Getting your eating habits back on track

Do you find yourself heading to the fridge or the food cupboard when you’re feeling anxious, upset or simply bored?

Do you reach for a biscuit and then can’t stop till you’ve finished the packet or unwrap a bar of chocolate, intending to have just a couple of squares, but before you know it you’ve scoffed the lot?

If this sounds like you, then this week’s guest on Girls Around Town is here to help you out!

On the phone to the studio in the second hour of this week’s show, Liz Blatherwick will be talking about her new book, A Practical Self-help Guide to Managing Comfort Eating, which will be published in early September.

Packed with plenty of ways to help you think about and manage your relationship with food and weight, it’s based on a tried and tested 10-week course run by Liz and her former business partner Lesley Butlin.

Liz will be joining June this weekend to describe why she decided to write her first ever book, how it helps readers work out what they might really be hungry for when they eat emotionally and how trying some of the skills and exercises she suggests can help them begin to work out what works best for them.

The book’s already available for pre-orders but if you don’t want to wait till September to start changing your eating habits for the better, make sure you’re tuned to 107.8FM or listening online from 11.10am on Sunday when Liz will be sharing two or three of her top tips to help you identify some of your emotional eating triggers…

And improve your health and weight by replacing them with calorie-free skills to cope with your feelings!

Time to get crafty – with cake!

If you’re a regular listener to Girls Around Town, you’ll know that cakes feature on the show fairly frequently – and this week is no exception!

But when former co-presenter Tina Bettison joins June on air again on Sunday, they’ll be talking about much more than just baking cakes…

Because Tina will be inviting everyone to get crafty and make a special one to share on social media to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Open Studio Notts

Whether you want to draw or paint, sculpt or sew, write a poem or sing and dance – or bake, of course! – anything goes. All you need to do is photograph or video your creation and post it on social media using the hashtag #osnottscake.

There are four different categories

  • Practising artists (for whom art or craft is their main income source)
  • Adults over 18 (not making an income from art or craft)
  • Young people (over 12)
  • Children (under 12)

Entries open on Monday 19 April and you have until Monday 14 June to get yours online – just include your name and category on the post and you could be in with a chance of winning a prize in the Crafty Birthday Cake Competition!

Tina will have more details when she’s on the phone from just after 11.10am this weekend and she’ll also be sharing the latest information about how artists across the county will be showcasing their work during May and June both virtually and, if the gradual easing of restrictions permits, by opening their doors to welcome visitors into their studios.

Make sure you’re tuned in to 107.8FM or listening online to find out more…

And in the meantime, get your thinking caps on so you’re ready to join the party and get crafty with cake!

Creating a happy life

Not long now till lots of lovely small businesses across the country will be opening their doors once more…

And if you’re anything like June, Monday 12 April just can’t come soon enough!!

Someone who’s looking forward even more to the next stage in the easing of restrictions is artist Liz Goulding, who’ll be on the phone in the second hour of next weekend’s Girls Around Town to share news of what’s on the cards for mid-May onwards, when a range of brand new workshops will be up and running in her Secret Garden Studios here in Newark.

Overlooking the beautiful secret garden itself, the studios will be home to a variety of different classes from poetry and printmaking to creative writing and textiles – and painting too of course!

A firm believer that a creative life is a happy life, Liz can’t wait to spread a little of that happiness when the workshops and classes get under way in May.

Make sure you’re tuned in to 107.8FM or listening online from just after 11.10am next Sunday when she’ll be chatting to June about what’s in store…

And how you can find your happy by joining Liz and various other experts, ready to start getting creative together!

Pictures courtesy of Liz Goulding