Will Hall the actor
Will Hall is a 33-year-old actor. When filming a TV show, his work days are typically 11 hours long. All the TV crew’s food, including morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea is catered.
This food can be tempting, and as such during the first two seasons of Nothing Trivial, Will would "get stuck into the free food and over-indulge". This year he's on a health kick
and is following an eating programme which has cut his meals down to three a day and is strictly carb and dairy free. This has meant waving goodbye to morning and afternoon tea (usually sausage rolls). Would he describe his diet as typical of others in his profession? "I would say it's quite typical of actors to watch what they eat. The saying "the camera adds 10 pounds' seems to ring true and in TV the healthier you look the more work you're likely to get". Your image goes a long way to securing certain roles. I noticed this in particular when I worked on the show Spartacus which required its leads to look a certain way, so there were separate meal tables for actors and crew. The crew dined on hamburgers, fries, ice creamand brownies while the gladiators were on a strict diet of chicken breast and protein shakes.
7.30am B vitamin, chromium, magnesium supplements. Good green stuff drink and a berry and coconut cream protein shake. If I put lots of blueberries in this will get me through to lunch
10.30am Water and a black coffee. All the crew are eating carrots, I love carrots but can't have too many root vegetables on the plan — too many carbs.
12.30pm Pork belly, green peppers, mushrooms and mesclun salad. The plan I am on encourages fats to be consumed, so I dig in!
5.30pm Water and a green tea.
7.30pm Chicken stir-fry with vegetables and cabbage to substitute for noodles. I can't use sauces on the plan so substitute with avocado oil. It's awesome, even the cabbage tastes ok. I close my eyes and think of crispy noodles.
10pm Soda water. I love fizzy water and am the proud owner of a new bright red Soda stream.
Nadia Lim’s nutrition quick fix The question you should ask yourself is: can you sustain this eating pattern long term? It sounds like a very restrictive eating programme and I would err on the side of caution. Most eating plans often have some good features, however not everything they advise should be taken as gospel. In terms of carbohydrate intake, this diet is like the Atkins diet that restricts carbohydrate intake to 30g per day in order to establish ketosis (a state in which your body, in the absence of glucose from carbohydrates, turns to fat and protein metabolism to make glucose). Along with weight loss, common symptoms of ketosis include tiredness or fatigue, headaches and thirst, and it is not recommended as a long term dietary strategy. Instead of cutting out carbohydrates completely, I would revise your plan to cutting out (or limiting) highly processed carbohydrates and only having the "good carbs’' like fruit and whole grains. Think of all the nutritional goodies they contain that your body is missing out on.