Jo Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, has won a complaint against ads by L'Oreal, because the flawless skin wasn't the makeup but airbrushing. 2
ads have now been banned.

In May she had launched the all-party group on Body Image. She is quite right in what she says: The pressure to conform to the impossible stereotypes we are bombarded with in the media, in advertisements and on the catwalk is overwhelming and damaging. Currently, one in four people in the UK are depressed about their bodies.The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image will work to promote body confidence in people of all ages. MPs of all parties are working together to build support on all sides of the House to take this important issue forward.

Is it only 1 in 4? Maybe the 3 are too young to have started worrying, though half of young girls apparently want cosmetic surgery. Research shows that most women, even those of normal size and weight, are unhappy with their bodies. The misery is that this dissatisfaction can lead to weight gain. Dieting is a risk for weight gain.

The YMCA are working with Body Image. Duncan Stephenson said at the launch in May: Through our work in the health and education sector we have identified body image anxiety as a challenge for young people - undermining confidence, self esteem and wellbeing. Together we want to identify what positive steps can be taken to enable people to be more body confident."

And it is needed. The Daily Mail yesterday reported on a trend called 20-40, where mums want to look like their daughters

Janet Cunliffe, 50, spent £10,000 on cosmetic procedures to look like her daughter, 22 years younger. She's gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to look like her? The way I see it is that she got her looks from me in the first place - mine have just faded with age. Seeing how attractive Jane is made me want to get my looks back. Now instead of mum and daughter we look more like twins.

Apparently most of us have given up on them already, but for those of you who are still on track - congratulations!

And many of us resolve to lose weight, but quickly fall back onto old habits. Why do we want to lose weight anyway? Well, the average person is 10 pounds heavier than our parent's generation, largely due to the easy access to cheap, palatable food. If we want cream cakes, we can buy them in just a few minutes. Our grandmothers had to bake them. So there is lots more temptation out there, in the shops and the adverts.

But sometimes it is because we feel our bodies are unacceptable, We don't love ourselves, our lives seem difficult and if only we could be thinner, then we would be happier in every way. Our bodies are to blame. This feeling is widespread in the West and as TV spreads more widely, women in other countries suffer this misery too. Research suggests there are 3 causes of body image distress - historic gender prejudice, media, and dieting.

Dieting has been shown not to work (see my other blog posts). Diet, deny and deprive is not a way to live for the long term.

Having a positive of yourself as a person will help you make positive changes to your eating patterns. Feeling good about yourself will help you sustain them. And this is why hypnotherapy works so well. We deal with the whole person, not just the spare tyre.