Suzi Grant - 48 Hours to a Healthier Life

PENGUIN BOOKS

48 HOURS TO A HEALTHIER LIFE

Suzi Grant worked as a radio and TV journalist and presenter for over twenty years. Having had enough of such a stressful life, she trained as a nutritional therapist and now runs practices in London and Brighton. She is also a health journalist and writes for magazines, runs workshops and appears regularly on radio and TV.

48 Hours to a Healthier Life is her first book. You can find more information on Suzi Grant on her website: www.benatural.co.uk

SUZI GRANT

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published 2003

Copyright Suzi Grant, 2003

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-194159-2

If you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, breastfeeding, on any form of medication, chronically ill, likely to suffer an allergic reaction, very young or very old, please seek professional advice before trying any treatment, herb, essential oil, food or beverage recommended in this book!

In my thirties, I was a chain-smoking, hard-drinking TV journalist. When my mother died of a sudden heart attack, at the age of sixty-one, I started asking questions. We come from a long line of people blessed by longevity at least on the female side of the family. But my previously healthy mother took little or no exercise, started smoking at the age of sixty, was very overweight and didnt care what she ate as long as it tasted good! She was unfit, unhappy and uninspired.

It was my wake-up call and, like anyone else reading this who has lost a loved one in the prime of his or her life, I decided to take more control of my health. Not just for the sake of my body, but for the sake of my mental and emotional states as well, so I could lead a happier life than my mother led at the end.

My path of learning led me to train as a Nutritional Therapist. Originally I didnt intend to treat people I just wanted the knowledge to become a more credible health writer. But the health benefits I experienced, as can anyone else prepared to make a few simple changes to their lifestyle and diet, proved to be so dramatic and swift that I just had to continue spreading the word!

I dont live on the top of a mountain, dont meditate every morning at 6 a.m. and dont avoid alcohol as if it were produced by the devil himself. Nor do any of my patients. But I do look after my physical and mental health by taking time out to relax, exercising regularly, eating life-giving foods and indulging in the bad stuff only in moderation.

I have learned and experienced what Eastern mystics have known for thousands of years. In the short term, making very simple changes to lifestyle and diet improves energy and stress levels almost immediately. And, in the long term, those changes may help protect us from the epidemic of 21st-century diseases now sweeping the Western world. This is what inspired me to write 48 Hours to a Healthier Life.

I dedicate this book to my Mum and to mums everywhere who spend so much time trying to look after everyone else that they forget to look after themselves.

I really mean 48 waking hours. Ok, so I cheated but I had to grab your attention somehow! Forty-eight waking hours only equal a long weekend: from Friday lunchtime till Monday lunchtime. One long weekend thats all I ask you to give yourself as me time. Im not going to promise you slim, cellulite-free thighs in just three days. But I can promise to get you on the road to a healthier future both physically and emotionally, with cellulite-free thighs thrown in as a long-term benefit!

This book is your home-from-home health spa: it gives you the chance to try out everything you might do at an expensive retreat, but in the comfort of your own home. Apart from saving a heap of money, the main difference is that you can do exactly what you want to do, and when you want to do it. No frantic rushing from one treatment to another. You can eat when you like and sleep when you like and, hopefully, by the end of the Weekend you will want to incorporate many of the techniques and dietary suggestions you have tried into the rest of your life. Everything in the book is affordable and most of the items required are available in larger supermarkets.

This isnt an unrealistic, exclusive plan available only to the few who can fork out for it. Its not about exercising madly for four days, living on carrot juice, and hitting the scales on Monday one kilo lighter and none the wiser. What it is is your time. Whether youre a busy mum, a career girl or a student, anyone can find just one weekend in a year to shut the door and look after themselves for once in their lives. How can you give the best to your children and partner, your job or your studies if youre always running on empty?

Treat this book as your own personal plan. Read it from beginning to end, filling in the quizzes along the way. Then decide how much of it you want to try out before and during the Weekend. You might decide to start changing some of your habits straight away, or you might decide to work up to taking the plunge on a specific date. It doesnt matter whether you spend six days, six weeks or six months building up to the Weekend and your bit of me time. Its up to you. Just do it!

Which of these objectives apply to you? Add any more that you can think of.