Maintaining a healthy body weight is all about balancing the food we consume against how we burn it off.

To set healthy eating rules, US food author Michael Pollan offers the following handy advice:

• Don’t eat anything your great-grandma wouldn’t recognise as food.

• Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients on the label, especially if you can’t pronounce them.

• Stay out of the middle of the supermarket. Instead shop the edges, where the food is fresh.

• Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot.

• Always leave the table feeling a little hungry.

• Enjoy regular meals with loved ones, without the distraction of TV.

Regular exercise is also an essential part of the healthy body weight equation. Again, it’s important to have guiding principles.

 
You can either keep them loose, such as: ‘I will aim to exercise for 30 minutes a day, knowing I’ll probably skip a day somewhere.’ Or they can be rigid, like mine. I exercise at least six days a week, including three cardio sessions on my bike, treadmill or kayak, and three days of focusing on strength work.

The choice is all yours. What food and exercise principles do you want to live by?