Last week I suggested that improving the way you eat is about making tiny changes day by day until you arrive at a place where you feel good and happy; drastic changes, by contrast, being costly and almost impossible to adhere to over more than a few weeks.

At the risk of repeating myself – I’ve written about such ideas elsewhere on this blog – and of doing too much dogmatic finger-wagging, I thought a convenient seven-point summary might provide a useful, gentle and not overtly corrective prod.

1. Always eat breakfast – whether handful of nuts, boiled egg, slice of bread and cheese, or bowl of yoghurt and sugar-free muesli, you’ll feel infinitely better for eating any of these instead of hurriedly shovelling down a cheap croissant or toast and jam at your first meeting.
2. Try halving your portions of bread, pasta, rice and potatoes – it’s so tempting to eat piles of these warmly comforting carbohydrates, but with their roller-coaster effect on our energy levels and sneaky role in weight gain, they don’t serve us well enough to merit such space on our plates. Instead, double your serving of non-starchy vegetables and add more protein; you soon won’t miss that extra stodge at all.
3. Snack on nuts instead of biscuits – they are tastier, much more nutritious, and generally more likely to leave you feeling energetic.
4. Keep evening meals light, low on carbohydrates and full of protein – you need energy during the day, not for sleeping, so a light meal will do.
5. Resist the bread basket before your starter arrives in restaurants – why fill up with the least interesting part of the meal when so many other delicious treats are to follow.
6. Say a resolute ‘no’ to only half-appealing sweets – biscuits, supermarket cakes and buns, cheap croissants, the list goes on; eating them is simply a waste of time.
7. Cook for yourself at least three times a week and take the leftovers to the office for your lunch – whatever you make is bound to be fresher and better for you than any processed or ready-made option and you might find you rather enjoy it too.