Give me your top tip to make you feel better about yourself.

[fruitstick]

There's no denying it, I've let myself go.

2 DS (4.5 and 20 months) run me ragged and I was caught by surprise when I saw myself in the mirror yesterday and saw how haggard I looked.

I am about 2 stone overweight, live on tea and biscuits and don't really make much effort with my appearance.

I always feel tired and worn out. I ache all over - my shoulders and upper back is fucked from carrying a toddler around.

However, I've decided to get a grip and sort myself out. Call in New-vember (do you see what I've done there ).

I'm not that bothered about the weightloss at the moment, just want to feel more energised and look like I've made a bit more of an effort.

So, starting tomorrow, I am going to:-

• eat porridge for breakfast (instead of skipping breakfast and eating kids' malted milk biscuits all morning)

• get a haircut and colour (never coloured my hair before but the grey is definitely getting worse!)

• find a pilates class.

What do you do everyday to make yourself feel better?

Penguin, that is a great idea. Will do that now.

Haircut at 1pm. Will report back.

Another Zumba fan here - I leave the class feeling like I can take on the world. regular haircuts, decent underwear and breakfast also a good place to start. I find adding one habit at a time means I'm more likely to keep it up, rather than an all or nothing approach.

good luck!

What exactly is Zumba? I remember seeing TV ads when I was on holiday in New York, they were those awful American advertorials and it just looked bizarre!

It's like a low impact aerobics class with a dance theme - but like belly dancing, bollywood dancing, erm, greek dancing type stuff? I do it for fun but not to get fit IYSWIM.

A couple of people have said 'whiten your teeth' but you should be really careful with this as the cheapo kits can be quite damaging, and if you have it done by a dentist, you have to be religious about avoiding red wine and coffee and tea afterwards.

But going to the hygenist regularly, flossing, and useing a gentle whitening toothpaste all make a difference (enough for people to notice, but not so that they can figure out what's changed) and are good for your health.

Also, keep your nails looking nice. For me that means buffed and filed rather than polished, as I am lazy.

Right, off to exfoliate my face now.

I wouldn't say Zumba is low impact - you put as much effort into it as you like. A couple of the routines are slower but mostly it is full on aerobic dancing/exercise to really fun tracks (without stopping) for an hour. I love it and am noticably fitter having been going for several weeks.

Really goos thread. Am resurrecting it in case people add more tips :).

Here's my own tips:
-regular 'sessions' of 5 mins tidying up / decluttering different rooms in house. Makes huge difference to your mood afterwards & it's amazing what you can achieve in just 5 mins. Set a timer for this & stop when 5 mins are over.

-have a meal plan including at least 2 veggie dinners a week.

-use a foot scrub in shower & then foot cream before going to bed (& maybe socks on top). Feet in morning will feel amazing

-generally use body scrub in shower, really makes a difference to softness of skin

-even if you don't use any make up at all, use a good cleanser & moisturiser on face.

-always use a good quality handcream.

Fruitstick - how's it going?