I just can't do it.

My knees sounded like a clacker on a child's bike and the only K I could tally in the end was the Special kind.

My decade-old gutties that still look embarrassingly new are consigned to the cupboard, along with the yoga mat and the Davina McCall hula hoop.

It was a panic exercise at the thought of wearing a snug bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding this weekend.

The dress is lovely, but I can't look at the overall effect without seeing the bulge on the hips that was not there a few months ago.So why can't I be content with being healthy instead of focusing on the imperfections?

Perhaps I am more interested in this because of my own self-consciousness, but the Parliamentary group reporting on body image, chaired by Jo Swinson, East Dunbartonshire MP, could not have been timed better.

For instance, you have singer Jessie J, who said she was ditching the 'transvestite' and 'cartoon' look, then trowelled on enough slap at the Glamour awards to resemble an extra in TV show The Only Way Is Essex.

Then you have fashion magazine Vogue promising to use only 'healthy' models, which makes you wonder who they were paying silly money to be archetypal images of femininity before.

And beauty brands finally seem to be ditching the fake extensions and post-production enhancement.

Maybe soon they will test their new products backed by multi-million-pound ad campaigns on a sample size bigger than 67 people, with only two-thirds agreeing it actually does what it says.

It always surprises me when interviewing famous people just how much thinner they are in the flesh.

The camera doesn't only add 10lbs – it magnifies everything.

TEN years ago I interviewed George Clooney. He looks bearish on-screen, but in real life he is fine-featured and rake-like.

Now I shudder to imagine how Myleene Klass and Katherine Jenkins would compare standing next to an average size 14 woman. Like another species, probably.

I do not agree with the Parliamentary group's finding that children should have body image lessons in classrooms. Self-confidence lessons, yes, but by focusing specifically on a size issue, surely you are only going to amplify it?

Yet I think the report will be a shot in the arm for the beauty and media industries and remind them we can't keep printing or poring over images that are not realistic or even real.

Good on singer Katy Perry for being brave enough to be filmed without her make-up and a big round of applause for Dove and Debenhams for using real women in their ads.

I hope 10 years from now we will look back at images of over-made-up, swizzle stick celebrities and laugh at how ridiculous they looked and how skewed our sense of glamour had become.