Feel Great With Annie Deadman

Gripping a tiny roll of what she called ‘lockdown lard’ and thrusting it at the screen during our Zoom chat the other day, my friend Laura remarked that she did not feel very beautiful. I protested, declaring her a wondrous human being, lard or not. But it cut no mustard.

Thing is, she’s not alone. Many of us have been at home with our families, at the mercy of the fridge and our hormones, only to see the effects appearing in fetching red welts on our waistlines. But we are all beautiful and we all deserve the reward of feeling positive and gorgeous.

Our lives this past year have been stripped back to simplicity, so what we need are four simple steps to lockdown luscious…

EAT: Three meals and one snack per day. If you’re working from home, then there will at least be some form of structure. Base mealtimes around that and pile up the protein at two of those meals (with fish, poultry, eggs, yogurt, pulses or beans). This will help nip those sugar cravings in the bud. DRINK: At least 2-3ltr of fluid per day. No, not Chardonnay. Water, coffee, tea and the odd low-calorie fizzy drink all count, since fluid gives you energy (and stops our skin drying out). SAVE: One small (but delicious) treat for yourself each day, which becomes your dangling carrot. It can possibly be food-related (we’re talking minimal, like a two-finger Kitkat), or a hot bath and a good book. But savour and relish it, because this is our hug to ourselves. MOVE: Let’s walk, cycle, run and dance. Let’s love our bones and muscles by moving them and see how they love us back. The pleasure we get from exercising outside will lift our spirits (and hopefully more restrictions!).