A diet where you can lose weight and still eat bacon and cheese? Count us in! Emma Thompson has recently revealed that royal dietitian, Louse Parker helped her go from a size 14 to a size 10. The Duchess of Cambridge also followed the plan to bounce back into shape following the birth of Prince George in 2013.
Louise advocates a healthy eating plan which doesn’t include the seemingly obligatory fad foods such as kale and gluten-free bread – hallelujah!
There are Four Pillars to Louise’s method: thinking
successfully and believing in yourself, living well (a balanced lifestyle), eating well, and
working out ‘intelligently’.
And it’s clearly working for 57-year old Emma. The award-winning actress, who has admitted, “everything changes” with your body when you reach 40, has lost around 8kg (1.2 stone) on the plan. So what does it involve? During her time on the plan, Emma’s diet consisted of three meals a day, each containing protein, low GI (glycaemic index) carbohydrates and a small amount of healthy fat. She was also allowed two snacks per day.
And it’s clear that the star didn’t feel deprived, as happens so often when embarking on a new diet. In the foreword to Louise’s book, The Louise Parker Method: Lean For Life: The Cookbook, Emma writes, “I love that her method is NOT a diet – and is genuinely sustainable – so I can have my glass of wine and manage to avoid spending the rest of the week eating cheesy Wotsits.”
In addition to a balanced diet, Louise also set Emma onto a tight exercise regime to assist with her weight loss, including daily resistance workouts with weights and ballet moves. However, Louise generally suggests that in order to help shift the pounds, you should aim to complete 10,000 steps a day, plus 15 minutes of her toning workouts.
But the diet isn’t just about eating well and exercising more. Louise’s method also considers how sleep and our gadgets can directly affect our health, so she suggests a digital detox at night – binning the Kindles and iPhones and instead, getting stuck into a book before your head hits the pillow. The trainer to the stars also believes that ‘brain naps’ could do us all the world of good. This essentially means taking a break from everything that occupies your day, and could be done by going on a walk, or even just resting on the sofa for 20 minutes. Sounds good to us!
So could this be the way to achieve our New Years resolutions? There’s only one way to find out…
