When it comes to health and wellness, there are plenty of quick fix promises that sell books, magazines, and social media accounts. There are lots of do’s and don’ts of how to keep yourself healthy.

From advice like “cut the carbs”, “don’t eat sugar”, “don’t snack”, “avoid alcohol”, “count calories” - being healthy can seem like an impossible task.

What if there was an easier way to look after yourself than going to these extremes? Making small changes that are easy to manage and that you can stick to every day are likely to have far more benefits for your short term and long term health goals than any crazy fad diet.

But what if we looked at out treat days in a different way? What if a treat was to nourish ourselves and the thing we gave up for lent was dieting. Instead what if we adopted a new attitude to the food we eat and looked at it as something to give us heath, rather than something to feel guilty about after we have overindulged?  

Do you feel hungry all the time, no matter how much you eat? It could be that your hormones have a part to play in your ravenous appetite. I am not talking about oestrogen and testosterone, although they could have an impact too. Meet your hunger hormone, gherlin. Ghrelin is one of the hormones responsible for regulating your appetite, controlling your hunger, food intake and fat storage.

Do you get hungry between meals? For most of us, snacking is the norm, but is it a good idea for our heath? I am sure you have heard the advice to 'eat little and often', but this is old news now. Nutritional science now recognises that (for most people at least) it is a good idea to give your body a rest from constant munching, getting back to the idea that we eat three meals a day with fewer snacks in between. This helps your body to rest and reset.

For many people January is the month for changing things for the better. A get fit quick plan, or January diet to lose half a stone in a week. Mostly these promises are made by fad diets and someone trying to make a fast buck out of us.

How about making a resolution with a difference? How about you forget the New Year, New You get-skinny-quick diet plan and commit to making tiny little changes that don’t take commitment, hard work or effort, but that all add up to make you feel better. I have been working in the world of wellbeing and nutrition for a very long time, and if there is one thing I have learned is that most big diet plans are set to fail.

When was the last time you through about your microbiome? Apart from popping a live yoghurt into our trolley every now and then, most of us don’t think much about the gut flora ecosystem in our digestive tract that plays such an important role in our health.

Melatonin (our sleep hormone) is made in the body from serotonin (our happy hormone). Low levels of daylight in the winter can disrupt the balance of these two neurotransmitters. Darker days and lack of sunlight can reduce levels of serotonin and increase our production of melatonin, leaving us feeling sleepy and demotivated during the day.