Mark Slight invited Anna onto his SUPERHERO COACHING SERIES to talk about Anna’s 5R’s approach to work through improving your own gut issues
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss
Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and
life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just
tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably
exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future
and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their
lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application
below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in
more detail.
“If you want to see how someone’s body will look in the future, look at how their mind is thinking today.”
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure or meeting a very special lady called Becki Houlston. We went for a coffee and we couldn’t stop talking!
I said to her: “I have to interview you!”
Because she has so much amazing knowledge and incredible insight into human behaviour, specifically in this video she talks about Emotional Armour and Safety Behaviours. I shared this with my Weight Loss clients a few weeks ago and there were some serious light bulbs moments.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss
Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and
life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just
tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably
exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future
and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their
lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application
below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in
more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss
Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and
life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just
tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably
exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future
and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their
lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application
below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in
more detail.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
This week is the last week of the stress series. We’ve looked at some science and I’ve shared with you some lifestyle solutions.
I would like to share a little bit on nutritional support.
I’ve already mentioned that I had lost my mojo a little earlier this week. This actually led me to doing an adrenal stress test (which measure stress hormones) myself.
I got the results on Saturday morning and I was quite surprise. Here they are:
I actually wasn’t expecting a high response. Typically we associate elevated cortisol with being wired. More of an energetic state of stress. I thought this result would have come back low due to the feelings of poor energy I was experiencing.
Interestingly, I have been seeing a lot of my clients coming back with a similar result.
The first step with any of this is to address lifestyle balance. If you read my previous email on mojo rehab, this is the stuff we are talking about.
There is also a lot of support that can be given by food choices, exercise choices and supplements as the cherry on top.
FOOD
It may not surprise you by now that the food choices help to balance stress are the SAME food choices, help with weight loss too.
To relieve stress induced by diet, balanced meals are a must.
It comes back to the simplicity of the food plate:
Eat 3 meals a day
Include lean protein with every meal
Slow releasing carbohydrates
Good fats (especially omega 3)
The following will NOT be supportive:
Skipping meals
Relying on coffee to fill you up
Eating meals high in sugar or low in proteins and fats
Under-eating or over-eating
All of the above have the ability to disrupt blood sugar and increase stress.
Calorie restriction can also be a stress on the body. This is why, when I work with women, I prefer to keep them in the sweet spot where their calories are as high as they can be and still lose weight. For most this is around 1700 to 2000 calories per day depending on size and exercise levels.
If you feel tired and stressed with low energy, checking your calorie intake may be a good place to start.
EXERCISE
Exercise has what we call a “hormetic effect” on the body.
Not exercising and moving your body won’t be good for health. However, too much exercise can actually be more damaging than too little.
In my coaching program I am working with women who are struggling just to get off the sofa, but also women who are chronically over-exercising in a (failed) attempt to shift excess weight.
We want a calorie “sweet spot” for weight loss and we also want an exercise “sweet spot”. Just enough to create the necessary physiological adaptations but not so much that the body is under undue stress.
If you are someone who is stressed but inactive. Adding in regular exercise should help you manage stress levels better.
If you are stress but already doing lots of exercise, stripping it back may have a beneficial effect.
Most women are afraid to drop back on exercise for fear of weight gain. I teach my clients how to balance their nutrition so that this doesn’t happen and the resultant effect is more than likely, weight loss!
SUPPLEMENTS
Before I talk about supplements I must say:
Please do not take this as medical advice, always check with your doctor or health care professional before starting a new supplement regime and supplements and medications can interact so if you are on any medications for stress and anxiety or depression, always work with someone who will check for any interactions.
When it comes to stress I am a major fan of herbal adaptogens. These are herbal products that can improve the connection between the brain and the adrenal glands or between stress hormones and the receptor.
When I work with my clients I prefer to run a test (as seen above) before making any recommendations.
If stress hormones are high, certain products may be more effective. If stress hormones are too low, often indicating burn out, other products may be beneficial.
Liquorice root and Holy Basil are my favourites for low cortisol
Ashwaganda, Rhodiola and Ginseng are my favourites for high cortisol
(please do not supplement without professional advice)
You can also up your intake of natural adaptogens by adding fresh herbs like Rosemary and Sage into your cooking.
You may also remember this diagram when we looked at stress, mood and comfort eating.
Other useful supplements in this case would be: (I’ve added food sources too)
omega 3, found in oily fish
vitamin D (as a side now, now is the best time of year to test your vitamin D, it should be at its highest after the summer. If it’s low or borderline low now, you definitely want to supplement over winter)
curcumin (found in turmeric)
vitamin E (found in high amounts in walnuts and walnut oil)
5HTP or Griffonia
Magnesium
Methylated B-Vitamins
More real food support can be found by eating cabbage family and onion family vegetables, green tea, chocolate (of course!) and red wine(in moderate amounts not the whole bottle!).
So in summary:
Consume a balance diet eating 3 balanced meals a day with protein and fats in each one
Eat enough calories, many women under-eat which is massively impacting health
Moderate exercise, not too much or too little
Lifestyle factors are more powerful than any pill but consider working with a practitioner that can recommend appropriate supplementation or include beneficial foods in your diet – who doesn’t love chocolate and red wine!?
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing it then this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
Every-day I am contacted by women who want to know how to lose weight quickly, effectively & keep it off!
It might be that the tricks that used to work before, just don’t work anymore. Perhaps you have done things many times before and are struggling to find something that sticks. Or, simply, you’ve lost the mojo and can’t face up to the whole process of losing weight for the millionth time!
Often women describe to me what is known as paralysis by analysis. There is so much diet information out there and it all gets so complicated and confusing.
How do you know what you should be doing, what applies to you & what doesn’t?
Then once you start down a path you start to second guessing yourself and wonder if you should be adding in more cardio, buying those special shakes that so and so is drinking, or maybe you need to give up gluten?
I’d like to let you know a little secret.
A secret that will make your life, and weight loss, so much easier.
A secret that will stop you second guess yourself and wondering if you are doing it right or why you aren’t getting results.
Tip Number 1
You may have heard some of the tips for losing weight, I’ll list some as an example: go paleo, don’t eat any carbs, no carbs after 6pm, quit sugar, give up gluten, eat some cereal I cannot mention ending in a K, Take X,Y & Z meal replacement shakes and bars sold by X, Y & Z company, do a juice fast and the list could go on.
The reason why most of this advice becomes confusing is because it problem with most of this advice is that it lacks context.
But I will tell you why ALL of this couldwork.
Adopting any of some of the above habits will most likely result in a consistent calorie deficit meaning that you are eating less than you are expending and for the most part, this results in weight loss.
Basic weight loss tip number 1: Consistent calorie deficits cause weight loss. (obvious and effective)
The good news is you don’t have to give up gluten, quit sugar, go paleo or purchase special products to eat less calories than you expend. Anyone, on any budget can do this and when it’s done with consistency, the end result is usually a positive one.
I do need to add here that there is a sweet spot. Eating a LOT less than you expend in the long term slows down metabolism.
I prefer the women that I work with to be losing weight a little slower but keeping calories higher to support healthy metabolism. This usually looks like somewhere between 1700 and 2000 calories a day if they are modestly exercising.
None of these women dropped their calories below 1700, most of them not below 1800.
Eating in such a way and applying consistency is the first step for success. I recommend my clients track there food intake using a free app called My Fitness Pal.
Tip Number 2
So that’s the first tip. Simple, free and anyone can do it. So that brings us to tip two.
Let’s talk carbs.
Carbs are a commonly demonised macronutrient (fat was the old scape goat).
I have had clients say to me they have been advised that if they want to lose weight they must not eat ANY carbs, not even fruit!
I have to tell you something to be truly honest.
I used to dish out this advice too!
From experience on myself and 100’s of clients I would say that 99% of the time this is just NOT true!
Provided you follow tip 1, keeping a moderate amount of carbohydrate in your diet will actually help you lose weight as well as…
Encourage a healthy metabolism
Help you feel full and satiated
Stave off cravings and binges
Support healthy and happy hormones
Help you sleep better
Feel less stressed
Encourage better mood
(if you like exercise) optimise performance and recovery too
What IS important is the balance within the diet when you look at your carbohydrate intake relative to proteins and fats. Aiming for about 1/3 of calories from each is a simple way to start. You can track this all in My Fitness Pal but if you are not into all of that, just focussing on 3 or 4 meals a day which have a protein portion, carb portion, some vegetables and a little fat will probably be all you have to do.
Check out the Anna Marsh Food Plate as an example.
So if we combine tip 1 and 2 together it looks like this:
Consistently* eat between 1700 and 2000 calories per day and have a balanced amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
I know this may sound like common sense and you are wondering why you even need to read this. But this stuff works. I use it with all my clients.
Where most people go wrong with this is they are NOT consistent. Consistency produces results. End of.
Tip 3 is the final piece of the puzzle, exercise!
Exercise is a whole other minefield of confusing advice.
Should I be lifting weights? Should I be doing high intensity intervals? What about fasted cardio? I hate running, do I have to run?
One of the most important things I want to communicate to you is that basic principles work and they work well. My goal when I work with my clients is to keep things as simple as possible for as long as possible.
That said, the further along you get on your weight loss journey, you will need to change your approach. Plateaus are an inevitable part of the process and to be expected.
Your body will respond differently at 200 pounds when you aren’t exercising and you are eating badly compared to when you are 160 pounds and have developed habits of regular exercise and balanced eating.
For the most part I will say this, whatever exercise you choose to do, you will see the most bang for your buck by paying attention to the nutrition principles in 1 and 2.
The most difficult thing for most people is to be consistent.
Therefore, if you are choosing an exercise regime, choose one that you enjoy the most and is the most convenient for you. This will be your best bet to actually sticking to it!
If I could give you one additional tip it would be to be flexible with the intensities at which you move. Never exercising hard enough will let you down just as much as exercising too hard all the time!
Once a week push yourself hard, maybe twice a week do something moderate and maybe just walk and move your body a little bit every day to keep the blood flowing.
This is what I would consider to be a sensible workout schedule for someone who is starting their weight loss journey.
MON
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
SUN
40-60 minutes
Whole Body Resistance Workout
30-40 minutes
Steady State Cardio (where you can talk easily)
Active rest day including walking, gardening, playing with the kids
40-60 minutes
Whole Body Resistance Workout
30-40 minutes
Steady State Cardio (where you can talk easily)
Active rest day including walking, gardening, playing with the kids
Active rest day including walking, gardening, playing with the kids
Bonus Tip (last but super important!)
I cannot leave you without saying one more thing.
Life is busy and most people live life at a fast pace.
Too fast.
The biggest road block for most people aiming to create sustainable change is time management and stress.
That is why I wanted to keep things simple.
However, do not underestimate the power of taking a step back and “decluttering” your life BEFORE you start making any drastic changes to your diet and exercise regime.
I see many of the women I work with throwing themselves into huge amounts of exercise and small amounts of food and not getting anywhere because they are so burntout with that and all their other commitments.
So take a moment to ground yourself and carve out the space in your life to commit to changing your habits. I’m not saying wait for the perfect time because you’ll be waiting a long time.
What I am saying is make the choice to make the space.
Then take one habit at a time and do it well. When it feels good to add the next thing, add it in and do it consistently.
If you want more help and more direction on your weight loss journey and would like to consider if weight loss mentoring is right for you then help and support is moments away.
I run a small Online Women’s Weight Loss Program that offer a personalised nutrition and exercise support to produce life changing and life-lasting results.
If you want to give up the guessing game and have someone just tell you what to do and hold you accountable to actually doing itthen this is probably exactly what you have been waiting for.
Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice. Now you have a moment where you can choose to take a step towards a very different future and join the community of like minded women who are not just losing weight, but transforming their lives, filling them with happiness and health.
To find out more about how my coaching program can help you, please fill out the application below to book a complimentary breakthrough call and find out out about working with me in more detail.
October is Stress Management Month at Anna Marsh Nutrition HQ (HQ being me sitting at my dining room table, typing up this post).
Over the past 3 post I’ve addressed some of the ways in which stress affects us. I wanted you to understand some of the background sciency stuff first. I know that the sciency stuff isn’t sexy, but it’s so empowering to understand and I’ve tried to keep it simple.
If you’ve missed it, Everything is up on the blog so you can catch up.
I think I’ve painted enough of a doom and gloom picture of how modern day living is impacting our health, weight, mood, hormones, skin, digestion etc etc.
Now it’s time to look at solutions! (finally!)
Last year I attended a Functional Medicine Conference in Chicago. One of my favourite quotes from the whole 6 days was…
Currently, we have such a warped perception of what balance looks like.
I’ve had two conversations with two different clients recently. Both have said “But I’m not stressed” then we have tested their stress hormones and found otherwise!
Almost a year ago to the day I sent an email out telling the story of one of my close friends to communicate this point.
I was in South Africa this time last year for a good friends wedding. I met up with one of my oldest friends and one evening we hiked up Lions Head in Cape Town.
We were walking and talking and she shared with me that earlier that year she’d had a break down. She was suffering from insomnia and was eventually hospitalised and had a coma induced for 3 days.
She had moved to Cape Town to get away from her stressful life in Johannesburg after being caught in the crossfire of a road rage incident.
Although the move was a positive one, moving home, cities and adjusting to a new job without her normal support network was another stress to add to the pile and she was potentially also suffering from PTSD after the incident in Joburg.
It all came to a head when she collapsed and was fortunate enough to be given 3 months off work to heal.
Although it sounds traumatic, and it was, she describes it as a blessing in disguise because it made her realised what was important.
It’s not normal to stare at the ceiling, unable to sleep at night and then head to work like a zombie on 1-2 hours of shut eye.
It’s not normal to feel like you have been hit by a bus after a good nights sleep.
It’s not normal to struggle to get out of bed in the morning.
It’s not normal to ache all over and live with brain fog, or low mood, or digestive complaints, or imbalanced hormones.
These are all complaints of imbalance. And remember this…
What I’d like to give you today is a tool to evaluate where you are at right now. The same tool can be used to start to strip things back.
This is something that I teach my clients, it’s called Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Balance.
These are the two parts of the nervous system. Parasympathetic is for resting and recovering. Sympathetic is responsible for a stressed state.
Get a pen and paper and what we are going to do is write down how many hours of the day you spend in each parts of the nervous system.
When we consider there are 24 hours in the day, “balance” would equate to 12 hours in each.
So write down everything you do each day.
Sympathetic Activities include:
commuting
driving
exercising
working
eating
watching TV (particularly violent or disturbing programs/imagery)
cooking
cleaning
social engagements
drinking coffee etc.
Parasympathetic Activities include:
sleep
spending time outdoors in nature
yoga (not too dynamic)
meditation
cuddling
stroking your pets
lying in bed and reading a book
playing a musical instrument or listening to relaxing music
massage
acupuncture
taking a hot bath
journaling
giving gratitude etc.
How much time do you spend in each?
How far out of balance are you?
If you live your life like many other people you are probably “on” from the moment you wake up in the morning, until your get into bed at night (and even then you might scroll on your tablet or phone for a bit).
Depending on what time you wake and sleep that could be 17 hours of the day give or take.
The goal in this case is not to aim to change so many things that you have a 12/12 split tomorrow (this in itself will create stress).
Instead, start 15, 20, 30 minutes at a time and claim back small pieces of your parasympathetic life.
Here are some ideas:
Download headspace – the free meditation app – start with 10 minutes a day
Get into bed at night and read something relaxing instead of the news or social media
Aim to get to sleep 30 minutes earlier
Start a yoga class
Learn to breathe
Take 15 minutes outside at lunch time
Avoid turning the TV on a few evenings a week and have a hot bath instead (as a bonus, add epsom salts to your bath – the magnesium can be very beneficial for stress)
These are but small changes, but small changes over time can make a big difference.
After all, a change is the solution and a small change can make a big difference.
Start now, where you are, with what you have.
More help to follow in the next post.
Ladies that Lift is my Weight Loss Coaching Program exclusively for women who are interested in making sustainable changes in their lifestyle to see sustainable changes in their weight, health and happiness. We focus on all aspects of life, not just counting calories. If you would like to know more and be part of this part (and achieve results like the women below, that actually last!), then please click the image below.
So the past 2 emails have been a little “information heavy”. Embrace it.
I really feel in this day and age where most doctors appointments last 7 minutes and no one has the time to fully take everything into consideration, that you have to take responsibility for your own health.
Take the time to learn about the body, how it works and invest in your health now to create a healthy future.
Not ride it out until something goes really wrong – because I can guarantee that by the time this happens, it’s been going wrong for years, decades even, you just didn’t notice until now.
So I digress.
Get your thinking caps on and your reading glasses out.
A notebook if you will and a decent pen 😉
I think you will find this one REALLY interesting!
Let’s talk about winding up!
In the previous two posts you would have learned that…
1) modern lifestyles create a continuous activation of the brain to adrenal gland connection causing an elevated and continuous output of stress hormones
2) Modern stressors contrast to “evolutionary stressors” because they are unresolved. They are always there. They never stop.
Evolutionary stressors would include; hunger, thirst, danger, infection, heat or cold.
You resolve the stress or you die. For example…
If you are hungry, you find food, you eat, stress resolved.
If you have to flee a wild beast, you flee or fight, the stress is resolved.
If you get an infection, you immune system kicks in, you resolve the infection or you die of it.
If you are cold, you find materials to build a fire or you die of hypothermia.
Because this is all coming back to weight loss, let’s look at food.
You feel hungry because there is lack of energy to the brain.
The change is brain energy causes the hypothalamus (area in the brain), to stimulate hormones which ask the adrenal glands to produce stress hormones.
Stress hormones mobilise energy and create alertness so that we are energised and mentally aware to find food. This would have been essential to survival.
Have you ever noticed that when you feel really hungry you can hear someone opening a chocolate wrapper across the room?
You can walk past a bakery and the bread smells 10 times as good?
You probably also notice that you start to fidget and you wouldn’t be able to just sit still and relax.
All these heightened senses are normal behaviours created by a substance called glutamate, which when elevated in small amounts, creates alertness, to help respond to the stress of starvation.
Once we find food and eat it, we get a serotonin and dopamine response.
Glutamate is converted to neurtransmitter known as GABA.
GABA is a calming neurotransmitter which tells the brain “we’re all good now, you can switch those stress hormones off”
It is serotonin, dopamine and GABA which create resolution.
Lack of energy in the brain switches the stress system on.
Neurotransmitters switch the stress system off.
Problem = hunger
Solution = food
Neurotransmitters signal the resolution.
Simples.
Except not anymore.
Today when we eat something, we are still worrying about our boss at work, the children fighting, what so and so said to so and so and whether or not we’ll make our mortgage payments.
Which means we don’t get that nice serotonin, dopamine, GABA switch off.
So you can imagine if this system is going on and on… and on and on… and on and on… day after day, month after month, year after year…
Somethings got to give!
We exist in a constant state of “searching”.
Except we aren’t searching for food…
Yet sometimes, we think we are.
As demonstrated by binge and disordered eating or “food addictions”.
This is all about searching for large amounts of sugar and processed food to create that dopamine, GABA and serotonin hit.
Others may turn to addictions, drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, shopping, become workaholics or suffer social media addiction.
Even one you wouldn’t think of immediately – exercise addiction.
When I meet someone who tell me they exercise every day for 2 hours, or enter multiple ultra-distance events per year (like iron man or ultra-marathons).
The first thing that I ask myself is;
“I wonder what are you really searching for?”
The final piece of this puzzle comes back to the other two neurotransmitters, serotonin and GABA.
Most people, especially those on SSRI’s are familiar with serotonin. It’s the happy hormone.
Low levels of GABA is associated with anxiety.
The viscous cycle of unresolved stress
If you are running your stress pathways with a flat foot all day long, these guys are going to burn out!
So can you see the link now between stress, anxiety, depression and addictive and destructive behaviours.
I hope you can.
Now, I don’t want to make this all doom and gloom but I am conscious of throwing too much at you at once.
In the next post I will be looking at solutions and resolutions.
For today, become aware.
If you want to get a handle on your food…
If you want to resolve other behaviours that are negatively impacting your life…
If you want to feel happier and less anxious…
It starts with you and it starts with how you manage your life and your thoughts so it becomes a less stressful place to be.
Thank you for staying tuned.
PS. If you want help losing weight, but most importantly rebalancing your lifestyle to find results that actually last (like these women did below), then feel free to apply for a Complimentary Breakthrough Call to discover if Weight Loss Mentoring is the right approach for you.
Firstly, I know I am a bit delayed on getting the second part of this series out.
The way that stress affects our body, our behaviour, our food choices and of course weight, is so complex and yet so simple at the same time.
It’s simple because all you really need to know is that chronic stress is most likely underlying in many of the things you are struggling with at the moment.
Your weight, your energy, your food choices, your mood, your digestion, skin, hair, nails, sleep, hormones etc. etc.
It’s complex because I think that most people probably know this. They just don’t know the why.
And sometimes we need to and want to understand the why so that we feel motivated to managed and create change.
So today is a little bit more of the why.
If you saw my previous post on Is Stress Your Metabolic Road Block? (If you didn’t head over the previous blog post), you should hopefully know now that modern living creates an unresolved stimulation of the brain-adrenal connection, stimulating stress hormone production.
I want to come back to this term “unresolved“.
It is one of THE most important terms I use to contextualise what is going on with people.
When there is a problem be it weight, sleep, mood, hormonal imbalances, digestive complaints, poor energy, foggy brain, skin issues or anything else someone would come and see me for…
the problem is always the same problem…
Something unresolved.
Now that might seem like a silly thing to say.
Of course the problem is something unresolved. It’s a problem, therefore it isn’t resolved.
The symptoms are not the problem they are a failed solution.
An attempt to create resolution that was not successful.
If it was successful there would no longer be any symptoms.
Now I know this is getting confusing so let me explain further (stay with me, I want you to get this!).
EXAMPLE:
Being overweight is a symptom of insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance, if you read my previous series on weight loss, is when we can’t get energy into cells to be burned up, so we store energy in our fat cells instead.
Insulin resistance is an attempt to resolve a problem.
One can be insulin resistance for many reasons.
Perhaps you have an infection in your gut and your immune system wants to prioritise energy resources towards itself to fight the infection.
Perhaps you are over-consuming calories and your body wants to store excess in the form of fat for times of famine (because traditionally, starvation was a real threat to survival)
Perhaps you are in a state of high stress and your body wants to keep energy for a fight or flight response.
So can you see how something happens (a stress – infection, food, perceived danger) and your body creates a change to cope with that thing.
The change in this example is insulin resistance.
The symptoms is weight gain.
The problem was a stress.
The insulin resistance was created to overcome the stressor.
It was the solution to the problem.
And… if the problem doesn’t go away (because we are bathed in a life of chronic stress).
We have an unresolved symptom to due an unresolved problem.
I hope I haven’t completely confused you now!
I wrote this on my Facebook page a week or so ago. I think it fits in well here today.
So this is what I want you to “get” from today’s message.
All your “complaints” are likely to come down to stress.
The continuous pressures of our daily lives have a “winding up” effect.
I feel like I have given you enough to think about today, so I will explain the “winding up” effect next time.
I’ll also be giving you some tools to evaluate your life and what you can do about it, because, ultimately, this is your responsibility.
Only you can manage your life.
Yes, there might be things going on at the moment that aren’t pleasant, you don’t know how to deal with and you may be wondering how you can cope.
From experience, most of the things that people worry about don’t happen.
It’s the things that we never thought would happen that blindside us, and we cope.
Everytime.
Because what does it mean not to cope. As long as you are alive and breathing, you are coping just fine.
We cannot change some things in our life immediately, but when we change the way we think about the things in our life, the things in our life change.
I’ll leave you with that thought today.
More pieces of the puzzle to follow I promise.
If you feel totally confused, stick with it. It will all come together and you may need to read these emails a few times (think of all the calories you will burn doing so!).
PS. If you want help losing weight, but most importantly rebalancing your lifestyle to find results that actually last (like these women did below), then feel free to apply for a Complimentary Breakthrough Call to discover if Weight Loss Mentoring is the right approach for you.
I see with almost 90% of my clients that stress is a massive road block to their weight, health and fitness related goals.
Normally when my clients start to eat in a way that isn’t helpful in the context with their goals, miss workouts or disengage from what they want to achieve, 9 times out of 10, it’s down to some sort of stress.
Stress impacts our weight in many ways:
>> The physiological impact that changes our metabolism which may affect weight and hunger
>> The psychological impact that drives our behaviour and makes it harder to make the best choices
I’d like to cover these broad areas across the month to help you understand why stress is the biggest thing to get a handle on if you want a healthier life.
I’ll also be sharing with you what you can do about it.
So I will unfortunately start with some of the sciency stuff.
I’ll aim to keep it simple, although I can’t promise 😉
I’d encourage you to persevere and do you best to process the information and understand it.
FYI – we live in a world where information comes at us instantly and we seldom actually have to use our brains. Believe it or not, this is something that is influencing your weight!
Did you know that professional chess players burn up to 6000 calories (the equivalent of running 3 marathons) per day, due to the amount of glucose used by the brain.
When we direct energy towards the brain by actually trying to use it, we pull it away from the immune system and this actually something that can help with weight loss, because weight gain is actually immunological!
So you are losing weight just by reading this email
Let the science begin!
This is an adrenal stress test (a saliva test that tests stress hormone output)
The adrenal glands are the glands in the body that produce your stress hormone, cortisol.
Cortisol is an essential hormone that we release every day. It should be highest in the morning because it is associated with being alert and mobilising energy. It is lowest in the evening because you don’t want to be alert when you are trying to sleep.
The ideal rhythm of the cortisol is shown by the green in the graph.
You can see in this case, the person who took this test (me!) was not producing enough cortisol during the day.
More on that later.
What I want you to know about cortisol for today is that it is responsible for mobilising fat stores.
So healthy cortisol function is essential for weight loss!
So what would make cortisol function unhealthy of imbalanced?
Long term stress.
Short term stress may induce a peak in cortisol (as seen below)
This is normal and healthy physiology.
In previous times short term stress would have been…
>> Hunger
>> Cold
>> Heat
>> Thirst
>> Attack from a wild animal
>> Conflict with another tribe
>> Infection
The cortisol response would initiate the energy to overcome the stress – search for food, find water, fight and infection, deal with a threat.
Then physiology would return to normal.
The problem we have in modern times is that traditional stressors are no longer relevant…
>> we have an abundance of food available all the time
>> we drink continuously throughout the day
>> we control our temperature with heating or air conditioning
>> we have no threat from wild animals
>> we have medications to deal with infections
The stressors of modern day live are continuous and unresolved…
>> we continuously worry about things that haven’t happened yet
>> we have financial stress
>> we have the stress of over-feeding
>> we have the stress of over-drinking
>> we have stress of modern day toxins
>> we have work/relationship stress which mostly exists inbetween our own ears
The continuous nature of modern day stress results in a continuous activation of what is known as the HPA-axis.
The Hypothalamic-Pituitary (parts of the brain) – Adrenal (gland releasing cortisol) – Axis
This is the connection between the brain and the adrenal glands which then cause the release of stress hormones.
What is also important to note is that a stressed state is a state where we predominantly burn sugars AND NOT FATS.
This means that if you are carrying extra weight, you won’t be able to burn it in a state of stress.
You will burn sugars that are available and once you’ve got through those, you’ll start to break down proteins.
This means muscles and organs (like the gut lining – causing digestive problems).
The loss of lean tissues, slows metabolism and creates this…
This is actually a diagram of someone with Cushings Syndrome. An autoimmune condition resulting in a hyper-reactivity of the HPA-axis resulting in a large amount of stress hormones being produced.
I love this picture because it is a fantastic graphic presentation of what chronic stress does to the body.
Thinning limbs with fat accumulating around the belly, not to mention hair loss, disrupted hormones, problems with bones, problems with energy, muscle aches and pains, inflammatory conditions and the list goes on and on…
So that is all I want you to get from today.
Modern life = chronic activation of the stress pathways = loss of ability to burn fat and disruption of many metabolic pathways.More to follow in the post…
PS. If you want help losing weight, but most importantly rebalancing your lifestyle to find results that actually last (like these women did below), then feel free to apply for a Complimentary Breakthrough Call to discover if Weight Loss Mentoring is the right approach for you.
It’s been a very busy few weeks in the Anna Marsh Nutrition / Ladies that Lift household. There is just a lot going on.
>> I’m working on an exciting new project or actually, couple of projects – all the be revealed soon!
>> There is the continuous day to day work of coaching clients, admin & marketing that comes with my current business
>> I’ll be running my first ever retreat in Tuscany in 10 days time with 10 amazing women who I can’t wait to meet. It has been fully booked since April so if you’d like to attend one of my retreats then keep an eye out for next year.
>> and finally, I travelled to London this weekend to attend a one day training workshop on body image. (I also did a little shopping in Anthropologie – see picture above – with a gift voucher given to me by my clients as a wedding gift – Thank You Ladies as I know many of you will read this! x)
I must admit, I didn’t quite know what to expect from the workshop. I was worried the information might be a bit old fashioned and not relevant to my client base. I don’t know why I created this story that it was potentially going to be a negative experience but all I can say is…
MIND BLOWN!
What an amazing day with so many insights into the mindset behind dieting and weight loss.
There were so many takeaways from the day and I intend to use what I have learnt as part of abody image workshop on my upcoming retreat. It goes above and beyond the scope of a mere email to communicate these learnings to you, but I’d like to share with you a simple gem from the day and maybe another one in a future email…
Don’t let a 5 year old run your life
Within us we all have a parent, a child and an adult. We can be any one of these at any given time although perhaps we may tend towards being more one than the other or, certain situations, or the people who we are with, may influence which one we choose to be.
A good give away to which one we are is the language we use.
I experience this in coaching.
Sometimes I coach women who are “adult”, they use empowering language, they are high vibe and are ready to learn from me but also keen to work things out for themselves and take responsibility for their actions.
A while ago I was really struggling with a few clients and I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong or what I could be doing better to help that person/persons.
I was talking about these challenges with a mentor on a recent Mastermind event I attended. The mentor was actually Mike Savage, one of Tony Robbins team and therefore, probably one of the best coaches in the world!
He said:
“If you ever feel like it is very draining to coach someone, then you are not coaching their higher-self, you are coaching their child. That person, might need to the tools to move from child to adult”.
It completely made sense to me.
We all speak to ourselves every day. In fact, we talk to ourselves more so than anyone else!
How often do you say “I must”, “I should”, “I’ll try”, “I could”, “I ought to…”
Instead off…
“I’d love to…”, “I will”, “I’d really enjoy it if…”
When you use the former terms, you could be talking to yourself in the toddler brain and oftenthe toddler brain might have a different desire to the adult brain.
It’s like your toddler brain is the brain that wants to binge on the chocolate bars when the adult or parent brain would like to lose 10lbs and fit into a bikini.
I also think it’s the toddler brain talking when I get those all too familiar complaints like; it’s too hard, it’s so much work, it takes so much time, I just want to go out and have fun with my friends and not worry about food.
Imagine the toddler who throws a strop at the supermarket because he or she wanted a chocolate bar or an ice cream or a bag of crisps.
Is it possible that your brain does the same thing?
There is nothing wrong with having a toddler brain, children are a lot more carefree and naturally open to fun. This is an element that we all probably would love to have more of in our life.
But what happens if we let our toddler brain make important decisions about food, health and our lives.
We might not get the best possible outcome.
If we allow the adult to take over we get;
It’s tough, but I can do this!
It will take time and effort, but it is worth it!
I can still go out with my friends and have fun as well as reach my health and weight loss goals. I will make a plan to make it work.
So the take away from this is – listen to your language. Not just the things you say to yourself, but how you choose to say it.
That’s all from me today, I hope you have a fabulous week ahead.
PS. If you are interested in working with myself and receiving coaching to accelerate your health and weight loss goals AND create sustainable change – find out more about what I offer and what I do HERE.
One of the questions I often get asked is “how do I lose weight off my legs?”. My top half is leaning off but I always feel that my legs are getting left behind.
To be honest, this is a question I find rather difficult to actually answer. My legs have been the body part that I have battled with most of my life.
Cellulite…
According to my memory, I have had cellulite even before I hit puberty and I still have cellulite today. I was overweight as a younger child and I remember looking enviously at the other girls in my class at school with their petite ankles and nicely shaped calves.
And then…
Last week Friday it was a beautiful day. I’d had enough of work for the day, my head was ready to explode, so I decided to shut down my laptop and head down to the beach for a late afternoon walk. I was walking along the beach looking down to avoid looking into the sun and it suddenly occurred to me…
I don’t dislike my legs anymore, in fact I quite like them!
I will never have fine ankles (thanks mom!), I will always have cellulite on my bum, but they are strong, they are shapely and, to me, it doesn’t matter what size they are, but that they look this way.
I will be honest and say the legs I have today, are not the same legs I had 5 years ago and they are probably not the legs I had 5 years before that. They may not even be the same legs I will have in 5 years time… but I think I know what works for me so that I can continue to love them.
My Oestrogen Body Type
In 2010 I went to Sweden to attend a Biosignature Conference by Charles Poliquin. His assistants measured everyone’s body fat using skin folds in front of the entire class!
Slightly embarrassing when the measurement of the skin sitting just under your bum is called out in front of a whole group of people and later projected on the screen at the front of the room!
Anyway, if you go by the whole Biosignature thing, higher skinfolds on your legs are associated with higher levels of oestrogen.
Biosignature or not, this is called a gynoid body type – pear shaped as opposed to android which is apple shaped – and this body type is associated with increased risk for hormone-related-cancers which are typically oestrogen driven due to oestrogen being associated with growth (e.g. tumour growth).
I definitely do have symptoms associated with higher levels of oestrogen. If you had asked me this before I moved to London in 2008 I don’t know if I would have been able to answer this. Not because I didn’t, but probably because I was less aware.
But now that you mention it, I did have a benign breast lump aspirated when I was only 15.
How our genes express themselves in dependent on the environment in which we bath them.
When I moved to London in 2008 I was hauled head first into an environment which did not suit my genes and by the end of the year I was hospitalised for a laparoscopy to investigated endometriosis – which fortunately came back negative – because of my extreme symptoms come that time of the month.
I still do suffer with monthly symptoms but I have brought these under control using the advice I gave in this video.
Last year I did genetic testing with 23andme and it did reveal a few polymorphisms in the gene’s associated with metabolising oestrogen. This would mean that I don’t necessarily breakdown oestrogen that well and this would make sense in terms of my “gynoid” body type.
The point of all of this background information is to say these are what my genes are doing. Yes genes interact with the environment and I’ve done a lot to improve the environment with food, lifestyle and supplements, but I am never going to have flawless legs. I CAN make a difference to the shape and tone of my legs and if I can (with my genes!) so can you.
These are some things that I do/have done which really help
Resistance training
I train my legs currently 2 times a week, I also use my legs when I do some sprints, yoga and running but even when I’m not doing these things 2 times a week does the trick. This is usually focussing one session on squats, lunges and more quad dominant movements and a second session on glutes, hamstrings and posterior chain.
I don’t mess about, I lift heavy and I push myself. I have a love hate relationship with split squats and I would definitely say that adding split squats as well as some isolation and activation work into my weekly training has made a big difference in the shape of my legs
Eat all the food
Everyone is different and will be at a different stage in their health and fitness journey. I am a massive believer in personalisation. What works for me will not be the exact thing that will work for you, you may need a tailored version or something completely different.I don’t know, it depends where you are at. For me, if I train my legs hard I need to eat.
On these days I will mostly eat an excess of 2000+ calories and 200g+ carbs. Your numbers might be different but if you want to build shape, you will need the building blocks. Low carbs and low cals probably won’t cut it.
Not to mention that restrictive diets increase adrenal stress which can drive oestrogen up (or at least the relative balance between progesterone and oestrogen creating what is known as oestrogen dominance).
Moisturise
I have naturally dry skin. I always have. I’ve noticed in the past couple of years that my skin gets even more dry than what it used to. I’m not sure if it’s an age thing or a sun damage thing but it was becoming a problem.
I’m quite picky about what I put on my skin. Because of the whole oestrogen thing I prefer natural skincare products without parabens or phthalates (chemicals which can look like oestrogen to the body). That said, I am also a little lazy with these kind of self-care practises – I’m not really a make-up done, hair styled, toes painted kind of girl! Lately however, I’ve been working on increasing my patience with it and 2-3 times a week I exfoliate and then do a deep moisturising session using bio-oil.
Speaking of which…. Exfoliate
This has been a life long habit of mine. I use exfoliating gloves several times a week to get rid of dead skin and improve circulation and blood flow.
Eat foods that support detoxification of oestrogen
There are plenty to mention but important ones include
Oestrogen is detoxified an excreted via our bowels. Therefore, you want to make sure you not only have the tools to detoxify oestrogen but you also want to make sure you eliminate it from the body in a timely manner. Fermented foods and a good diet with plenty of fresh foods make sure my digestive system works well.
Manage stress
My life is a continuous journey of stress management. I think everyone’s is. I don’t think we can ever be totally free of stress but we can accept responsibility for the things we can change – I’ve changed many things from where and with whom I live, the relationships I have been in, the way I run my business to who I will or will not spend time with – and change our thoughts to the things which create stress – this is much harder to do!
Stress affects the body in so many ways which I won’t go into the details of here, there will be another blog for that… BUT… what you do need to know is that stress will impact you hormones and your weight.
A little bit of self love…
Self love and compassion is something I aim to teach my clients. It’s not an easy thing to do. However unhelpful it is to berate ourselves, changing this doesn’t come easy as it is often the case of shifting behaviours built over a life time.
I am a MASSIVE fan of giving gratitude. I give gratitude for the amazing things I have in my life and I also have gratitude for the amazing things my body can do (however it looks!).
I love feeling strong.
I love being strong and it is not something I want to sacrifice anytime soon.
I don’t want to be limited in life by being too weak or too unfit. I like my body to be as ready as it can be for anything. So far, it’s serving me well, because I treat it well and I will continue to appreciate this symbiotic relationship we have.
If you follow me regularly on social media you will know that it is not often I would post a picture like this.
It’s not the best set of abs you will see on Instagram and also, posting these sorts of pictures is not what I’m really about.
It does seem to get attention though and you are #winningatinstagram if you can post pictures like this (or better) all the time. I took and posted this picture today because I wanted to say something about this picture…
This pictures is of me (obviously).
It’s my body.
My body hasn’t always looked like this. It won’t always look like this. But it’s what it looks like now.
The most important thing to know about this body is that I’m NOT on a diet.
I’m NOT beating myself up in the gym either.
I’m not trading food for exercise.
e.g. if I eat this it’s okay because I’ll do an extra 30 minutes working out tomorrow.
Food is NOT reward and exercise is NOT punishment for not being “good enough”.
I’m actually doing less weight lifting at the moment and I’m basically eating whatever I want (with sensible moderation)
As I am sitting here and writing this I’ve just ironed a shirt that I’m going to wear because I’m going out to dinner tonight. There will be wine and dessert and I’m going to enjoy it.
On Monday last week it was a beautiful day and I did a later afternoon walk on the beach and afterwards I ate an ice-cream.
On Friday night Ben and I got our regular Thai Take Away and I had red curry with coconut rice and we shared a bag of malteesers afterwards.
Now I’m not saying this to boast or gloat.
Not at all.
That’s not the message I want to get across.
I was chatting with Lorraine who helps me with the coaching on my Ladies that Lift, Women’s Weight Loss coaching program.
She said to me one time; you have great genes!
And I thought about it.
I don’t think I do.
My dad was diagnosed in his 50’s as a type 1 diabetic. My mum, who I love to bits, is overweight with thyroid problems and high blood pressure.
I was overweight as a child and I’ve had cellulite since before puberty.
My weight has gone up and down throughout my teenage years and my 20’s and at times I’ve been quite chubby because of choices I have made (eating too much bad food, drinking too much alcohol and staying up late partying and enjoying myself).
So no, I don’t think I have good genes.
I have just invested a lot of time and effort into finding out what really works for me and making this a habit.
There have been times when I wouldn’t have gone out for dinner and had the wine and the dessert.
There would have been times when I don’t get a take away and eat naughty chocolates everyFriday.
But I can do these things now and maintain my physique for a few reasons and THIS is what I want to share with you…
1. It is always easier to maintain that it is to lose.
You obviously have to put in more work to lose extra weight than you do to maintain where you currently are.
The problem is that a lot of women don’t lose weight in the right way and once they reach their goal weight, they don’t have a structured way to reset their metabolism which means that their only “exit strategy” is to go back to their past behaviours which creates weight gain.
Reverse dieting, is increasing calories and carbohydrates in a slow and structured way to find the threshold at which you gain weight.
In January and February this year I built my daily calorie intake up to about 2500 and 300g of carbohydrate without weight gain.
I stopped the process because I was actually finding it difficult to eat all the food. But basically, now I know that as long as I continue to exercise, I can eat on average 2500 calories a day and I won’t need to worry about weight gain. I mostly eat less than this because of my stomach capacity although I would probably go higher on special occasions when eating out or having a few drinks.
2. Don’t mess with your metabolism.
I meet a lot of women who have done a lot of dumb diets. Very restrictive, low cals or low carbs.
When you do a diet like this you will lose some fat, you will lose some water and you will lose some muscle mass.
The restriction will slow down your metabolism and the muscle loss will reduce your resting metabolic rate.
As you repeat this behaviour in what is commonly know as yo-yo dieting, you will need to restrict more and more to lose weight.
Sensible dieting is about learning how to lose on the most amount of food possible (not the least) and using the hormonal and metabolic impact (not the calorie burning) of exercise to keep your metabolic fire stoked.
This will prevent a loss in muscle mass and reduction in metabolism which will make it difficult to maintain.
3. Build good habits
I’ve mentioned that now I eat whatever I want. This is true, but probably not in the sense that you think.
Yes, I have treats, I have chocolate, I get take away and I have the occasional glass of wine, or three. But I also make smart and sensible choices to balance these out.
Today we went out for breakfast and I had avocado on toast and scrambled egg but decided to finish it off with a, very, rich gluten free brownie.
So for the rest of the day I’ve been having green tea (which I enjoy) and I had white fish and asparagus for lunch which was high in protein and low in fats and carbs so tonight I can go out for dinner.
For dinner tonight I’ll probably get a leaner, lighter protein dish with a side of vegetables so that I can have dessert or I’d get something heavy like steak and chips but then skip dessert.
This would totally depend what I was in the mood for, and you know what, if I was still hungry after the steak and chips I’d get the dessert too BUT I know that is unlikely to be the case because I’m happy to listen to my body that go home overly stuffed with a stomach ache.
4. Put the work in at the gym
I have done it all.
My exercise history started with aerobics step classes and Tae-bo (yep, I even had the tapes at home), I had a bicycle that would get me around when I was in high school and I did spinning at university, I used to run (I’ve done several half marathons), I did CrossFit semi-competitively for about 2 or 3 years and now I lift weights, do yoga, a little running/sprinting in the summer and I’ve just started to learn to windsurf as a hobbie.
Everybody has a different body but I can’t see how women would NOT get results from resistance training.
I weigh almost a stone more now than I did in my running days but my body is tighter, stronger, better shaped and more toned than it was when I was 10 years younger in my early 20’s.
When I was learning to lift I learnt to do it properly. Fortunately working in a gym at the time I had a friend who was a power lifter and a PT and he taught me how to squat, deadlift, press and do proper pull ups.
CrossFit can get a lot of bad press but we had excellent coaches at the gym I went to and I learnt do much about quality movement from my time there.
Even when I didn’t go to class I was honing my technique and putting form before strength and strength before intensity.
A lot of women are keen to jump into high intensity interval training without learning how to move properly and activate the right muscles.
Take the time to learn this stuff, if you move well and apply force properly and establish intensity by working the right muscles in your workouts you will see so much more progress than just burning calories for 45 minutes.
5. Plan
One of the things I notice in my coaching program is that people just don’t plan. I really don’t know why?
If you want to learn new habits and eat better and fit in your training you HAVE TO PLAN AHEAD.
I must admit now I don’t plan my food and I do wing it but that’s also because I have been doing this stuff for so long that I know how.
Each week I do an online shop and I make sure there is enough fresh protein in the house and there are ALWAYS spare chicken and fish portions in the freezer. There is ALWAYS brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat in their dry forms as well as ready to go pouches and tins of beans for when your in a rush or just plane starving. It’s really not that hard, stock up, when something runs out, replace it.
I don’t keep trigger foods in the house and we don’t buy bread or even own a toaster. If I want something sweet it will be a piece of fruit, a bowl of oats with honey or I’ll be walking to the shops.
And yes, there will 100% be times when I do walk to the shop to buy a chocolate. I tend to buy a portion sized bar around about the 30g mark so there is no chance of eating the whole bar – because I will!
6. I ferociously protect my sleep.
Sleep is so important if you want to lose weight. Not only do you need it to build that all important muscle tissue that will keep your metabolism high.
But, I don’t know about you, but I am so much more susceptible to jumping into a pile of comfort food when I am too tired. Not to mention the fact that I am probably a blubbering emotional wreck, completely unproductive at work, will make every excuse not to go to the gym and just not that nice a person to be around.
I aim to get to bed by 10pm at the latest, most of the time it is 9pm and there are times when I go to bed as early as 7. I can wake up any time from 5am to 7am but on average it’s 6am allowing for a minimum of 8 hours sleep per night.
There are some nights when I stay up later, maybe socialising with friends, but I know what my limits are and I take action to ensure that I don’t end up a broken wreck.
I know there are mum who have small children who just won’t be able to get enough enough sleep and that is understandable. It just means you have to be extra disciplined about not eating crap.
Is it in the genes?
The purpose of writing all the above is because a lot of the women I work with and speak to don’t want to sacrifice the fun stuff in their life.
I get it, you want to party with your friends and eat out and enjoy treat foods and sleep in and skip the gym. We all do!
But if you want a goal there has to be a certain amount of sacrifice that needs to happen before you can achieve it.
Achieving the goal will take a lot more from you than maintenance – provided you have the right strategy – but it should be a short term sacrifice for a long term gain.
When Lorraine said to me, I think you just have great genes, I thought to myself – do I?
Our gene’s interact with our environment (this is called epigenetics in case you like to know this stuff).
Genes express themselves depending on the environment that you expose them to.
Did you know that when comparing gene’s the biggest difference is overall genetics is between male and female. A Caucasian European woman has genes which are so similar from a black African women that there is actually no significant difference.
So do I just have “good genes” or have a put in the work and do I continue to do what most people aren’t prepared to?
There is a saying:
“Nothing worth having comes easy”.
You have to put in the work.
And if you are ready to put in the work, then we are ready to work with you and help you achieve your goals. Then please feel free to complete the application below and book in for a complimentary breakthrough call to kick start your health, fitness and weight loss journey.
[I just have to say as I final note that this is no discredit to those people who ARE putting in good work not seeing results. I do have a few clients who struggle with health related issues which affect their ability to lose weight – this is probably due to a long time of bathing their genes in the wrong environment before they had the education to know what to do to help themselves]
