Victoria Bowen was over the moon when she fell pregnant with her first child. But while she was carrying her first child, Victoria began to eat for two - and didn't stop after she gave birth. By the time she'd had her second baby, the mum-of-two was dangerously overweight and too afraid to get on the scales. Victoria was trapped in the cycle of over-eating but was now so self-conscious about how she looked that she stopped leaving her house. She admits she fell into the mentality of eating for two as soon as she found out she was pregnant. Victoria, from Red Cliffs, Australia, said: "There were days that I ate a block of chocolate after dinner, every day or every second day or however often I wanted it. “If I wanted it, I had it. And then I think those eating habits, which were never my habits before they kind of crossed over into after having the baby after having my first and then they just continue then I just continue to balloon and balloon.” Physically Victoria was in … [Read more...] about Heartbreaking moment at family picnic inspires 18 stone mum to shed 10 stone
92 world cup final
Our top 100 Christmas TV countdown! From spine-chilling ghost stories to big belly laughs, we’ve picked out the very best shows to make sure you don’t miss a thing
A heartwarming Call The Midwife... sparkling new versions of A Christmas Carol and Dracula... enchanting animations The Snail And The Whale and The Tiger Who Came To Tea... Yes, this promises to be a vintage year for Christmas TV. And here, we’re highlighting the very best 100 shows to make sure you don’t miss a thing. So sit back, switch on and let us guide you through this wonderful time of year... DRAMA AND THRILLERS Perennial favourites Call The Midwife and Doctor Who are back, along with a fresh look at the Profumo scandal and a reboot of classic vampire tale Dracula from the team behind Sherlock. 1. Dracula 1-3 January, 9pm, BBC1 In their spine-chilling new version of the vampire classic, Mark Gatiss says he and Steven Moffat – the pair behind Sherlock – ‘wanted to make Dracula the hero of his own story for the first time’. Pictured, Claes Bang as Dracula in the new BBC1 adaptation In their spine-chilling new … [Read more...] about Our top 100 Christmas TV countdown! From spine-chilling ghost stories to big belly laughs, we’ve picked out the very best shows to make sure you don’t miss a thing
Are blond men evil? You asked Google – here’s the answer
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: blond men look evil. Blond children, like Mark Lester in Oliver!, look angelic. But the combination of cherubic ringlets with weathered features is all wrong. Innocence and age don’t belong together. That’s why fiction is awash with blond men doing bad things. From Max Zorin in A View to a Kill to the Lannisters in Game of Thrones, the bad blond just looks right. Unfortunately, the world today seems to be in the grip of a monstrous case of life imitating art. Mad improbably fair-haired men are ruining the world. The schlocky trope has jumped from the movies into real life and Roger Moore’s too old to save us. Everywhere you turn men who look like the Milky Bar Kid’s strange uncle are destroying democracy and spreading prejudice. The Malfoys are running the salon. There are now so many real-life blond baddies that it’s only natural to wonder whether every man with the full Pat Butcher is evil. The only … [Read more...] about Are blond men evil? You asked Google – here’s the answer
That’s globizness! An international celebrity scandal round-up
INDIA Somewhere deep in the Mumbai smog, in the gritty centre of the city's underbelly, a chaiwallah is cursing his fate. Mrigesh just can't catch a break. First, he's rendered as a cliche in this Indian-shaped flight of fancy, now his filmic hero has slurped his last cup of tea, before slinging his jacket over his shoulder and... heading to prison, taking his generous tips with him. Yes, actor Sanjay Dutt – veteran of countless Bollywood bad boy roles – has been back in court. India's equivalent of a Sly-Schwarzenegger-Statham human mash-up was convicted back in 2006 for buying weapons from what turned out to be terrorists (notably, the ones behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people). He spent nearly two years in prison. Now, several years into a revived career, the unlucky Dutt has been ordered back to prison to serve the remaining three-and-a-half years of a sentence that everyone assumed was done. "I am truly shattered to hear of Sanju's sentence," tweeted … [Read more...] about That’s globizness! An international celebrity scandal round-up
Mum who weighed 30 stone turns life around after seven-year-old son’s plea
A mum who weighed 30 stone looks unrecognisable after an incredible transformation - having feared she could be dead before Christmas if she didn't make a change. Laura Cain, 31, gorged on takeaways and scoffed her way through bread, barm cakes, butter, and chocolate, alongside cups of tea every day. But her seven-year-old son inspired her to lose weight so they could "enjoy a longer life together". Laura, who at her heaviest weighed 30 stone, told the Liverpool Echo : “I thought I would be dead by now. Never did I think any of this would happen for me. “I have always been overweight. I was one of these people who join Slimming World, do it a while then give up. I also tried Weight Watchers, and those awful shake diets. “Over the last 10 years, I have struggled a lot with my health." In her 20s Laura, from Southport, developed swine flu and was placed on a life support machine in a desperate bid to survive. She was so ill afterwards, she had to learn how to walk … [Read more...] about Mum who weighed 30 stone turns life around after seven-year-old son’s plea