Carole: A shadow of her former self

Ever since we worked together on the Shields Weekly News (deceased) and the Sunday Sun (still thriving, thank you very much) North-East born Carole has always been one the profession's best. She was even, if I remember correctly, the subject of a spoof article in Viz and you can't get better than that.

Carole has always struggled with her weight so it was great to see her in ITV1s Best Diet In The World getting to grips with her long-running battle of the bulge.

She was one of four celebrities sent to different parts of the globe to try diets. She lost an impressive 19lbs following a low carb diet in Los Angeles.

Pretty impressive, I thought, all the more so because it meant no bread, no wine, little meat, and an exercise regime that involved running up and down stairs.

Shows what I know. All the experts agreed that Carole did well but the diet itself was a quick-fix that could not be sustained over long periods of time.

The idea was for the celebs to keep up their diets once they returned home and, it has to be said, Carole gamely did her best despite being a teeny weeny bit grumpy with no carbs in her diet.

A visit to the pub after work - a time-honoured traditional among journos - saw Carole order a glass of water instead of her usual wine.
"A unique event" said a rather unsupportive pal as the screen flashed up some helpful nutritional information: a glass of water has 0 calories while wine has 140 calories.

Back home Carole's man was feeling the heat as her body called out for some decent grub. He was heard to say: "My life's hell. Can we please give her some carbs?"

Maybe some of us are just meant to be cuddly.

Finally, did you catch that shot of Carole's shoe cupboard. Wow, the Imelda Marcos of journalism, that's our Carole.

+ The best diet in the world? Even though Carole lost most weight, it turned out to be a Med diet with lots of oily fish, fresh fruit and vegetables.