Dance more.

Losing weight is a question of changing your lifestyle and there’s no question that I’ve become much more sedentary as time goes on.

I like to boogie when no one can see me although it’s not something I have ever thought of as “exercise”. But why not? I mean, a good track (especially something from my teen years) can have me bouncing all over the room and panting for breath at the end of it.

So I’m making myself a play-list of songs, called BOUNCE, which I’m filling up with tunes that make me want to dance. I was planning to borrow my son’s ipod to play the songs while I’m doing the housekeeping or cooking, although he’s just informed me that dancing to the B52s “Loveshack” while I’m waiting for the kettle to boil is not motherly behaviour, so maybe that’s out. I can always use the laptop, anyway.

Help me out! Recommend songs that are guaranteed to get these toes tapping and I, uh… well, I promise to update Endiet with my dancing escapades. What a deal

My favourite food in the whole world is in season right now: mushrooms! I had chanterelles at almost every meal during a recent trip to Germany, if you can find these small wild mushrooms, I highly recommend them. iVillage has posted ‘Shroom 101: The shopper’s guide to mushrooms with three pages of helpful tips and tricks, followed by a set of mushroom recipes. Go get inspired.

And then there is another favourite of mine: artichokes. Steam them gently and then just serve, letting everyone dip the leaves in home-made mayonaisse or just plain melted butter for a good and fun starter.

Fennel is an oft overlooked autumn vegetable: slice it thin and serve it in salads, cut it into chunks and add it to your soups, braise it whole or even roast it alongsie the root vegetables: it’s very versatile and gives a lovely accent to any meal. Squashes are starting to appear which you can roast or mash or even grill. Leeks and onions are in season now too and late season sweet corn is, in my opinion, at its sweetest and juiciest right now. Don’t get the shrink-wrapped stuff, find it fresh, still in the husk. I love to eat this off the barbecue: pull of the husk and remove all the strings, then wrap the cobs back up in the husks and put them on the coals (or under the grill) for 10 minutes. Yum!

My least favourite food is in season this month too, just to balance things out: parsnips. These are commonly roasted and sometimes cut into squares to allow the unsuspecting guest to believe they are roast potato. Cruel practice, and I recommend none of you do such a thing. I’ll concede they aren’t bad in a stew, but that’s all.

This is also a great time to go out and pick your own: blackberries, damnsons, elderberries and greengages are all ready for picking and often you can find them there for the taking in the English countryside.

This is also the time to stock up on apples. Leave them lying around as a tasty and healthy snack. As the weather starts to get a bit chillier you might find yourself inspired to make hot apple pie – especially if you take a look at this American site about making the perfect apple pie.

Probably the most useful one is not to obsess over the numbers. Concentrating on making small changes to your lifestyle that change the way you feel is far more effective than worrying about what the bathroom scales are telling you.

Hands up: how many of you have never had fresh peas. Although frozen peas are very convenient, you really should try them straight from the garden! This is the time to buy fresh peas and cook them only briefly – fry them up quickly with a bit of bacon or boil them for just one minute — you will know they are ready when they turn a brighter green.

Meanwhile, get your fill of peppers: chopped in salads, roasted for a sweet side dish or stuffed to make a full meal! Tomatos and aubergines/eggplants should still be readily available — if you are dreaming of holidays in the sun, maybe you should try some Greek recipes.

You might also consider heading out to a Pick-Your-Own farm for the summer berries — seasonal and a fun day out for all ages!

Once a month not often enough? Get a tip for a seasonal food every week from www.eattheseasons.co.uk

Fennel comes into season and I recommend trying this as a for a wonderful salad on its own: sliced very thinly and served with parmesan shavings and just a touch of olive oil. Or if you find the anise flavour too strong, mix thin slices in with your green salads to add extra bite and a touch of coolness. Then head over to GoodFood for six pages of recipes, both with fennel as the star and in a subsidiary role.

Tomatos are deep red and juicy now. We could eat them all week: served in salad, sliced with garlic and oil, pureed into gaspacho, chopped up into a light sauce for pasta. We love them although sadly it’s quite clear that not everyone agrees.

You can still go mediterranean this month though — with a focus on the beautiful purple vegetable. Whether you know it as aubergine or eggplant, you will find it a tasty and versatile addition to your meals. Simply brush slices with oil and grill for a quick and healthy side dish or try one of the 3000+ recipes over at Ashbury’s Aubergines.

For afters, you are spoilt for choice with berries: strawberries and raspberries are naturally sweet this time of year: eat them on their own or with just a touch of double-cream. Red currants are lovely added to fruit salads or made into a sauce. Cherries are juicy and lush and will bring smiles just by putting out a bowl full of them for people to grab.

Get the family involved. The Woodcraft Folk have written up an activity called Eating seasons with worksheets for the UK to test your knowlege of local foods and seasons.

Sometimes getting more veg into your diet is just a case of thinking about your food from a different perspective.

This Japanese-inspired meal started with a bowl of chicken broth, quick and easy to heat up and serve. If you live in the city, you could probably easily pick up noodles to make it a bit heartier.

The main course is that old standby: cold roast beef (I like mine really rare, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t serve it well-done if that’s your preference). Instead of mustard though, serve it sliced thin with a bowl of soy sauce for dipping in. Add in a touch of wasabi (Japanese horseradish) for authenticity, or simply a bit of crushed garlic. I tossed in a few chile seeds for heat.

Then, clockwise and up from the soy sauce, we have avocado with pickled ginger, tinned palm hearts, sliced raw fennel and a spicy italian pickled chile pepper. A variety of flavours and textures and bite, combining into one very healthy meal. And the best thing? As we had the roast beef already from the night before, the entire two-course meal took me 10 minutes to prepare.

My other half only had one gripe: it’s a lot harder to eat avocado with chopsticks than you might think. Next time, I’ll add a few more minutes to the prep time and stab ‘em with toothpicks.

This is the time to indulge your sweet tooth. Fresh fruit starts to appear in June and July: a veritable feast of flavour! Strawberries with real summer flavour have finally arrived and you should start to see grapes, apricots, melons and nectarines.

Personally, I am looking forward to my very favourite dessert, fresh raspberries with cream: perfection. But if you aren’t familiar with gooseberries,you should definitely try this 15th century recipe for gooseberry fool. There’s no point in trying to improve upon perfection.

This is your last chance for seasonal asparagus but you’ll find summer vegetables at their prime. Perk up your salads with young and crunchy raw veg: baby carrots and thin-sliced fennel and spring onion and sliced radish with salt. Try updating your salads with different types of lettuce and young spinach and watercress. It is also a good time to explore the versatility of courgettes / zucchini, a type of small marrow that soaks up flavour, making it perfect for eating with herbs and butter. The smaller they are, the more flavour they tend to have. Broad beans are at their best now too, still young and soft enough that you can serve them steamed.

Need more inspiration? Things to Try Eating (Seasonal Food) is a great diagram by Andrew Fox showing seasonal food throughout the year – go large!

Salad leaves of all types are available now: get inventive and try something different instead of sticking to safe and steady iceberg; even my fussy kid loves spinach salads with croutons and bacon. Add seasonal zing to your spring salads: avocados, onions, and fresh garlic! For more ideas, take a look at How to Make Fabulous Green Salads on the Fabulous Foods site.

Cauliflower remains available and I have to bring up the lovely appetiser I had at lunch the other day: grilled cauliflower florets! Large florets sliced thick and brushed with olive oil, cooked fast over high heat so that they retained a bit of crunch. I immediately searched for a recipe when I got home and was pleased to find a recent article on hogwash, which I immediately added to my bookmarks.

Jersey Royals are ready to be lightly boiled and served with butter and just a touch of parsley but if that’s not exciting enough for you, you’ll find everyday and Chefs’ recipes on The Jersey Royal Potato website. Did you know their name comes from the neighbours calling it a “right royal fluke” when Hugh discovered them?

Dessert is a doddle with cherries just coming into season: just serve them fresh as they come! Choose Cherries claims that they are a superfruit with the “highest level of disease-fighting antioxidants compared to other fruits” All we know is that they taste good.

A few additional articles if we’ve not convinced you yet how simple it is to eat seasonally:

World Community Cookbook offer an Online Fruit and Vegetable guide as a part of their Simply in Season online site.

There’s a good article on seasonal food pros and cons over at The Tracing Paper.

Eat the Seasons offers recipes and recommendations every week so you are never short of inspiration.

What’s in season now?

As we head directly into Spring, it’s time to get the last of our winter roots and veg and start serving fresh green salads with radishes on the side. Right now is the time for fresh young spinach and watercress both of which make for a wonderfully delicate salad with just a touch vinegar and oil as dressing. Young spring onions and fresh green herbs are a wonderful addition, especially parsley and mint, all of which come into their own in late March. And you know when mint comes into season, spring lamb can’t be far off — perfect for cooking fast and serving pink.

Fruit and Vegetables in season now

• Beetroot
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Celeriac
• Endives
• Leeks
• Mint
• Parsley
• Rhubarb
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Spring Onions
• Watercress

Meat, Fish and Seafood

• Cockles
• Lemon Sole
• Lobster
• Rabbit
• Salmon
• Sardines
• Spring Lamb
• Venison

I was just watching Tyra Banks Show this evening and she had the (ex – I think) wife and daughter of Mike Tyson as her guests! The topic was about how the mother was ashamed of her daugther’s weight and as a result, she stopped her daughter from eating various things, as well as making bad remarks about the daughter’s weight.

Well ok the daughter is rather heavy, but guess what, her mum’s comments are not helping!

In fact, if anything, those years of frustrations and embarassment caused by the mum’s remarks probably contributed to her weight gain.

Isn’t it just amazing how a parent can be so unsopportive and destructive to his/her own child? Maybe the intention wasn’t bad. She saw the child has a tendency to gain weight easily and so wanted to keep her healthy. But rather than making fun of her, why not inspire her to change her eating habits instead?

It’s the push vs pull factor.
And a play between positive and negative emotions.

The same thing goes with people who put themselves on strict diets and absolutely deny themselves certain foods. I think that’s just absurd.

With all due respect, I totally admire people with such strong willpower. However, they should also keep in mind that we want a healthy lifestyle so that we can enjoy life! Not to torture ourselves with a constant diet of celery sticks and what-nots.

And the result of that? Cravings.

It’s psychological. The more we think of NOT eating certain things, the more we think of eating them! This continues until it comes to a point where your mind just can’t take it anymore and you have a ‘relapse’.

And then all hell break loose.

In healthy eating, I’d rather not restrict myself to certain foods. In fact, I eat whatever I feel like, whenever I have the desire to eat it. However, bear in mind the quantities! Eat just enough to make yourself feel quite happy and satisfied, but not overly full. Also, don’t ever feel any regret afterwards – it doesn’t help!

So the number 1 rule to healthy eating is:

Have a positive attitude, and have the right reasons for dieting! Your diet isn’t there to stop you from living your life, it’s there to allow you to enjoy your life to the fullest!

So live it!