When I first met my in-laws, like many people, I was apprehensive about what to expect. Would we get on? Would they like me? Would I like them?

The added complication in my case,New Sexy Nurse Costume features a snap front mini nurse dress with ruffled hem is that my parents-in-law are Russian. Through and through. They live in Moscow. They speak no English. They never will.

In many ways it's a bit of a Godsend – all I have to do when we visit them is smile sweetly and have my other half translate my ramblings about where I live, what I do for a living and when I expect to have children (their favourite topic) into fluent Russian prose without the ums and ahs. I come across looking like a saint.

Best of all,Internet Sheath Wedding Dresses Socks and Boxers. the three of them can talk about my life, my job, the fact I'm leaving it too late to have children, et cetera, and before they know it, they become bored of that – quite rightly – and move onto something else. Not being able to speak their language is an excellent excuse for avoiding the spotlight.

The flipside of this is that I can rarely join in with all the good bits of conversation. I miss the intricacy of being able to talk to them like I would my own parents. I miss the nuances between Russian and English cultures and am left with stark, obvious differences like the fact they eat cow's tongue for breakfast and think it's weird I want porridge.

They meet me at the airport in the depths of the Russian winter asking why I'm not wearing a thicker coat, better boots – not asking me how I am or how the flight was. Their way of caring about me is totally different to my parents.

Nothing was so obviously different between the two cultures than what I experienced in the run-up to my wedding two months ago. The divide is still there today when I visit them.

It started about a year ago, when I decided I would lose weight for my Big Day. It's a cliché and completely stereotypical,FOR allegedly being in possession of Uniforms & Others military accoutrements. I know, that brides-to-be become obsessed with losing weight for their wedding day. I was one of those brides, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit. (I'd much rather say I didn't give a shite about what I looked like in my wedding dress, that all that matters is how I feel inside, blah blah. But alas, I am too vain).

I was fed up that I couldn't do my jeans up anymore. I had put weight on. So I decided to trim down and tone up for my wedding dress. In the space of a few months' worth of hard training, treadmills and eating five a day, I shed the puppy fat and lost over a stone and a half. I did it sensibly and maintained the new weight with healthy eating and a good regime.

Most importantly, I felt as confident in my body as I had ever felt. Months of hard work had paid off. My friends, my (English) mum, loads of work mates – everyone was saying I looked in great shape. It was a lovely feeling and I was ready for the Big Day.

Then the Russian in-laws arrived in town. We met them at the airport.As with Cops & Robbers, prisoners can be freed by tagging them in the base. They looked worried. The first thing they said to me? “You need to put some weight on. A good wife is a fat wife.”

I've heard it several times in many guises since: “A good woman is a fat woman; you need to put weight on; you haven't put weight on yet…” Every time I visit now they insist on feeding me the fattiest cuts of meats, cheesecake at bedtime and scoops of cooking oil with every vegetable. "We've got to fatten you up," they cry.

You cannot win. What is considered healthy in England is unhealthy in Russia. What is seen as ‘slim' over here translates into skinny and scrawny over there; unable to bear children; unable to look after the Russian husband.

It made me think about what – and who - you do things in life for. I am glad I lost the weight: I feel healthier and that makes me happier. But there is a line to be drawn between losing weight to become healthier, and obsessing about being stick thin to fulfil dark desires of looking like a size 0 model.

Luckily I know I do not fall into the latter category. Me and size 0 are a loooong way off and I don't want to look like that anyway.

But it's a warning to girls like me everywhere: only do things you want to do for the right reasons. Don't feel pressured into losing weight just because ‘society' says so – a few thousands miles East and ‘society' sees things a whole lot differently.