JayDee Slimming

The shape of Broadmayne as we enter the new millennium The slimming club in Broadmayne is one of nine weight loss classes held each week in the Dorchester and surrounding area and run by Jenny Dench from Tolpuddle. The aim of the club is to help people to lose weight in a group support environment and to encourage weight loss on a weekly basis until their desired ‘target’ weight is achieved.

Currently, national statistics show that approximately 30% of the adult population can be classified as being overweight. This would seem to be due, in part, to a diet that is increasingly high in fat and sugar, supported by busy lifestyles that are fuelled by a plethora of ‘ready prepared’ convenience foods now available in the supermarkets.

Given this background, here are some interesting facts about Broadmayne slimming club: The group meets each week from 2 pm to 3 pm at Broadmayne Village Hall. The group was started in September 1998 and currently some 20 members attend each week. All members are female with one brave exception! Nearly all members who joined in September 1998 are still attending and have together lost a total of 240 pounds. All members follow a diet that includes a minimum of 5 portions of fruit or vegetables each day, is low in fat and supplies 50% of its calorific value in the form of carbohydrate. Members are recommended to drink between 1.5 and 2 litres of water each day. There is much talk about incorporating exercise into members’ daily routine – how much exercise is actually taken is uncertain! Members are weighed at the start of class each week. Their weight recorded, praise or encouragement is given and they are then encouraged to stay and take part in the group support meeting. Meetings include a different diet-related topic each week and are interspersed with cookery demonstrations to encourage members to cook healthy, low fat, low calorie meals for themselves and their families. The dream of every dieter would be for the Millennium to inspire the development of a miracle slimming potion which would mysteriously ‘dissolve’ unwanted body fat while allowing the consumer to eat all of their favourite foods; ... until that happens, the dieters of Broadmayne will continue to meet on a weekly basis!

As a footnote:– Jenny’s mother spent the last three years of her life in one of the bungalows in High Trees. She was a competent plain cook who particularly enjoyed cake and pastry baking. Meat would have been eaten every day and a pudding or desert would have been included at both the lunchtime and evening meal. All bread would have been white and buttered and the family favourite was suet pudding (no matter whether sweet or savoury). Fruit was purchased every week and she used fresh vegetables with the possible exception of frozen or tinned peas out of season. Alcohol would have been consumed on high days and holidays only, until the last few years, when light German wine was enjoyed with weekend eating. For most of her married life (1936 – 1977), certainly until her husband (the driver) retired, she shopped on a daily basis having no freezer and in the early days no fridge, but mainly because it was all she could carry home. By default it ensured the family’s food consumption was very fresh and leftovers were used up promptly. Her mother on the other hand, who as an early widow raised five children virtually single handed on a widow’s pension, relied on cheap cuts of meat to cook stews and casseroles on the solid-fuel black range. There was lots of bread and jam to fill hungry children and also lots of porridge. Fruit was a luxury and very little was eaten but she kept chickens so occasionally there was one for the boiling pot and eggs were gathered every day. Roast chicken was only eaten at Christmas and desserts consisted mainly of milk puddings. Cake was only on the tea table if it had been baked at home and there were no luxuries and no foreign dishes whatsoever. What tremendous development in our eating habits over a period of seventy years! What will the future hold?

Jenny Dench, June 1999

[Unfortunately the Slimming club now (Jan 2000) no longer meets]