Treat your thoughts like nutrition. That’s the advice that Sharry Cramond is leaning into with her second self-help book, The Healthy Thinking Diet (WYL Publishing, £25).
The M&S marketing director – who bought back the iconic “This is not just food, this is M&S Food” tagline in 2018 after a 10-year hiatus – extols the virtues of applying the principles of healthy eating and a good diet to the way we think.
Making small, better choices adds up steadily over time, she points out, while one indulgent meal will not undo a week of otherwise healthy eating.
The book itself is set out as a journal, designed to be consumed (and completed) a chapter at a time over a 10-day period, a kind of nutrient-dense juice shot for the mind.
Is it rocket science? No. The idea that better habits and greater self-belief can be cultivated through conscious thinking and a positive mindset is hardly revolutionary. But what sets the book apart is Cramond’s voice, as anyone who has seen her in action will attest to.
In one passage, she insists she is “nothing special”, before describing growing up poor as her “superpower”. Honest, funny and refreshingly candid, Cramond makes personal growth feel achievable, while never pretending positive thinking alone is enough.
Success, she says, requires action, discipline and resilience. Or, as she puts it, you need to “act as if you’ve dyed your hair pink” – to do something bold enough for people to notice. It’s a philosophy that has clearly worked for her.
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