It’s a vicious circle: the end of December sees lots of us making all sorts of outlandish claims as to how we’re going to transform our health in the new year. The plan is meticulously followed for a few days, but it soon gets difficult and we fall off the wagon. Then we experience the guilt-inducing recriminations, making us feel even worse than before we started.
It’s a predictable path, says Augusta Gray, a registered nutritionist and content lead at Holland & Barrett, and it feeds into a common toxic behavioural mentality known as “all or nothing”. “If you tend to go on the yo-yo of all-or-nothing, you’re probably going into that festive period overindulging,” she says. “Having that black and white way of thinking can be a really unhealthy relationship with your mind and body.”
