The best 59p I ever spent

My mobile phone is of the variety that my kids would be ashamed to be seen with. It is big and clunky (ideal for me for ease of finding in the jumble of mess that inhabits my handbag) and does little else other than phone calls and texts. As the reason for owning a phone, in my opinion, should be for the functionality of phone calls and texts, I have always been entirely satisfied with my non-singing non-dancing equipment. Until this evening.

My eldest daughter insists that she needs a phone with internet capability for her professional and personal life. This may be true and as she is a working girl who pays her own monthly phone contract, it is no business of mine. She occasionally shows me the latest App that she had downloaded which tend to be vaguely amusing and trivial. None have ever convinced me that I am missing out on anything. Until this evening.

This evening my daughter, Liberty,  popped round for a visit as she often does. She was showing off her latest App - a jangly skeleton for Hallowe'en - shake the phone and the eyeballs roll out of the skull. It was cute but not exactly what I would classify as 'interest sustaining'. Then she told me about another App that her friend had shown her. This one did intrigue me.

The App was called Fat Booth. My daughter had not downloaded it because it was not a free one (I have brought all my girls up to be a little bit frugal - sometimes too frugal). I gave her the money. 59p. She humoured me.

The next 10 minutes or so was spent in hysterical laughter. It was definitely the best 59p I ever spent! We all took it in turns to have our photos taken on Liberty's phone and then gave them the 'Fat Booth' treatment. The resulting images were incredibly realistic pictures of ourselves in an alternative reality where we were junk food junkies, biscuit bingers and general all round overeaters.

It was hilarious but there was a serious side too. I am 7 weeks in to my 12 week plan to get into shape after having my baby boy. I have lost well over a stone and still have maybe 10lbs to go before I feel that I have achieved my target. It can all get a bit monotonous and dull if you're not careful and the bad habits can creep back very quickly. Seeing the pictures of obese me - even if they are just manipulated images - was actually very motivating.

I have a date to go to the gym tomorrow and I know now that I will pull a little bit harder on the rowing machine, jog a little bit faster on the treadmill and sweat just a little bit more on the cross trainer because that image will be dancing in my mind.

The FatBooth Treatment