The persistent allegation about eating healthily is that it means a boring diet filled with tasteless rabbit food, and no fun ever again. This has been the cause of many a broken diet, and will no doubt continue to dissuade people from healthier lifestyles. And the worst thing about it is that it really is not true. Eating healthily and enjoying it depends on looking a little beyond the obvious options.

At your local supermarket, it is not that hard to spot the unhealthy options, as they are usually packaged excitingly, with pictures designed to make you think that the food inside the packet will be delicious and enthralling. Meanwhile, the healthy options are packaged as you would expect them to be – plain packets and a sober typeface on the label.

But eating healthily is not about just picking out the stuff that is labelled in a boring way. It is about considering what makes a food healthy. Being prepared to be a little more ambitious in the kitchen helps. Many of us don’t have much time for cooking, so putting a ready meal in the microwave becomes the easy option. If you cook from natural ingredients you can lose weight and feel better, so making the time to cook is a good idea.

You don’t need to stand over a hot stove for hours in order to make a healthy meal. You can make a good sandwich with wholemeal bread, tuna and some salad which, if seasoned correctly, can taste better than anything you’ll buy at the deli counter. What’s more, it will only take a few minutes to do.