

When I say I've met some great friends via the internet (even though I may not have technically 'met' many of them), some people look at me a bit strangely, and come out with classics like "How do you know they are who they say they are?" and "Is that really safe?" to which I say: I'm not an idiot, and I'M NOT AN IDIOT.

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

With friends like that...

It's a cliché, but it's true: when you get ill you find out who your real friends are. Before M.E, that saying always conjured visions of supportive women bearing chocolate, casseroles and shoulders for crying on. I liked the idea that if something bad happened to me, I'd have a loving support system breaking down my door. Instead I found that most of my friends didn't want to see me at all.

No, that's not quite true: some of them did want to see me, but only on their terms - which were that I pretended nothing had changed. "Give me a ring/email/visit when you're feeling better" they'd say, and then I'd never hear from them again. A friend from university once told me that she wasn't prepared to drive all the way to see me "just for a cup of tea" - if I wasn't well enough to go out for lunch, I could forget it. As I'd been housebound for two months, this seemed beyond cruel.

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

Look at M.E.

People often tell me that "You look really well," and (argh!) "You'd never guess you were ill." Which I know they mean in a kind way, and I do appreciate it. But it's just not true. Although for me, M.E has no visible outward signs (I don't walk with a limp, wear dark glasses or use a wheelchair - although some people with M.E do all three) it certainly hasn't made me look good.

The fact is, M.E wreaks havoc on a woman’s body. (Maybe a man’s too - but I haven’t got one of those).

Inspiring Women: Helen Sharman

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Helen Sharman.

Born and brought up in Sheffield, Helen Sharman gained a degree in Chemistry at The University of Sheffield, then got a PhD at Birbeck and worked in London. Her jobs have included time as a research technologist for (yum) Mars chocolate and more recently as a broadcaster and lecturer in science education.

But what she'll be remembered for is answering a little advertisement that said: 'Astronaut wanted - no experience necessary.'
Yes, the first Briton in space was a woman. Not only that, she was just twenty seven. And not only that, she was from my home town...

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

I like to move it, move it.

Gosh, last week's column was a whiny one, wasn't it? Sorry about that! Let's pick up our feet this week, shall we? And I mean that literally...

Getting active when you have M.E can be a tricky business. For example: I'd love to lose weight and get fit, but I need a half-hour's sit down after making my bed and walking up a flight of stairs winds me for a couple of hours. A slow walk is okay, but the walk up the steep hill to my nearest bus stop leaves me a juddering wreck. (I don't let that prevent me of course, but other passengers have complained.)

Inspiring Women: Rosa Parks

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Rosa Parks.

Or "how not giving up your seat on the bus can start a civil rights revolution"... After Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, she was arrested and tried for her "crime", sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycotts in Alabama in which no black person boarded a bus in the city for over a year, from 5 December 1955, to 20 December 1956. The protest led to the end of segregated buses (they were declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court) and brought the campaigning work of Martin Luther King to the public's attention.

One woman, one small gesture: one massive change. That's truly inspiring.

A Healthy Attitude: Living With M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...

Facing up to Pacing.

In Thelma and Louise, Brad Pitt says that, “Done properly, armed robbery doesn’t have to be a totally unpleasant experience.” The same is probably true of pacing. And yet in my case it was – both done properly and a totally unpleasant experience.

Pacing is touted by M.E professionals and the leading M.E charities as a treatment/cure for M.E. Really it’s just a management technique with big ideas. Not that people don’t get well using it – they do – but over a slow and highly stressful time frame. You’d have to be desperately sick of your situation to even think about trying it, which explains why I turned to pacing in 2004, convinced there was no other way forward. ‘Pacing yourself’ sounds simple enough: just don’t do too much and have a rest every now and then. But Pacing is way more regimented than that: a system with harsh rules and few rewards. First, by meticulously charting everything you do in a single day (from making a meal to visiting the loo - I’m not even kidding) you work out your "baseline", the amount you can comfortably do in a day, without feeling ONE SINGLE SOLITARY SYMPTOM. This involves carrying a chart everywhere and writing down what you do and how you feel at all times. You can imagine how much fun this is.

Inspiring Women: Ellen Degeneres

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Ellen Degeneres.
I've been an Ellen Degeneres fan for years and at last the rest of the world has woken up to her talent, too.

I watched and loved her '90s sitcom Ellen, read her book My Point... And I Do Have One, and bought her stand-up show on DVD. Then Degeneres shocked me: she came out as gay. It wasn't the fact that she's a lesbian that was such a surprise, but the fact that both she and her character came out on national television, in an episode of her show featuring Oprah as her therapist. It was bizarre, to say the least, and although I admired the fact that the star of a top-rated sitcom was being honest about her sexuality, the show became very focused on that one theme from then on - campaigning for gay equality rather than telling a good story. Ratings slipped, DeGeneres was called a degenerate (oh ha ha ha) and the plug was pulled. Not to mention the turmoil in Ellen's private life, too: after being a high-profile Hollywood couple for three years, her actress partner Anne Heche left her... and married a man.

It would have been easy for Ellen to become one of those "Didn't she used to be...?" stories but she didn't. She picked herself up, dusted herself off, and started again.

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as an ill person in a well person’s world...
How sweet it is...

Once I'd done some research into the causes of M.E it became apparent that my staple diet of tuna sandwiches and M&Ms was going to have to go. I was going to have to base my diet (let's face it, my life - I live to eat!) around fresh vegetables, lean protein and wholemeal grains. Worst of all, I was going to have to give up sugar. Nectar. Sweet, sweet juice. Depending on your love of junk foods and chocolate (some members of my family can't compare, but you might be a savoury type) giving up sugar in all its forms (bye, bananas! sayonara satsumas!) either sounds like no big deal, a mild inconvenience or the end of life as we know it.

Guess which camp I fall into?

Inspiring Women: Oprah Winfrey

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Oprah Winfrey.

Of course. I'm not saying the woman doesn't have her flaws but she's inspiring for so many reasons (just ask Keris - Oprah changed her life!)

After surviving a difficult childhood in which she was sexually abused (having a baby as a result, which later died), Oprah was determined to build a great life for herself in adulthood. And she has: her TV programme is the most-famous talk show in the world and has been going for over twenty years. Opie doesn't just present though - she owns production company Harpo, publishes brilliant and insightful magazine O, produces Broadway plays and is an Oscar-nominated actress.

In survey after survey, she's ranked as the most influential woman in media, heck one of the most influential people in the world. Not bad for a poor girl from Mississippi.
Thank goodness then, with all her wealth, that she's famous for her philanthropy. Yeah, she still has more money than anyone needs, but she gives huge chunks of it to charity, to viewers of her show, and to enterprises like schools for girls in South Africa. Ya can't blame the girl for occasionally blowing a mil or two on fancy parties!

A Healthy Attitude: Living With M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences as as an ill person in a well person’s world...

Miss Diagnosis

This is how things worked when I was a kid: you felt bad, you saw a doctor, they told you (or your mum/dad/primary caregiver) what was wrong and gave you treatment. Simple!

Get M.E, and suddenly you find out just how complicated getting a diagnosis can be. M.E is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning once anything else they can think of (from cancer to scoliosis to the West Nile virus) has been ruled out, M.E can get ruled in. But that’s only the best case scenario. The worst case scenario would be - hi there! - me.

I understand, really I do, why I was told for four long years that I had clinical depression. When I first saw my GP I was so sleep deprived, exhausted, (and full of jet lag after a long flight) that I could hardly stop crying long enough to say my name. I was non compos mentus, completely cracked. If I’d been a doctor and seen myself, I would have shipped me off to the mental ward post-haste so I was lucky to escape with just a packet of Prozac. But when they - and nine other anti-depressants - did nothing, and when I complained of every classic M.E symptom under the sun (from daily diarrhoea - sorry, TMI?) to complete exhaustion after the tiniest amount of activity to severe PMS to memory loss and confusion (M.E is a neurological illness so it affects the brain, hormones, immune and digestion systems indiscriminately) shouldn’t someone have done more than made notes on my chart, mumbled, and told me it was all psychosomatic?

Inspiring Women: Carrie Fisher

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Carrie Fisher

When your father is actor Eddie Fisher (trust me, he was big in his day), your mother is irrepressible Hollywood star Debbie Reynolds (Singin’ in the Rain; uber-pushy mom Bobbi Adler in Will and Grace - where she basically plays herself) and your stepmother is Elizabeth Taylor, having dramatic tendencies is pretty much a given. And boy has Carrie Fisher had a dramatic life! She's had family upheavals (a troubled relationship with her father; her half-sisters didn’t know about her existence until they saw her in Star Wars), addictions to alcohol and drugs and she had a child with Hollywood agent Bryan Lourd.… who then left her for another man. It's been a pretty wild ride.

Plus, since her teens Carrie’s battled with the extreme highs and lows of manic depression (a term she prefers over the more politically correct ‘bipolar disorder’)...

Inspiring Women: Jane Austen

Diane Shipley writes of the iconic women we love: past and present...

Jane Austen.

Okay, I know what some of you are probably thinking: Jane Austen? She of the crinolines and the swooning heroines? The woman who lived a sheltered life in a country parish, with only the occasional trip to London to brighten up her dull existence? Jane who never married (meaning she probably never had sex, let alone children) and died aged forty-one… she's a feminist icon?

To which I say: you betcha.

A Healthy Attitude: Living with M.E

Diane Shipley writes about her experiences revealing herself as as an ill person in a well person’s world...

I'm Coming Out

My name is Diane Shipley and I have M.E.

Doesn't look that hard to say, does it? And it isn’t, technically. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, the term it abbreviates, doesn't exactly trip off the tongue but I can say that easily enough after eight years, too.)

But telling the world you're ill isn't easy. Partly it's because M.E has been maligned and stigmatised for so long; called everything from yuppie flu to "malinger's ennui" (thanks so much Julie Burchill for bringing that one to the public's attention!) Partly it’s because it’s kind of embarrassing to have been ill for closing in on a decade; and with an illness that has no visible outward signs (apart from looking gormless, but I always did that anyway). And of course the other term for M.E, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ugh!) hasn’t helped my PR, either - making it sound like sufferers are just a bit tired when at worst the disease leaves people bed-bound, unable to move, tolerate light or even swallow.

Maintenance... or Masochism? Is beauty really worth the effort?

Trashionista co-editor and Shiny writer Diane Shipley makes the case for beauty without cruelty (to ourselves)…

It’s not that I think women with brains should wear clumpy boots and never crack a smile, let alone the seal on a lipstick: I like make-up, I love pretty shoes, and don’t get me started on bags... Dressing up and pampering yourself is fun, lifts the sprits and provides numerous best-friend bonding opportunities.

But standards of beauty are becoming ever more unrealistic - and we’re all making ourselves miserable trying to keep up. Look at any rom-com from twenty years ago and you’ll see that all you needed to be considered pretty back then was decent clothes (or what passed for decent in the 1980s), recently back-combed hair and lip gloss. And the typical size for Hollywood stars - let alone average women - was a US 8. No-one obsessed about cellulite, tried to be a size zero or waxed their eyebrows, let alone their bikini line. (Speaking of which, I blame a more liberal attitude to porn for the trend in super-groomed girlie bits).