Weight Watchers....

Attended the Weight Watchers meeting in Backwell Village Hall last night as instructed by Mrs Huggins, and it was every bit as bad as I'd feared. Was horrified to see Miss Scott there but more of her later...

Much like the Church of England, Weight Watchers appears to be a social club for middle aged women who sit about in drafty halls discussing who should be voted off on the latest reality tv shows and slagging off whichever of their colleagues aren't there that evening. Cleverly the weight watchers organisation has cashed in on this phenomena which it uses to sell its own products, particularly receipe books, which to my untrained and sceptical eye (I'm only a Leith trainned Cordon Bleu cookery school chef) seem to contain recipes that are no less fattening than those in any other book. However unlike the C of E cakes and other goodies were brought in and distributed by all, and I'm not afraid to say that most I sampled were excellent. Clearly some practicing has gone on here behind the scenes.

I nursed my mug of tea at the back of the hall and munched noisilly as the weigh in proceeded.
Although all of the attendees could clearly have benefitted from psychotherapy, with the sole exception of one poor girl who weighed a gazillion tonnes and was obviously not part of the normal group, it would not have been their weight that was causing the problem. Freud's speciality was the neuroses of middle aged, middle class women and he'd have had a field day - what with the cakes and everything - but I did not feel that my standard sales pitch ("You're clearly a nutter, would you like to pay for some professional help....") would have achieved much success.

I decided to speak to the young girl at least with a view to saving her from having to attend such a dreadful social event again. As with so many people her current obesity stemmed from comfort eating, although by now she had compounded the problem with periods of bolemea and other problems. I decided to take her on as a local authority sponsored patient as I do not currently have any patients of this type on the books, and she infinitely preferred the sound of a warm afternoon with the Playstation 3 to a night in a cold old church hall.

With the Munich Oktoberfest well under way, I have decided to fly out to the beer halls before my first session with Jane in order to drink/consult with my old friend Dr. Klaus Bayer from the University Hospital of Straubing. Dr Bayer is an expert in using Suggestion Theory & hypnosis in order to change the everyday behaviour of his patients, and is most famous for his success getting Germans to actually cross an empty road when the traffic lights still said don't cross.

We shall see if between us we can subconsciously get Jane to regulate her eating habits by inducing a mild food phobia.