Celebrity fitness coach Joe Wicks adds passion for changing lives to new recipes

“I just feel it’s sad that people are getting sicker and sicker, and more and more unhealthy, and [the country] spends billions and billions at the other end of it; on heart disease, diabetes, obesity – it’s food, diet and exercise related,” he explains.

“If only we could just get some knowledge and education at the beginning to prevent all that stuff – it’s the answer to it all, you know, billions of pounds would be freed up to do other stuff. It’s all economics – I don’t understand the economics of it all, but I know I’ll do my bit to inspire people as much as I can.”

The Epsom-born, famously curly-haired personal trainer is, of course, best known as The Body Coach to his fitness disciples.

Three years ago, Wicks launched his subscription-based 90 Day Shift, Shape and Sustain Plan, and went, stratospherically, from sharing amateur recipe videos and free fitness workouts online, to helping thousands of people trim down and get fit for a living.

Full to the brim with charm, you can see his appeal – a combination of endless enthusiasm that pours out of him with every flick of hair, every inadvertent muscle flex, and a monumental work ethic.

That and the fact he’s not in the least bit starry, even sitting on a London rooftop terrace awaiting a ‘Joe-mito’ (a riff on his watermelon and mint “posh slush puppy”), at the launch party of his fourth cookbook, Cooking For Family And Friends.

He even excitedly, and non-ironically, Snapchats a selfie from in front of a bigger-than-life-sized poster of himself. Best to get it out of the way early in the night too – after all, he’s built his career through social media, but he still has rules: “I never do social media when I’m drunk, because I might think I’m being really funny, but am really saying the worst thing ever!”

Cooking For Family And Friends marks the halfway point in an eight-book deal for Wicks, and is a more inclusive follow-up to his wildly successful trio of Lean In 15 cookbooks (all three still grace the bestseller charts, and sales have topped 2.4 million).

This time around, he’s catering for busy dinner tables, rather than solo gym bunnies.

“You know how sometimes you feel like, if you’re on a diet, it’s just you on your own? I wanted you to think, well actually, you can have barbecues and parties and make them healthy,” he explains. “You can still batch cook and make your kids’ lunch.

“In fact, the whole family won’t even know it, but they’re eating healthier, so are going to get leaner, without anyone saying, ‘You’ve got to eat this, you’ve got to eat that’.”

The former boot camp trainer has, perhaps surprisingly, included a few treats too – namely his all-time “top desserts”, sticky toffee pudding and chocolate fondant. “Just because chocolate isn’t ‘clean’,” he says, fingers miming air quotes, “doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it and have it now and again.

“I’m not like, ‘Don’t eat this’, and, ‘Clean eating that’. Just enjoy your food! If you exercise, it works out, you know?” he says, adding with a cheeky-chappie grin firmly in place: “This is how I roll.”

Wicks admits no one person got him into cooking – “it was just myself really. My mum couldn’t cook very well,” – but in terms of becoming an entrepreneur, his ultimate hero is, without doubt, Jamie Oliver. Without taking a breath, he reels off his every encounter with the Naked Chef, the most recent being when the duo grabbed dinner together at Jamie’s restaurant Fifteen.

“We sat there for four hours on our own talking, and he’s just so generous with advice. He downloaded all this wisdom and knowledge and experience.

“He’s on a mission. I told him, ‘Mate, you work hard’,” says Wicks, visibly galvanised.

And, aside from transforming the NHS and writing another four books, what else is left on his own mission?

“The message is, no matter how old you are, you can exercise and feel good; you can take control of your body, you don’t have to starve yourself.

“I’m for everyone; fitness and food for everyone.”

Need a post-workout pick me up? The Body Coach shares a new recipe that will have you full of zing in no time Here’s how to whip up a stack of energy-boosting blueberry pancakes from Joe Wicks’s new cookbook, Cooking For Family And Friends ...

Blueberry pancakes (Makes 8) Ingredients 300g plain flour 35g vanilla protein powder 2tsp baking powder 1tbsp caster sugar 350ml milk 2 eggs 1-2tbsp coconut oil, for cooking 400g blueberries, plus extra for scattering To serve Zero-fat Greek yoghurt Maple syrup Method 1 Tip the flour into a bowl and add the protein powder, baking powder and sugar.

2 Measure out the milk, then crack the eggs straight into the measuring jug. Give the two ingredients a good whisk until well-combined. Gradually pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring or whisking as you go to avoid lumps. When all the liquid has been incorporated, give the mixture a final whisk until smooth.

3 Melt a little coconut oil in a good non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat. When it is hot, pour in one ladleful of the batter, which will spread out across the base of the pan to about 15cm wide and 1-1.5cm thick. Fry the pancake on the first side for three minutes, reducing the temperature a little if the pancake starts to burn.

4 While the pancake is cooking, scatter about one-eighth of the blueberries in a single layer over the uncooked surface of the pancake. They will be held in place by the raw batter.

5 Flip the pancake and cook for a further two to three minutes, again upping or reducing the heat as necessary – these pancakes are like most other pancakes in that the first one is often not the best. Remove the pancake to a plate and keep it warm while you repeat the process with the remaining batter and blueberries.

6 Serve up stacks of your pancakes with a few extra blueberries, Greek yoghurt and a cheeky drizzle of maple syrup.

Cooking For Family And Friends by Joe Wicks is published in hardback by Bluebird, priced £20. Available now.