You’ve identified some good foundations from which you can begin to incorporate sustainable changes to your lifestyle. But first, let me explain where my approach comes from. The world we live in constantly instils in us that instant gratification is the norm. We have become accustomed to everything happening at the click of our fingers and you only need to flick through a few glossy magazines to be told that you can get abs in six weeks, and that diet shakes will apparently provide you with the correct nourishment over real food. I’ve spoken at length throughout my journey about how drastic diets and extreme measures – the whole ‘no pain no gain’ approach, although they may be incredibly motivating in the short term and provide quick results, simply aren’t sustainable for a long period of time. In my opinion, they can be mentally and physically damaging.
Dieting on very low calories is likely to leave you with some sort of nutritional deficiency. It’s incredibly difficult to consume enough of all the vital macro and micronutrients you need for basic health and hormonal function when you are restricting yourself in this extreme way. Your body can take a real hit, and dramatically reducing your calories creates an increase in the body’s production of the hormone ghrelin, as well as others. These hormones are the hunger hormones, sending signals to your brain to tell you you’re hungry. This therefore can mean that as soon as the ‘diet’ ends, you can feel an excessive desire to eat more than you need, therefore succumbing to a rebound period in which binging or over-eating can then occur, creating the yo-yo diet effect that we so often see.
Most importantly, the most worrying result of these crash diets is the effect they have on your relationship with food. It is my belief that food isn’t just fuel; it should be enjoyed and not just seen as sustenance. Entertaining fad diets or low-calorie restriction merely serves the purpose of showing that if you eat a very small amount of food you will achieve fat loss – but what lessons are then learned? Seeing quick results can often lead you to then fear increasing your calories once a plan has finished, resulting in a cycle of miserable restriction. It isn’t normal and it can’t last; we need good food to survive and thrive. One thing I want each and every one of you to tell yourself on a daily basis while using this book is that: You are in this for the long term. If you truly want to make change, forget magic-wand quick fixes and place your energies in believing that slow and steady changes, where you learn to eat in a sustainable, flexible and enjoyable manner, will ultimately provide you with the healthiest and longest-lasting results. It will allow you to eat a varied diet – full of goodness, but full of interesting food combinations so that you never feel bored or uninspired to try something new.
Over the next few pages I will share my top tips for week two and beyond. This is where we want to begin to make small changes to enable lifelong results. Write these down in your diary, stick them on your fridge or pop them next to your bed, so that you are gently reminding yourself of this week’s goals.
It is my belief that the morning is a pivotal time of the day; if we can have a good start, we are far more likely to make good choices throughout the rest of the day, too.
Although at first it may seem as if a little extra effort is required, establishing a consistent morning routine means that it will soon become second nature for you to implement your healthy habits, such as preparing your overnight oats and enjoying them when you wake up, instead of starting every day with that morning panic that means you begin your day stressed.
For the first few weeks of making a lifestyle change, it’s incredibly useful to set an alarm and get up at the same time every morning – this will allow plenty of time to prepare breakfast. To implement more structure into your mornings, try writing yourself a timeline for the first few weeks, and pop it on the fridge or by your bed. Mine would look a little like the list below, but it’s important to make it personal to you, ensuring that you allow enough time to complete each task without running around like a headless chicken.
1. Wake up, drink a glass of water.
2. Read a few pages of a book (10 mins).
3. Get up, prepare breakfast (15 mins).
4. Shower, dress, make-up (30 mins).
5. Leave the house.
When I speak to people who want to instigate a change in their physique, I always find that their focus rests solely on their exterior. Very few acknowledge that the biggest change to occur is often in the mind, which will in turn help to create physical change.
As I’m sure many of you can relate to, developing a healthy relationship with food and with your body isn’t the easiest of tasks, but I feel that incorporating both mind and body goals into your lifestyle change ensures that you’re constantly striving to achieve the balanced pyramid approach, as discussed previously, and you aren’t neglecting one aspect of what is a much bigger picture.
There are so many ways to set goals, but I often find that writing them down in a journal is a really nice and personal way of remembering them.
I also find that being organised with your food often increases motivation, and establishes a consistent routine that you are able to follow with very little effort. Planning your meals for the week ahead on a Sunday, for example, will help you to avoid those days where you search the cupboards for random ingredients to throw together when you get in late from work. It is then that you can often find yourself making the wrong choices.
Creating a shopping list and a food planner for the week is the perfect way to get into a habit of organising your meals for the week ahead, budgeting to ensure you don’t spend a fortune on food each week, and keeping your motivation high, as you have delicious planned meals to look forward to cooking and eating.
Examples of some simple swaps:
This may be slightly reiterating what I’ve spoken about at length regarding quick fixes, but I do feel it warrants another mention. One salad doesn’t make you lose weight, while one bad meal doesn’t make you put on weight.
It’s here where I remind you that, as stated at the beginning of this section, slow and gradual change is undoubtedly going to provide you with the most sustainable and long-lasting results. Don’t feel disheartened or beat yourself up because you see no instant visual change.
This book is about creating the happiest and healthiest version of you, both inside and out, and so the internal changes should be celebrated just as much as the external.
What I want this book to give to you: The Promise
• A motivational tool to help you break free from fad diets and establish a year-round healthy body and mind.
• A no-nonsense guide to nutrition, explaining why I make the choices I do, with research-based evidence to accompany my decisions.
• A sustainable, balanced approach to nutrition, whereby calorie or macro counting is ditched for more intuitive eating.
• A flexible guide to how to build the perfect plates. I will give you examples for all situations, where I show you how and why I build my plates the way I do.
• An alternative