Everything in our lives is much easier and richer when we have more energy. When we feel depleted, it’s harder to motivate ourselves to do the things that make us feel alive, to take steps to further our dreams, and to spend quality time with the people we love, truly connecting.

For so many of us though, running from one task to the next while checking our phone and wondering how on earth we’re going to respond to the mountain of emails and messages that awaits us, we end up feeling completely exhausted by our busy lives and other people’s demands on us. As a result, we don’t have the energy or time to prepare healthy food or move our bodies in ways that are good for us, and it becomes a vicious cycle that sees our health and wellbeing plummet.

On the flip side, if we can start to make small changes that support our energy levels, we set the wheels in motion in the opposite direction, and it becomes easier and easier to make healthy choices that support everything we wish to do. This is what health coach and yoga teacher Julie Montagu, known as ‘The Flexi Foodie’ is here to teach us!

Julie Montagu, The Flexi Foodie

Julie maintains that eating healthily doesn't have to be complicated or confusing. However, with endless information and advice available on the right way to eat, even the most health-conscious of us can become overwhelmed and feel tempted to give up. So what’s the solution? As a busy, working mother of four children, Julie knows that it’s important to keep any changes we make simple.

In her book Eat Real Food, set to release in March 2016, she guides you to make simple but positive dietary choices to increase your intake of what she calls the 'Flexi-Five' – the five healthy food groups that are most important for keeping your brain and body balanced and happy:

·         Green leafy vegetables

·         Whole grains

·         Healthy fats

·         Natural sweeteners

·         Superfoods

Julie explains why these five ‘superhero’ food groups are so important to our health, and that by approaching your diet in this way, you naturally crowd out the bad stuff without having to follow super strict rules or feeling restricted. When our Senior Publicist here at Hay House UK, Ruth Tewkesbury, introduced me to her work, I was so impressed by Julie’s determination to help busy women find a way to get their energy back and feel healthy again.

If you’ve ever met Julie, or have seen her star as herself in the hit Bravo TV show Ladies of London, you’ll know that she is the perfect advertisement for this way of eating! She is so full of energy that her natural body clock and zest for life habitually propel her out of bed after just six hours of sleep – something most of us can only dream of!

Watch Julie giving advice on overcoming anxiety

However, knowing that the food we put in our bodies is only one (albeit very important) part of the picture, in Eat Real Food, Julie wanted to go beyond nutrition and also share a bunch of ‘life hacks’ she has developed that will give readers quick and easy ways to boost their energy and wellness throughout the day. So alongside delicious, healthy recipes and tips on how to stay healthy when eating on the go, she also shares easy-to-master breathing exercises, super simple yoga poses, and affirmations that can give you a boost even if you only have a few minutes to spare!

If you want 2016 to be the year that you leave behind the story that your life is too busy for you to take care of your body, then this is the perfect guide to making the small changes that will make all the difference, and are simple enough that you’ll actually be able to stick to them. Here’s to a year of unstoppable energy!