Are your stress levels stopping you from losing weight?

20140912-0593
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.
 
 
 
 

Self Sabotage, Safety Behaviours and Weight Loss

“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.


 

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Weight Loss: Cost vs Benefit (Is it Worth It?)


 

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Four Reasons Why Your Diet Is Failing You


 

20140912-0593
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.
 
 
 
 

10 Habits For Successful Weight Loss


 

20140912-0593
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.
 
 
 
 

Do you feel like you have tried everything and nothing works? [video 3 of 4]

How do you exercise and lose weight? How do you know if you are doing it right?

Do you need to do HIT? Do you need to lift weights? Do you need to exercise 7 days a week?

This is part 3 of the videos series on I feel like I have tried everything and nothing works!

Here I talk about making some sensible changes when it comes to exercising for weight loss and my own personal exercise perscription.

Make sure you have watched Part 1 and Part 2!

 

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Do you feel like you have tried everything and nothing works? [video 2 of 4]

I recently surveyed my mailing list to get an idea of what they were struggling with and how I could direct my knowledge to solve their specific problems.

This statement stood out loud and clear: I feel like I have tried everything and nothing works!

And I thought, yes, I can address that! So this is the second part of the 4 video series! Make sure you watch the first part too.

 

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Sugar Cravings and Chocolate Monsters (VIDEO)

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Simplicity for Weight Loss (VIDEO)

20140912-0593

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.

 

 

 

 

Understanding HRV For Stress Management

I’m going to keep it simple today.

On my previous post I gave you a simple way to evaluate your lifestyle balance with some tools for making some small changes with a big difference.

The exercise I gave you was a cheap and effective way to assess the balance within your nervous system, the balance that defines whether you are in a state of fight or flight or a state of rest and recovery.

We need both.

We need a system that responds appropriately when required and we also need a system that is able to recover and heal.

Health is about being flexible to respond in the appropriate way at the appropriate time.

Something I personally use which is a little more sophisticated is Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

What is it?

HRV is a measure of the variability between heart beats.

For example, if your heart rate is 60bpm it doesn’t actually beat like a metronome.

If it was beating like a metronome this would mean that it would beat every second, on the second to beat 60 times in one minute.

But actually, 60pbm is an average.

Our heart will  sometimes beat at 0.9 seconds, at 0.85 seconds, then at 1.1 seconds, then at 0.95 seconds and so on. The average across a minute is 60bpm.

Heart rate VARIABILITY is the variability between the heart beats. The greater variability the healthier and less stressed the system. 

A more regular or metronomic heart beat indicates more stress and less FLEXIBILITY (health is all about flexibility are all!).

 

How is it measured?

It is very easy to measure HRV yourself with a Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor Strap (£40 on Amazon) and your Mobile Phone using the Elite HRV App.

You put the strap around your torso and you link it with the app and you take what is called a “Morning Readiness” reading.

This will tell you how “stressed” your system is which you then may use to define your choices that day.

Maybe you need to skip the morning workout and have a lie in.

Maybe you need to fuel up on some healthy foods.

Maybe you need to do some breathing exercising and not let the dramas at work get to you.

Maybe you need to make sure you leave work on time and get an early night.

 

Basically, you can use this testing system as a little nudge to get you to do the things you know you should be doing but just aren’t doing. 

 

I personally use the app when it comes to my training. Knowing when to push, when to back off and do more recovery.

 

As a result I have stripped back how often I train as I realised that how I was training, wasn’t enabling me to recover effectively.

I’ve noticed a big difference in my energy, my performance in sessions and positive changes in my body composition too.

This past week has been a particularly bad week for me (I’ll be covering some more on this in a future post). I mostly find if I have one low HRV day, if I take rest I bounce back the following day. That didn’t happen this week and I felt very low too.

I decided to take an extra day off the gym, but I also whacked my calorie intake up much higher than the norm, in the hope that it would help me bounce back. It worked a treat and the next day I was back in the gym feeling good.

screenshot_20161017-062549-2 screenshot_20161018-112510-2

This may be a little advanced for some, but if you like data and gadgets, if you train hard and want to dial stuff in a little more, it comes highly recommended.

 

​​​​​​​Over and out!

Stress, Anxiety, Mood & Comfort Eating

So if you hadn’t already caught on, October is Stress Management Month so all my posts will be working around this theme.

 

If you didn’t catch the previous 2 posts, you’ll find them on the blog. I’d suggest you read all of them to build up the context.

 

I’ve literally thrown you in the deep end a bit.

 

And I’m afraid, I cannot apologise for that.

 

One of the things I stand for in my business is to empower women.

 

Women often feel a victim of their circumstance, their lives, their bodies and their relationship with food.

 

I like to think of my Weight Loss Coaching Program as more of a female empowerment program.

 

And we all know, knowledge is power.

 

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. 

blog-graphic-1

 

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.

 

blog-graphic-2

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. 

untitled-design-2book-a-breakthrough-call-1

 

Weight Gain Is The Solution, Not The Problem

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.

 

But let me explain it like this.

 

The symptoms (weight, sleep, mood, hormonal imbalances, digestive complaints, low energy, skin problems etc.)

 

Are not the problem. 

 

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. ​​​​​​​

 

change is the solution

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. 

untitled-design-2

book-a-breakthrough-call-1

 

 

Don’t let a 5 year old run your life

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. 

Love your legs

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

  1. 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

 

  1. 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). 

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Eat foods that support detoxification of oestrogen

There are plenty to mention but important ones include

  • brassica vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts)
  • pomegranate
  • grapefruit
  • flaxseeds
  • green tea
  • blueberries

I have also supplemented in the past with:

  • DIM (the active component in brassica’s)
  • calcium-d-glucarate
  • vitamin B
  • magnesium
  • zinc
  • green tea
  • curcumin

-all of which have been very effective.

 

  1. Ensure my gut works well

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.

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

Anna x

 

 

 

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

CM_39It’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…

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

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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Weight Loss Secret 101: Developing a Slimmer Identity

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.

Want to work with us?