Like most families these days we have a digital camera – actually we have three!

The benefit of this type of camera is you can take a photo, look at it, and if you don’t like it, you can delete it straight away and take another one. You can then upload the photos to your computer, share them with friends or print them off. It’s very quick and convenient, but sometimes you can forget to delete them.

A couple of weeks ago my son got married. It was a lovely day, and everything went off beautifully. I even wore a posh frock, hat and shoes with heels, so you know it was quite an occasion.

Needless to say a lot of photos were taken, especially as all three cameras got an outing, and a few days later, I decided to show them to my elderly parents, who still have the old type of film camera that you need to send away to be developed.

Rather than expect them to look at the photos on the cameras,however, I decided to display them all in the form of a slide show on my computer. That way the pictures would be bigger, so they’d be able to study them better.

Now, as I was the mother of the groom and likely to be in a lot of photos, I wanted to look reasonably nice for the occasion, so a few months before the big event I became a Beta tester for a new health and fitness program.

I hate diets and am not a dedicated exercise freak, so the idea of a 7 minute workout suited me just fine. The basics are you just exercise 7 minutes a day, three times a week and whilst I know it sounds too good to be true, it does actually work.

Of course it works faster if you also make sensible nutritional choices, but that’s optional. Generally speaking though, when people start to lose weight, feel fitter, have more energy and gain confidence, they do that anyway.

It’s a natural progression.

One of the recommendations when you start the program is to take details of your important measurements, like chest, waist, hips etc and a “before” photograph  so you can chart your progress.  That way you have a visual reminder of your success and there are some people on the program whose transformation has been phenomenal.

Anyway, I did as recommended and stood in front of a full length mirror in just my knickers.

It was not a pretty sight, quite scary really and a stark reminder of how quickly and easily you can get out of shape unless you actively do something about it, especially as you get older.

Of course, I forgot all about it and when I gave my impromptu slideshow of the wedding, there in the midst of all the guests in their posh frocks and outfits, guess who popped up in her birthday suit?

How embarrassing!

It was quite a shock as you can well imagine, and yet another occasion when I wished the floor would open up and swallow me. Still it could have been much worse…

…I could still have a camera like my parents where the film needs to be sent away to be developed!

Jean

 7 Minute Workout

Discover how just exercising 7 minutes a day, three times a week, is changing lives and making people fitter, healthier and, stronger