Strictly Come Dancing’s Arlene Phillips explains her ‘one dieting rule’

Arlene Phillips, the star of Strictly Come Dancing, explains her “one dieting rule” and how she maintains her fitness at age 81. The former judge and choreographer on the BBC show also mentioned her fear of injections, but she’d like to try weight-loss medications.

Dame Arlene admitted she would have stayed if she had had the chance. She admitted to leaving the BBC show as a result of a row over potential ageism. My only diet is to always have a packet of chicory in my bag, according to one person who is on the subject of maintaining weight. I’ll say to myself, “No! ” if I’m hungry and ready to reach for crisps or a Cadbury Dairy Milk Wholenut bar. You’ve got your chicory. ‘”

But she acknowledged that now that she is in her 80s, she may need to occasionally use caution: “This year has not been a good year for my weight, not at all.” Sometimes I make the choice that my mind will stick with what I’m eating and how should I prepare it. Other times I just think, ‘ You’re in your eighties — you can have what you want. Make sure you’re enjoying everything you eat! ‘”

She added: “I wish I had the courage to go on Ozempic. I dislike getting injections, and I’m not sure how thoroughly tested it is to make sure it’s okay. However, I’d prefer to shed those extra pounds that appear to have attached themselves to my body. I’d like to make it easy”.

The veteran dancer, who worked on the show between 2004 and 2008, was on the show’s inaugural judging panel. The BBC firmly refuted allegations of discrimination against older women on television after she was replaced by Alesha Dixon in 2009.

On her exit she said: “I can’t absolutely say that ageism led to my leaving Strictly. I’ve never been told that my age had anything to do with where I went. We used to have annual contracts at the time, but contracts are for a finite amount of time. We all knew they weren’t guaranteed to last. I believe I was chosen to make the BBC’s request for a change.

” Len Goodman’s death was difficult for me. We had a wonderful dynamic as Strictly’s fellow judges, and he was a beautiful person. You could tell Len was Len from every angle. There were no airs and graces. He always used to say, ‘ I’m just a boring teacher from Dartford. ‘ And I think that’s where he kept himself, no matter how his career expanded. “

Dame Arlene and other judges claimed that they and other judges did not believe Strictly would succeed in its early stages. None of us thought it was going to be a success, it just was small – I could actually say intimate – but no-one other than Bruce (Forsyth) was confident.

When you look back at the first episodes, you can tell how agitated everyone was and how we were reacting as if we were just in the studio, as opposed to how it developed into a drew in millions of dollars. We were just all sort of uncomfortable, we hadn’t had enough rehearsals, we had a production assistant crawling behind us saying ‘ Press your buzzer’.

Watching Natasha Kaplinsky develop gave me the impression that people were enjoying it. She didn’t want to do the show, she was a serious newsreader, but she was persuaded to do the show and was so nervous, and then gradually what you saw was Brendan (Cole) and Natasha there every week improving.

He hardly ever looked at her on the first number, but they suddenly joined forces as a couple, strong and powerful, week by week, and after about week four, we all began to pause and say, “Hang on, there’s something here” (Pain).

Source: Mirror