A former Hollyoaks star has shared how she transformed her life by changing her eating habits.
After becoming overweight, depressed and unmotivated, actress Davinia Taylor lost three and a half stone by making changes to her lifestyle and mindset.
Davinia, who played Jude Cunningham in Hollyoaks, regularly shared information on her Instagram account about taking a holistic approach that’ll stop cravings and help you lose weight.
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She began studying the link between gut health and mental wellness, known as biohacking and went on to write her bestselling book, It’s Not A Diet, which has become a Number One Sunday Times best seller.
Speaking to the ECHO, Davinia said: “The book is about a shift in your mental state, so gaining more motivation and having a more positive spin on your day. When we’re stressed, tired or in a bad mood, we hover around the kitchen. It’s about getting your brain in gear, because if you have control of how your brain is operating, you’ve got control of what you put in your mouth.
“I wanted the book to be really easy so that you can pick it up at any chapter. It includes a two-week reset which isn’t about weight loss or looking good in a bikini, it’s about resetting your brain. You’ve got the power to follow any diet or lifestyle you want, but you’ve got to not crave packaged food.”
Davinia believes weight loss is about counting chemicals, not calories. She continued: “I look out for ingredients that I know will trigger my addictive eating, because foods are designed that way. What we’ve got to remember is, everything that comes in a packet, they want you to buy over and over again. It’s a product, it’s not like getting something off a tree. It has been designed that way.
“They’re called ‘bliss point foods’ and they’ve been designed by mathematicians not dieticians, so for people that have slightly addictive traits, which most of us do, one will never be enough. I avoid certain ingredients like sunflower oil which triggers addictive eating. I cut out sunflower oil over and above sugar.
“Foods like fish fingers and bread, they taste savoury but they’ve snuck in sugars that send a message to your brain for more. Even though it doesn’t taste like a Cadbury’s Creme Egg, it has got the same chemicals in there that will trigger cravings.”
As a recovering alcoholic, Davinia began watching what she was putting in her mouth.
“I started to think, ‘If I eat this now, how is it going to make me feel in 15 minutes? Will I have a craving?’ I hate having my mind overtaken by a craving for something. It supersedes anything else that’s going on in your life. I hate that feeling of not being in control, so that’s why I avoid alcohol because I’d feel like I’d need another glass of wine, then another, and so on.
“I didn’t realise food was designed that way as well, but there are hacks around that by doing physical things like taking cold showers and infrared saunas. It’s hacking into your dopamine and it’s about not having those cravings in the first place. You’re not on a diet, because a diet is cutting something out through willpower, this is the opposite. You don’t have the craving in the first place.”
Davinia believes we’ve all been misled by food guidelines. She said: “Fat is not the enemy, it’s vegetable oil, sunflower oil and polyunsaturated fats that are. The most nutrients gained is most certainly not kale which is highly inflammatory and causes you to bloat. People need to remember that we’re constantly being manipulated on a subliminal level by marketing, advertising and labelling.”
The majority of us have a craving for a takeaway once in a while, including Davinia: "If I want a takeaway with the kids, what I do is protect my gut and sugar response from it, and I get it out of me as fast as possible. I do that by having apple cider vinegar which you can get cheap in Aldi and you put a tablespoon in a glass of water and before you eat your takeaway you drink that.
“It kicks off your digestive enzymes, so you’re going to break down all the junk easier and it won’t be sitting in your gut fermenting and sending messages to your brain. It’ll also lower your insulin response so that you don’t feel 'hungover' after eating carbohydrates.
“I also have activated charcoal tablets which you can get in Boots. It’s basically just charcoal made from coconut shells and it’s highly absorbent, so it will absorb the MSG and sugars from the takeaways and stop your bloodstream and brain system from absorbing as much. I then have a detox tea at night to make sure I’m on the loo in the morning to get it all out of my system!
Davinia thinks we’re all being told the wrong things about how to lose weight: “It’s a travesty that the message on daytime TV and in regular media is to eat a whole grain based diet and mainly plants. We’re just not getting enough nutrition. We are starving and we’re overweight because we’re inflamed. Our mental health has taken a nosedive because of it.
“The NHS is still looking at things like a low saturated fat diet and that is just archaic. Their textbooks are so old and there’s no forward thinking. People are doing exactly what their doctors’ say, who themselves are probably overweight, drinking too much wine, have a high carb diet and are fuelling themselves with coffee.
“You’ve got to be your own expert on your own body, because we’re all different. My biggest advice would be to keep a food diary for two weeks and every time you eat something, record how you’re feeling after five minutes, 20 minutes, and an hour later. Then you’ll become your own expert.”
Davinia Taylor’s It’s Not A Diet is published by Orion Spring at £12.99 and Davinia will be at The Watering Can on October 8 for a special event about the book.
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