How does someone who is considered a world expert on health and who has spent decades guinea pigging different approaches, really live?
Like a human, it would seem, if you base it on Michael Mosley, GP and host of SBS's Trust Me, I'm a Doctor series.
"I'm an absolute sugarholic," admits Mosley over coffee. "I've just had that cappuccino ... and I suppose that has two to three teaspoons of sugar in there."
Mosley, who is wary of food evangelism, keeps himself on a fairly tight leash, but concedes "there are moments of weakness".
"I'm rarely absolutist, so I think in the end you have to be human," he adds.
He says human fallibility is his rationale behind keeping chocolate out of the house. Or, if any chocolate is in the house, his wife has to hide it or literally lock it away.
"It's that bad," says Mosley, who ate dessert at a restaurant the night before our chat. "I find myself roaming around at 11 at night looking for it.
"I find the only way to stop myself is to put it in the bin and put dog poo on it or something like that. It is insane.
"The things you know and the things you do are completely different and that's why you have to create an environment where you can avoid it."
He notes that food studies have found if we put cereal on the bench - that is, in eyeshot or easily accessible, we are likely to eat it.
Mosley's "mostly" attitude towards avoiding sugar also extends to the 5:2 diet about which he wrote a bestselling book.
"I don't do 5:2 all the time, sometimes it's 6:1, I have lapses," says Mosley, who tried the diet when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which he has since reversed. He also lost 10 kilograms.
"I stand on the scales regularly ... if the belt is tightening then I do something about it. The evidence is quite strong that weighing yourself quite regularly is actually a good thing."
Keeping tabs on his belt is one trick, as is ensuring his weight never creeps above 78 kilograms.
"You have to have some simple rules and your simple rule might be 'I only eat chocolate cake once a week' or 'I always take the stairs'. You don't need to have elaborate rules – just a few rules," suggests Mosley, who is 1.79 centimetres tall and a fast-talking bundle of energy.
In fact, Mosley has a "mostly" approach to rules too.
"I try to do the things that I write about," he says. "I still do the HIIT – the five or so minutes of manic cycling and all the strength exercises – like push-ups. And I do broadly stick to the Mediterranean-style diet, which I passionately now believe is the way forward.
"I think the evidence on moderate amounts of alcohol is fine and so I'm doing that."
Taking a "mostly" approach has left the 59-year-old feeling healthier and fitter than he was a decade ago.
He says the one practice he'd like to do more of is meditation.
"I think it's brilliant, but there's something really weird about the fact that I still don't do it," he says. "I feel much better when I do it. There's a gap between the things you know and the things you do - I'm trying to narrow the gap."
The top three things Mosley has learnt from the latest series of Trust Me, I'm a Doctor
1. It reinforced the fact that the Mediterranean diet is good for you.
2. "Going for longer periods without food – we did a different variation on intermittent fasting - we did a study where you just delayed when you had breakfast and had dinner earlier and that lead to improvements. The thing I'm still yet to crack is sleep - I'm still an insomniac."
3. Dance or paint to prevent Alzheimer's or dementia. "Taking up a new hobby every 10 years [works]," he says. "One of the things we looked at and turned out to be really good was painting - going to a painting class - basically you stand up for long periods of time and there's also the hand-eye co-ordination."
"I've recently taken up a bit of ballroom dancing - I'm not good, but it's a combination of exercise, thinking and doing something completely new. That is one of the best things you can do - break out of your rut and do something you would never dream of doing every so often."
The new season of Michael Mosley: Trust Me, I'm A Doctor premieres on Monday, April 25, at 7.30pm on SBS
