Eating for Energy: The Rainbow Plate That Changed My Mornings

For years my lunch was beige. Toast, a biscuit, maybe some soup. Then I would sit down at three in the afternoon and wonder why I could not keep my eyes open.

One rule instead of forty

I am not interested in counting anything. So I gave myself one rule, and it is almost embarrassingly simple: if my plate does not have at least three colours on it, I add something until it does.

That is it. No app, no weighing, no cutting out bread. Just colour.

What that looks like in real life

• Breakfast: plain yoghurt, frozen berries, a spoon of oats and a handful of walnuts. Two minutes, four colours.
• Lunch: a big bowl of leaves, whatever cold meat or beans are in the fridge, tomatoes, cucumber, and a proper glug of olive oil.
• Dinner: whatever I fancy, with a double portion of vegetables pushed alongside it.

You do not need a perfect diet. You need a plate that looks alive.

The two changes that mattered most

Protein at breakfast. I used to have tea and toast and then wonder why I was ravenous by eleven. Adding yoghurt or an egg in the morning flattened out my whole day.

Water, deliberately. I keep a jug on the counter and fill it after every cup of tea. Half of what I used to call tiredness was thirst wearing a disguise.

The shortcuts I actually use

The blender earns its counter space — frozen spinach goes in with berries and you cannot taste it, which is the only reason I get greens in on a busy morning. And a knife with a handle thick enough for my hands to grip properly made chopping vegetables something I do rather than something I avoid. That sounds trivial. It is not: the easier the cooking, the more colours end up on the plate.

Start with one meal. Make it colourful tomorrow. That is the whole programme.