french women don't get fat..............

…………….. But English girls do. It is official. I will explain.

  Here in Val we have a resident English doctor, Dr Al is his name. He writes a weekly column in the local rag giving health advice and medical information to us seasonaires. From broken bones to STD’s he is your man.

  This week according to Dr Al throughout a ski season the ladies pile on the pounds and the boys always lose weight. Another kick in the teeth for womankind eh? Apparently it s due to the fact that girls tend to do the jobs where you get fed and they end up eating the left over cake from all afternoon tea’s!!  Re, chalet girl, chalet cook, waitress, nanny, rep and they work more hours so therefore ski less resulting in a rather fuller figure. The boys on the other hand do more physical jobs, spend more time on the mountain and spend 80% of their budget on booze instead of feeding themselves. Told you this was a man’s town!!

   You really would think that all this skiing would be great for the figure and the weight control, plus I also have to walk up 74 steps to get to my apartment, which I walk at least twice a day, at least once wearing a pair of ski boots which incidentally if you have ever had the misfortune of wearing, are heavy, plastic and totally impractical for walking more than a few feet!!  And I still feel as though I have put on weight (and I don’t get fed with my job!!), plus my legs and ass really do not feel all that more toned. I am thinking that it is just never meant to be!!!! At this point I must add that true to form Mr has actually lost weight, bloody typical despite drinking far more beer and eating his weight in cheese!!

   I certainly feel fitter but do not feel (from a very vain point of view that I do not mind admitting) that my figure is benefitting from all this exercise!!! Although I do not have a full-length mirror so I actually have no idea what I really look like, for the first time in my life I cannot analyse and criticise every inch of my body!! I am not sure which is worse!!

   But the real culprit is the food and drink that finds it’s way down my throat. I have a healthy appetite, really enjoy good food and love a glass of wine (or bottle!), but I also know I have to be careful and I actually like to eat healthily! I cook at home a lot, which I enjoy having the time to do, we eat out at most once a week, as it is so expensive to do so any more, and we really only go out for drinks once or twice a week, I avoid hot chocolate on the mountain and generally try to stick to my meat and dairy free diet when at home. So where is the problem??

    The problem is the lack of gym workouts that I am used to, skiing just is not the same if you are used to high cardio workouts, add to the fact that the body is completely covered head to toe in bulky clothes so subconsciously (or not?) don’t think about exposing body as normal and it is cold so you feel like you need something warming and comforting like hot chocolate with rum or amaretto!!!! Or a café au lait!!! And there are naughty treats lurking around every corner, croissant, waffles, crepes….. the list is endless!! I would never have had these things on a normal day back in my old life, but here it is just the done thing, you kind of fall into the bad habits surrounding you!!

     And there is the eating out. The trouble is when Mr and I head out for a meal, obviously this being France it would be almost illegal not to have bread on the table (I barely ate bread before), then there is the French food, meat and dairy is compulsory, vegetables only exist in the form of green salad and veggie soup, and the deserts are to die for, again something else I would have avoided, add a gallon or two of red wine and you can put on a stone reading through the menu!!!

    This then brings us nicely to the subject of alcohol, as mentioned once or twice, red wine or a gin & slimline tonic would normally be my chosen drink but with a G&T on average €8 and a ‘vin rouge’ €4, you can work out which one is the more affordable option. But you don’t need me to tell you that wine is the enemy of the waistline!!! I have never drank so much in my life, the odd glass or two here and there really adds up, but unless we go out we do not socialise and unless you have a drink it is miserable as everyone else is plastered. Then next day equals hangover, which needs to be fed rubbish!!!! There lies the other problem.

    So this week it has to change as there are only 13ish weeks till I will have to bare some flesh and the horrifying thought of maybe putting on a bikini!!!!!! Things maybe are not so bad as all my clothes still fit but my daily Pilates and Yoga really must once again become part of my routine now that my back has eased up.  

    So why don’t French women get fat?? God knows how they don’t. Olivia Palermo professes to owe her slim (child like actually) figure to growing up in Paris and eating like a French woman, eating everything but never over indulging. Hmmm…….food for thought, not for eating!!!!!!