Win, win, win in the new look website competition

As you may know, earlier this month we launched our new-look website www.rosemaryconley.com. We hope you like the enhanced site, which has been made easier to navigate and has a fresh new feel.To make it even more exciting, I’ve launched our first-ever competition on the site and ten lucky visitors can win one of ten one-year (9 issues) subscriptions to the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine

Sheer joy when the job is done!

As many of you know, the Special Olympics GB 2009 are being held in Leicester this week. People of all ages with learning difficulties are participating in 21 sports and competing for that coveted place on the podium to collect a medal.Yesterday was my day to be privileged to be asked to present some of the medals at the gymnastics venue. When I arrived in the morning I was escorted to the sports

British Franchise Association's Franchisee of the Year

Yesterday I went to London with Angie Higgins, one of the Directors of Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs and, Sarah Skelton. Sarah runs a very successful franchise in and around Norwich in Norfolk and last November she was awarded our highest accolade, Franchisee of the Year, because she is exceptional.Each year the British Franchise Association organise two award ceremonies – one for

Why Portion Size is so important

Yesterday I talked about portion control at my diet and fitness classes that I hold at the Holiday Inn in Leicester. Having taken the same class in this hotel for 23 years there isn’t much I haven’t talked about to my members, particularly as most of them have been attending during that time! But portion control is one of those subjects that should be right at the top of the list of priorities if

Courage and perseverance, against the odds

On Saturday evening Mike and I were privileged to be guests at the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics GB Leicester 2009. It is the second time that these very special Games have been hosted by our home town Leicester and we, as a city and county, feel very honoured to be staging this event again. The last time the games were hosted here was in 1989 and it is the first time the games have

Inch loss is as important as weight loss!

When we start to diet I believe we put too much emphasis on weight loss. Obviously getting on the scales is a great guide to how well we are doing in our slim down campaign but we shouldn’t forget to measure ourselves too.The problem with scales is that our weight can fluctuate according to the type of food we have eaten, the time of the month – all manner of things, in fact. Some people become

Customer Care – the Key to Success

It was a big mistake when United Airlines showed little interest when one of their passengers complained that their guitar had been damaged in transit. Dave Carroll is a professional musician and he was devastated to find that when he collected his Taylor acoustic guitar after his flight into Chicago’s O’Hare airport, it had been broken so he took up the matter with United Airlines. They just

Tom Daly has done it!

This time last year many of us hadn’t heard of the name Tom Daly but he shot to fame when he was included in the British diving team for the Beijing Olympics. He hit the headlines because then he was only 14 years old. Whilst he performed well at the Olympics, he didn’t win a medal. And as we all said at the time, ‘but he has plenty of time – he’s only young’.Today we woke up to the news that Tom

Be encouraged by how quickly the body responds to exercise

Exercise is one of those things we know we should do more of, we know it’s good for us but somehow we just don’t quite make the time and effort to do enough of it. As a nation we watch on average 27 hours of television a week and yet we say we don’t exercise because ‘we don’t have time’!To exercise we must be motivated – either by the activity itself, (because we love doing it), or by the

You’re never too old...

Whether you are a fan or golf or not, you would have to know that over the last few days the Open has been held in Turnberry. For the less well informed, the Open is a major world golf tournament and Turnberry, (Scotland) is the best links, (by the sea), golf course location in the world.I have never played golf but I was brought up in a golfing family. My parents played golf and I spent many an

Supermarkets are ruling the roost!

Yesterday I had a meeting with my publishers regarding my new book. The book is nearly written – just the exercise section to complete – and I am pretty sure that when the book is published in January, it will be a best seller. I really don’t mean that to sound arrogant but this all-new diet has been tried and tested with better results than any of my previous 30 diet books and I know folk will

Look on the Packet

Yesterday I spent the day adding some final touches to the new book I have written this year to be published in January 2010. Not only will the diet be published in book form for sale in shops around the country, it will also be adapted into a handy format issued to all the new members who join Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs.When I create a new diet I like to put it to the test so I run a

Motivation is the key

As unique individuals on this earth we are all motivated by different things and some folk are more motivated than others. In my field of work – helping people to lose weight and become fitter – motivation plays a massive role.As I read the amazing before and after stories of the successful slimmers who appear in my magazine, there is usually one particular situation which happened that triggered

What else can we do to help?

We are building a TV studio at our offices for a new project to be launched later in the year. The studio is almost complete and recording is about to get into full flow. We need to hang some special fabric on the walls to offer some extra sound absorption, so yesterday it was decided to buy some, to hang around the perimeter, just as I’ve seen in other TV recording studios.There is a bit of an ‘

Back home safe and sound!

Friday was the last full day of our holiday and my holidaymakers took a chair lift up a mountain, walked down to a hut for lunch and then relaxed in the afternoon ready for our final evening’s activity – the big Awards Ceremony.Everyone on the holiday wins an award, from Slimmer of the Week to who caught the biggest fish when we went trout fishing. There were Bravery Awards for those scared of

Tears and Laughter!

It is now Day 6 of our splendid holiday in the Austrian alps. Everyone is energised and very relieved that the Concert, held last night, is over! Not only that, they have now had their final weigh-in too.Despite having a vast array of foods on the breakfast buffet each morning, eating traditional Austrian food in a hut in the mountains yesterday, and a delicious four-course meal last evening –

Champagne and Fresh Air

It’s Day 5 of our Austrian Activity Holiday and the sun is trying to shine. Our holiday guests are getting fitter by the day and the weight losses are mounting up.Yesterday all of the guests went to Bregenz, a beautiful town situated on Lake Constance in Austria. Bregenz is famous for its open air theatre with the stage being suspended actually on the lake. It is a magnificent sight and the stage

Expect the unexpected...

It’s Day 4 of our Austrian Activity holiday and it’s still raining! However, the damp weather has not caused us to have any less fun or laughter.Yesterday we divided into two groups – the fit and the super fit – because Tuesday was the day to visit Norbert in his farmhouse half way up a mountain at the tiny place called Burstegg. It is a two hour, all uphill hike but it’s well worth the effort.

Austrian Activity Holiday

It is now Day 3 of our Austrian Activity Holiday and we are all having a very happy time, despite the damp weather.Yesterday we walked along the bank of the Lech river, through fields bathed in summer flowers, surrounded by mountains, clean air and a sense of extreme peace. The countryside is enchanting and exercise is a total pleasure.Our 40-strong group chat to each other as we walk along,

Our Austrian Holiday so far!

On Saturday forty of us met up at Zurich Airport having travelled from Manchester, Heathrow or Birmingham and, on schedule, arrived within half an hour of each other. All was going so well until our transfer coach was delayed for 1 ½ hours due to an accident on the motorway which caused massive delays. So we, that’s myself and my two fellow holiday guides, looked after everyone’s luggage and we

Off to the Austrian Alps!

Tomorrow, almost 40 women will be travelling with me and my two colleagues to Zurich, Switzerland and then on to Lech in Austria for a House Party Activity Holiday. It is the 23rd time we have organised this trip which started back in 1983. We stay at the same hotel, Der Berghof, which is run by the third generation of the Burger family.Each day will start with an early morning walk, then a daily

From morbidly obese to fitness instructor!

Two years ago Gill Butcher, from Northampton, went to work and every day on her way home she called to see her elderly mother. Once home, Gill would cook for her husband and then spend the evening on the sofa watching TV before collapsing into bed at the end of another exhausting day. They never entertained or went out socially because, apart from visiting her mother and going to work, Gill had

Today is an important day!

Every day we are alive is important and I am grateful for every one of them. But today I am writing the diet for my new book which will be published in January. I have already designed the meals, (breakfasts, lunches, dinners), and they have been calculated for calories and nutrition, but today I put them together into combinations so that dieters can open my book and see that on, say, Day 6 the