, go sober, eat plant-based and generally become a new person, it can all start to feel so daunting you barely know where to begin. This is where Emily English comes in.
English, a nutritionist with a huge following on social media, has no truck with January regimes. “January health trends are led [by] diet culture, extreme restriction and, realistically, they’re never something you’re going to be able to stick to,” she says.
. Instead, small, manageable, realistic changes are the cornerstones of her approach to getting healthy.
English’s 1.6 million Instagram followers have fallen for her accessible advice. Her recipes are eminently doable and enticing – she likes a sausage pasta packed with chestnuts and kale, a chicken pie with lots of greens, a homemade katsu curry and a stack of cottage cheese pancakes. Her biggest criticism of diets is how drastic and unsustainable they tend to be.
“If you’re trying to [follow] a diet that you realistically won’t be able to stick to for any more than three to six months, that is a blip,” she says. “If you want to make changes that are going to affect your health for the long term and you really want to make sure you stick to them, I truly feel [they have to be things you can] do for the rest of your life.”
is what concerns English, 29, who grew up in Bedfordshire, in a household where meals were cooked from scratch and eaten around the table. “My mum never dieted. [She] never spoke about weight.” English’s first job was waitressing in her grandmother’s restaurant, where food was “seasonal and local. She cooked with so much love and identity. She used to do these amazing blue-cheese straws that came out warm, and you’d sit [and eat them when] you first got to the restaurant”.
English’s relationship with her body changed dramatically after she was scouted to be a model at 17. Everything shifted when she returned from a holiday and was told, “You need to do something about your thighs.”
. The point should be to give yourself the gift of good health, not deprive yourself of delicious things.
“How you frame up your wellness habits is everything,” says English. “Running to burn calories and fuelled by guilt is a totally different thing to waking up and saying, ‘I had an amazing Sunday roast yesterday with my friends and a glass of wine. Let’s move my body, refresh myself.’”
, why not try making your own granola packed with nuts, seeds and oats? If eggs are a go-to quick breakfast or lunch, you could do as English does and add extra whites to your omelette to boost your protein intake. If you tend to require a snack in the afternoon, try making a batch of her “protein power pea and bean dip” to see you through the week.
And if dinner usually needs to be a shove-it-in-the-oven affair? Why not stock your fridge with English’s homemade super-seeded chicken nuggets. ‘[They’ve] got good lean protein, good vitamin profile, and you cover [them] in a gut-loving fibrous seedy mix.’
Getting healthy shouldn’t mean feeling permanently hungry, explains English, who lives in west London with her husband, Aaron McFeely, a marketing strategist. She likes to prioritise three substantial meals a day, beginning with two eggs, boosted with extra whites, a “good hunk of sourdough” and plenty of veg.
“I try to get in as much diversity as possible to create volume and bulk. I like a big breakfast, I want something that’s going to make me feel nice and full. So roasted tomatoes, wilted spinach, add a little bit of lemon juice to absorb the iron in the spinach, and then I love the jalapeño Tabasco.”
Cooking from scratch as often as possible is important, but “healthy convenience foods” are a godsend. For lunches, English likes to make a batch of what she calls a “prep-able salad”, which can then have proteins, grains and dressings added to it each day – the idea being to vary things in order to keep your palate interested.
It helps to have “readily available proteins” such as tinned tuna, cooked chicken and eggs in your arsenal, she says. Pre-cooked grains and pulses are useful too. “Healthy shortcuts are a thing,” she says. “[For example], I’m rubbish at cooking rice. Sometimes it’s the blocker. One of my favourite recipes is harissa yogurt chicken with spicy rice. You get a pack of rice, you tip it straight into the saucepan that you fry your onion, your garlic, your peppers [in], and that is literally five minutes. [With the chicken], I have this massive bowl of food that I can also have for lunch the next day.”
She continues, “Don’t change every single thing that you do. Tiny swaps, start small and build. That accumulates over time and then suddenly you’re like, ‘Wow, I’ve actually got all these amazing habits that feel effortless.’”
The real key, she says, is to enjoy feeding yourself. Eating – whether it’s for health or for indulgence – should always be about enjoyment. “I actually like January,” says English. “Nutrition, [for] me, isn’t surrounded by deprivation and restriction. I don’t dread feeling happier and healthier. I don’t think making time for yourself and focusing on yourself is something that should be scary.”
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