“I’ve tried many things over the years that tell you what to do, but never the reasons why, so having the booklets and all the background information as helped me tailor a plan which is personal to me.” Jane, South Yorkshire.

Before the Plan: I had recently completed a nutrition course with you. Prior to this, I was looking to improve my diet to provide myself with optimum health. I was also in a cycle of mid-afternoon slump at work, constantly forgetting the simple things as more important things took over, feeling stressed and waking up 5 / 6 times a night.

Also, my personal reasons for doing this were to incorporate another hobby/interest into my life. I work in marketing and whilst I love this, I wanted something completely different that I could do at home to switch off (I now spend Sundays cooking new recipes, researching ingredients and smoothies – otherwise I would definitely be working.)

After the Plan. The Results: I have cut back on coffee, diary and wheat by approx. 80%. This has made a real difference to both my overall feeling of well-being and stopped my tummy from being bloated too. I have lost weight too, although I never started out to lose weight. I have now changed my tastes and food intake because I like feeling healthy and I really notice the difference, almost immediately, if I don’t have enough veg, fruit and water in a day.

Ashley (my partner) has lost 2″ all round and just over 1/2 stone which is staying off, so he’s really happy. It’s great to watch him subconsciously change his diet too with things like he wouldn’t touch bacon sandwiches now – he just thinks they look so wrong and automatically chooses the healthiest options in shops and restaurants.

Mine has been a gradual loss since I started your course as this is when I started to change my diet, although since then I’ve been a lot less bloated. I feel sure it’s cutting out wheat and diary, and coffee by about 80% (can’t resist the odd one). I’ve lost 12 pounds, nearly a stone although I measure roughly the same, which is why I think it was cleansing my body of toxins. I feel much brighter and have a clear head, and a few clients have commented on how healthy I look with rosy cheeks.

The Advice: Food for thought – I think it is great value and I would definitely do this again. It has achieved my goals of providing myself with much better health and has also given me a foundation to research other areas further.

The journey, from start to finish: Week 1 – wasn’t too stressful as I had a lot of the cupboard ingredients already and I’m still completely excited about my Vitamix – I just love throwing everything in to a smoothie without any hassle at all. Washing all the smoothie bottles for work is a pain, so I’ve successfully outsourced this bit to my husband.

Week 2 – I started to get into a routine and I started to feel much lighter and most importantly, I’m sleeping much better – the number of times I wake up as reduced from 6 to 3. I noticed that there was a lot of food on the recipes, too much for myself and my husband and we were eating just over 1⁄2 of the salads on some days, so I adjusted accordingly.

I notice I’m getting lots of spots around my eyebrows, probably my liver detoxing. The breakfasts are difficult to make as my husband won’t touch quinoa, so we are limited to smoothies, granola and fruit.

Week 3 – I adjust to the breakfasts by making enough granola for several days and mix these with porridge and smoothies. The salads are prepared for work the evening before, and I’ve discovered that leaving the avocado out until just before eating helps keep the salads better.

I go out for a friend’s birthday meal, and notice that I struggle to eat a full restaurant meal and 2 glasses of wine. It just feels so uncomfortable and the next day I feel like rubbish. 2 days later I feel much better again and decide that I don’t really like feeling that way anymore. My husband has had the same experience and has changed his diet from meat on 4 days a week to 1 day a week.

Week 4 – this has become routine now, my stomach is constantly flat and I only wake up once during the night (which is amazing, since I’ve been to the doctors about this before and they were unable to help). People have that I look really healthy and have rosy cheeks.

It’s been amazing. Being self employed, I eat on the run and I was constantly bored with food that is instantly available. I love food, and I’ve tried many things over the years, mainly from reading information in magazines, which I find tell you what to do, but never the reasons why, so having the booklets and all the background information as helped me tailor a plan which is personal to me.

Looking to the future: The favourite parts of the plan which I’ve incorporated into my daily plans are:

• Lemon & mint drink in a morning
• Green smoothies
• Watermelon smoothie – 1 of my favourites
• Soups – they are so easy and are great for taking to work
• Veggie fajitas are great too
• I make a real effort to drink mostly coconut milk
• If I eat bread, I have gluten free ciabatta rolls or sprouted wheat bread
• I drink redbush caffeine free tea instead of normal tea