JENNI MURRAY: My miracle fat-jab has cured the crippling phobia every woman I know suffers from

Starting today, I will be on my first vacation since I started taking the amazing weight loss drug Mounjaro. It is a cruise with Saga that begins in Portsmouth and sails to the Canary Islands.

We will leave the snow, ice and freezing temperatures behind and head towards the sun for two whole weeks, without needing to bundle up in heavy sweaters, coats and scarves.

Normally, I would have gone on one of those pre-vacation diets that takes forever to lose a few pounds. A few kilos that return to your face and your waist the moment you relax on a sun lounger and enjoy the delicious food they offer you.

I would have been looking for a swimsuit that didn’t make me look like a beached whale too, and I would have gathered my dressier but looser tops and my stretchy black leggings to look dressy enough for a formal night.

I would also like to know what caused my weight problem in the first place: delicious food that I don’t have to cook myself and accompanied by lots of very good quality wine.

I received a couple of emails asking what onboard restaurants I would like to book for special nights. There’s The Dining Room with pretty classic food and The Grill. Then there is a Nepalese restaurant, The Amalfi, serving high-end Italian cuisine, and The Supper Club offers international cuisine, entertainment and dancing.

Normally, I would have been planning night after night the best dinner with starters, main course and pudding, salivating at the thought. But now? For the first time in my life I have become obsessed with which main dishes contain protein, vegetables and very few carbohydrates.

I know I’ll have to order very small portions because I can’t stand wasting food. I’ll still enjoy it if it tastes good. Mounjaro hasn’t harmed my taste buds, but it has calmed my appetite and my old obsession with eating everything simply because it’s there. My brain doesn’t seem to work that way anymore.

After two and a half months of taking Mounjaro, having started at just under 16, I weighed myself this morning and the scale read 14 1 pound. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. That’s just shy of the second loss in less than three months.

I’m still not as lean as I’d like to be (12th place is the goal) but at this rate I could be there by Christmas.

In the past, I was miserable trying to follow every known diet in preparation for a vacation. The Dukan, WeightWatchers, the 5-2 fasting plan: countless diets where I’ve had to think about every ingredient, weigh quantities throughout the day, and avoid butter, olive oil, flour, and sugar.

Dieting practically became a full-time job and would only result in a small amount of weight loss. Again and again it would be a waste of time and effort to regain those few kilos.

None of that this time. Every day I feel a little hungry at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I must eat and it can be anything they offer me, but I know that I can only eat a little of what is there. I don’t feel deprived, I just feel relieved to have seemingly let go of an addiction that has been with me my entire life.

Then there is the pain relief that will make this vacation much more enjoyable. I am not completely pain free, but Mounjaro has banished my sciatica and the constant pain I was left with after falling and breaking a vertebra in my spine has been greatly relieved.

It’s been exactly a year since I had that fall, spending two weeks on my back in the hospital and a couple of months in a nursing home with constant physical therapy. I was booked to join Spirit of Adventure for the same Saga cruise I’m due to go on now and had to cancel.

I must confess that it is a work cruise. I will be a speaker and will be busy two nights on the 14th, giving talks to the other guests on board. And I can ask to be given a chair from which to make my speeches. Standing for an hour can be a little taxing on my poor back.

But my weight loss strategy has transformed how I feel about the holidays. Less pain, greater mobility, and enough weight loss to wear a swimsuit that fits your size. Now I can look forward to everything. Good company and, as everyone is freezing at home, sunbathing on board.

The swimsuit, by the way, is plain and black. I’m still not confident enough to wear anything more revealing of the lumps that remain. But hey, who cares about that? Sun and sea, here I come!

I was thinking about buying a dryer until I read about the mother and son who died in a fire caused by the one they had bought just six months earlier. His grandson, who complained to manufacturer Whirlpool, said: “It’s like bringing a bomb home.” I stay with him line outside in summer and the radiators in winter.

Gin and tonic is said to be the most popular drink in the country. I drank it when I was 20 because everyone else did. It made me feel so miserable that I often cried. Give me a nice cup of tea any day.

My attempt to reinstate Gio begins here

Strictly professional Giovanni Pernice has been to hell and back thanks to harassment allegations from his famous ex-partner, actress Amanda Abbington.

But Strictly hasn’t forgotten her exquisite performance with Rose Ayling-Ellis, the actress who has been deaf since birth, in 2021 and her famous silent dance will feature in next month’s 20th anniversary special.

Next year we will have to bring it back. He is a wonderful dancer; we miss him.

Giovanni Pernice must return to Strictly Come Dancing, writes Jenni. He is shown here winning the Brilliant Ball with Rose Ayling-Ellis in 2021.

Come on, arrest me if you dare…

I am dismayed that two fellow columnists, Julie Bindel and Allison Pearson, have found the police at their door with hate crime accusations. Like them, I have received terrifying emails for expressing my opinion on gender ideology.

I’ve simply said that biology trumps the nonsense trans activists say. A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man. It is not a crime to say this. I will not be intimidated by the threat of the police coming for me. So, let’s go. You won’t shut me up.

The agony that Ukrainian refugees must feel

As the war in Ukraine escalates and electricity supplies are bombed as a harsh winter sets in, my friend Zoriana, who lived with me under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, tells me how desperately anxious she is. He wants to get a visa for his mother to come here, his sister is also thinking of escaping. But his son will not leave Lviv. She says it’s terrible to feel safe while the family suffers.