Tuesday, 15 May 2007

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Jayne Middlemiss: There are more important things in life than the size of my arse

The Celebrity Love Island star loves yoga - and a nice salad

Ask any woman who watched Celebrity Love Island [2005] whose figure they most admired and, nine times out of 10, the answer would be Jayne Middlemiss's.

But then that's probably as much to do with the fact that she seems so comfortable in her skin, which she resolutely confirms.

'I don't care what my body looks like any more,' she says. 'I've got to the age where it's no longer about who I am.'

It's this refreshing attitude that made Jayne such a hit with viewers, helping her to win the TV reality show with Fran Cosgrave. But she admits that she wasn't always so laid back about her figure.

In her late teens, before she began a TV career that has seen her present shows including The Games and Robot Wars, Jayne worked as a model, when criticism for being too fat led her to bingeing on laxatives, resulting in her weight plummeting to 8st 7lb.

'I wasn't a Kate Moss and that was what they wanted,' she has said of this time. 'It was destructive to my sense of self-worth.'

It's definitely helped make me a more patient person

Thankfully, those days are now firmly in the past and she attributes her self-confidence – no mean feat when your figure is on display to thousands of viewers – partly to yoga, which keeps her in shape and has taught her self-acceptance.

'Yoga helps me stay fit, but it's also helped to calm me and made me realise there are more important things in life than the size of my arse,' she laughs.

Yoga originates from India and incorporates a series of postures that work to tone and stretch the body, stimulate the internal organs and work as a form of meditation.

In fact, Jayne was such a bundle of energy on the TV show – one minute abseiling down cliffs, the next mountain biking – it's hard to imagine her being the type of person who would be attracted to yoga. But, as she explains, that's exactly why it's so good for her and has even helped her to hold her razor-sharp tongue in check.

'It's definitely helped make me a more patient person, although I'm working on it because I can still be quite intolerant!' she admits frankly.

Jayne has been practising yoga for a long time, as anyone watching her performing headstands on the TV reality show would have guessed.

'I've been doing it for years,' she says. 'I did a style known as Bikram yoga, which is a series of postures practised in a room heated to about 100 degrees farenheit, but I've switched to Ashtanga.'

While both forms of yoga are built on the same principles, Bikram yoga is particularly good for helping people stretch further because of the heated conditions, while Ashtanga – which includes Madonna as a fan – is more dynamic, with each posture connected to the next by a series of flowing movements.

I've relaxed into life

Although yoga does burn calories, Jayne admits she thinks about doing some other form of cardio exercise.

Before participating in Love Island, Jayne says she never drank and was often in bed by midnight, whereas now she's more relaxed about her lifestyle.

'I was very healthy but very controlled before I went on the show and I wasn't having much fun, to be honest,' she admits. 'Now, although I still do yoga, I've relaxed into life.'

That was clear to all those watching Jayne knocking back the cocktails on the Fijian island.

That said, she remains health conscious when it comes to her diet. 'I always start the morning with fruit and then I'll have green vegetables and salad for lunch and perhaps fish or chicken for dinner,' she says. 'To be honest, I listen to what my body wants – and if I want a pudding, I'll have one.'

Rachael Woolston