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Midlife Fitness Files: Davina McCall on beating her sugar addiction and keeping in shape
Midlife Fitness Files: The Telegraph's new health series, in which we get keep fit advice from the experts as they talk us through their weekly workouts and daily diet
Davina McCall is 52 and lives in Kent with her three children. She is currently a panellist on ITV’s The Masked Singer and her next TV project will be the new series of ITV’s Long Lost Family.
‘My weight has yo-yoed most of my life. In my early thirties, I would workout loads in the new year, then get totally unfit and start again the following year. But when I had Tily at 36 I couldn’t bounce back and knew I had to get serious about fitness. That’s when I met my trainers Jackie and Mark [Wren]. They’re responsible for a huge turnaround in my life, mentally and physically. I’ve learned the yo-yo fitness thing isn’t good for me but nor is being overly fit. Now, I’m seeking a base level of fitness. My legs get flabby quickly and on telly I like waving my arms around in short sleeves without worrying about a bingo wing flinging around, so I want to be toned all year around.
Health is now my biggest motivator. I lost my sister Caroline to cancer when she was only 52 and my mum also to cancer. Exercise is one thing you can do to prevent all kinds of illness, so keeping fit feels like a gift to myself; an act of self-love.
Run training, Pilates and Spin
‘I’m training for a 10km run on February 9th so I do two short runs of about 20-30 minutes and one long run which is about 7-8 miles (about an hour) each week. I’ll combine the short runs with a half hour intermediate home workout from ownyourgoalsdavina.com. I’ve just discovered Reformer Pilates which as a game-changer, so once a week I’ll run for 20 minutes to my local Pilates class, do that for an hour and then run home. On Saturday, I’ll do the same thing but with a Spin class, then come home and do a ten minute abs session. About three hours a week of exercise is my ideal but if I am busy I will try do six half hours or a little less. I have a job! It’s all I can manage.
Zero sugar equals zero bloating
‘My biggest battle for the last five years has been with sugar. I’ll stop for a year and then at Christmas I’ll binge for a day and be stuck on it for three months. Sugar is like a drug for me, the more I have, the more I want. The same goes for starchy carbs – if I have a bowl of pasta I will want more.
‘I’m happy with my body right now. But just before Christmas a national paper published pictures of me on a beach in Australia. I was caught off guard and they were very revealing. There was only two pounds in it but it wasn’t where I wanted to be with my body. At the time, I’d wake up and think I looked good and by the end of the day I’d look like I was five months pregnant, my belly was so distended. I cut out sugar again and within a month all the bloating had gone and I had lost a kilo. This time I cut out fruit too, because I was eating lots of satsumas and apples as puddings to satisfy my sweet cravings. It took about four days to get through the withdrawal period and after that, the cravings lifted. Sugar-free gum helps, a bit at 4pm and 9pm gets me through my danger zones.
What I eat in a day
Breakfast: porridge made with Flora pro-activ milk (I have high cholesterol) and cinnamon or a crumpet with honey and butter (unapologetically!)
Lunch: Poached salmon with salad or vegetables
Snack: handful of almonds or carrot sticks and hummous 4pm: sugar-free gum
Dinner: chicken or tuna stir-fry with vegetables and wholewheat noodles or roast vegetables with fish and sweet potato 9pm: sugar-free gum
Vital statistics
Worst diet habit: Sausages, I love them. I get them without preservatives or nitrates from my local butcher.
Best diet advice: Five years years ago, I was moaning to a friend about having put on half a stone. She is French and was having none of it. ‘Why don’t you stop complaining and do something about it.’ She was right. It was like when you’re hysterical and someone slaps you in the face – just what I needed.
Worst diet I’ve ever done: having a full English breakfast for three meals a day with no carbs at all. I lost a lot of weight but put it all back on the minute I started eating normally again.
Avoids: sugar (see above) and alcohol. I haven’t had a drink for 27 years and not drinking alcohol helps me stay off sweets. I have friends doing Dry January and they are craving sugar like you wouldn’t believe – wine is full of sugar.
Carb count: I occasionally eat bread, but not much; usually a grainy sour dough. I don’t eat anything white except crumpets.
Sleep stats: about seven hours from 11.30 to 6.30am when I get up for the school run. Once my head hits the pillow, I’m out.
Health issues: if I didn’t have high cholesterol I would eat cheese all day – it’s on the upper end of what doctors think is acceptable but not so high for medication.
Medication: HRT. A couple of years ago, I hit menopause and thought: ‘Well, I work out a lot and I am into clean eating, I should be able to get through this without medication. But for about ten days in every month I was mad; putting the keys in the bin, my phone in the fridge. I couldn’t sleep and I was waking up drenched in sweat, having to put a towel on the bed, which made me feel like I was using drugs again. I put up with it for about a year then went on HRT. Overnight, my symptoms disappeared.
Davina’s fitness website ownyourgoalsdavina.com offers subscribers bespoke workout, nutrition and wellbeing plans.