Some of my work that keeps me busy and away from blogging.

What you are about to witness is the piece of writing i have improved a fair bit over the past couple of weeks and handed in on Thursday 5th January. This is an article on womens hang ups and bad habits; junk food, alcohol and smoking, i take an informal approach with everyday slang and a chatty style to appeal to the reader.

Bon appetite!

Bacci, booze and sausage rolls? By Saffron Watson

You want to turn over a new leaf for the New Year and for your own well being, to un-tag yourself from clichéd meanings? Then here are some home truths to help you get your bad habits off of your back and reinvent yourself.

Food fight

I was discussing health with a friend the other day, we always have health warnings shoved to the back of our throats, but we should be cautious of what we put in out bodies. But it’s tricky around this time of year we hit the ‘wall’ and shovel in the Malteasers non-stop. Like me, I bet you love to indulge in a good Maccy D’s every now and then. But have you seen what’s in them? Even though they now show us the good-bad stuff, we don’t look at it! But when you do you’re in for a shock. We can dribble over the keyboard on our PC whilst scoffing our Big Mac, to see the nutrition values for adults and children (www.mcdonalds.co.uk) and this is what we’ll see; Adult 490kcal. It’s not bad. Only 45% of our daily amount of calories, for you counters out there. But the fat is 10g which is 45% of our GDA. Not good. You don’t want to see the salt, that’s why it tastes so great and why you’re ‘lovin’ it’. If you think that your info is in trouble, well a child is more endangered at old Mc Donald’s acting as a money thirsty predator ready to inflate your bundle of joy. The intake of fat is the same amount of grams as Adults but their GDA is 56%. Whoops. (If I were you reading this, I’d whack out the manly muscles and rugby tackle the nearest child eating a Big Mac to save their life.) The salt is a horrific 70% the same 2.1grams for us adults but children are more at risk. So if you’re a mother and you ‘fast food’ I’d reduce your time at ‘restaurants’ like these, or get the salad bags, one of your five-a-day y’know.

Our Booze battle

So you’ve heard the word on counting units of alcohol. Instead of counting on your fingers, there’s an app for it on your android phone or Iphone (if you’re lucky.) So we all like our booze. A tipple ‘o’ wine in the evening after a long, hard day at work. But when is ‘when’? When do we stop and let it become a low sedative for a lovely kip? Until it gets to the point where we’re unconscious on the floor snoring with a massive fly trap…very attractive. If this becomes a routine every night, how does it affect our lives? Our work life? Social life?

With 17 million days lost each year due to hangovers, I think we should swap the cider for apple juice don’t you? Especially with all the old bills and their Christmas campaigns to stop drink-driving. Dr Selman says that drinking can make us “anxious, have impaired judgment, loss of consciousness and potential poisoning.” Now we don’t want to be in the emergency services at 2.00am with a stench in our mouth that repels any nice looking chap eh? Do we really want to be the one craving attention at a party, spilling everyone’s drinks on our new dress? And statistics say that one in 25 of us are dependant on our drink, so maybe we should tone it down to a couple of glasses of wine a week, if we’re cheekily having it every night! Otherwise the unmentionables happen; getting caught for drink driving (or worse), drunken mistakes, and the most embarrassing of all. Texting whilst drunk.

Beat the Bacci

A huge problem here in the UK is that two thirds of us start smoking before we’re 18. This can be due from jibes on the playground or we’re just so stressed out that we need something to calm us. The worst thing about this drug (other than the cravings it gives us) is that it burns a hole in our pocket where the government put a tax on it. Everything we enjoy or need has a price (you know the one, begins with ‘P’ and ends with ‘etrol’). If everyone stopped smoking, they’d find something else. Like cheese. There’d be rehabs all over because of the delicious cheddar. I think we should go a few years without MP’s and see how we go… I know that the first drag of whacky backy may make us relax and unwind, much like the sneakily having that Crunchie between breaks at work, and (away from the hole that you work in) the Rosé you’ve been saving for a ‘special occasion’, but after you have one you feel rough and stressed again. You can’t get enough. Becoming more dependant on the tar can make you unappealing to the opposite sex; yellow finger nails, coughing up phlegm and of course the smoky breath. Instead of spending time with our loved one’s we’re outside in the cold Christmas weather puff puff puffing; gradually getting ill from the cold in the winter time, and from the clogging in our lungs from our obsession. Not very Christmassy at all.

Help is at hand

There’s help for everyone with their addiction. You’ve seen the adverts with the sad children doing a message for their parents to stop smoking. You’ve heard the phrase ‘you can do anything if you put your mind to it’ well; we might as well at least try. By putting those Galaxies in the ‘secret’ stash, try those candy sticks instead of a Marlboro, and maybe drink a bit of squash. Also the sport squash will take away the calories from your Big Mac too! What have you got to lose? Hopefully a couple of pounds…