Nadiya’s tips for a happier life:
Since winning BakeOff in 2015, not only has Nadiya Hussain become a much-loved celebrity cook, but also a role model as she’s opened up about her mental health struggles. Here, she shares her secrets for happiness…
“My ovaries are exploding, but no more babies!”
She’s accumulated countless accolades and an estimated £3.8m fortune since she held aloft the Bake Off trophy five years ago – but despite her incredible success, Nadiya Hussain has spoken about being blighted by crippling anxiety and panic attacks.
The chef, 35 – who is a doting wife to husband Abdal, who works in IT, and mum to their children Musa, 13, Dawud, 12, and Maryam, nine – even starred in BBC One documentary Nadiya: Anxiety And Me in which she explored effective treatments to put a stop to her condition.
Now, Nadiya shares her tips with Closer on how she has learned to live happily...
‘TALKING HELPS BREAK TABOOS’
In my memoir, Finding My Voice, I reveal that I was molested by a relative in Bangladesh at the age of five. It was a tough thing to share, but on my book tour I met people who were from similar backgrounds to me and had endured very similar experiences – and they had never shared them with anyone.
Talking about sex is taboo in my culture. The first person these people shared their experience with was me, and that’s a massive responsibility. That book tour ended up being very teary.
It’s a scar that will stay with me forever, but in sharing it I know that I’ve helped lots of people – and that helps me sleep at night.
‘FIND WAYS TO CONTROL
EMOTIONAL EATING’
I’ve always struggled with my weight
– I used to be 3st heavier and a size 16, whereas now I’m a 8-10. When I’m stressed, I eat, and when I’m happy, I eat, so I’ve had to find a way to control emotional eating. That’s why I fast on Mondays and Thursdays, from sunrise to sunset.
As a person in the public eye, I’m not always happy with myself. I’ve got three very thin sisters, so that’s hard. But I don’t follow anyone on social media who’s on a diet, and I have to constantly give myself mantras to feel better.
‘MAKE TIME FOR LOVE’
I love my family and my son often says, “Mummy, please will you have another baby?” I certainly had time during the pandemic to make a baby! But even though my ovaries are exploding every time I see a baby, my time with newborns is done.
There are other babies in my family, so I can get a lovely fix of being able to hold them and spoil them, and giving that sort of love to others makes people feel good about themselves.
‘HOBBIES CAN EASE STRESS’
A lot of people have taken up baking during the pandemic, and I understand why.
For people like me with mental health problems, baking and cooking have brought a real sense of calm when I’ve felt anxious.
It has been the thing that’s saved lots of people from losing themselves a little bit over the past six months – and baking and cooking are life skills. Baking is my first love and it’s helped me and saved me in so many ways.
‘MODERATION IS IMPORTANT’
I believe balance is the key to staying on an even keel. For example, there is nothing wrong with baking a cake with lots of sugar and butter, buttercream and extra cream on top – we shouldn’t be told not to eat cake! Because what I am afraid of is we’ll have a generation of children who are scared to eat. We’ll have children with eating disorders and other issues when we should be teaching about moderation.
As long as we move as well, it’s fine.
With my kids, we wake up in the morning and put on our trainers and go for a family walk. My husband and I don’t allow the kids to just sit on their phones – if they’re not doing anything they have to go outside. And if we haven’t done exercise? Then we won’t eat cake!
‘If we haven’t done any exercise, we won’t eat cake’