Many friends and family ask “How did you do it? What are you eating? You’ll have to come over for a cup of tea and tell me everything?�?. The secret is … there isn’t one!

I am not eating celery sticks all day. I have chocolate in my cupboard and cheese in the fridge. However the chocolate sits next to three types of whole grain rice, couscous, nuts, seeds and low salt/sugar and low fat crackers. The cheese in the fridge is surrounded by fruit and vegetables, yogurt, skinless meat and bottles and bottle and bottles of water (Our tap water is like drinking from a local swimming pool!).

Start by sorting your food

A really easy way of creating a diet is order food in preference from the least processed and altered to the most processed and altered.

For example a stir fry with broccoli, onion, garlic, ginger, runner beans, capsicum, cabbage and bean shoots is really healthy and has only “live�? foods. You can add soy and honey to change the flavors or herbs such as lemon grass and coriander to create a fantastic Asian flavor.

If you have to have meat, then make sure you only use around 100g to 150g per person (around the same size as the fleshy part of your palm). You don’t need more! Cut it very finely/thinly and that way it will feel like there is more than you actually have used.

However always try to keep vegetables as more than 70% of the meals content.

What is really in the foods you love?

Compare that to a meal that has been highly processed such as America’s all-time favorite "Macaroni Cheese":

Firstly there is bleached and highly processed pasta with very little fiber content. Then you add cheesy sauce, which is generally filled with cream and cheese. Both are high fat and calorie products that have been heavily processed, reducing the product to minimal mineral content. The meal has loads of calories, hidden salts and sugars, lots of animal fats and very little nutritious benefit.

Make today your start day, even if you had bacon and eggs for breakfast or macaroni cheese for lunch, start your diet this afternoon and have the first of many healthy dinners.