Thinking of starting a new diet? READ THIS FIRST!

We are well into November now, so I don’t think it’s too early to mention **Christmas**… I love Christmas, the month-long build-up, decorating the house, having a hot port and mince pies making marathon, my birthday (!!), baking cheese twist and getting creative with festive cocktails with my sisters… I love nearly everything about Christmas – but categorically can not stand the Christmas special edition of Diet Culture we get served every year.

It’s everywhere and try as you might, it’s near impossible to escape diet culture during the festive season. From magazines discussing the calories in a selection box, talk of ‘walking off’ dinner rather than just enjoying a fabulous Christmas hike and of course the unsolicited comments from ‘well-meaning’ family and friends about who has or hasn’t lost weight… I feel the Ick just thinking about it.

And the worst part? It’s just getting us warmed up for the peak diet season of January. All the talk of ‘indulgences’ and ‘overdoing it’ lines us up perfectly for the fad diets and unrealistic exercise regimes of January. Unsurprisingly by February many of these resolutions are long forgotten and all that’s left is a vague sense of failure lurking alongside those last few Bounties everyone is avoiding.

So, I thought that we could do with a reminder of what the actual healthy living guidelines are to arm ourselves against diet culture. The Basics. Yes, healthy guidelines are done on a population level and are not individualised, they only really apply to the ‘healthy’ adult population and are not always (ever?) inclusive of different beliefs or cultures, a bit boring … It’s easy to find reasons to tear the guidelines down and dismiss them as useless. But I don’t believe that- I think they do have merit and can be a great place to start if you want to live a healthy balanced life.

So before you start planning a super restrictive fad diet or unrealistic new exercise regime for January, let’s have a look at what the healthy guidelines are. Start by accessing what beneficial habits you already have – catch yourself doing something right! Do you already walk or cycle to work? or walk the day every morning? Do you do a weekly Pilates class or play on a 5-a-side team? Do you have fruit every morning with breakfast or always have veg with dinner? Great, well done!

Next look to see if there are any areas you are missing out on – do you never do any strength training but walk every day? Maybe it’s time to make space for a YouTube body weight strength class once a week. Do you eat brown bread and high-fibre cereal but never have any fruit or veg – maybe it’s time to buy one new type of fruit a week to find one you like!  Do you eat a balanced diet but drink beer every evening to unwind after the kids are gone to bed - maybe it’s time to think about switching to an alcohol-free version a few nights a week.

Guidelines are supposed to be used as guidelines – they are not gospel, and they won’t apply to everyone in every scenario – but they still can be very helpful in pointing us in the right direction. To keep things fun I have explained the current UK diet and exercise guidelines in infographics below, enjoy!