Thinking back, for all my adult life I have been conscious of my weight – either trying to get it down, or revelling in a temporary weight loss and subsequently wearing my favourite small-size clothes. If I count the years, it’s been more than twenty-five years that I have had this drain on my thinking.

Can you relate? Do you have a similar story?

I think it’s fair to say that most of us already know the basics to losing weight and maintaining slimness... in theory. So what’s stopping us doing that, instead of spending all our time and energy following diets, going for the next quick fix, despairing over our clothes not fitting yet eating more to feel better?

Imagine if you simply went about your day in a normal and carefree manner, eating what you knew was tasty and healthy and not giving it a second thought until it came time to prepare your next meal. Imagine how much mental space and energy would be freed up to do other things.

It’s something I have pondered a lot over the years; I mean, how hard can it be to eat normally and be a normal weight? To peacefully co-exist with food? What was wrong with me that I could not get this one part of my life right?

The answer my friends, is M I N D S E T. Once I started working on my mindset, I realized I could find my way back to my happy weight – gently, patiently and lovingly.

Of course, I knew I needed to change the way I ate, but having the right mindset helped me keep on going and not give up at the first hurdle (or craving). The great news is that eating well and looking after yourself becomes easier over time. It becomes your new normal.

I know from personal experience that if you can get your food thoughts under control, it releases so much mental energy and you are set free to start living your life; instead of spending much of the day thinking about food and eating; trying to eat normally and feeling out of control.

Everything in this book is designed to change your mindset in lots of little ways, from many different angles. If you make small enough changes and have them bed in as ‘just what you do’, the ‘I don’t want to change, I’m comfortable the way I am’ part of your brain will not be triggered.

Diets address the outside world – what we are eating – but they do nothing to change the inside world – our mindset. Changing the outside world brings the novelty of something new, plus willpower works for a while; but then our mind will snap us back to what we were doing before, because the changes we made were superficial.

Sometimes one trick that had worked for a while stopped working so well for me and I found myself slipping back into old habits. So I started devising a chic toolkit of sorts that I could dip into whenever I needed the motivation.

I have so many techniques in my toolkit now, that if I fall off the wagon I can pick myself up so much quicker than I used to. As a result, my eating (and my weight) is much more stable and therefore healthier. I also have a wonderful peace of mind around food that I did not have before.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to join me. Like my first book Thirty Chic Days, this book is set up into thirty distinct chapters, or ‘days’.

This book isn’t a typical diet book with a list of rules, to-dos and meal plans. I hope that it won’t be dry or bossy or prescriptive. My goal for this book is to be happy, inspiring, encouraging and a little bit silly at times; because when we get too serious, we stop listening.

If we can put a little bit of frivolity and inspiration into the process of becoming our ideal weight, we are more likely to follow up and get there. Why would we want to do something if it isn’t fun?

I am so excited for you, just as I am excited for myself continuing this journey. Today is a new day, a fresh new start; perfect for you to start living a life of freedom, happiness and good health.

Here’s to you.