Joe Wicks on the link between food and mental health

By Katie Wright

Two years on from the first UK lockdown, when PE With Joe got thousands of kids (and grown-ups) moving, Joe Wicks looks back on those four months with fondness.

“It was like my moment to shine – I had so much purpose, I was living my dream… It was really everything I’d dreamed of doing,” he says, chatting while ambling around a lake near his home in Surrey (“I thought rather than sit on the sofa eating a bag of Lindt balls, do it walking”).

The 20-minute workout videos, intended to help school children who were missing PE lessons to stay active, earned Wicks an MBE but the fitness expert – who gained a huge following after he started posting 15-second recipe videos online back in 2013, and has written multiple cookbooks since – says he started to struggle when the high began to fade.

“I mean, everyone suffered. For me it was delayed, because when we went into lockdown, I was straight to work,” he says. “It wasn’t until it all stopped and I processed it, [that I] felt quite sad.”

The 36-year-old is pleased many people – himself included – are now more open about their mental health as a result of the pandemic.

“I think it’s just become normalised now, [to recognise] that actually everyone has mental health. And some days you feel really, really happy, but on other days, for no reason at all, you don’t feel yourself. And it’s learning to have coping mechanisms to help that.”

Exercise is, of course, Wicks’ number one coping strategy when he’s in a funk, and he’s become more vocal in the last couple of years about the mental benefits of his trademark HIIT workouts.

“People came to me originally if they wanted to lose weight, or they want to change their body,” says the man known as The Body Coach on Instagram.

“But the thing that keeps them coming back is really their mood, their mental health, how exercise changes their relationships, and how they feel about themselves. [In the past] I think that I wouldn’t have had the confidence or the knowledge to share about mental health.”

That’s also why his latest book, Feel Good Food, highlights the link between diet and mood. It recommends seven building blocks for a healthy diet, including ‘eat more plants’ and ‘minimise ultra-processed foods’.

Sausage, Sweet Potato and Mustard Tray Bake

Serves 4

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes

2 red onions, peeled and cut into 6 wedges

2 sprigs of rosemary

2tbsp olive oil

8 pork sausages

500g Brussels sprouts, halved

For the dressing:

1tbsp wholegrain mustard

Juice of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, finely grated

Pinch of salt

Pinch of black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan.

Spread the sweet potatoes, red onions and rosemary over a large, rimmed baking tray. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss together to coat, then lay the sausages on top.

Bake for 20 minutes until the sweet potatoes are starting to soften. Remove from the oven and add the Brussels sprouts, using a metal spatula to mix them into the vegetables on the tray. Flip the sausages over and return the tray to the oven for a further 20–30 minutes until the vegetables are becoming golden and the sausages are browned.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a jam jar, screw on the lid and shake. Pour over the contents of the tray and serve.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Date Caramel

Makes 6

90g wholemeal plain flour

30g soft dark brown sugar or coconut sugar

25g ground almonds

½tsp baking powder

¼tsp bicarbonate of soda

½tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground ginger

⅛tsp ground clove

⅛tsp ground nutmeg

Pinch of salt

90g 0% fat Greek yoghurt

45ml water

1 egg

1½tbsp melted coconut oil

2tbsp crystallised ginger chunks, to decorate

For the date caramel

100g pitted dates

60ml milk or non-dairy milk

1tsp vanilla extract

Good pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line a standard muffin tin with six muffin cases.

Mix together the flour, sugar, ground almonds, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl or jug, combine the yoghurt, water, egg and coconut oil.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir together until just combined. Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin cases.

Bake for 20–25 minutes until lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, make the caramel. Place the dates into a small jug and cover with boiling water. Set aside for 15 minutes to soak.

Drain the dates and return to the jug, then add the milk, vanilla and salt. Blend until smooth with a hand blender, or in a food processor or free-standing blender.

Once you’re ready to serve the cupcakes, frost them with the date caramel and sprinkle on some of the crystallised ginger chunks for decoration.

Feel Good Food by Joe Wicks is available now