REVEALED: How you can give up dieting forever - and still eat Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's roast chicken - with our exclusive look at James Duigan's Clean & Lean plan

  • Clean & Lean was first released in 2012
  • Has been updated and rereleased on Kindle this month
  • FEMAIL reveals a sample of the new edition in six installments
  • Reveals why sugar is toxic - and why it is SO addictive
  • New recipes to come with along with exercises filmed exclusively for Femail
  • Next installment on Monday 21 October

By Deborah Arthurs

PUBLISHED: 12:51 EST, 14 October 2013 | UPDATED: 16:27 EST, 14 October 2013

Picture a world free of cravings, fad diets and being wracked with guilt over food consumed, about to be consumed, or that you have to consume right now, even though you know you'll hate yourself for it later.

It sounds impossible for the millions of us who are shackled to an unhealthy relationship with food and for whom pretty much every waking hour is consumed with thinking about it - and not in a good way.

Many of us spend so much time caught up in the vicious binge-regret-diet-binge cycle that we can barely enjoy a meal, or the time in between. Caught up in the cycle, we almost always feel we have a few pounds to lose. We're obsessed by food yet we frequently make the wrong choices.

Common sense: James Duigan's Clean & Lean plan has become beloved not only by supermodels the world over, but regular men and women, mothers, office workers etc, looking for a sustainable way to live healthily

Common sense: James Duigan's Clean & Lean plan has become beloved not only by supermodels the world over, but regular men and women, mothers, office worker and the like, looking for a sustainable way to live healthily

We wake up worrying about overeating at breakfast, then fret about snacking before lunch (but do it anyway), spend the afternoon trying not to look the biscuit tin in the eye then stuff cheese and crackers in our mouths while we panic about how many calories are in our dinner.

Indeed, it was recently revealed that all the brainpower wasted agonising over calorie counting and food guilt actually lowers our IQ. So why do we do it? Why can't we stop? And is there a way out?

 

More...

Actually, there is. Forget the caveman plan, the 5:2 diet or the Dukan. Forget calorie counting, drinkorexia or (f)Atkins. A truly successful 'diet' is one that is not a fad, doesn't involve complicated instructions, and doesn't eliminate entire food groups - and James Duigan's Clean & Lean concept is just that.

First unveiled in a book in 2012 called The Clean & Lean Diet, it has now been revised and updated to be released for e-readers and can be downloaded onto Kindles or iPhones and iPads using the Kindle app. 

Although it's loved by supermodels, Victoria's Secret girls and film stars (Rosie H-W, Lara Stone, Hugh Grant, to name a few) the real magic is that is can work for everyone, from housewives to office workers and everyone in between.

The diet has never been advertised, but those who follow it (and who follow Duigan's workouts, which he teaches from his London gym Bodyism, recently voted world's best) become enthusiastic to the point of fanaticism, making the Clean & Lean plan popular through word of mouth alone.


CLEAN & LEAN FUNDAMENTALS

Your past does not equal your future

Be kind to yourself: let go of shame and guilt and accept who you are

Be kind to the planet - it's good for you, I promise! Eat fresh, organic and local

Move your body every day, your body loves to move

The word 'diet' literally means 'the foods you eat'. It's something that you do forever, not just for two weeks at a time

Any transformation that happens in your body happens in your mind first

Beautiful is how you feel not how you look
Stay Clean & Lean forever!

I am evidence that the Clean & Lean diet (I use the word diet in its purest sense, to mean literally the food you eat) really, really will change your life.

Having put on some very decent love handles when I was pregnant in 2009, I was having a nightmare getting shot of them, as well as a few some other wobbly bits I shall spare you descriptions of.

With a full-time job and a little boy to look after, frequent gym sessions and complicated meals or expensive food delivery services were out.

I have never dieted - didn't see myself as the type, nor did I realise I was creeping towards being overweight - but not only were my jeans getting gradually tighter, I was feeling unattractive, old and lacking energy too.

I felt like I'd lost control of my body and I might never get it back.

But still I would overeat, feel ashamed for doing so, then the shame would push me back towards the biscuits, where I'd find cheap solace.

A chance meeting with James Duigan and an earful of his philosophy was enough to pique my interest and I read his book - the first time I had ever read a 'diet' book with a view to actually doing what it said in the pages rather than scoffing at it.

It recommends fresh food, as close to its natural state as possible. No refined sugar - it's like a 'toxic fat bomb' for your waistline. Cut back caffeine to one cup of coffee in the morning.

Rely on natural, nutritious foods to give you energy rather than a rollercoaster of unnatural highs provided by sugar and caffeine that invariably end in a crash that will have you reaching for the next stimulant, whether that be coffee, carbs, sweets or wine. And yes, ditch the booze.

WHAT MAKES FOODS CLEAN?

Clean foods are those that:

  • Haven't changed much from their natural state - an apple in a bowl still resembles the apple on the tree, whereas a crisp (having been heavily processed) looks nothing like a potato.
  • Don't need any added artificial flavour.
  • Don't last for months and months; they go off in the fridge or cupboard after a short while.
  • Generally contain fewer than five or six ingredients.
  • Have no ingredients you can't pronounce or recognise.
  • Don't list sugar as their main ingredient (or as one of the first three).
  • Don't make you feel bloated, gassy or uncomfortably full.
  • Satisfy you, so you're not hungry after eating them.


Before James, every meal of mine was carbicide. I would carb-load from morning to night: peanut butter and jam on toast or an almond croissant for breakfast. A tuna and cheese melt panini or baguette for lunch (or worse, as a mid-morning pre-lunch snack, if the wine had been flowing the night before), and an enormous bowl of pasta with cheese for supper - with half a bottle of wine for good measure.

I hated what I saw in the mirror and it made me an angry person, quick to snap and a little bit mean - and I could pinpoint these mean moments to when I'd looked in the mirror and felt fat, or when I'd just stuffed two slices of cheese on toast for a post-Sunday roast snack, or had a few too many glasses of wine and felt like Waynetta Slob.

Now, on a good day, breakfast is two poached or boiled eggs, grilled tomatoes. My snack is a handful of almonds or brazil nuts. Lunch is a piece of mackerel or salmon (in a multi pack from M&S, so it will do you for a couple of days) with a green salad dotted with pomegranate and sunflower seeds. Dinner is a piece of salmon cooked in foil in the oven with cherry tomatoes, asparagus, ginger and chilli, with olive oil and a splash of white wine.

Fan: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has been following Duigan's Clean & Lean plan for years
Fan: Lara Stone has been following the Clean & Lean plan to get back into shape after the birth of her baby

Fans: Left, supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has been following the Clean & Lean plan for some years now, while right, Lara Stone has been following the plan to get back into shape after the birth of her baby

  

And I promise you, I love the food I am eating and never, ever feel hungry or frustrated. Best of all, I don't feel guilty or full of self-loathing - even when I've had a 500g sirloin steak on my cheat meal (you're allowed one a week; I have lately been having more like one a day, but still...).

In two weeks I lost half a stone, in a year I had lost a stone and was brimming with energy. I no longer think eggs go on toast - now they go with spinach and tomato - or that lunch has to be a sandwich. But, if I fancy some sourdough for breakfast or a bowl of pasta, I have it.

And I no longer hate what I see in the mirror, even though it's far from perfect. That's another thing James teaches you - to learn to love yourself, no matter what, or you won't value yourself enough to nurture yourself.

Yes, I lapse. And now, after three holidays in quick succession where my 'no alcohol in the week' rule went soaring out the window and an all-your-can-eat cheese buffet happened, I am around three-quarters of a stone heavier and softer round the edges than I was when I was fully Clean & Lean.

Still, my entire outlook has changed. I no longer look at two eggs on a plate and wonder where the toast is. I don't rely on cake and sweets to give me an energy boost, only to need coffee - which is obviously far too wet without a couple of biscuits - half an hour later to cope with the crash. And I don't have such an unhealthy love-hate relationship with food.

And I know that with a little adjustment I can get back on the wagon - and enjoy being there.

As for the mind-numbing glasses of wine that had become a habit every evening and I thought I couldn't do without (but were a major cause for the weight gain, the irritation and lack of motivation to exercise), James told me to replace them with meditation and a Serenity shake, a blend of valerian and hops that is supposed to help you sleep.

'A TOXIC FAT BOMB': WHY IS SUGAR SO BAD FOR US?

James says:

'Sugar is designed to hook us in. It comes in the forms of pretty pink cupcakes, fluffy marshmallows, light sponge cakes with jam in the middle and creamy chocolate. It looks and smells delicious. But in reality, there's almost nothing to love about refined sugar. It makes us put on weight, increases the size of our liver (a bad thing), makes us unwell and ages us inside and out, leaving us tired, fat and wrinkled.

'As well as being highly addictive, refined sugar drags valuable nutrients out of our body, and it's the number one reason why, for the first time in history, children of this generation are predicted to die younger than their parents.

WHY SUGAR IS PHYSICALLY ADDICTIVE

Sugar has a similar effect on the brain to pain-killing drugs like morphine and opther opiates (such as heroin). These drugs produce an almost instant feeling of pleasure, calm and satisfaction, making them incredibly addictive.

When the food manufacturers figured this out, they began producing foods full of sugar. Back in the 1950s, sugar would mainly be found in homemade cakes, but now it's pumped into almost all of the processed foods, alcoholic and soft drinks and even so-called 'healthy foods' (such as breakfast cereals) and foods aimed at children.
Many of us turn to something sugary for 'energy' - and technically, it is a form of energy. But it's a bad type. So yes, you will get a qcuik burst after eating a chocolate bar, but about ten minutes after that you'll feel even more tired than you were before.

That's because sugar quickly hits the bloodstream, creating a rapid rise in blood sugar (a 'spike'). But, just as quickly, you then crash (due to insulin being produced from the pancreas), leaving you exhausted. A far better way of getting energy is to eat complex carbohydrates (low-GI fruits, berries), clean & lean proteins, vegetables, drink plenty of water and exercise regularly. If you do all these things, you won't need to rely on something as toxic as sugar to keep you energised.

WHY SUGAR IS EMOTIONALLY ADDICTIVE

For most of us, when we were growing up, sugary foods were used as a 'reward' by our parents, grandparents and almost everybody else we knew as children. Is it any wonder that by the time we reached our teens we'd learnt to associate sugary foods with happy times and making ourselves feel better?


'So what should I do if I am having a craving for wine?' I had asked him during a session at his gym.

'Have a Serenity shake and meditate instead,' he said, completely serious.

HA! I had practically laughed in his face. Wine or meditation... one wasn't a substitute for the other was it?

But that night, when I reached for the Chablis and the corkscrew, his words came back to me. It took a great deal of inner strength to shove the ice-cold bottle, beaded with tempting droplets of condensation, back into the fridge. But I did it. And, like James suggested, I made a shake, sat on my yoga mat and meditated, in my own way, which meant doing a few yoga poses and focusing on my breathing while listening to some whale music.

After half an hour, I felt calm and centred - and still had the rest of my evening to get things done around the house, whereas the wine, while it would have offered some fuzzing of my worries and stresses, would have rendered me virtually useless, sitting on the sofa like a blob troughing nuts.

Meanwhile, work would be left unfinished, I'd have been bleary-eyed the next morning and a lot less likely to go to the gym or cycle in to work.

If I sound evangelical about this, it's because I kind of am. In the same way that religious believers feel the need to spread the word about the Lord, I feel the need to spout forth to all and sundry about James Duigan.

Because with his Clean & Lean book, and his approach to exercise, and life in general, he changed me forever.

Here, over the next six weeks we will bring you a selection of James' recipes from the Clean & Lean book, as well as some exercises he devised so that anyone can do them easily from anywhere - at home, in the park or in the office loos between phone calls.

No excuses - there's always time to make a difference - even if it's five minutes here and there.

And we will be chatting to more people who have felt the effects of the Clean & Lean diet.

ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY'S LEMON-ROASTED CHICKEN

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 medium chicken

1 lemon, cut in half and zested

3 garlic cloves

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

200g brown rice

275ml organic chicken or vegetable stock 300g kale, shredded

1 avocado, sliced

Clean and lean the supermodel way: Rosie's roast chicken recipe is nutritious and hearty - and won't make you feel like you're missing out

Clean and lean the supermodel way: Rosie's roast chicken recipe is nutritious and hearty - and won't make you feel like you're missing out

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190 ̊C/375 ̊F/gas mark 5.

2. Stuff the chicken with the lemon and garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the skin with the olive oil and season well all over.

3. Roast the chicken for approximately 11⁄2 hours.

4. Boil the brown rice in chicken or vegetable stock and steam the kale over a pan of boiling water.

5. Serve the chicken on a plate with the kale and rice and a scattering of avocado and lemon zest.



CLEAN & LEAN PANCAKES

Serves 2–4

INGREDIENTS

100g organic rolled oats

200g ricotta or cottage cheese

4 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 100g blueberries

2 tablespoons natural yogurt

Satisfying yet healthy: Clean and lean pancakes use oats and ricotta cheese to make the batter

Satisfying yet healthy: Clean and lean pancakes use oats and ricotta cheese to make the batter

METHOD

1 Blend the oats, cheese, eggs and cinnamon in a food processor until you have a smooth batter.
2 Heat a non-stick, heavy-based frying pan, then pour ladlefuls of batter and cook for 2–3 minutes on each side.
3 Serve warm, with the blueberries and yogurt.


Download The Clean & Lean Diet on amazon.co.uk for £5.99.

Come back on Monday 21 October for videos filmed by James and his team at Bodyism that will improve posture and strengthen and lengthen the body.

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Both Gorgeous!

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"In two weeks I lost half a stone, in a year I had lost a stone" Hmmm

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God. I just don't think I could be bothered to make ricotta and oat pancakes in the morning. Is a bowl of porridge or a yoghurt and fruit really that bad?!

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life is too short, not to eat fruit. i am sure that blueberries never killed anybody.

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Going to do this!

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Why do I feel like Rosie's roast chicken won't quite be the same as mine!

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I have been following the principles of lean and clean for about 6 months. It has made a massive difference, for the first time of any eating Plan have tried, I have actually managed to get rid of my saddle bags!, it is not difficult to follow and has amazing results. It's easy to stay with principles when eating out and on holiday. It just makes sense. Worth buying the book.

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I love this book eating clean is a lifestyle which works for us as a family but two kids and long working hours the calories are quite low so to make it healthier and more substantial for the family we have pasta or brown rice

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I have all of James Duigans books and can honestly say its money well spent!!! Love love love his way of explaining things and he really opened my eyes when it comes to sugar. I dont touch the stuff now. Highly recommend his books to everyone. Changed my life, definately for the better :)

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It's ok if you have 2 hours a day spare to spend in your kitchen. Once you've picked up the kids, homework,ironing, cleaning and done a full day at work. I would love a full time chef...

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