Research from Auburn University in the States suggests that sitting for hours in front of the telly will get you fat. Men who watch more than 3 hours of TV a day are twice as likely to become obese as those who watched less than one hour per day. Read it! This isn't a gender thing, just that the research was done on men. (Does this research from US relate to us in Scotland. Yes it does. Scots are second in the world in the obesity stakes. US is number one.)

In part, this is because you are sitting down doing nothing, so your metabolism slows down to be similar to sleeping. Even talking on the phone uses more calories than watching the box! Do something! Being active reduces your risk of low mood and depression too (a lot of eat more when we are depressed.)

We also tend to eat snacks while watching the TV. And at peak times (and in childrens tv time as well) we are watching adverts for chocolates and drinks, and a whole range of snack food. Advertising wouldn't be done if it didn't work. Recent research shows that from only half an hour of telly a day, the increased snacks triggered by advertising could lead to 10 pounds weight gain in a year.

If you are engrossed in the telly, then you are not fully mindful of the food you are eating. You could eat a whole meal's value of calories without even noticing.

So if you are concerned about weight gain, here are some tips.

1. Watch less telly.
2. Measure out a portion of snack, so that you are more aware of how much you are eating. Research shows that if you eat from a large package, you will eat more than if you eat from a small package. Store the remainder out of easy reach, so that if you refill your portion, you are aware of what you are doing.
3. Work on being aware of what you are eating.

Try to make a few small changes every week. If you are in or near Glasgow and want to lose weight, try hypnotherapy with me.

When you ask someone what they ate over the last 2 days, they will tell you what they had for each of the 3 formal meals.

They will not mention the automatic eating or mindless munching that takes place outwith a formal meal. But this is the stuff that piles on the weight for most of us.

We only have a limited amount of willpower. Use it to limit your access to the foods eaten outside of mealtimes. This trend to constant munching is pretty new and it is driven by advertising.  I remember a sweet advertised as one "you can eat between meals without spoiling your appetite". And another "finger of fun" that was "just enough until it's time to eat" - what were they doing with that finger of fun unless they were eating it, eh?

Now we are encouraged to eat as a displacement activity, when there is nothing else to do, to overcome boredom. In the past we might have had hobbies, or spent time with our friends going to the pictures or for a walk. Now we go and eat. Or we invite our friends over and stuff ourselves with chocolate and marshmallows, or crisps and popcorn.

What are your outside of mealtimes eating habits? Recognising them will help you give them up so you can manage your weight. And hypnosis will help too.

Research by Catherine Law of University College London shows that children of working mothers lead unhealthier lifestyles than where the mother does not work. Most women work nowadays, so the report refers to the majority of us.

What are the things that constitute an unhealthy lifestyle, according to this report. Well, it is the things that I bang on about, which are bad for all of us because they make us gain weight, and which are marketed actively at adults and children alike - sugary drinks, crisps, snacks. None of us need them, even though they are nice (they are designed by experts to be nice!) And working mums, short of time, drive the kids to school, reducing their activity levels. The research refers to unemployed woman, so they could be stay-at-home mums, who choose not to work, and presumably have enough income to do so - but they could be women on unemployment or other benefit, whose income is so low that they can't afford to buy pop and crisps every day. The other thing was that children of working mothers are less active and pass this habit on by driving their children to work. Women lead busy lives. Perhaps we ought to all get a bit more active and spend less time in front of the telly so they can lose weight. I think the research could be clearer here. There was no mention of the role of the dad in this research, by the way. What was he doing?

Sweets too are a problem. Cardiff University research shows that eating sweets everyday in childhood is linked to adult aggression. They haven't identified why. But we already know that certain foods cause hyperactivity in our children. We are lucky in this generation to have generally more cash, and we give treats to our children every day - so they become part of our normal diet. Perhaps our grannies who kept the biscuit tin and the sweetie jar hidden till Sunday were doing the right thing by us after all.