About

My journey to a healthy eating lifestyle

After spending what felt like my whole life on various ‘diets’ looking for a quick fix to lose weight, it wasn’t until I was in my mid thirties that I actually realised that diets didn’t work and what I actually had to do was learn how to life a healthy lifestyle long-term: really learn about healthy eating, healthy habits and changing my whole approach to food, cooking, my mindset and my emotional reliance on food. I’ve lost over 11 stone and kept that weight off since 2013.

Several things leapt out at me immediately:

I needed to learn how to cook
I needed to change my emotional relationship with food
Planning was essential for my success

So what did I do?

1. Learning to Cook

2. Changing My Relationship with Food

3. Meal Planning

1. Learning to Cook:

I bought several simple recipe books and started out with very basic recipes and began to gain confidence in the kitchen.

I started off simply and mastered a few recipes – chilli, a vegetable pasta sauce and a basic chicken curry were my first dishes. I started off batch cooking those recipes at the weekend so that I had all my dinners for the week prepared for when I got home from work and all I needed to do was cook some rice or pasta.

Over time, I became more adventurous, adapting recipes I’d find online to meet my own healthy lifestyle as well as becoming brave enough to make my own inventions.

2. Changing my emotional relationship with food

I surrounded myself with people in the same situation and through sharing experiences, tips, ideas and challenges, I started to change my
habits learning to celebrate every small win in my journey to become healthier as well as learning to forgive myself when things didn’t go according to plan.

This aspect of my journey was one of the most important, I’m continuously learning about myself and different strategies and techniques to put into place. Motivation, willpower and determination are key but so is changing habits, breaking patterns, learning about yourself, your triggers and what gets in the way of you achieving your goals.

3. Meal Planning

Meal planning was an alien concept to me – but my love of lists, highlighter pens and organisation probably made this the easiest and quickest change for me to make as well as having a huge impact on my own success.

I successfully lost 11 stone over the next few years and then spent 8 years working as a weight loss Consultant helping people in my local community change their own eating habits and supporting them to become healthier, fitter and more confident.

Time and time again, I came across people who found meal planning a challenge – they recognised it was essential to make the changes they wished to make but for many various reasons, it was something they struggled with so that’s how Meal Plans Made Easy came to be.

I’m passionate about healthy eating, I still love lists and organising and now I consider myself a bit of a meal planning guru! So let me take the hassle away from you – whether you are looking to lose weight, would like to introduce a healthier way of eating for you and your family or you would just like a simple programme to follow, just get in touch.

I offer a range of services to help you and your healthy eating journey from personalised meal plans specific to your likes, lifestyle and goals to downloadable ready-made 7 days plans to personalised one-to-one coaching programmes to help you make lifelong changes that stick.

Qualifications

Press Coverage

I’ve been a guest on Sky News, BBC News, Channel 5 News, several radio shows and podcasts as well as appearing in several newspapers and magazines regarding my own weight loss journey and providing insight into the importance of changing your mindset when looking to change your relationship with food and to become healthier and fitter.

One of my ‘Claims to Fame’ was being interviewed by and having my blood pressure taken on the BBC News by Dr Hilary Jones!