In January M&S approached me to follow a meal plan devised by Olympic athlete Tom Daley, based around their huge Eat Well range.

For five days I followed the Eat Well plan and over the period I lost 2.5kg. You can read more about that week here.

M&S have now asked me if I would have another go- after my pretty successful first attempt, but this time I could choose exactly what I wanted to eat over seven days- so long as it displayed the famous Eat Well yellow Sunflower on the packaging, to see if I would get similar results.

In general, I tend to eat pretty healthily, and I try to track my calories so I don’t scupper my hard work in the gym.

During my January Eat Well plan- I didn’t need to cook hardly anything myself and used M&S’ pre-made meals for lunch and dinner most days.

This time, I decided to follow some recipes instead and so I filled my trolley with fresh fruit and veg and lots of healthy proteins and carbs- all flouting the trademark sunflower.

An M&S product only gets the Eat Well sunflower if it fulfils evidence-based nutritional criteria, in line with healthy-eating guidelines.

What did I eat?

For breakfast on training days I had the same thing most days- an omelette with Vitamin D enriched mushrooms, free range eggs, ham or smoked salmon and spinach.

For lunch I made salads. I saved time here using a pre-packed protein from the 3 for £7 deli offer having either turkey or chicken with a huge salad of yellow sunflower produce.

For dinner, I cooked from scratch- I followed the M&S nutritionist recipes for two meals, firstly the creamy salmon pasta, which was gorgeous and tasted like it wasn’t as healthy as it was.

I also made the coconut lentil dahl- but added king prawns for an extra protein hit. This was so simple and easily my favourite meal of the week.

You can find these recipes here.

I snacked on edamame beans, fresh strawberries and raspberries and I topped up my protein with yoghurts and coffee milk- a new high protein milk drink, which I poured over ice, every single day, an absolute treat!

I also made staple meals like Salmon fillet and new potatoes and beef and noodle stir fry and an entire roast dinner- I didn’t have Yorkshire pudding!

Conclusion:

Ive spent the last year, since lockdown number one- overhauling my diet, body and mind and so I didn’t want to weigh myself this time, as I wanted to focus more on the way my body felt eating exceptionally ‘clean’ coupled with a new way of training. I have found that I am physically pretty fit and stronger than I thought, however I think given the level of training I have been doing, had I have not eaten to this plan it would have been very easy to reach for sugar to keep me going.

The plan I chose was balanced, but definitely protein dense. I ate around 120g of protein a day which definitely aided my first week training recovery.

To eat this way isn’t entirely cheap, a punnet of strawberries costs more than an oven pizza- but that is typical of any superstore- however, if I was going to take all the ‘junk’ out of my meals then I wanted to eat the best quality produce I could find and I believe you find that in M&S.

I go to the gym at 5.45am and I only had an energy crash on one day- the day I had granola and yoghurt for breakfast rather than a protein-rich salmon, mushroom and egg omelette.

Eating this way is certainly sustainable- but maybe some Percy Pigs might sneak their way into my trolley after my 8-week program is complete.

I am not medically or nutritionally trained and all views are my own.

M&S are offering £1 off all Eat Well meals until May 10.

Tom Daleys meal plan