Richard & Julie

Healthier for Longer 🌱

A handful of small changes a week — built gradually so it actually sticks. Keep the joy, stay accountable to each other, no crash diet.

Our 5-week core plan · starts Sunday 7 June 2026

How this works

This isn't a diet we have to survive. It's a few gentle changes each week — the kind we can actually keep — that build on what we already do well. The whole point is that it lasts, so there's nothing to "fall off" and no Monday to wait for.

Max 2 new changes a week Swaps, not deprivation Patience with slow results In it together

What we already do brilliantly — we just keep doing it: our daily walks to work and 10,000 steps, your Pilates, our 15-minute morning meditation together, one-leg balancing while brushing teeth, and cooking real food from ingredients. The plan adds to these gently, it doesn't replace them.

How we'll keep track (lightly). No daily scales. On day one we note our starting measurements — Richard watches his waist, Julie watches weight — plus a quick sense of mood, cravings, energy and sleep, and a couple of "how I want to feel" notes. We re-check only every fortnight. Numbers are just a signal for now, not the point. (Julie's also trying a daily weigh-in for a bit, just to learn her own fluctuations — curiosity, not chasing the scales.)

Our check-ins. A quick, kind chat each day — "how was today, any cravings, anything hard?" And the proper one: Saturday mornings, coffee in bed, first one Sat 13 June. What was easy, what was hard, what to tweak next week. This is the bit that's worked before.

The five weeks
1
Week 1 · 7–13 June
Reset
Pull the two biggest levers, gently
🍷
Alcohol-free beginsThe month-long reset. The single biggest win, so it goes first.
🍿
Evening snacking → swap, not stopCrisps → popcorn or roasted chickpeas. Chocolate → a couple of squares of dark. Evening carbs → fruit, veg sticks & hummus, or Greek yoghurt & berries.
💧
Little touchesAn easy-access water bottle each — when a craving hits, drink water first (it's often thirst). Stock 2–3 healthy no-cook backups (beans on toast, jacket potato) for the can't-be-bothered nights.
🧠
Start the daily check-inThe quick kind chat each evening. (We've parked the formal trigger exercise for later — it's on the backlog, to do nearer week 5–6 or in the moment if a craving actually hits.)
🎂
Friday 12 June — Richard's birthday. Craft workshop, maybe a chippy tea. Embrace it — it's life, not a failure. It needn't be a drinking occasion, so it fits inside the alcohol-free month. If you'd rather mark it with a drink, do it as a planned exception and pick straight back up. Either way, no guilt.
✅
What stuck (after our first check-in): the Wednesday quiet-night-instead-of-gin, 85% dark chocolate, a water bottle in each place, and herbal teas morning & night. All keepers. The birthday went well too — a small chippy, no temptation to overdo it.
🌅
One to claw back: our before-7am morning meditation slipped this week — tired mornings and longer lie-ins. It's a habit we already had and don't want to lose, so let's protect the early start rather than catching up in the evening.
2
Week 2 · 14–20 June
Portions & the weekly check-in
🍽️
Tackle "too much going in"Serve from the pan (don't leave it on the table), pause before seconds, slightly smaller plates. Let a recipe guide the portion, not a calorie count.
⛰️
Add one varied / cardio walkA hill rather than the flat prom — the headland, above the top reservoir, or Summerhill.
3
Week 3 · 21–27 June
Balance the week
🥗
Lighter nights, kept tastySwap 2–3 of the heavier home-cooked nights for lighter meals — soups, salads, fish, zoodles. Keep the cooking joy, just rebalance.
🚶‍♀️
Lengthen the weekend walkBuild towards our Crosby-distance days. Optionally add a little toning for Julie (fitsteps back in, or simple home toning).
🌙
A wind-down ritualFor the late course nights: herbal tea + 10 minutes of our meditation instead of the gin. (We've actually started the evening teas already — keep it going.)
4
Week 4 · 28 June–4 July
Tighten & take stock
🍞
Ease back the evening carbsWholemeal or sourdough, less Weetabix/muesli at night. The alcohol-free month completes around 5 July.
📝
Month-mark reflectionAt the Saturday check-in: what stuck, what didn't? Tally the drink savings — that's the spa nearly paid for.
⛰️
Lock in the hill walkMake the cardio/hill walk a fixed weekly fixture.
5
Week 5 · 5–11 July
Reintroduce, on our terms
🥂
Alcohol back — limited & plannedLower-calorie drinks, weekends or occasions only. Notice if evening snacking creeps back with it, and reach for the swaps if it does.
🧘‍♀️
Snacking → only when truly hungryShift from "swap" towards sitting with the urge — the Julie skill.
🌸 The reward — King Spa together, ~Sun 12 July. Booked and partly funded by the dry month. The reward that is the lifestyle: relaxation and self-care, no food-or-booze bribe.
After week 5
Keep what stuck
Loose, not prescribed
✅
Bank the winsWhich changes are just "how we live" now? Keep them, stop tracking them.
🎯
Reinforce one thingWhatever slipped, pick just one to shore up — not five.
🗓️
Ease off the check-insWeekly → fortnightly → monthly as it becomes natural (about 6 months to fully settle). Re-read your mantra when a wobble comes.
For later — parked ideas
Not yet · revisit ~week 5–6
Less meat, better meat
More plant-based, without the processed stuff

Ideas we jotted down on 8 June after watching The Twin Experiment. Deliberately parked: we let the reset settle first and pick these up in a few weeks, so they don't become the "too much, too fast" trap.

🥬
Meat-free Mondays & plant-based FridaysOne veggie day, one plant-based day to ease in. We like "plant-based" over "vegan" (Oreos are vegan!) — it's the health angle we're after.
🌱
Skip the ultra-processed fake meatLess meat, but not swapped for additive-heavy mock-meat. Whole-food plant proteins — beans, pulses — over the processed mimics.
🍔
Find a proper bean burgerA genuinely good spicy bean burger, a few plant-based meals we love, and dust off the veggie recipes we enjoyed years ago.
🥩
Better-sourced meatFor the meat we do keep, look hard at where it's from: local, good quality, happy to pay a bit more — like we already do with sausages and eggs.
🥚
The eggs mini-projectA fun little research project comparing egg brands on cost, taste, animal welfare and environment — does the "happy hen" marketing actually stack up?
Not yet · an occasional pause
The bigger life picture
Reflection beyond food & sleep

Another one we jotted down (9 June): widen our reflection so it isn't only about how we're eating and feeling.

📊
A few more everyday signalsBring step counts, water and sleep into the check-in, alongside how we're feeling.
🧭
Zoom out now and thenEvery so often, step back and ask how each of us feels about how we're spending our time — savings, goals, retirement, job satisfaction.
⏸️
Not weekly. A now-and-then trigger to pause on the big things, separate from the regular Saturday check-in.

Our swap bank

When you fancy…Reach for instead
AlcoholSparkling water with lime/berries, herbal tea, diet tonic + citrus
CrispsAir-popped popcorn, roasted chickpeas, edamame, veg sticks + hummus, a small handful of nuts
Chocolate1–2 squares of 70%+ dark, Greek yoghurt + berries, dates with peanut butter, frozen grapes
White breadWholemeal/seeded, sourdough, oatcakes, wholegrain wraps

To sort in week 1

 
Book King Spa for ~12 July
✓
Buy two easy-access water bottles
 
Stock the healthy no-cook backups
✓
Set the Saturday-morning check-in alarm
Our mantra

If I fall off, I get straight back on.
I don't wait for Monday.