Transform your life in five minutes!

Fed up of feeling tired, stressed and out of shape? This revolutionary new wellness plan by TV’s Dr Rangan Chatterjee will help you improve your health and happiness by making small changes, one at a time

If you’re already struggling to stick to your New Year’s resolution, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that 80 per cent of us fail to keep up our new-found healthy habits long-term. But now, a revolutionary plan promises to transform your lifestyle – for good.

Feel Better In 5, by TV’s Dr Rangan

Chatterjee, shows how doing daily fiveminute activities can boost your mood, improve your relationships, sort out your sleep and help you shape up, too. Best of all, it requires only the smallest amount of willpower.

“We need to take a more rounded approach to our health,” explains Dr Chatterjee, who is a best-selling author and presents BBC show Doctor In The House. “We often use our willpower to cut down on sugar or turn teetotal, but we end up creeping back into our old habits because we haven’t dealt with the underlying issue. Stress, for example, might be impacting what you eat.”

In a nutshell, there’s little point in trying to give up your daily Dairy Milk fix if you don’t address the tension that’s making you reach for the bar in the first place. Ultimately, your good intentions are unlikely to last and you’ll continue to feel stressed, eat the wrong food, put on weight and struggle to sleep – which makes you feel even worse.

Instead, Dr Chatterjee says we need to break the vicious cycles we become locked in to with a 360° approach, using three quick and easy five-minute activities.

These daily “health snacks” are specifically devised to nourish either our mind, body or heart. And while they may be small steps, they are designed to rewire your thinking, leading to long-lasting benefits.

DEVELOPING RESILIENCE

“We underestimate how toxic stress is,” adds Dr Chatterjee. “The World Health Organisation calls it the health epidemic of the 21st century. It can affect your concentration, hormone levels, sleep, weight and even your gut function, but this plan will make you more resilient to it. I can’t take away your stressors, but I can give you simple tools to help you cope.”

Refreshingly, alongside stress reduction, improving personal happiness is also a major part of the plan. “True happiness comes from our connections with other people,” says Dr Chatterjee. “When we get our connection to our friends, partners and children right, other things fall into place more easily. But these days, we’re so busy that our relationships are under massive strain. Digitally, we’re more connected than ever before, but on a meaningful human level I don’t think we’ve ever been so isolated. And that affects other areas of your health, too. When you don’t feel nourished on the inside, you might choose to numb it with booze, sugar or incessant scrolling on Instagram.”

MINDFUL ACTIVITIES

So, how does the Feel Better In 5 plan work? You simply choose three “health snacks” from a multitude of options, including short HIIT workouts, peaceful yoga, energyboosting juice recipes, breathing exercises and mindful activities. One will be targeted at calming your mind, one at nourishing your personal relationships, and one at boosting your physical health. Better still, they’re all free and require no equipment. In fact, you don’t even need to get changed!

“You can do all three activities first thing in the morning, or spread them out,” says Dr Chatterjee. “Personalise the plan, so it fits around your life. It’s a deceptively simple approach, but it’s great for busy people – nobody can argue that they don’t have five minutes to spare!

“If you make a few positive changes, they have a ripple effect. Someone who finds themselves less stressed after doing a daily “mind snack” will find they’re sleeping better, which means their performance at work improves, their self-esteem starts to rise, they feel less need for caffeine and they have more energy for exercise. When you get really good at doing the small things, the big things will take care of themselves.” ● Turn the page for health snacks you can follow at home. You’ll find the full plan, with over 30 activities, in Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better In 5, published by Penguin Life, £16.99