NO meat or alcohol is going to be passing Tracy Jones’ lips this month.

The PR guru from Barling Magna is abstaining her favourite tipples and from meat in order to give her health a boost.

After a boozy Christmas Tracy is enjoying being free from hangovers and is feeling good.

She says: “It has been quite easy so far, I didn’t used to drink in the week and would make up for it at the weekend so Friday nights have been the hardest time to avoid having a few glasses of wine.

“I am planning on carrying on with not drinking into February and keep going with good habits.”

Tracy suffers from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which is aggravated by eating meat. Having a break from meat eating has meant her condition has improved.

“Eating meat really affects me and makes me feel bloated and unwell. I was a vegetarian back in my twenties but there was no variety with vegetarian food but now there’s so much choice.

“My husband, Adam, is a carnivore and so we tend to cook a meal to a point then add in meat for him and fish for me.”

Tracy’s IBS was caused as a result of suffering from bulimia in her twenties. The illness was provoked by her experience as a young radio presenter in the Midlands where she was bullied by her bosses.

She says: “I was in my 20s when I started out in my first job in radio. The guy who ran it was mad about a particular diet programme and he made it clear that he felt if you weren’t slim you weren’t worth anything. I was a young lady and felt that losing weight was the only way to get a foot in the door as at that point I was presenting the graveyard radio shift in the early hours.

“My colleagues set me a target weight and would weigh me live on air every Friday morning. It was humiliating but I went along with it.”

Tracy cut her calories drastically, exercised seven hours a day, would make herself sick and used laxatives.

She says: “The target they set meant was so low it meant I had to lose two pounds a day.

“I was so caught up in it I couldn’t see the damage I was doing to myself.”

Tracy is a bubbly, intelligent and forthright person in real life and it is hard to imagine her suffering fools. However, she says as a youngster in a mainly male office it was harder to stand her ground.

“Now I would not stand for it to me or anyone else but that was 25 years ago and things were different. It was more sexist and fewer women and no HR rules,” says Tracy, 46.

“I didn’t used to talk about my experience but now I don’t mind because it might give other women the courage to stand up for themselves and not go through what I did.”

Once the experience was over Tracy was left which psychological and physical scars.

“After it ended I was so messed up I ended up seeing a psychiatrist for a year. It has led to irritable bowel syndrome because of the scarring within my intestine which means I don’t digest meat very well.”

Tracy has to be careful and watch for the signs of slipping back into ill health and look after her stress levels.

She says: “I have had relapses of bulimia, once when I was working for a national broadcaster and about to get married and had a cancer scare and it all reached a critical mass and I found myself making myself starving myself to get some control back.

“Even now when I am in a stressful situation I start to see the signs I have to stop and look after myself.”