By the end of a busy week, movement can start to feel like another area in which you are somehow falling behind. You may have managed a strength session on Monday, walked between meetings on Wednesday and intended to do yoga on Friday but Friday arrived with tired legs, a crowded diary and absolutel...

There are mornings when your trainers are by the door, your workout is in the diary—and your body seems to have made other plans. Your legs feel heavy, your shoulders ache, or your back needs a few careful movements before it is willing to cooperate. You may wonder whether exercising would loosen ev...

You finish one meeting and notice that the next begins in twelve minutes. There is washing waiting, an email marked urgent and somebody in the family needs an answer from you before you have even worked out what the question is. You had planned to exercise, but the generous space you imagined in you...

You hold a strong Warrior pose, your thighs begin to tremble and suddenly there is no doubt that your muscles are working. A few minutes later, you move through Plank, lower slowly towards the mat and discover that yoga can feel every bit as demanding as a session in the gym. It is natural to won...

Perhaps you have noticed that carrying the shopping feels heavier than it once did, getting up from the floor takes more thought, or your body feels softer even though the number on the scales has barely changed. You may already walk, practise yoga or attend the occasional exercise class and wond...

You feel a familiar pull across the back of your legs, so you stretch your hamstrings. Your hips feel tight after a day at your desk, so you sink into a deeper lunge. Your shoulders feel tense, so you pull one arm across your chest. Because stretching provides some relief, you repeat the same res...

You exercise. You walk. Perhaps you practise yoga, attend a class or make an effort to keep moving throughout the week.

Yet when you stand up after working at your desk, your hips feel reluctant to straighten. Your shoulders seem to have crept towards your ears. The first few steps downstairs in th...

Perhaps you have promised yourself that Monday will be different.

You will stop eating bread, avoid chocolate, reduce carbohydrates, give up cheese or finally become disciplined enough to resist the biscuits in the office kitchen.

For many women, trying to eat well has become an exhausting proc...

One woman tells you that carbohydrates are the problem. Another insists you should fast until lunchtime. Your social media feed suggests that dairy is inflammatory, fruit contains too much sugar and coffee is somehow confusing your hormones. Then an advert appears for a powder, tea or supplement ...

There is a particular kind of lunchtime that many working women know well.

Your morning meeting runs over. Two emails arrive marked urgent. You have another call in twelve minutes and, somewhere between opening the fridge and answering a message, lunch becomes a handful of crackers, a yoghurt ea...

You make a quick lunch between meetings and it looks perfectly respectable. There is some chicken, tuna, egg or tofu. Perhaps a yoghurt or piece of cheese. You have remembered the protein, avoided skipping the meal altogether and managed to sit down before the afternoon disappears.

Yet the plate is...

You are making lunch and reach for the olive oil, avocado or handful of nuts. Then an old thought appears: Isn’t that too much fat?

For many women, that hesitation did not come from nowhere. Fat-free yoghurts, low-fat spreads and “lighter” versions of almost everything shaped years of diet advice. ...