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Six steps to staying lean that have nothing to do with your genes

May 30, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Health and Lifestyle, Uncategorized, Weight Loss /   No Comments

 

The other day I took this picture.

 

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]

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Guest Blog: Six Success Secrets to Managing Your Social Life Without Killing Your Waist Line

May 19, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Health and Lifestyle, Mindset, Uncategorized, Weight Loss /   No Comments

It’s not often we have a guest blog on the website. The following was actually written by a client of mine as a Facebook post in our Ladies that Lift VIP Supergroup. Charlotte has hit the nail bang on the head with her tips for surviving the busy London social life while still making progress in her health, fitness and body comp.

 

 

I’ve been having a very sociable time recently, and that has resulted in some additional refinements to the “how to survive a hectic social life plan” I developed in December to manage the ever busy Christmas Festivities.

This advice also works for those times when you can’t adhere to usual routine.

Figure out your limits…

How many nights out can you handle?

How can you ensure you get the sleep you need?

How many cheat meals and alcoholic drinks can you have without scuppering your progress?

Do you need to have more realistic goals for a period? - Aim to maintain rather than lose weight, for example.

And are there ways to counterbalance the additional calories, such as walking between meetings?

Once you have this figured out, you can then come up a plan of how to apportion your limited resources.

Here are some tips:

1. Alcohol is one of the biggest challenges. You might, for example, decide to only have three drinks in a week. So then you need to decide when and with whom you will enjoy those drinks. Or you could decide to not drink during the week but to have a couple at the weekend. Or not drink at work dos but to drink with friends. Or you might decide to try something more radical and not drink at all.

2. Avoid crap food. My biggest challenge in this regard is after-work drinks parties replete with carb and fat-laden canapes. To avoid face-planting the finger food, I eat a big portion of protein and a few carbs before the party then eat yoghurt and fruit when I come home. And only drink water.

3. If you are going to formal lunches or dinners, then don’t be afraid to be a diva and ask for special food in advance.

When I’m invited to an awards dinner, for example, I ask for a gluten-free dinner. That way I’ll get a much lighter starter and desert. The other night, for example, I got a vegetable medley rather a deep-fried rice ball and a jelly and fruit rather than a tart.

Don’t be afraid to request a restaurant where they will be lots of high-quality protein to eat. Suggest meeting for breakfast – I now do this a lot – I order poached eggs, grilled bacon and tomato and have a fruit salad. It’s easy to comply with macros for this meal and there is absolutely no question of having to drink alcohol!

When you are going out in the evening, make sure you save up carb and fat macros but eat lots of protein earlier in the day. Protein portions in restaurants tend to be much smaller than but there will be lots of fat and carbs.

4. Practise wafting into parties late and your Cinderella skills. At more formal work occasions there is no need to arrive on time or stay to the bitter end. An hour and a half is ample at a drinks party. You will also create an air of mystique if you leave the office party early. This will guarantee that you are tucked up under your duvet on time and you won’t be the butt of office gossip the next morning!

5. As you are no longer attending these parties to guzzle the free food and drink, find an alternative reason for you to be there. For example, do you want some quality time with your team (before they get too drunk)? Or use the party to network with more senior management? Or flirt with the hot guy in sales? This will allow you to enjoy the occasion rather than focus on the deprivation of staying sober and restrained with food.

6. Value quality over quantity. When you do decide to let your hair down, make sure you go for the best of what you want. So have a really good glass of wine or an excellent cocktail. If you go out for dinner choose high-quality food like crab salad, dry-aged steak or spankingly fresh fish. And enjoy every mouthful!

And finally, remember that to err is human – even with the best plan you will probably stray on the odd occasion and have four drinks instead of two or dessert when you meant to eat fruit. Don’t panic. This will not be great undoing of all your good work. Remember that without the plan you would have drunk and eaten more. So simply shrug it off, ladies, and get on it like a car bonnet the very next day. Or when the hangover subsides…

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Weight Loss Secrets 104: Can’t stop thinking about food?

May 17, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Mindset, Weight Loss /   No Comments

So if you’ve been following me a while you will know that I love an analogy.

I often come up with ideas for blogs and newsletters at random times of the day when I am doing different things.

The idea for this one came to me this morning while I was doing an early morning run.

I’m not a massive runner. At the moment I am just doing 1 run and some sprints each week to build up some cardiovascular fitness to compliment my weight lifting and yoga.

So, one of the things I often hear is…

“I’m just so sick of having to think about food all the time!”

You’ve been there right?

When you are on a diet you are thinking about what you can eat.

You are thinking about what you can’t eat.

You are thinking about when your next meal is. Or if you do the whole cheat meal thing then you are mentally planning your next cheat meal from one to the next.

This makes dieting really hard.

You are trying not to overeat, yet all you can think about is food!

The more you try not to think about it. The MORE you think about it!

It’s like if I say to you, don’t think of a pink pig. What do you think of?

Let’s talk about planning and meal prep…

One of the things I tell all my clients is that they must plan what their food at least a day in advance and they must do a weekly food shop where they get the right foods in for the week.

This can often be expressed as a massive hurdle and planning, unless you are a natural planner, is something I lot of people don’t do very well.

It takes time. AND, yet again, you have to think about food.

However, let’s face it, you do need to become more mindful of food and be conscious (remember that word because I’ll come back to it later) of your choices as you start to build new habits.

So let’s go back to my run this morning…

It’s mostly a flat route with one pretty big hill in the middle and a nice downhill towards the end.

So when I was on the uphill I had to use a lot of mental energy to stop myself from giving up.

I had to focus on MOTIVATING myself to keep going.

I’d say things to myself like

“you got this!” “keep going!” “one step at a time.” “almost there!”

A little cheesy perhaps but I do this stuff because if I thought…

Gosh this is so hard…. I hate running…. Why am I doing this… it’s fine, just walk….

It would be so easy to give up.

However, what I noticed on the downhill is that it took very little mental effort. Instead of having to self-motivate my mind drifted and I had the freedom to think about all sorts of different things.

So what does this little story have to do with weight loss?

A whole lot!

You see weight loss is all about creating sensible and sustainable habits.

If your weight is stuck right now or you have yo-yo dieted or “started a diet” more times than you have fingers and toes, I am sure you will agree that you probably need to try something different that you haven’t tried before.

Trying or doing something different requires you to get out of your comfort zone, learn something new so that you can grow.

That growth is required to get the result – weight loss!

The beginning of change is your uphill…

  1. You have to be focussed.
  2. You have to think about it a lot more – it will take a lot more mental effort, but you shouldn’t be obsessing about food 24/7 (see note below)
  3. You will need to think positively (you got this! vs why can’t I just eat pizza!?)
  4. You will need to plan and prepare - the planning and preparation should actually help you to think about food LESS (provided you are on the right plan). If you plan each week what you’ll have for your meals and you buy that food in a big shop once a week, all you have to do is follow the plan. And if you need help with planning, that is something else I can blog about - just holla!

Note:

If you are on a diet that requires massive amount of will power or all the time, you might be on the wrong diet!

If you eat each meal and start counting down the hours until the next, unless you are entering a body building show, you are probably on the wrong diet!

If you are on a diet where you feel restricted and continuously think about all the things you can’t have, you are probably on the wrong diet!

But the downhill is when it all clicks into place…

  1. Your repeated behaviours from the mental effort your applied [to the right program] in the beginning, become habits. It is the creation of these habits that move you from being consciously incompetent (thinking about it a lot) to consciously competent (thinking about it a lot) to finally unconsciously competent (where it becomes effortless)
  2. Prepping and planning soon become natural.
  3. You shouldn’t have to obsess over grocery lists and recipe books each week – if you are smart, you’ll probably just do an online shop and click “repeat” when you find what works.
  4. If you learn moderation, not restriction, you won’t need to reply on will power to get you through the week.
  5. If you enjoy a birthday party (and the cake) and not let it become a slippery slope of self berating

Then you can be mentally free. You can then focus on other things that life has to offer (not just getting to the top of the hill), look around and enjoy the view!

So, some questions you might want to ask yourself are…

  1. Am I following the right plan? is my resistance, resistance to learning or is it a warning sign for the wrong plan?
  2. What am I learning from my struggle? if you aren’t learning, you aren’t growing and if you aren’t growing then you probably aren’t doing that something different that we already established you need to be doing to get a result.
  3. Are you relying on will power alone [and then failing miserably]? Then your approach is most likely to wrong one. Losing weight doesn’t have to be restrictive or hard. Having the right tools and guidance to learn moderation is very important.

If you feel that you would like…

  • more support and accountability
  • a sensible solution, not a short term fix
  • top quality coaching from qualified professionals
  • to lose weight and keep it off

​​​​​​​Then take a look and apply for a FREE Break Through Call where we can chat through where you are right now and create a future vision of where you would like to be and how to ACTUALLY get you there.

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Recipe: Broccoli & Avocado Salad

May 12, 2016 By admin In Functional Medicine, Health and Lifestyle, Recipe /   No Comments

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli

1/2 large avocado

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 large handful of coriander, finely chopped

1 handful of chives. finely chopped

2 tbsp of sunflower seeds, toasted

salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Tear the top florets off the broccoli and discard the thicker stem (I actually save the stems and juice them when I make a green juice so as not to waste anything). Collect the florets in a bowl.
  2. Add the avocado, olive oil and lemon juice.
  3. Using your hands massage the ingredients together for about a minute to soften the broccoli.
  4. Toss in the coriander, chives and sunflower seeds.
  5. Season as appropriate and serve as a side dish or eat as a snack

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VIDEO - Weight Loss Secrets 103: Harness Your Hormones

May 12, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Functional Medicine, Health and Lifestyle, Weight Loss /   No Comments

If you are suffering with:

  • PCOS
  • PMS
  • Endometriosis
  • Hormone related acne or skin problems
  • Menopausal symptoms
  • Uterine Fibroids
  • Menstrual Migraine
  • General bloating, tenderness and weigh gain

You may be interested in Happy Hormones.

Happy Hormones is a 12 week online training which you can work through in your own time to teach you everything you need to know to natural balance your hormones, lose weight and achieve better health.

More information here.

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Weight Loss Secret 103: Harness Your Hormones

May 12, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Functional Medicine, Health and Lifestyle, Weight Loss /   No Comments

If you would prefer to watch rather than read this information, click here.

Something I often hear from the women who I speak with is;

 

“I have PCOS, therefore I can’t lose weight”

Or

“I have PCOS, therefore it’s so much harder to lose weight”

I would say the second statement is true. It can be harder to lose weight if you have PCOS, especially if you don’t know what you are doing.

BUT, you CAN lose weight, you just need to get the right information and actually implement it with consistency.

For the most part, there is not a lot of good information immeditaely available to women who are in need of natural solution for hormone balance.

BUT

There is actually a lot of good information out there, you just need to know where to find it.

Many women with PCOS struggle with weight loss because they may be more insulin resistant than some other women.

Yet, this doesn’t mean that you can’t lose weight.

It also doesn’t mean that you can’t eat ANY carbohydrates!

It just means you have to be more mindful of how many you eat and what types.

But this is actually quite normal behaviour for anyone who wants to lose weight; you have to be more sensible than you were before.

I’ve recently finished working with a client suffering with both endometriosis and PCOS who is getting married this month.

In the whole time we have been working together she has still eaten carbohydrates, on average around 100g, if not more, per day. This is the carbohydrate equivalent of ½ a kilogram of sweet potato per day!

Everybody has a different body and this is why I am a fan of personalisation.

What works for one person will not necessarily work for you. Or maybe you need it tweaked so it works as best as it possibly can for you.

That said, there are a few commonalities that I have found to be successful in helping women with PCOS and other hormones imbalances on their weight loss journey…

1. Follow a calorie controlled diet with personalised amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates

2. Consume a diet which is high in good fats especially oily fish, avocado, olive oil and nuts/oils high in specific nutrients; pumpkin seeds (zinc), brazil nuts (selenium), walnuts (vitamin E).

3. Ensure good digestion by avoiding common irritants such as gluten and dairy and consuming fermented foods

4. Seed Cycle –

Seed cycling is when certain seeds are eaten at certain times of the month. The beneficial fatty acids in each specific seed works with the female body to promote a healthy cycle. Although there is not much research behind it, anecdotally many clients have found it invaluable.

Consume 1tbsp ground flaxseed and 1 tbsp ground pumpkin seeds from day 1 to day 14 of the cycle. For additional benefits, supplement with fish oil during this time (see recommend supplements on bottom pg).

Consumer 1 tsbp ground sunflower seeds and 1 tbsp tahini/sesame seeds from day 15 to day 28 of the cycle. For additional benefits supplement with evening primrose oil during this time.

5. Exercise, but not too much. With Said client, I actually had to put her on a HIT ban as I had a feeling that too much high intensity training was sabotaging her results – I was right!

6. Manage stress and get enough sleep.

7. Take supplements appropriate to personal needs. Some of the ones I commonly recommend for hormonal balance are zinc, b-complex, curcumin, DIM, fish or krill oil, vitex agnus castuc, milk thistle and maca powder

Although personalisation is a factor, these are some basic tools that produce a significant difference in female hormones, whether you are suffering from PCOS or just PMS all of the above would be a good place to start when looking to achieve a lean and healthy body with balanced hormones.

If you want to learn more about balancing hormones naturally, you may be interested in knowing more about my Happy Hormones 12 Week Program. See here for more details…

 

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Weight Loss Secret 102: Love your gut

May 10, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Functional Medicine, Health and Lifestyle, Weight Loss /   No Comments

This month in the Ladies that Lift Women’s Weight Loss Coaching Program we are doing a “love your gut” challenge.

It is all about digestive health.

The rules are simple, there are 3 teams;

Team A: Keeping it simple aiming to eat 1-2 servings of fermented food per day. This could be raw sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, kefir or live yoghurt

Team B: The diversity challenge aiming to eat 100 different foods across a week. You can read more about the importance of diversity for gut health here.

Team C: Are following the elimination challenge focussing on whole foods and eliminating gluten, dairy, sugar and alcohol – definitely the most challenging of the 3.

Members pick a team and then as a team motivate and encourage each other and we give a prize for the member who demonstrates the best personal growth across the month.

You might be thinking that this sounds like a lot of extra work.

I thought this was a weight loss program, where does digestion factor in?

We surveyed every member of our program since it started and 90% of our clients were suffering digestive issues when they joined.

This could be anything like bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, smelly flatulence, heart burn and acid reflux.

So again, what does this have to do with weight loss?

A whole lot actually!

Modern life is stressful, we eat suboptimal foods, we take painkillers and antibiotics not to mention other medications, we drink chlorinated water and alcohol.

All of these things can negatively affect the balance within our digestive system.

When we have a disrupted digestive balance, not only do we experience unpleasant digestive symptoms but it also affects our ability to lose weight – who would have thought!

Its also really important to note that just because you have no obvious gut symptoms, doesn’t mean you don’t have any gut problems. We all have stress, bad food and alcohol from time to time.

Without getting all sciencey on you – to lose weight, simplistically, you want to be burning more calories than you are consuming, however I have met many, many, many women who are doing this and not seeing results.

There are many, many, many reasons why, digestive health is just one of them.

Many women have food sensitivities which they aren’t aware of. It is not until they cut these foods out of their diet with consistency that they realise how these foods are affecting them.

Everything from improved digestive, to better looking skin, to more energy AND…

Weight Loss!

The reason being when are immune system is so busy reacting to the foods we are eating, it creates changes in metabolism which make us more likely to store body fat, especially around the middle.

There are a lot of things we can do about this but the main things are:

  • Eating a diverse diet of plant based foods
  • Regular consumption of fermented foods
  • Avoiding common trigger foods like gluten, dairy and in some cases eggs, corn and soy (although we can react to anything!)
  • Eat a diet rich in whole and unprocessed foods and eliminate sugar and alcohol which may affect the balance of good bacteria in the gut.

So if you suspect that your digestion might be giving you some problems with your weight loss, why not give our challenge a try OR apply to be part of our coaching program and do it with the guidance and support of a like-minded group of women.

Anna x

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Weight Loss Secret 101: Developing a Slimmer Identity

May 7, 2016 By admin In Fatloss, Health and Lifestyle, Mindset, Weight Loss /   No Comments

If you’d prefer to watch rather than read this post, click here.

Many women will say:

“I want to lose 10, 20 or 30 pounds and then…

I’ll be happier

Or healthier

Or more confident

Or more loved

Or life will just be better…

And yes, this is very often true.

When you arrive at your weight loss goal it can feel amazing. Your clothes fit really well and you have a new level of confidence and a spring in your step.

But something important to remember is that you don’t fall asleep one nigh 29 pounds lighter and wake up 30 pounds lighter and say

“Hooray! Now I can be that person I wanted to be”

Setting a goal, be it in weight loss, fitness, professionally or personally is never about achieving the goal.

It’s about the person that you become as you change the behaviours you need to change to achieve that goal.

To lose weight you might need to change the way you are eating.

You might need to change the way you are exercising.

You’ll need to start to think differently.

You might have to become the person who is dancing on the tables in the early hours of Saturday morning to

the person who has one drink, some great conversations and call it an early night because you have to get up for your gym session the next day.

You might have to be the person who sets a higher standard for yourself and asks if you can eat at a different restaurant so you can make some healthier choices.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to stop doing everything that you enjoy, but you might have to do some of the things you think you enjoy a little less.

You probably want to be asking yourself:

“If I was the person I think I want to be, what would I do?”

How do I spend my weekends?

What books do I read?

Who do I hang out with?

What restaurants do I go to?

Where do I go on holiday?

Am I the lady you will find at the office vending machine at 3pm and later falling asleep at her desk at 4pm?

Or, are you the lady who is fuelled up on good food, smashing through her work so she can leave the office on time?

You see, weight loss has nothing to do with the numbers on the scale. It’s about the person you want to become.

You can lose a lot of weight in short amount of time but if you don’t give yourself the time to shift your identity and continue to set higher goals, you will quickly find yourself back at square one.

This is the epitome of yo-yo dieting.

Quick fixes just test your will power, they don’t shape you as an individual.

If you want to lose weight so you can have energy, be more confident and feel happier and more loved, then now is the time to embrace these things.

Don’t wait until you reach your goal to have these things in your life. Celebrate every bit of growth every bit of the way because your life is an amazing thing that needs to be celebrated!

This will save you a whole lot of self sabotaging, the downfall of many.

If you eat a cup cake or have a binge mishap, tomorrow you will still have your new identity and all the foundations you have laid. The cake will just be a last minute change in the plot along the way from which you can learn and grow.

The best way to create this identity shift is to find someone who has achieved what you want to achieve, who has what you want and model them.

This essentially means copying.

What do they do?

How do they act?

What books are they reading?

How are they training?

How do THEY spend their weekends?

I do believe that each person is an individual but this is a good place to start and mentoring is an excellent way to achieve results if you want to do it sooner rather than later.

It’s going to take time to make these changes. Sensible and Sustainable change is not a quick fix.

For this reason, as of May we have changed the game in the Ladies that Lift Women’s Weight Loss Coaching

Program.

We used to offer 3, 6 and 12 month memberships.

Not more.

The minimum commitment for anyone who wants to work with myself and my team is 6 months.

We’ve noticed that for many of our clients, after 3 months, we were only scratching the surface of their potential. Not to mention to fact we see them tripping over their own feet and self-sabotaging because they feel the need to rush the process.

It’s taken you how many years to get to this point?

At least give yourself a little time to work through making some changes.

We honestly believe a MINIMUM of 6 months is required to create a long lasting transformation of health and happiness (not to mention weight loss).

If we come back to this idea of identity; what are the women who “have their sh*t together” doing?

It’s not the latest quick fix or 21 day sugar detox.

It’s getting their heads in the right place and being willing to change from the inside out to get a long lasting result and grow as an individual along the way.

Food for thought.

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