I WROTE THIS FOR YOU...

It’s National Prosecco Day this week. It’s quickly become the go-to party drink. Who doesn’t love some crisp and fruity Italian bubbles at a fraction of the cost of champagne? It’s perfect served super-chilled at a grown-up barbecue. But what does too much of a good thing look like?

Are you drinking too much (no judgement)?

Socially, drinking is one of the main ways we enjoy being with friends and trying to cut back can be difficult and often meets with disapproval from others. The trouble is it’s easy for those units to mount up and over time this can have a really detrimental effect on your health, mood, energy levels and weight.

The recommended guidelines for alcohol are no more than 14 units a week, with at least 2 alcohol-free days per week.

A typical bottle of wine will contain 10 units. It’s easy to get through a bottle with three generous glasses in a night! Let’s face it, whoever pours a small glass?

Do you ever wonder if you drink...

As the temperature starts to climb, so does our willingness to eat salad. A good salad can be an amazing addition to your healthy diet if you do it right. Want to lose weight this summer? Eat salad. But, for heaven’s sake, do it properly (and here’s why).

To be clear, it’s not like the police will show up if you make a false move but can I can give you some advice learned over years working as a personal nutritionist and health coach? 

[still here?]

Great. 

A couple of things go wrong when clients start making their own salads at home (and making them is something I implore you to do as it works out so much cheaper and often more nutritious than anything you can buy in the shops). 

The biggest barrier is that clients can’t think of what to put in a salad without it being painfully boring. Here, I’m thinking of the ham, cheese, tomato and radish salads my grandma used to force upon me. A salad is a celebration of loveliness....

A multi-gazillion £$£$£$ world has been created around wellness and wellbeing. We should all be ‘well’ beings. As a nutritionist and health coach, I am part of that drive to get folk to that mythical place, but there is a small problem. What is wellbeing* exactly? How do you know when you are ‘being well’ enough? How can you measure it? And does it much matter anyway (because we’re all busy these days)?

World Wellbeing Week starts tomorrow, so I thought it was worth giving this topic a bit of consideration so that this year, there’s a chance these next seven days might have an impact on your life.

It seems that the true definition, while a little vague, is not simply “not having a diagnosed disease”. According to the Collins Dictionary, your wellbeing is your “health and happiness”, and the Macmillian Dictionary goes one further with the suggestion that it is the “satisfactory state that someone or...

Most women I know – and certainly every single one of the women I work with in my nutrition clinic – have done countless diets. Some of these women have even been on what I consider good diets, eating the right kinds of things and enjoying some success, only to find themselves back to square one the following year. So what is happening?

It usually plays out a bit like this. You are propelled into action as a result of some immediate and urgent pain. One common scenario is you’ve been shopping for an event to discover that nothing you tried on in the entire shopping trip fitted or looked good. It's crushing and inspires you to start another diet.  

Women all over the world are motivated by this kind of pain so they set their goals, get results and - by doing that - they get out of that immediate and urgent pain.

But now that they are out of pain, the need and the urgency to do the work has gone and so has their motivation because their motivation was the pain....

Shop-bought granola will not set you off to a good start in the morning. Practically all are filled with sugar that will upset your blood sugar balance (but skip to the bottom of the blog for the one I do recommend). But right now, feast your eyes on this: the perfect low GL granola. It's paleo in that it doesn't contain any grains but you'd be very welcome to chuck in a cup or two of oats and up the amount of coconut oil and maple syrup to compensate.

Serves 8

Ingredients:
100g almonds, roughly chopped 50g walnuts, roughly chopped 50g pecans, roughly chopped
50g unsweetened coconut flakes 25g ground almonds
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt (optional)
20g pure maple syrup
20g coconut oil (melted)

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.

2. Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

3. Add all ingredients to a large bowl, fold until well mixed.

4. Pour onto the baking sheet into an even layer.

5. Bake for 15 mins. Gently turn granola, bake for an additional 5-10...

I suspect there is not a person in the land who doesn't like pancakes. But those high carb sorts drizzled in sugary syrup are not doing your weight loss efforts any favours.

They can be part of a healthy lifestyle, too. They have to be a little re-imagined but that's not so hard. And these low GL recipes are delicious. 

Pick the recipe you want (there is even a vegan option) and choose your topping/filling so that it fits with your taste buds.

(serves 1)

Pick a pancake recipe from the 3 options below.

To cook the pancakes (all options), melt a little coconut oil in a hot frying pan and fry on each side for about 60 seconds.

Banana Pancakes

1 medium banana, 2 eggs

Mash the banana then mix the eggs in thoroughly.

Oat Pancakes

40g oats, 1 egg, 8tbsp unsweetened milk of choice.

Mix everything thoroughly - literally just that.

Vegan Oat Pancakes

40g oats, 1tbsp flaxseeds mixed with 3 tbsp water and leave for 10 mins, 6 tbsp milk of choice - mix everything thoroughly.

...

I wonder how long you have spent over the course of your life searching for the magic pill when it comes to weight loss? And how much money you have spent on miracle products that promised to make the weight drop off overnight – or at least not make the business of losing weight seem so tricky?

A quick look this morning and I can see you can spend £28 a month on magic tea or a whopping £119 on a month's worth of magic sachets. The websites are beautiful; the products are enticing. I almost believed that sh1t myself.

But let's get real for a moment...

There IS not such thing as the magic pill. Or is there???

If you are someone who has spent a significant amount of time in slimming clubs, what you should know is that almost certainly you have been taught to eat the wrong things.

Of course, actually eating the 'right things 'will help you lose the weight naturally, without calorie counting, and eating the way I show my clients has them naturally wanting to eat the...

Whatever the weather, this recipe will bring a touch of summer to your dinnertimes. Lovely and low carb/ low GL, it's a favourite when I'm working with clients on a weight loss or hormone-balancing programme.

Serves 2

Ingredients

200g new potatoes
4 garlic cloves
8 chicken thighs
150g pesto
2 courgettes, cut into 1 cm thick slices
200g cherry tomatoes on the vine
2 tbsp olive oil

How to make it

Cut the potatoes in half and peel the garlic cloves.

Put the chicken thighs in a large roasting tin or dish and arrange the potatoes and garlic around them.

Drizzle over the olive oil, season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, then roast in the oven for 40-45 mins.

Add the courgettes to the roasting tin after the chicken has been in the oven for 20 mins.

Add the tomatoes for the final 10 mins cooking time.

At the end of the cooking time, the chicken should be golden and cooked through. 

Remove from the oven and spoon over the pesto before serving.

Everyone has a happy weight. It’s not based on any medical measures or charts like Body Mass Index and nor does it necessarily relate to your body fat percentage or your waist-to-hip ratio. The truth is, it means something slightly different for everyone, which makes sense because it’s not like there’s an official meaning.

Your happy weight is not what you might consider your ‘ideal weight’ either, which experience tells me is probably a little below what you think is achievable and maybe would have you looking a little gaunt. And, actually, maintaining it would be a b1tch.

No, your happy weight is the space that exists between that ‘ideal weight’ and your ‘acceptable upper limit’; a weight you tolerate that is not exactly where you want to be and perhaps you’re a little better ‘covered’ than you’d like but it’s okay. In this middle ground you feel good, you look good and, importantly, you...

This is one of my absolute favourite low LG vegetarian dinner recipes and it's packed full of goodness. If you are trying out 'could I be vegetarian?' this is a great place to start. The killer combination of the beans, lentils and butternut squash... well, you just have to taste it. 

Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
300g butternut squash, peeled and cubed 1 tsp chilli powder, 1tsp ground cumin 400g can chopped tomatoes
200ml water
1 veg stock cube
400g can mixed beans, rinsed
(or your choice of beans)
400g green lentils, rinsed
Salt + pepper to taste
Bunch chopped coriander for serving
1 avocado, diced, for serving

How to make it

1. In a large saucepan, gently sauté the onion, chilli pepper, red pepper and garlic in the coconut oil. 

2. Add the butternut squash and mix in the chilli powder and cumin.

3. Stir in the tomatoes, then add the beans and lentils, followed by the...