No calorie counting, no restrictive diets. Just small changes you’ll notice.
Yes, you can use it, just not the way you’d expect: the seeds are worth more than the flesh, a carving pumpkin isn’t an eating pumpkin, and one that’s spent the night with a candle inside doesn’t go back in the kitchen.
The problem with dinner isn’t the recipes: it’s having to decide at the time of day when you’re worst at deciding. A formula that saves you thinking, and five specific dinners.
Beetroot has a reputation for being tricky, and it isn’t. It’s sweet, works in salads or roasted, and brightens up any plate. Its one drawback — staining everything pink — has an easy fix.
In summer you can eat the heat too: heavy meals raise your body temperature. The simple formula is lighter food, more often, with seasonal fruit doing half the work — watermelon, melon, cucumber and tomato are 90% water.
Boil half a dozen while the hob’s already on for something else. Ten minutes in boiling water, into cold water, and into the fridge in their shells. They’ll keep for almost a week without asking anything of you.
It isn’t the lettuce that puts you off salad. It’s that silly moment of getting out the oil, the vinegar and the salt, guessing the amounts and ending up with something bland.
The night before, in a jar: four tablespoons of oats, another four of yoghurt — or half a glass of milk — and some chopped fruit. Lid on and into the fridge.
The most common mistake when trying to eat better is changing everything at once. Drastic diets fail precisely because they demand too much willpower from day one.
Whatever you see first when you open the fridge or the cupboard is what you’re most likely to eat. Keep fruit and washed vegetables in sight, and put the less healthy snacks at the back or in the high cupboards.
One of the micro-habits wellbeing experts recommend most: drink a glass of water just before you sit down to eat. It helps you eat more mindfully, and it’s so simple it doesn’t even need a reminder once it’s routine.
Forget calories, grams and apps. The most useful visual rule there is: half your plate vegetables, a quarter protein and a quarter grains or potatoes. You look at it, you don’t weigh it.
You don’t need to spend all Sunday cooking or fill the fridge with labelled containers. The realistic version of batch cooking is simpler: whenever you cook, make double. A stew, a vegetable soup or a rice dish is just as good the next day.
Lentils, chickpeas, beans. The food nutritionists recommend most is also one of the cheapest in the supermarket. One goal: get them on your table at least once a week. If you already do, make it twice.
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