PCOS: A Case Study

When I first met Ali she had entered and completed an Iron Man Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26 mile run) in an attempt to control her weight.

Surely someone training and doing this amount of exercise would be able to drop a few pounds? She had even paid a nutritionist to write her a “personalised” nutrition plan to accommodate her training and her weight loss goals.

But nothing had happened.

But her weight wasn’t her only challenge.

She suffered from anxiety, had difficulty managing her high stress working environment and she was also affected by PCOS and endometriosis. Not to mention non-specific symptoms such as foggy brain, bloating after eating, constipation, lethargy and low mood.

Shortly after we began working together she got engaged. This obviously shifted her focus to weight loss even more as she prepared for the big day and looking amazing in her wedding dress.

We worked together over the course of 7 months in preparation for her wedding. It was not an easy journey, but in that time she lost a stone in weight and achieved her lowest weight for her wedding day.

There were a few important things that we did, and if I am honest, these are not “special” things that we only do for women with PCOS, these are things that I do with all my clients which make a difference.

1) Calorie and Macro Controlled Diet

This is my preferred method of client monitoring. Studies have shown that most people underestimate how much they eat by up to 50%. I use My Fitness Pal, but even keeping a written food log can raise awareness and improve portion control.

Using My Fitness Pal enables me to work a few layers deeper with my clients because we not only look at calories, but we can look at protein, carbohydrates and fats and make sure that this balance is right.

Women with PCOS tend towards insulin resistance which means that they don’t do so well on a diet high in carbohydrate and probably need to be more vigilant with their intake of carbohydrate foods.

Counting carbs and watching for the amount of sugar and fibre in the diet can be particularly successful. When I work with clients I individually prescribe what targets they need to hit based on their body type, health status, stress and daily activity levels.

2) Food Quality

Calorie and macro management is a really good first step for anyone trying to shed a few extra pounds. Ensuring that calories comes from good quality foods is also important.

Every food that we eat interacts with our digestive system, and more importantly the organisms that take up residence inside of it. Feed your body good food and you cultivate good levels of beneficial bacteria. Eat sugar, refined carbohydrates and few fresh vegetables and you potentially do the opposite.

It got to a point with Ali where she was hitting a plateau. Although she was technically managing her calories and macros, I thought her food quality good be better. Being affected by PCOS and Endometriosis I felt that she had less flexibility than someone without.

She was incredibly self motivated and really tightened things up by eating plenty of fish, prawns and lean poultry, beneficial fats such as avocado and olive oil, colourful vegetables, she gave up gluten and dairy and focussed on carbohydrates from sweet potato and brown rice. Eating in this simple, wholefood way, really helped her to fully understand what was going in to her body and ensured she could manage it.

3) Manage stress.

Ali was working in corporate central London. There were huge demands on her time and energy, not to mention massive personal stressors going on at home. She really took on board the mindset elements of my coaching program and took it upon herself to do daily meditation, listen to the recommended audiobooks as well as integrate yoga into her weekly routine. Her ability to manage personal situations and cope with daily work stressors greatly improved, as did her anxiety and mood.

4) We reduced her exercise.

Having done an Iron Man, Ali was an A-type personality. Nothing was done by halves. She was exercising intensely lifting weights in the gym almost every day.

After a period of progress Ali hit a plateau. We adjusted her food intake, yet I couldn’t help but feel she was just putting her body under too much pressure with her training.

She was experiencing some niggling injuries and lower back pain. When a client gets injured this always sets off little alarm bells in my mind. If someone is exercising safely and appropriately, the body should be able to recover, adapt and heal. Injury is usually a sign that something is out of balance and it is often (apart from biomechanical imbalances) when exercise is too much and fuelling too little.

We were closely monitoring Ali’s diet, so it had to be the exercise that was causing her to over-reach. After a little resistance, I got her to drop her gym sessions to 2 per week, 1 yoga session a week and plenty of walking during her day.

5) Supplements

I personalise supplements for all my clients so please understand that this reflects what we did for her. It is not a prescription for just anyone. There are several supplements that work well for women with hormonal complaints. We used the following:

• Vitex Agnus Castus to raise progesterone
• Curcumin to manage inflammation
• Magnesium for stress, anxiety and insulin sensitivity (in a nutshell, magnesium works across 300 different enzyme pathways in the body)
• DIM to support oestrogen metabolism
• Zinc for hormonal balance and insulin sensitivity
• B-complex for hormonal balance, methylation and energy pathways
• Digestive enzymes to support digestion and bloating
• Probiotic to support digestion and modulate inflammation

All of the above worked a treat and she was the most beautiful bride on her wedding day both outside and in. The work together not only gave her the body confidence, but the reduced internal stress and increased happiness, were invaluable. She was able to enjoy her wedding and honeymoon with only a small increase in weight.

And then…

Things took a turn for the worst…

Once Ali returned from honeymoon she did her best to get back into a normal routine and pick up where she left off.

We had stopped working together at that time and she was working under her own steam.
One day I got a message…

I am doing everything you taught me and nothing is working!

After asking a few questions it was clear that she had fallen into some old bad habits. Under-eating, lacking consistency with her food intake, alcohol had creeped back in quite a bit and there was too much training and stress.

I gave her some tough love and pointed this out and she took my advice onboard, yet things were just not shifting.

After some discussion we decided she should do a stool test.

I think this is something that a lot of people are reluctant to do. Despite the fact it costs £300 (a significant financial investment), the idea of collecting your own poop and then sending it off in the post is not the most appealing offer.

But she did it.

And I think the only regret was that she hadn’t done it a year ago when we first started working together.

She had been supplementing with a probiotic for ages and her levels of beneficial bacteria were good.

Her bloating, constipation and foggy brain weren’t being created by low levels of beneficial bacteria.
What we did find was 2 parasites, a small amount of yeast and overgrowth of additional bacteria potentially indicating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and low levels of the gut immunoglobulin secretory IgA.

What does this mean?

SIBO is what the name says, an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. We have trillions of bacteria in the large intestine, the colon, and less bacteria in the small intestine. Due to modern diets, alcohol, use of medications & stress, we can sometimes cultivate higher levels of bacteria in the small intestine than normal.

This can lead to symptoms commonly associated with IBS such as constipation, bloating, diarrhoea, foggy brain, abdominal cramps, flatulence, belching and acid reflux.

One of the roles of the gut bacteria is to break down carbohydrate.

We live in a world we very often eat on the go. We eat in a stressed state and we don’t chew. Digestion is a “parasympathetic process” which means that to happen appropriately, we must be relaxed.

When we eat in a relaxed state and chew properly we able to release digestive enzymes which break down our food and enable us to absorb nutrients appropriately.

If this doesn’t happen, we can have undigested food particles sitting in our gut which are then left at the mercy of the bacteria that reside there. These bacteria ferment food particles and then create gas associated with wind, belching and bloating.

The gut is often referred to as the second brain. There is a bidirectional neuronal connection between our digestive system and our brain. Many of our neurotransmitters are made in the gut.

Often, SIBO can be linked with stress, brain fog, poor memory, anxiety and low mood or depression. Many of the symptoms Ali was experiencing.

SIBO is a complex issue and it goes above and beyond the scope of this case to talk about it in detail. But the final piece of the puzzle is that, because of the link between the gut and the immune system, it can also be associated with insulin resistance, something which is so closely knitted with PCOS.
So what did we do?

Our strategy was obviously all about balancing the gut and we used the 5R Protocol to do this:

screenshot_5

The outcome?

img-20161128-wa0003

  • Weight loss (back down to wedding weight and beyond!) – comment from her husband “I can see your abs coming through!”
  • More regular bowel movements
  • No more bloating and foggy brain
  • Better energy
  • More empowered to take ownership and control of her health
  • Balanced body and balanced mind

After the gut protocol we added in some supplements that I use based on my Psychoneuroimmunology Training, these supplements are for PNI practitioners only, however Ali found that they made a massive difference in her mood & stress levels in combination with her diet, exercise and lifestyle practises.

I sent her all of the above after it was written to check for accuracy and these were her final comments…

The only thing I would suggest is a good old happy ending. The weight came off and settled out by itself without much work or tracking.

It was just the small tweaks that made all the difference and most importantly it is the realisation that this is something I’ll need to manage life long but with the right tools/starting point, it can be done easily and without much fuss.

[her words, not mine]

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Food Diary of a Low FODMAPPER

If you have been following me recently will know that I am working through my digestion and energy challenges following my recent stool test.

I was relieved when my gluten antibodies (anti-gliadin IgA) came back negative but one thing I didn’t want to have to do was give up FODMAPS for two main reasons:

  1. I love onions and garlic :)
  2. It’s a pain

FODMAP stands for Fructose, Oligosaccharide, Disaccharide, Monoamines and Polyols. It’s a bit of a mouthful so I am sure you can see why these are summarised as FODMAPS.

Ultimately these are types of carbohydrates which are more susceptible for fermentation in the upper GI tract, which, when overgrown with bacteria, can lead to symptoms like bloating, cramping, diarrhoea, constipation and symptoms of IBS.

Despite my supplement regime, I was still experiencing a lot of stomach bloating. It seemed to be even worse than before.

I eat a lot of onions, garlic, legumes and broccoli. In fact, I was eating raw broccoli scrunched up in a salad with lot’s of avocado (which can also be a FODMAP). So the pain of staying the same eventually got greater than the pain of embarking on my new low FODMAP lifestyle and I took the plunge.

I have several clients who follow a low FODMAP diet and it is becoming increasingly common as I start to work with more and more clients on their digestion alongside their weight loss, that I am asking them to remove FODMAPS.

I therefore thought it would be helpful for me to write how I approached it and what I’ve been eating this past week, to make life a little easier for those who are embarking on a Low FODMAP plan.

The first thing I have to say is that FODMAPs can be confusing. Different resources will tell you different things. I decided to commit to one resource and then let my body feedback the rest.

I used the IFM Low FODMAP food plan.

Low FODMAP 1 LOW FODMAP 2

The way I approached it was as follows:

  • I went through the food plan and write down a list of everything I could eat based on the foods I frequently buy and was already eating
  • I then went through a list of the foods highlighted in orange and wrote down any I was already eating and noted the portion size I should limit myself to if I was going to still include it.
  • Most of “orange foods” I was happy to exclude but I still wanted to include some quinoa, sesame and sunflower seeds (for my seed cycling regime), avocado and I had already had some hummus and beans in the cupboard that I needed to use.
  • I then photographed the list to keep on my phone so if I find myself at the supermarket or at a restaurant I can double check what I should buy or what I need to avoid.
IMG_20170310_165144

This was my list before I added dairy; feta, haloumi and parmesan

I kept things simple.

I can be a creature of habit when it comes to food. So when I share my food diary, you will probably notice a lot of the same things repeating. I tend to eat a lot of the same and then get a bee in my bonnet about something new and eat a lot of that for a bit.

What I mostly tried to do is work with recipes I was already using and adapt them or just eat simple foods and make them tasty with lots of olive oil and lemon juice.

Although garlic and onion are to be excluded on a Low FODMAP diet a bought a garlic and onion salt to add flavour to dishes, which so far, I seem to be getting away with in small amounts. I don’t have any idea how these compare to normal onions and garlic so it might not mean that anyone following a low FODMAP diet would get away with them. As an alternative, you can infuse olive oil with garlic or add large chunks of onion to a dish and remove them after flavouring the oil.

IMG_20170315_123806

Day 1

IMG_20170309_073703-01

Breakfast

1 left over gluten free pork sausage, 2 eggs and 100g egg white. Spinach and Kale with olive oil, lemon juice and sumac

Lunch

Watercress, spinach and 1 tin of tuna in olive oil, 2 carrots and 2 tbsp hummus and left over black bean spaghetti

Dinner

Pan-fried Salmon, with courgetti sautéed in olive oil and parmesan

 

Day 2

IMG_20170315_080149-01

Breakfast

You’ll see my breakfast smoothie feature a lot. I love it! I have it after working out most mornings and I feel like I have perfected the recipe to get a great consistency. It is as follows:

  • 1 banana
  • 120-150g frozen raspberries
  • 5 ice cubes
  • 10g-15g maca powder
  • 150ml-200ml almond milk (I use the alpro almond milk which is slightly sweet)
  • 5g Ashwaganda Powder (I take this to support my adrenal glands, it is also good for the immune system and mitochondria)
  • 10g L-glutamine (great for healing the cells of the gut lining and also for the immune system)
  • 30g beef protein (I’m using this at the moment because I think I was reacting to whey)
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1 tbsp sunflower seeds or 1 tbsp flax and 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds depending on where I am in my cycle.

A malteser bunny (yep, it’s low FODMAP! A friend of mine was advised it was okay to eat maltesers on a Low FODMAP diet by an NHS dietican), not in the smoothie though, I had this later as a snack!

IMG_20170315_130637

Lunch

Watercress, spinach, quinoa and 1 tin of tuna in olive oil, 2 carrots and 2 tbsp hummus and left over black bean spaghetti

Dinner

Cod with sundried, anchovies, tomatoes, basil, lemon juice, parmesan, black venus rice, courgetti and olives pan-fried in olive oil

Day 3

IMG_20170311_115044-01

Breakfast

2 boiled eggs, 1 gluten free crumpet, 2 slices of panfried haloumi and a tbsp. avocado

Lunch

Protein pancakes: banana, chia, 20g oats, beef protein, cinnamon, cooked in coconut oil serves with raspberries, olive oil and chopped dark chocolate coated brazil nuts

Dinner

Thai takeaway - red curry with chicken and all the vegetables were low FODMAP

Day 4

Breakfast

Gluten free chicken sausages, 2 boiled eggs and greens with olive oil and lemon juice

Lunch

Popcorn at the cinema - it was a Sunday :)

Dinner

Pan-fried steak in olive oil with spinach, mushrooms, creams, black rice

 

Day 5

Breakfast

Protein smoothie & 2 squares of 90% dark chocolate and 1 tbsp tahini

Lunch

Watercress, spinach, 50g black rice and 1 tin of tuna, 1 tbsp olive oil. lemon juice, sumac and 30g of haloumi

1/2 red pepper and 1 tbsp hummus

Dinner

Mince cooked in coconut oil, cajun spice, smoked paprika and tinned tomatoes. I had great intentions of bulking it out with carrots, celery, mushrooms and courgette before I realised I had finished them off so I added in 50g of cold quinoa instead. It was simple, yet delicious with the spices and you can always add more greens or courgetti

 

Day 6

On day 6 I had the same smoothie, but, because I had been running that morning I felt incredibly hungry so went in for a second breakfast of gluten free crumpets, butter, marmite, a sprinkling of parmesan and 2 boiled eggs. This is my favourite treat breakfast!

IMG_20170314_095323-01

Then at lunch time I was back on the tuna salads just using up bits left in the fridge however, I managed to take a photograph this time, yet in doing so, completely forgot to scrunch up my green leaves in the olive oil and lemon juice. This time I added some romaine lettuce instead of spinach and finished off the last of the kale and watercress.

Although this salad looks pretty sparce, the following Low FODMAP items could have been used to make it more colourful and filling:

  • grated carrot
  • cucumber
  • micro-greens
  • peppers
  • radishes
  • tomatoes
  • 2T of Avocado
  • Nuts and seeds such as pumpkin, walnuts, pecans, brazils or macadamia nuts (always quite nice if you toast them first before throwing into a salad)
  • A little feta or hard cheese
  • I sometimes also like sliced grapes or blueberries in a salad, these are also low FODMAP options

IMG_20170314_140349-01

Dinner

For dinner that night I had the same cod dish again. But this time I managed to photograph it. It’s so easy to do, you just blitz up some sundried tomatoes, parmesan, lemon juice, basil, a couple of anchovies and sumac, smear it on the cod and bake for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees

IMG_20170314_174629-01

This was served with some vegetables with I essentially just stir fried up in olive oil…

IMG_20170314_175323-01

Day 7

The final day was smoothie again plus 2 pieces of 90% dark chocolate and 2 sliced of haloumi cheese (bit random but that was it)

For lunch I had left over cod with a side salad of romaine lettuce, olive oil, quinoa, my 2 tbsp allowance of avocado and some red pepper slices…. oh and another Malteser bunny :)

IMG_20170315_124253

Dinner

Finally dinner was a beef dish I had made in the slow cooker the previous day using the following:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cajun spice

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1kg diced organic stewing steak

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

400g carrots, chopped

5 celery stalks, chopped

I basically just browned the steak in a pan with olive oil and spices and then threw it all in the slow cooker for 8 hours (you could even do this overnight).

Day 8

As I didn’t go to the gym today, I had a lower carb breakfast of heck chicken sausages, scrambled eggs and egg white, final bits of salad left in the fridge (food delivery comes today) and I later treated myself to an Om Bar chocolate from the health food shop when I went to my ceramics lesson.

Lunch was another tuna salad with freshly delivered greens (watercress, lambs lettuce, spinach and broccoli sprouts), carrots, hummus, tuna, olive oil and lemon juice.

The day was finished off with left overs from the slow cooked beef recipe the day before.

IMG_20170316_133038 IMG_20170316_074300-01

And that brings me to the end of my week (+one day) following a low FODMAP diet.

I must say, I had perhaps suspected it was something I may benefit from for a while. But I wasn’t prepared to full commit to it because, ultimately, it meant the effort of changing my routine.

I am amazing at how easy it became even after a few days because I put a little effort in at the beginning to work out what I needed to do and get organised.

Finally, I would also say, my digestion has calmed down massively over the past week and it’s lovely not to go to bed in the evening with a slightly distended belly.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

My Gut: The Story

The other day, on Facebook, I posted a picture of my little face surrounded by some supplements.

I commented that I had recently obtained the results of my stool test and was working on my digestive health. Since the middle of January I have been writing and “vlogging” via Facebook Live about digestive health, specifically looking at the link between digestive imbalances and weight loss.

Although I’m not struggling with weight loss, I think I have been in denial about some ongoing digestive issues and I am only really putting all the pieces of the puzzle together now.

Since I posted the picture I have had a few people reach out to me asking questions about what test I did, the supplements I am taking and the reasons why. I have mentioned bits and bobs but I wanted to build up the whole story for the main reason being, this is what I do with my clients.

I build up a whole picture of what is going on. I don’t deal in little bits here and there.

I couldn’t really decide where this story began.

The truth is, if you really think about it, it began when I began, which was in my mom’s belly.

But I will spare you all the details, although I will warn you that this will be longer than some of my previous posts. But I’ll do my best to not faff about with every little detail.

So grab your reading glasses and a cup of tea and enjoy.

 

The Back Story

My whole life I have struggled with my energy on and off. For the purposes of keeping things simple, I was in and out of hospitals from a young age. I had a hole in my ear drum which was eventually patched up by taking some skin from behind by earlobe. Before that however, I had multiple surgeries in an attempt to rectify the problem. This meant multiple surgeries back in the day when they put the anaesthetic over your mouth instead of in a vein (crucial point to remember later).

This was followed by the separation of my parents at age 7. At age 9 we shared a home with family friends who were immigrating to the US therefore became a temporary blended family for a couple of months, which I found quite stressful. After this point I was diagnosed with inflammation of the kidneys, nephritis, and put on daily medication (another point to remember later).

Additionally I was told to eat a high carbohydrate diet to “keep my energy up”, which ended up in donuts, crisps and ice cream and me gaining 2 stone in a couple of months, fast forwarding into early puberty.

I am still not 100% convinced about this diagnosis. But it happened. I was 9 at the time so I can’t remember much about it apart from that.

I don’t really remember much about my digestion growing up. It’s not really something you are very aware of but I do remember enough that definitely as a teenager there were some imbalances.

I now know that any of the following may impact the gut:

  • Diet (low fibre, high in refined carbohydrates and sugars)
  • Alcohol
  • Stress
  • Medications

All of which I had plenty of exposure to, apart from the alcohol, before I even hit double digits.

 

My First Experience of IBS

I guess my first experience of what one would call IBS was when I moved to London in 2008.

I have written and vlogged about this several times now, so without trying to flog a dead horse, a huge amount of stress and poor diet caused me many digestive symptoms which were quite severe for 6 months. I managed to bring them under better control with diet and supplements after which they niggled on and off thereafter.

At the end of 2008 I had a laporoscopy to look for endometriosis after experiencing severe pre-menstrual symptoms as a result of said lifestyle stress. The laporoscopy came back clear, but it was yet another surgery in addition to having my appendix removed in 2006.

I found my transition to making my way and completing my studies in the UK stressful on many different levels. I could go into many details of this experience but one that sticks so clearly in my mind is walking up a flight of stairs at the gym I was working in one day, foggy, bloated and exhausted and wondering how I was going to keep on keeping on. I would struggle to go out with friends in the evenings as I was just too tired to stay out late and I could easily spend my Sunday feeling like I had been hit by a bus.

In 2009 I eventually started seeing a Nutritionist myself who encouraged me to do adrenal testing which showed my adrenal function was one nice flat line (see below).

adrenal-test-2009

 

This was the consequence of many aspects of my lifestyle, a very stressful relationship causing me a huge amount of anxiety, burning the candle at both ends with work and study, sub-optimal diet and exercise practises (too much exercise and not enough good quality food).

And so began what in my mind was a 2-3 year journey to getting my energy back.

It was not achievable all at once. There were many layers of change that needed to happen and with each layer came an additional benefit. The major themes of these layers revolved around the following:

  • End negative and unsupportive relationships
  • Find a place to live where I feel safe and at ease
  • Find a way to better balance working hours with time to rest and recover
  • Cultivate happy and healthy relationships and become part of a like-minded community
  • Address energy balance between food and exercise (eat to fuel my bodies needs and let go of the need to do so much intense training)

The final pieces of that puzzle which came towards the end were meeting my amazing husband who is just one big ball of happiness and love but also the biggest support and rock in my life. Then creating a change and moving to the sea to have a greater sense of space and connection with nature.

All in all this took about 5 years.

I wanted to say this because health is a journey. You cannot unravel what you have been tangling up across years and years in 12 weeks. I’m not “lucky” to have the life I live now, there is no luck. I made it myself, including all the things that are not “perfect” yet.

 

More Recent Challenges

Since myself and Ben moved to Bournemouth I took my business online and created the my LTL coaching program to help women lose weight using the principles of Functional Medicine and mostly, by giving them permission to love themselves.

In doing so I created more flexibility and freedom in my day. But for anyone who runs their own business will know, it is fricken hard work.

I started to re-experience some digestive troubles shortly after our move. Although the move was a positive one, there was probably some stress involved relating to change.

This was mostly cleared up by a course of anti-microbials and fermented foods, hence my obsessive preaching about their benefits.

However, the problems returned mid-way through 2015 and I started to dig a little deeper.

The symptoms, if you must know, were smelly gas and lose stools. I would also sometimes be affected by urgency when all of a sudden I would need to find a bathroom, immediately! It is embarrassing to write this all down and admit these things even though when my clients tell me about their symptoms I am completely unphased.

It does occur to me now that these symptoms were not new symptoms. They had probably come and gone from time to time even when I was in South Africa. But their severity and frequency were mild and far between suggesting the imbalance was perhaps already there, but environmental factors (stress) were exacerbating it.

I did some investigating and I had a gluten sensitivity test done with Cyrex who test 20 different proteins associated with wheat and gluten. All came back negative.

Gluten was not the problem. But what was?

Eventually my symptoms were resolved on their own by fasting.

I experimented for one week with only eating two meals per day. About 1000 calories at breakfast at 8:30am and another 1000 calories at 5:30pm. If I could guess why this worked I would say that reduced meal frequency allowed the digestive system to rest between meals and therefore perhaps reduced inflammation and allowed for healing.

This is but a guess.

All was mostly well moving forward with the occasional incidences of urgency, particularly if I went running and this was aggravated by being out of routine (jet lag, foreign travel and not eating my usual foods).

Now here is the funny thing.

Last year September was 2 years since I had started my online business. I had 2 staff members as well as outsourced services and everything was running just fine. There was some money in the bank, things were ticking over, I wasn’t particularly busy or stressed out.

And yet, in this time I started to feel increasingly exhausted.

I lost my mojo.

I didn’t want to go to the gym, my digestion was getting worse again, I had no energy, my neck ached ever hour of the day. I was sleeping enough and felt tired all the time.

I remember going out for breakfast with Ben one Sunday morning. Where we lived you couldn’t go anywhere without walking downhill which meant to get home, everywhere was up hill! All I wanted to do was have Ben pick me up and carry me home, I couldn’t even face the uphill walk.

So I did all the things I knew how to do.

  • Stripped back on exercise.
  • I took a week off the gym, stopped running and just did a little yoga and walking.
  • I had some acupuncture
  • Ate well
  • Meditated every day for 7 weeks
  • Had Epsom salt baths
  • Made sure I got enough sleep
  • Took some supplements to support my adrenal glands

And it did help a bit.

I felt better but I didn’t feel at my best.

And then we moved house – which was actually pretty straight forward and not that stressful – and I went to Bali to stay with one my best friends. I thought I was going to get to Bali and just collapse, but actually, in Bali I felt much better.

You could say it was the sunshine or the company but actually, at the time I was also launching the Sustainable Slim Down and when I think about it now, I was probably riding high on the adrenalin that comes with pushing a launch.

And when I came back to the UK I felt okay too. But my digestion was off again and slowly before I knew it, my energy was gone again.

 

This is what inflammation feels like

What I noticed was that when I was tired, run down or gave myself space to relax, I didn’t feel well.

I had what I call feelings of inflammation (which are very similar to feeling hungover); achy, tired, headachy, foggy brain. All those non-specific symptoms which could really mean anything. I would even sometimes feel like this the day after a really hard workout, it went over and above just have some DOMS.

So enough was a enough and I invested just shy of £300 in the GI Map by Invivo Clinical.

10 days ago I got the results.

And what did they say?

Bacteria Infection

I have a bacterial infection called Clostridium Difficile Toxin A. C.Diff can be present in some people who are symptom free. It can also be present in some individuals and cause life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Common symptoms include diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain and cramping.

Exposure to C.Diff is often via hospitals (which I was in and out of at least once each decade of my life, not to mention a lot in the first 10 years of my life). Antibiotics increases risk of C.Diff infection, I had a lot of antibiotics and medications as a child which could potentially have increased susceptibility. Who knows when or where the infection started. It doesn’t matter so much but it’s interesting to see the links given my history.

 

Inflammation

What was also present was an increase in Calprotectin. This is a marker of inflammation. Very high levels can be associated with irritable bowel disease, such as colitis, and bowel cancer. My levels were raised, which would make sense in the context of C.Diff, but not enough for me to worry too much about IBD or Cancer.

 

sIgA

I had low levels of the gut immunoglobulin Secretory IgA (sIgA). sIgA is one of the first lines of defence in the gut immune system. It is elevated in the presence of infection to help the body fight it off. If for whatever reason, the body is not able to clear the infection, it may fall low over time. Low levels have been associated with stress as well as intense emotions such as anger.

Before I knew I had this infection, I was pretty certain my sIgA would be low. I, like many people, spend a lot of time in my sympathetic nervous system. Although I have made many changes to spend less time in stress, it is continuous work in progress to rewire my nervous system against the norm I once created for myself.

 

My Interpretation

The rest was mostly normal and my gliadin IgA (an immunoglobulin against gluten) came back as normal so I was pretty happy that I don’t feel like I need to remove gluten strictly from my diet and also that there was congruencey against previous testing.

The following is my interpretation of the information above so please do not hold this to be 100% scientific truth. It is supposition until proven otherwise.

I am not sure when I initially picked up this infection, but when I reflect on some of my symptoms, some of them I have been having for years. Of course they could be due to other causes and I am pretty sure the worst IBS which I experienced when I first moved to the UK was probably due to other things which have since cleared and/or rebalanced

Being the robust, young and health conscious woman I am, in times when I wasn’t under too much stress, I took a holiday, there was sunlight (vitamin D is great for the immune system), I am eating and sleeping well I had the resilience to mostly be unaffected by the infection.

If I travelled, ate differently, lacked sleep or was exposed to different time zones, jet lag, my resilience was low and therefore my immune system wasn’t able to keep things in check.

Who knows how long my sIgA has been low for and who knows how much it is able to fluctuate based on the above?

When I have taken probiotics, used fasting protocols and fermented foods, all of these have helped to improve resilience and reduce inflammation, but not necessarily enough to clear the infection as a whole.

What you may have gathered from what I have already said about gut health is inflammation in the gut = inflammation in the body.

This is then responsible for producing systemic symptoms whatever they may be. In my case:

  • Foggy brain
  • Lethargy and fatigue
  • Headaches
  • Achy body
  • PMS
  • Low mood
  • Feelings of hangover

When I am running on adrenalin and excited about work tasks or pushing myself in the gym, and doing my busy body whirl wind thing, I feel good because I am artificially pushing up my cortisol levels.

Cortisol is a stress hormone, it is also one of the body’s most powerful anti-inflammatories. Which is therefore, able to keep systemic inflammation in check. When I get run down, and I can’t sustain that high cortisol output, or if I relax and cortisol is naturally lower, what happens?

What I call, hit like a bus syndrome.

So what is the solution here?

There are a few things that need rebalancing:

  • Gut health obviously: clear the infection, reduce the inflammation and increase sIgA to prevent future infection or recurrence. Keep good bacteria up.

This is the easy bit.

The second bit is.

  • Rebalance the lifestyle: work on the busy body, A-Type personality behaviour and calm down.

This is the biggest challenge for me, because it actually involved rewiring my brain and creating a new way of being.

So what now?

I’ve bought a whole bunch of supplements as you may have seen.

16806712_1410686695629328_4821877771585220301_n

These include:

  • Saccharomyces Boullardi which has been shown to be beneficial in C.Diff and may also increase sIgA
  • Vitamin A which is shown to increase sIgA
  • Anti-microbials: garlic, oregano, berberine and grapeseed. I actually couldn’t find any research to support any of these as being effective with C.Diff but I have noticed a benefit taking these in the past when I was just guessing. So I thought I’d give them a go. The garlic capsules weren’t so fun this morning when I was practising handstands with garlic burps in the gym! Ben who was working away all week also came home and told me I stink. So I apologise to anyone who I’ve affected by my garlicky presence this week, it’s just for 1 more week!
  • Inflammatone: a combination of anti-inflammatory nutrients such as ginger, curcumin, boswellia and quercitin

One of the consequences of all of the above is malabsorption. Not being able to absorb nutrients from the diet. So I am also taking

  • Zinc: due to white spots on finger nails
  • B-vitamins: due to geographic tongue, longitudinal fissure (the “denty” bit in the middle) and scalloping of the tongue (curvy bits on the outer edges), all of which can be signs of B-vitamin deficiencies and inflammation. See below (I am really sorry but there is no “pretty way” to photograph your tongue) The geographic tongue is actually something I knew about last year after a trip to the dentist. I couldn’t get my head around why I would be low in nutrients considering my diet, I was in complete denial of any link between my gut and absorption issues.
  • Multi-vitamins: just to cover the bases
  • Magnesium: because it’s good for everything especially sleep and I could do with better sleep.

1488561779065

General Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Please note, this is all on top of an anti-inflammatory diet. I am fortunate that my diet is good, really good. I am in a much better position to really notice the benefit of the supplements because I am not also learning how to eat well. Sometimes I have client who need to learn just to eat better and many of their symptoms may naturally improve before they’ve spent any money on supplements.

I do feel that my general diet and self-care have protected me against bigger and more complex issues.

I eat almost zero processed food (apart from some treats), plenty of fish & poultry, vegetables, gluten free grains, minimal dairy and added sugar, dark chocolate and homemade fermented foods. What you see on social media is what I eat. The bits that don’t get photographed just don’t look that pretty on the plate but it’s all good stuff.

In addition to the supplements already listed, I also add herbal adaptogens to support my adrenal glands into my morning smoothies, this includes:

  • Maca
  • Rhodiola
  • Holy Basil
  • Ashwaghanda

IMG_20170206_100845_366

 

What am I hoping for from here?

Well I have only been taking my supplements for the past week so I will have to write an update in a few weeks time. So far, my digestion is working really well, but I won’t hold my breath as I know it can do this from time to time and then act up again.

My energy is still a bit up and down. I started with my supplements on Monday afternoon and 24 hours later I was feeling really grumpy and really angry (like wanting to put a pillow over my face and scream kinda angry), which is not an emotion I often experience. I then did a meditation and cried proper sobbing tears. So I am not sure if that is a bit of “healing” going on and it will settle down in time or if I am just bonkers or something else.

We’ll see.

I am however, hoping for the following:

  • Better and more consistent energy and less symptoms of systemic inflammation, essentially mental clarity and like I am thriving, not just surviving
  • Better digestive symptoms; no cramping, loose stools, gas or bloating
  • Improved pre-menstrual symptoms and more consistent mood at that time of the month
  • A calmer, happier and more loving approach to everything in my life

For the exact supplement protocol I will continue with the Saccharomyces, Inflammatone, B-vitamins, Vitamin A and Zinc for the next 3 months. I will do the anti-microbials in high does for 2 weeks and then probably take some probiotics after that. I’ll keep note of my symptoms and hope to retest in 3 months time.

So that is it.

If you have any further questions, more so specifically about working with myself on a similar journey, then please be advised that I take on new clients by application only. You can complete an application here or here or email me with a specific query here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Stance on Dairy

I recently wrote about whether or not we should all be avoiding gluten. If you missed it, you can find it here - I knew this would be a topic that a lot of people have questions about.

But today I write about the next piece of the puzzle, I wanted to talk dairy.

Gluten and dairy are two of the common foods that are often eliminated when someone has digestive issues. They are the main two foods, along with sugar and alcohol, that I ask my client’s to eliminate when they follow my gut reset protocol (others can be eggs, legumes, shellfish and seafood).

Just like gluten, reactions to dairy can vary depending on the person and what is going on inside the donut hole. So again, I’d like to clear a little bit of that up and explain my stance on dairy in the diet.

An important thing to remember is that to make information easy to understand, at times I have to over-simplify and generalise. When I work with my clients, I have the opportunity to know more about them, their health history, current habits, medications, stress levels, likes, dislikes, budget and goals. All of this is considered when making a final recommendation.

Lactose Intolerance

One of the common issues with dairy is lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar molecule found in dairy. Intolerance is due to the inability to digest lactose due to an inability to produce lactase, the enzyme for lactose digestion. This means that undigested lactose passes to the colon where it can cause bloating, diarrhoea, nausea and gas.

Lactose intolerance is not an immune mediated response to dairy. Failure to digest lactose can be due to:

  • genetics, where no lactose is made from birth
  • Poor enzyme production which occurs with age
  • Inflammation and damage to the small intestine as we may see in dysbiosis, for example, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

Poor tolerance of lactose may therefore stem from the common triggers of dysbiosis; poor diet, stress, alcohol, infections, medications, antibiotics, oral contraceptive pill etc.

If lactose intolerance is not genetic, it could potentially be reverse or improved by re-establishing the bacterial balance within the gut and supporting with digestive enzymes including lactase.

Immune-Mediated Reactions (Dairy Sensitivity)

It is important at this point to understand that dairy is made up not only of the sugar component, lactose, but also protein components such as whey and casein and fat components.

It is typically the lactose which may cause problems with intolerance and casein (and sometimes whey) which may be the culprit in immune mediated reactions to dairy.

Immune mediated reactions are reactions which happen in the blood stream. In other words, not in the donut hole.

In order for an immune mediated reaction to occur the intestinal membrane must be leaky. A leaky gut allows proteins to pass into the blood stream.

A leaky gut is associated with dysbiosis and inflammation.

Therefore, immune mediated reactions to casein or whey, require an imbalanced gut.

Therefore, these reactions are a symptoms of the problem, not the problem itself.

The real problem is an imbalanced digestive system.

Immune mediated reactions to dairy may only be temporary, provided we can rebalance the gut environment, reduce inflammation and heal to gut wall (easier said than done).

How would you know you are reacting to dairy?

Apart from experiencing obvious digestive symptoms after consumption, immune mediated reactions to any foods, not just dairy, may also be responsible for extra-intestinal symptoms, systemic symptoms associated with inflammation.

  • Joints that ache
  • Auto-immune conditions
  • PMS
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Skin complaints
  • Asthma
  • Anxiety, depression, changes in mood
  • Non-specific symptoms like foggy brain or fatigue

Although testing is available, the most reliable (and cost effective) assessment is a trial removal for 4 weeks during which you apply the principles of the 5 R Program (Remove, replace, reinoculated, repair, rebalance), and then reintroduce dairy to note any return of symptoms.

It is important to understand that not all dairy products are made equal:

  • Butter, ghee and double cream may contain minimal amounts of dairy proteins and sugars and may well be tolerated
  • Hard cheese may be higher in dairy proteins and fats and contain minimal lactose
  • Softer cheeses, milk and yoghurts may be higher in lactose
  • Fermented yoghurts and milk kefir may be lower in lactose and therefore tolerate

Therefore, when reintroducing dairy products I always recommend this is done in a structured way to assess what “class” of dairy could still be included in the diet.

Reactions to dairy do not necessarily means that dairy needs to be excluded life long.

Working on digestive health and establishing which forms of dairy work best for your body, may mean that you can safely reintroduce dairy back into your diet. For the most part, this rests on restoring digestive balance:

  • Optimising the balance of bacteria in the gut: probiotics, fermented foods and a diverse plant based diet
  • Ensuring healthy gut membranes: bone broths, vitamin A, D, E and L-glutamine
  • Minimising inflammation: omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin A, D E, diverse plant based diet, turmeric, ginger, bromelain
  • Ensuring a positive gut immune system: probiotics, saccharomyces boullardi, prebiotic fibre, vitamin A, zinc carnosine, L-glutamine, colostrum, stress management

Other Considerations on Dairy

Gut health aside, one of the concerns with dairy is the Insulin-Like-Growth-Factors and in some cases hormones that may be found in non-organic produce. I usually recommend clients who are experiencing any hormone imbalances, including acne, to be mindful of their dairy intake irrespective of gut health.

In this case, choosing organic dairy where ever possible should be high on the priority list and perhaps not relying too heavily of dairy as a staple, but finding alternative foods to meet their need.

Concerns About Calcium

The concern for many when it comes to avoiding dairy is calcium intake. Many people perceive dairy to be the best source of calcium in the diet, which isn’t actually true.

The following foods all contain more calcium per 100g than the equivalent amount (100ml) of milk.

In mg/100g:

Kelp 1093

Collard Greens 250

Kale 249

Turnips 246

Almonds 234

Parsley 203

Brazil nuts 186

Watercress 151

Sunflower seeds 120

Eating 100g of kale per day, would give approximately the same amount of calcium per day as a 250ml glass of milk.

My Personal Stance on Dairy

At home, we tend to keep dairy to a minimum. The main reason being we choose to get our calories from sources that offer better nutrition (more nutrients for calorie content) and I do have some hormonal symptoms I manage through diet - more information on how I do this in my Happy Hormones Ebook.

I personally don’t drink milk or eat yoghurt. I use nut milks to add to smoothies and coffee.

We do take dairy in small amounts from organic butter, feta cheese and parmesan. We usually go through a 100-200g bar of feta cheese and 50-100g of parmesan per week between two.

Butter seems to last for ever as the primary added fat in my diet is olive oil due to it’s health benefits. At times I also use coconut oil for cooking and other seed oils like avocado or walnut.

I do use an organic whey protein from Pulsin in my smoothies on a weekly basis.

I often recommend to clients they switch up their protein powders, for example, use a rice protein for a week, then a whey protein for a week, then a pea protein for a week and so on.

I must admit, despite my best efforts, this is something I have struggled to do myself because I just love the taste and texture of the Pulsin Whey.

However, more recently I have switched to an unflavoured Beef protein from Bulk Powders which has been an ample substitute. This has mostly been motivated by some digestive issues which I have been having (I intend to share more on this soon).

 

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.

 

 

 

 

To Gluten or Not to Gluten?

I am wrapping up the final couple of weeks of the digestive health series. Over the past 5 weeks I’ve written to my mailing list about the link between digestive health and systemic health, specifically weight.

Gluten is obviously a hot topic when it comes to digestive health.

When I completed my first degree in Nutritional Therapy in 2009 there was limited research out there on gluten and gut health. Now this is the biggest booming area of research and there are new studies being published every day.

So, I hope you will appreciate that this is a massive topic and I am really just trying to wittle it down to simple basics, that our easy for the general public to understand and most importantly, implement, so that it actually makes a difference!

Over the course of this series we looked at sensitivities and intolerances. Sensitivities are immune mediated reactions to food and intolerances are “in the gut” (aka inside the hole of the donut) reactions.

Reactions to gluten can happen due to either, for different reasons.

When most people think of gluten they think of Celiac Disease.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where the body produces anti-bodies to gluten (found in gluten containing grains; wheat, rye, barley spelt etc.), specifically the gliadin protein found in gluten. Classic symptoms include gastrointestinal problems such as chronic diarrhoea, abdominal distention and malabsorption resulting in nutrient defiencies (calcium, vitamin D, Iron, Zinc, Selenium & Copper) and weight loss and fatigue.

Diagnosis for celiac is based on the following:

  • IgA and TTG Antibodies
  • Deaminated antigliadin IgA
  • Total IgA
  • Anti-endomysial Antibodies

And the confirmation with biopsy.

Finally, with auto-immunity there are usually 3 things that are required. A genetic predisposition and an environment which loads the gun and a trigger which sets the immune system off.

Celiac disease is associated with HLA DQ2 and DQ8 genotypes.

Celiac patients tend to have one or both of these genes, however, having one of both of these does not mean you may every present with celiac disease, but given the right environment and triggers, you might.

By environment and triggers we would be looking at anything that disrupts the balance within the body and the gut specifically; a diet high in processed carbohydrates, low in fibre, alcohol, medications, antibiotics, NSAIDS, Oral Contraceptive Pill, Stress, Infections etc.

All of these things can set the stage for poor digestive health, and with it, provided you have the genotype, you could develop celiac disease.

[As a side note: I often see people on Facebook complaining that they are being asked to eat gluten by their doctor to be tested for celiac. A work around, if you know you feel better without gluten and don’t want to eat it again before testing, is to opt for the HLA DQ2 and 8 testing.

This will indicate a genetic predisposition to celiac and if you have this gene. GI symptoms AND feel better off gluten, you tell me what you think?

Personally I would much rather at this point be investing time money and energy into establishing what’s going on in your gut via a stool test than bothering with a celiac diagonsis. The reason being you can rebalance as much damage as possible to ensure good absorption of nutrients and less inflammation]

However, some people do not have HLA DQ2 or DQ8 and yet they know, they just feel better when they don’t eat gluten. What is that about?

A few things…

Firstly, many gluten containing foods are also high FODMAP foods. FODMAP stands for Fructose, Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monoamines and Polyols. No you can see why we just call these foods FODMAPS!

FODMAPS are types of foods which are highly susceptible for fermentation in the upper GI tract, especially when there is bacterial overgrowth, and can therefore cause symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation diarrhoea, stomach pains and pretty much all the symptoms we would associate with IBS.

Therefore, even if you aren’t a celiac, but you have some imbalances in the GI tract (created by the same environmental triggers as already discussed), you may be affected by FODMAPS and therefore think that it is a gluten problem, when it’s more of a dysbiosis and FODMAP problem.

In this case, following a 5 R protocol to rebalance the bacteria and removing FODMAPS in the short term (not a life long requirement), may mean you can still eat small amounts of gluten in your diet in the future.

Rebalancing the gut flora and healing the gut is important in this case.

Then we have NCGS.

Non-Celiac-Gluten-Sensitivity

There isn’t really a good test for diagnosing this. But what we might find is someone just feels better off gluten when all celiac tests (listed above) come back negative.

Often, NCGS is associated with systemic symptoms:

  • Joints that ache
  • Auto-immune conditions
  • PMS
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Skin complaints
  • Asthma
  • Anxiety, depression, changes in mood
  • Non-specific symptoms like foggy brain or fatigue
  • And so on…

When gluten is removed from the diet, the person feels better.

When they add gluten back in, the person feels worse.

The best test for NCGS is exactly that, remove gluten from your diet for 28 days.

Preferably in this time do some of the 5R steps to rebalance the gut, or address any underlying imbalanced revealed after stool testing.

The re-introduce gluten and see how you do.

If you notice anything change systemically, I guess then you decide if it’s worth it to keep it in your diet or not.

What is my opinion on gluten and what do I tell my clients to do?

Well, if budget was no issue I would advise everyone to get a stool test. Literally as I was writing this I was emailed the results of my own stool test which I just did on myself. So interesting and it has definitely given me some stuff I need to address.

Stool testing doesn’t necessarily give you information about how your body will handle gluten in the long term, but it can show you what environmental triggers are out of whack, which, if you rebalance them, may give you a better chance of including gluten in your diet and not reacting to it, provided you are not celiac.

If budget is an issue then I think a 28 day elimination of gluten can be a good thing to do at some point in time, just to see.

I have a gut reset protocol which I use with my clients and tweak it according to the person, sometimes it also includes giving up dairy and FODMAPS and we add supplements as appropriate.

Many of my clients find they lose weight really effectively when following this protocol and of course, notice positive changes in digestion and health. This is one of my clients who was working with me to lose weight and improve her digestion, after years and years of problems.

Post Gut Reset

What is my personal approach to gluten in my own diet?

I have personally done two gluten tests in the past couple of years. One was a test offered by Cyrex which tested 20 different proteins associated with wheat and gluten. All came back negative.

My most recent stool test showed a normal Anti-Gliadin IgA.

Despite both of these normal results I still personally follow what I term a “Gluten Light” diet. What this means to me is I don’t buy gluten containing foods at home.

95% of our meals are made from whole and single ingredient foods. The other 5% being chocolate, cheese, edamame noodles and the occasional bolognaise sauce from Mr Organic :)

But if I go out for breakfast and I have a piece of toast with my eggs and avocado, it’s not a problem. If I fancy a cake, I often choose the gluten free option, but if it’s not available or there is something else I prefer, I have that. I enjoy the bread and olive oil if we go out for dinner (which isn’t often).

So I mostly stay gluten free and don’t sweat the small stuff.

I also work on creating that beneficial internal environment – fermented foods, anti-inflammatory herbs and spices, colourful veggies, chewing and stress management and self care!

So I know this has been a little long today, but these was a lot to cover and I hope you enjoyed the read and it’s given you some food for though (excuse the pun), when it comes to your thoughts and relationship with gluten.

If you are interested in both losing weight and restoring your digestive health, well, you know where I am!

 

 

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 is a time 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.

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 to Ditch the New Year Detox

I stood in front of the fridge downing a glass of grape juice. I don’t know how many glasses of grape juice I had had that day, but it was a few.

It was day 3 of my 5 day detox and I was only allowed to drink the juice of one fruit of my choice for a whole day. I had noticed that I was less bloated and my legs looked slimmer and I certainly felt very virtuous having committed to only eating fruits and vegetables the past 2 days.

But apart from that, I can’t say it was really that useful.

I was 17 at the time. I didn’t know any better.

I was literally just following the instructions from a book that I bought at the local book store.

Sure I felt good about myself now but this approach to eating was not going to really make any significant impact on my health or weight. I wasn’t creating sustainable habits that would last me a lifetime.

I had no exit strategy.

In fact, by the following week I would be doing as I always did.

It would probably take me another 13 years, 3 degrees and countless continuing professional development and self experimentation before I actually worked out what a healthy balanced diet and relationship with food looked like for me and what I want my body to be able to do.

In November I wrote a series on balancing hormones naturally. You’ll find most of this series on the blog. I actually wrote this blog about detoxification at the time and yet it seems very fitting that I should bring it back to life this time of year.

 

Detoxification is something that so many people get so wrong.

It’s that time of year where the health industry will be trying to sell you the idea of a “detox” or a “cleanse”.

No matter who is selling it to you, these tend to be the common ingredients:

  • Low calorie
  • Low protein & fat
  • Likely to lack solids or large amounts of liquids - juices/smoothies/soups
  • May involve shakes, pills or supplements
  • May involve missing meals or fasting

I wanted to set the record straight and talk about why this approach may actually hinder detoxification, not support it and then, we can look at solutions to set you up for an awesome 2017!

 

Ditch the Detox Reason 1: Low Calorie Diets

Low calorie diets are a fantastic way to drop weight quickly. That includes water and muscle weight too.

You may feel great because you feel “like it is working” but perhaps you also feel not so great because your energy is low and cravings are through the roof! Restrictive behaviour is likely to create hunger, excessive hunger is likely to create binge behaviour.

Binge behaviour is likely to create self-loathing and lowered self esteem.

Additionally, calorie restriction is a stress on the body. Under-eating is the biggest stress that we faced as man-kind before we learnt how to farm. I would also add that detoxification is incredibly energetically expensive. You need to have energy to be able to detoxify. That isn’t going to happen if you are starving.

I understand that you might be keen to drop a few pounds and feel less bloated after Christmas. However, I would like to warn you that I have worked with so many women who are creating problems by their dieting behaviour in a pursuit for some self imposed body composition standard or magical number on the scale (and failing miserably!)

I prefer to get my client’s to lose weight in small energy deficits. This means that there is adequate energy for detoxification, hormonal balance, repair and recovery, good sleep and just every day living but, weight loss can still happen, just not at a million miles an hour (which increases the chances that it will actually stay off!).

Ditch the Detox Reason 2: Low Protein & Fat

We need to have enough fat in our diet to supply the building blocks for health hormonal balance, managing inflammation, making neurotransmitters, cell membranes and many other functions.

Dropping calories by cutting fat may set us up for health imbalances, if not now, but in the future.

Additionally, proteins are used to make enzymes.

We need enzymes to be able to detoxify.

Detoxification is taking something that is not useful to the body or needs to be recycled, changing it’s chemical structure and composition so that it can be excreted and then excreting it. ENZYMES do the changing chemical structure bit. Without them, you can’t do detoxification.

We get protein from our food, or we break down muscle tissue or gut lining or joint tissue or other fun stuff that you probably don’t want to be getting rid of, to supply it.

A low protein approach to detoxification just doesn’t work.

The final thing is, if you take out protein and you take out fat, that just leaves you with a pile of carbs.

Most women I work with have weight to lose. Having the majority of your diet from unopposed carbs (even if it is fruit and veg), is going to raise insulin and in doing so, potentially increase central weight gain.

Finally, fructose, the sugar found in fruit, is processed in the liver, as is any excess sugar that isn’t stored in muscle tissue. If the liver is busy processing all these fruit sugars and carbohydrates this will distract it from doing it’s other job, which is to detoxify.

Bottom line: A diet with balanced macros nutrients (proteins, carbs and fats) is for the most part beneficial compared to demonising one or any particular nutrient. In other words; when in doubt, go for balance.

Simple but effective.

Ditch the Detox Reason 3: Liquid Meals & Fasting

Now, liquid meals can actually be really great at times.

If you have digestive problems, having food which is already “chewed” so to speak, can be really helpful.

It ensures you have something that is easy on the digestive system and may help with nutrient availability.

However, living off liquid meals, especially if low in fat, protein (as already discussed) & fibre may have a negative impact on insulin levels meaning that you are more likely to crave sugar, gain weight around your mid-section and experience hormonal disruption.

Solids keep you fuller for longer.

Protein, fat and fibre do too.

Many people claim they feel “better” on a detox diet but is it because they are detoxing or is it because their digestion is working better?

When digestion is off, it is a huge drain on our immune system, selfishly pulling energy away from our brain.

So would we benefit from perhaps doing a “digestive reset” (something I advise all my clients to do), instead of a detox diet?

The next piece of the puzzle is fasting or missing meals.

Again, this is something that does have it’s place from time to time. I DO recommend:

  • a reduced meal frequency: 2-3 meals per day instead of 3 main meals and snacks
  • time restricted feeding: not eating very early and very late but allowing at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast

But…

This approach should NOT be combined with low calorie, low protein, low fat or liquid only diets.

 

Ditch the Detox Reason 4: Shakes, Supplements and Pills

Someone selling you some sort of product without talking to you about your current diet, your sleep, your stress, your exercise, your digestion and your ability to self care is just selling your something!

Supplements are what they say on the tin…

SUPPLEMENT-ARY to a foundation of good diet, getting enough sleep, attempts to manage stress, move your body, digest well and breathe!

Detoxification requires certain nutrients to support the “biochemical transformation” and there are certain supplements that can help, but food always comes first.

 

But I feel It Working!?

I know a lot of people will read this and think - I hear what you are saying, but, I’ve done a detox before and I felt it working?

Now I’ve already covered the “do you feel better because you are eating better and being kind to your digestion piece?

But sometimes people can also experience lethargy, headaches & weight loss and think they are detoxing.

If you are experiencing negative symptoms like headaches and fatigue, it could be that you are actually becoming more toxic.

As you shed some body fat with your calorie restricted approach you will likely also be liberating fat soluble toxins into circulation that create an extra burden on the body (a burden that you have limited resources with which to cope, due to said reasons above).

If you are experiencing weight loss, well, that’s great BUT you may likely be losing a lot of water, some muscle and yes, some fat too BUT is it sustainable and what happens afters?

If you have done a detox before, did you rebound after? If you didn’t, let me know.

As I have already eluded to above I did 2 when I was 17 which involved just eating fruit and vegetables and put the weight back on again within a week.

Detox is a life long journey. It’s not something that you achieve in 7 days of juicing or a 28 day sugar fast.

So in 2017, instead of jumping on to the next detox, juice fast or calorie-restrictive diet, what do you do?

Here’s what… Build Habits That You Can Sustain.

  1. Carbohydrate: Lower carbohydrate intake by focusing on root vegetables, plenty of greens and gluten free grains such as quinoa, buckwheat & brown rice. Limit fruit to 1-2 portions per day and if you really want a January kick-start maybe leave the grains and fruits out for the first week and pick them up in moderation from week 2.
  2. Protein: Increase lean proteins so that you are eating fish, poultry, venison and eggs at every meal. I recommend 1.5-2.0g/kg (or 0.75-1g per pound) of pure protein per day. Just start with a decent palm size portion and you will be fine!
  3. Fats: Add good fat to every meal and think Mediterranean; avocado, oily fish, nuts and seeds and olive oil. Ditch the fried foods & confectionery.
  4. Eat the rainbow; aim to get a variety of colourful vegetables every day
  5. Love your gut: Add fermented foods to your daily diet - choose from sauerkraut, kimchee, kefir or kombucha
  6. Reduce alcohol and drink more water, green or herbal tea and good quality coffee
  7. Move your body every day, even if it’s just a walk
  8. Make a habit of buying fresh produce, cook from scratch and prep in bulk to save time in the week
  9. Get outside more
  10. Meditate or pick an activity that helps you manage stress and do it daily!
  11. BONUS TIP: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Stop aiming for perfect, but just choose better and be more mindful as often as you can

And if you want to be guided through creating these changes one step at a time, there is always the Sustainable Slim Down! :)

The Sustainable Slim down is my online weight loss course that I created to help women form sustainable habits, one step at a time, to create healthy weight loss and an improved understanding of what it actually means to eat a balanced diet.

It is a database of the exact tools my high end coaching clients are using to drop pounds and inches (without restrictive or obsessive behaviour) and cultivate self love.

For more information and to claim the special New Years Offer (which ends at 11:59pm on January 1st!) Just follow the link…

 

sustai-1

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones Naturally: The Selfish Immune System

My previous post looked at loss of metabolic flexibility, created by poor food choices and not enough physical activity, and the potential influence this has on female hormones.

I finished off by saying that there was a final really interesting reason why this was the case…

I’d like to share that with you today.

 

So we were talking about metabolic flexibility and how a diet high in refined and processed carbohydrates and low in physical exercise can create an environment which disrupts female hormones.

I wanted to talk about something today which is your immune system or more specifically, if you read the title of this post – the selfish immune system.

Why is it selfish?

The body has 3 major systems which compete for energy.

  • The muscles
  • The brain
  • The immune system

As you can imagine, when one system is dominating, it pulls energy away from the others.

The immune system, when it is inactive, does not cost the body a lot of energy. However, get a virus or infection and how do you feel?

  • Foggy brain
  • Very tired
  • Aching muscles
  • Completely out of breath when you walk up even a small flight of stairs
  • Low in mood or even depression
  • Lacking in motivation

This is a classic example of the immune system pulling energy away from the brain and metabolic system.

Our survival relies on the immune system to create a large response to resolve a threat from a foreign invader.

Although we know that insulin resistance can develop across time from poor diet, stress and lifestyle choices, many do not know that we can become insulin resistant in any moment should we be exposed to an infection.

The evolutionary benefit of this is to prioritise all energetic resources to the immune system and therefore shut down systems which would otherwise compete for energy.

Wow. The body is an amazing thing!

Now here is the problem.

A lot of modern disease is not due to acute infection, but chronic (long term) activation of the immune system.

A lot of modern disease comes from what we call low-grade inflammation.

This means that the immune system is switched on, but it’s not the raging fire we get when we have a really bad bout of the flu or a stomach bug. It is smouldering under the surface at a level that most wouldn’t even realise is there because it is the new “normal”.

How does this smouldering start in the first place and what does this mean for your health, weight and hormones?

It always comes back to the same stuff:

  • Stress
  • Poor diet (too many refined carbohydrates and not enough beneficial fats, proteins and colourful veg)
  • Use of medications, pain killers, asthma pumps, oral contraceptives, ant-acid medications, antibiotics etc.
  • Poor digestive health (influenced by the poor diet, stress, medications)
  • Lack of physical exercise
  • Not enough sleep
  • Not enough time spent outdoors
  • Never experiencing evolutionary stressors; food is always available, if we get cold we turn the heating on, if we get hot we turn the air con on, drinking water 10 times a day
  • Disconnection / lack of physical touch / loneliness

A combination and any or all of the above is leading to chronic, low grade activation of the immune system that can create poor health.

This is why you cannot out exercise a bad diet.

And it might be worth doing some fasted exercise from time to time.

This is why stress management and prioritising basic needs like sleep and love are so important.

This is why “carbs are bad” and I am not a fan of low carb diets but I do think almost everyone needs to moderate their carbohydrate intake.

This is why you could take a walk on your lunch break.

This is why you could walk barefoot, go hiking and occasionally get an open wound or stung by some stinging nettles (it brings the immune system to the surface)

This is why you could stop being a body builder and trying to eat 6 times a day – 3 times is plenty – you don’t “need” to snack

This is why you could avoid using any medications unless absolutely necessary. A little pain won’t kill you, it will literally make you stronger (please do not take this as medical advice, always consult your doctor).

And all of the above helps to draw energy back into the metabolic system and the brain and away from a chronically activated immune system.

 

Which means…

  • Better metabolic flexibility and being able to use fat as fuel
  • Better satiety and feeling full after eating because energy is going to the brain
  • Lower insulin
  • Weight loss, especially central
  • And of course… better hormonal balance and everything that comes with that.

 

You are welcome

x

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones Naturally: Insulin Resistance & Metabolic Flexibility

I hope you enjoyed the previous two posts looking at detoxification.

Myself and my husband (Ben) are buying our very first home. We move in this week. EEK!

It is exciting to finally have somewhere to call our own. However, I love the flat we rent at the moment. It really feels like the first place I’ve truly been able to call “home” since leaving South Africa almost 9 years ago.

The good news is, I will no longer have a kitchen the size of a shoe box and there should be some scope to film some cooking videos to help you.

It does feel really unsettling to think about all the changes. And as much as I hate to admit it, I like change just as much as the next person.

Which is not very much.

One of the things I speak about a lot is the need to be flexible. A lot of people don’t realise how their mindset and approach to things is linked with their health.

Health is about metabolic flexibility – for the body to be able to use the right fuels at the right time. Loss of metabolic flexibility causes us to become sugar dominant and not able to burn fat as fuel (which means it gets stored around our belly).

Health is about immunological flexibility – we want the immune system to react when it’s appropriate.

At times this can be life saving!

But we do not want the immune system to be chronically active or attacking tissues as we may see in low grade inflammation which underpins all chronic disease – including female hormone issues like PCOS, Uterine Fibroids or Endometriosis.

If we are metabolically flexible we are more likely to immunologically flexible – so improving metabolic flexibility improves immunological balance and therefore hormonal balance.

And we can improve metabolic flexibility by being my psychologically flexible and this means…

Getting comfortable with change.

So as I prepare for a period of time where I am expecting to be completely ungrounded, I keep reassuring myself that I am improving my metabolism and immune system 😉

All jokes aside.

Let’s talk metabolic flexibility today and female hormones.

I’ve summarised what it means to be metabolically flexible in a nut shell, but let’s look at this a little more closely.

Sugar and Fat two of our three primary fuel sources. The third is phosphocreatine which is an immediate and very short term energy source, but I want to keep it simple so let’s stay focused on sugars and fats.

[disclaimer: I will oversimplify to keep it understandable]

One molecule of sugar gives us less energy but it produces energy very quickly. One molecule of fat gives us lots more energy, but it takes a little more time to create.

When we need energy to be supplied quickly (for example a 400m sprint) we rely mostly on sugars. When we need large amounts of energy but more long term (for example a marathon or a long hike) we rely more so on fats.

Being able to burn sugar for short duration high intensity activities and being able to go for a long time without food (and therefore burning body fat), represent good metabolic flexibility.

Being able to use both fuel as and when is appropriate.

Have you ever exercised first thing in the morning before you ate or drank anything and felt really low in energy or maybe your muscles felt sore, stiff and sluggish, maybe you even felt light headed or nauseous? Or…

Maybe you are ready to kill someone by the time lunch time appears in the office.

You need to have “snacks” available in case you get too hungry or should I say “hangry”.

Maybe you also…

Carry excess weight around your midsection, have skin tags, suffer from acne, low energy, fatigue after eating or PCOS.

All of these are signs of loss of metabolic flexibility.

And what causes this? There can be many causes, some of which may relate to activation of your immune system, and I’ll be telling you about this later in the week.

For now let’s look at food causes.

Quite simply, over consumption of carbohydrates, particularly refined and processed.

Too much of the following:

  • Confectionery items
  • Bread, pasta, cereals and other refined grains
  • Fruit juices and high sugar fruit consumption
  • Fizzy drinks

Eat too many of these and your body is so busy trying to deal with all the sugar, it forgets to use all the fat.

If you have all this easy to use energy lying around (albeit low yield) why bother spending the extra time burning fat. What this can lead to is what most people may be familiar with as insulin resistance, the pre-cursor to diabetes.

Simply explained this means that the hormone (insulin) responsible for getting energy into cells, need to be produced in higher amounts to do the same job.

When insulin is high, we aren’t burning fat’s. When we aren’t able to burn fats we lose metabolic flexibility as our fat burning enzymes and mitochondria down-regulate (use it or lose it!).

And yes, this will cause weight gain and a whole host of symptoms listed above, but it can also upset female hormone balance for several reasons.

  1. One of the reasons is that with increased insulin we can get an increase in testosterone levels and this is typically one of the underlying imbalances in PCOS.
  2. Additionally, more fat may increase oestrogen levels and therefore play into oestrogen dominance.
  3. Higher insulin levels also reduce sex hormone binding globulin, the binding protein that binds hormones and keeps them inactive.
  4. This means that we potentially have more free circulating hormones in the blood stream which are able to bind to receptors.

The final reason, is the reason I find THE most interesting and you will have to wait until the next post to find out about that…

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones Naturally: Detoxification Part 2

Today I am sharing with you the second part on detoxification.

In part 1 we looked at why “traditional” detox diets are actually the complete opposite of what one should be doing to support detoxification and how some of these practises can hinder, and not help, female hormone balance.

So today is really about looking at what you can do and eat and how to do this with female hormone balance in mind.

detoxification

Above is a picture of the liver, the different phases of detoxification (phase 1 and 2) and the nutrients that can help or hinder it.

 

Carbohydrate

The liver is the place in the body where excess sugar is turned into fat. It is also the place where we process fructose, the natural fruit sugar.

If the liver is busy processing excess and fructose then it won’t be busy doing it’s detox job.

It is important to distinguish here that excess sugar does not solely refer to the white stuff you might add to tea and coffee, but any carbohydrates as a whole.

This would include excessive consumption of grains, cereals, breads, pasta, potatoes as well as fruits.

Lowering carbohydrate intake and focusing on carbohydrates from root vegetables like carrots, butternut squash, parsnips, beetroot AND avoiding grains, cereals and processed is the way to go.

If you suspect that you may have some “liver stuff” going on, I would even recommend a short term abstinence from fruit (4 weeks). However, you will see that some fruits have beneficial nutrients that will support detoxification in the longer term.

Fruit juices are a definite must to avoid which I am sure you can see contradicts “traditional” detox practises.

One of my favourite lines from one of my lectures was when someone asked “But what if you juice is yourself?” and the lecturer answered “Well then you just have homemade fructose!

Proteins

Under phase 2 detoxification you will see certain amino acids listed.

Amino acids are protein building blocks and their significance as part of phase 2 needs explaining.

Detoxification is about transforming molecules for excretion. Molecules are initially transformed via phase 1 to even more toxic molecules (the intermediary stage). Toxic intermediary stage molecules are converted by using amino acids in phase 2 to water soluble molecules that can be excreted.

What happens if you don’t have enough of these amino acids?

The process gets “stuck” in the middle and you can have a build up of even more damaging molecules.

Therefore, we must get enough protein by dietary or supplemental means for healthy detoxification to take place.

  • I would recommend somewhere between 1.5g-2.0g of protein per kilogram body weight as a general statement.
  • Getting protein from organic sources is ideal although not essential provided you buy lean protein sources
  • Certain proteins like fish, seafood and lamb can be easy on digestion.
  • Slow cooking meats (perfect at this time of year) will be easier on digestion but you will also generate less harmful compounds than by grilling or frying
  • Whey protein has been shown to raise an important anti-oxidant compound called glutathione which is essential for successful detoxification and could therefore we used to supplement protein intake
  • Bone broths (stock made from slow cooked meat bones - another great one for the time of year) are high in glycine and great for the gut and detox pathways.

 

Fats

Fat’s do not have a direct role in detoxification per se, however, we already know that fats are essential for creating healthy hormones.

Additionally, dietary fat sources provide fat soluble vitamins like A, D & E all of which act as anti-oxidant buffers to prevent damage create by intermediary stage molecule.

We rely on healthy liver function to be able to digest and process fats properly. This creates a catch 22 where if liver function is poor, we cannot get the nutrients we need and if we can’t get the nutrients we need then liver function is affected.

If you want to support the body as best as possible I recommend focusing on:

  • Anti-inflammatory fats such as omega 3 (oily fish) and monounsaturated fats such as olives, avocado and olive oil
  • Walnut oil is high in vitamin E
  • Oily fish will be high in vitamin D and omega 3
  • Animal liver, is high in the most bio available form of vitamin A
  • Apart from coconut oil, avoid saturated fats by opting for lean cuts of meat and poultry
  • Definitely avoid processed seed oils sold in plastic or clear glass bottles.
  • If you struggle to digest fats, perhaps consider speaking with someone about a digestive enzyme

 

Calories

Detoxification is an energetic process so adequate calorie consumption is essential. The goal is not to restrict but to eat an abundance of good quality food to maximise on vitamin and mineral consumption.

I say this every week but one of the biggest issues I see with women is chronic under-eating or over-eating but the wrong foods.

We need to meet in the middle and eat more of the good stuff and less bad stuff!

 

Eat the Rainbow

In addition meeting calorie and macro needs you will notice that certain plant based foods and B-vitamins are listed above.

The chemicals in every plant that give it it’s colour or maybe protect it against being consumed by insects or the sun, can have a positive impact on human health.

These plant chemicals are called phyto-chemicals or phyto-nutrients.

The best way to ensure you get enough is to eat a wide variety of colourful plant based foods.

I sometimes set my clients the challenge of eating 100 different plant based foods in a week!

Try it, it isn’t easy.

But consider how you can add more variety into your diet.

Walk around the supermarket and buy vegetables you wouldn’t normally buy.

Add 20 ingredients into a salad.

And don’t forget about herbs and spices too.

Out of all of these there are some specific food which have been proven to support detoxification:

  • Cruciferous vegetables
  • Pomegranate
  • Green Tea
  • Coffee
  • Turmeric
  • Ginger
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Coriander
  • Dill
  • Rosemary
  • Mint
  • Citrus
  • Beetroot

To name a few…

 

Bring it all together

So really what I have described here is a health diet:

  • A diet with adequate calories - not too much or too little
  • Healthy and balanced protein intake
  • Moderate carbohydrates
  • An abundance of healthy fats
  • A wide variety of fresh colourful plant based foods
  • And if you want something to drink water, herbal teas and the occasional coffee or glass of organic wine will be just fine

And I tell you now, if you can build these habits, not only will you feel better but you will probably lose weight and have better energy too.

I actually believe that detoxification is a life long journey.

It’s not a 30 day challenge or 7 day juice fast.

We live in a very toxic environment and if you were to worry about every little toxin your are exposed to, you would go bonkers!

But what you can do is make a daily and continuous effort to do the best to minimise exposure and put the good things in.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones Naturally: Detoxification Part 1

In the previous post I covered oestrogen excess and oestrogen dominance (similar but different), and I explained that a huge part of healthy oestrogen metabolism is about being able to detoxify well.

It seems appropriate that today I write about detox (although a little ironic with the festive season approaching - might have to send this one out in January again!).

Detoxification is something that so many people get so wrong.

Come January you will have people in the health industry trying to sell you the idea of a “detox” or a “cleanse”.

No matter who is selling it to you, these tend to be the common ingredients:

  • Low calorie
  • Low protein & fat
  • Likely to lack of solids or large amounts of liquids - juices/smoothies/soups
  • May involve shakes, pills or supplements
  • May involve missing meals or fasting

As I type this out I have suddenly realised…

Phew! There is a LOT we need to get straight here.

*Goes to top of the screen and adds “Part 1” *

So where to begin?

Let’s talk about why this approach may actually hinder detoxification, not support it and in Part 2 we can talk about what to do differently.

 

Low Calorie Diets

Do you remember the part when I told you how stress disrupts female hormones by potentially lowering progesterone?

Well under-eating is a stress - the biggest stress that we faced as man-kind before we learnt how to farm.

If you are looking for hormone balance, adequate calorie intake is ESSENTIAL.

I cannot tell you how many women I have worked with who are creating problems by their dieting behaviour in a pursuit for some self imposed body composition standard (and failing miserably!)

I would also add the detoxification is incredibly energetically expensive. You need to have energy to be able to detoxify. That isn’t going to happen if you are starving.

 

Low Protein & Fat

You might also remember the part where I explained that sex (and stress) hormones are made from fat.

We need to have enough fat in our diet to supply the building blocks for health hormonal balance (not to mention many aspects of health).

So dropping calories by cutting fat is a recipe for disaster.

Additionally, proteins are used to make enzymes.

We need enzymes to be able to detoxify.

Detoxification is taking something that is not useful to the body or needs to be recycled, changing it’s chemical structure and composition so that it can be excreted and then excreting it. ENZYMES do the changing chemical structure bit. Without them, you can’t do detoxification.

We get protein from our food, or we break down muscle tissue or gut lining or joint tissue or other fun stuff that you probably don’t want to be getting rid of, to supply it.

A low protein approach to detoxification just doesn’t work.

The final thing is, if you take out protein & you take out fat, that just leaves you with a pile of carbs.

Now most people I work with have hormonal imbalances partly because they need to lose some weight too. So having the majority of your diet from unopposed carbs (even if it is fruit and veg), is going to raise insulin and potentially affect hormonal balance too.

In Part 2, I’ll also explain that while the liver is too busy processing all these fruit sugars and carbohydrates. It’s not really thinking about detox.

 

Liquid Meals & Fasting

Now, liquid meals can actually be really great at times.

If you have digestive problems, having food which is already “chewed” so to speak, can be really helpful.

It ensures you have something that is easy on the digestive system and may help with nutrient availability.

However, living off liquid meals, especially if low in fat, protein (as already discussed) & fibre may have a negative impact on insulin levels meaning that you are more likely to crave sugar, gain wait around your mid-section and further disrupt hormones.

Solids keep you fuller for longer.

Protein, fat and fibre do too.

Many people claim they feel “better” on a detox diet but is it because they are detoxing or is it because their digestion is working better?

When digestive is off, it is a huge drain on our immune system, selfishly pulling energy away from our brain.

So would we benefit from perhaps doing a “digestive reset” (something I advise all my clients to do), instead of a detox diet?

The next piece of the puzzle is fasting or missing meals.

Again, this is something that does have it’s place from time to time. I DO recommend:

  • a reduced meal frequency: 2-3 meals per day instead of 3 main meals and snacks
  • time restricted feeding: not eating very early and very late but allowing at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast

But…

This approach should NOT be combined with low calorie, low protein, low fat or liquid only diets.

 

Shakes, Supplements and Pills

Someone selling you some sort of product without talking to you about your current diet, your sleep, your stress, your exercise, your digestion and your ability to self care is just selling your something!

Supplements are what they say on the tin…

SUPPLEMENT-ARY to a foundation of good diet, getting enough sleep, attempts to manage stress, move your body, digest well and breathe!

Detoxification requires certain nutrients to support the “biochemical transformation” and there are certain supplements that can help, but food always comes first and I’ll talk about what food in part 2.

 

But I feel It Working!?

I know a lot of people will read this and think - I hear what you are saying, but, I’ve done a detox before and I felt it working?

Now I’ve already covered the “do you feel better because you are eating better and being kind to your digestion piece?

But sometimes people can also experience lethargy, headaches & weight loss and think they are detoxing.

If you are experiencing negative symptoms like headaches and fatigue, it could be that you are actually becoming more toxic.

As you shed some body fat with your calorie restricted approach you will likely also be liberating fat soluble toxins into circulation that create an extra burden on the body (a burden that you have limited resources with which to cope, due to said reasons above).

If you are experiencing weight loss, well, that’s great BUT you may likely be losing a lot of water, some muscle and yes, some fat too BUT is it sustainable and what happens afters?

If you have done a detox before, did you rebound after? If you didn’t, let me know.

I did 2 when I was 16 which involved just eating fruit and vegetables and put the weight back on again within a week.

I also explain in Part 2 that detox is a life long journey. It’s not something that you achieve in 7 days of juicing or a 28 day sugar fast.

Doing those things may make your feel better about yourself for some reason or other, but it’s not because you are “detoxing”.

So, Phew! That’s it.

Now I have painted a horrendous picture of what “traditional” detox diets are actually all about, I will paint a much more positive picture of what you can to look after, love and nourish your body (an it’s detox pathways) in Part 2.

 

Stay tuned!

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones Naturally: Oestrogen Excess

This weekend I was in London attending a 2 day Yoga Workshop where we mostly just sat and breathed.

I also spent some time catching up with close and special friends and seeing my fellow yogi’s from the various retreats I have been on (if you are reading this - love you guys!)

It was just what the doctor ordered and actually really relevant considering the topic for this post, oestrogen dominance.

I introduced the topic of oestrogen dominance briefly in my previous post of this series, looking at a general overview of the cycle.

It is often misunderstood.

Often people think that oestrogen dominance is having high levels of oestrogen.

This isn’t necessarily true.

Oestrogen dominance is when oestrogen is high relative to progesterone.

This means that you can have normal levels of oestrogen, but if progesterone is low, you can present with oestrogen dominance (OD).

OD is a common characteristic in many female hormone related conditions from PMS, to PCOS, to endometriosis, fibroids and even menopause!

Signs and symptoms of oestrogen excess are generally associated with:

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • mood swings
  • bowel disturbances
  • headaches
  • breast tenderness
  • painful ovulation
  • sinusitis
  • heavy bleeding
  • painful periods
  • hormone related acne
  • water retention and bloating
  • reduced sex drive
  • weight gain (centrally and around hips)
  • thyroid dysfunction
  • fatigue
  • foggy brain
  • sleep disturbances (especially as approaching menopause)
  • interestingly many auto-immune conditions may be associated with oestrogen

 

I’d like to explore what causes OD today and what you can do about it.

The biggest cause of low progesterone is stress. I have touched on this previously with the concept of the progesterone steal. When we have a high need for the production of stress hormones we steal the tools needed to make progesterone and hence progesterone is low and oestrogen can become relatively high (even if it remains within a “normal” range).

(Just to add here that sex hormones are made from fats so a low fat diet can also lead to low levels of sex hormones generally)

This is why I said that my yoga workshop weekend was really relevant to today.

Part of managing stress is about tapping into and activating the parasympathetic part of the nervous system. Yoga, singing & chanting, meditating and breathing slowly and deeply – all of which I spent A LOT of time doing this weekend, activate this part of our system.

This weekend I also spent time with some of my favourite people. Positive social relationships also act as stress relief.

Other things you can do include:

  • Exposure to cold – taking a cold shower (or a cold dip in the sea in my case) may help with parasympathetic balance as can…
  • Laughter
  • Exercise
  • Probiotics
  • Massage
  • Fasting
  • Zinc
  • Eating Carbohydrates (!)
  • Acupuncture
  • Tai Chi
  • Having Sex
  • Eating seafood (because of the EPA and DHA)
  • Eating Fibre

I’ve also spoken a lot about lifestyle balance and specific dietary requirements for stress management in previous blogs; here, here & here

So we can have stress driving oestrogen excess.

We can also have oestrogen excess due to poor oestrogen metabolism and poor oestrogen excretion.

Oestrogen being high because we are making too much oestrogen from hormones like testosterone.

And…

Oestrogen being high because we cannot metabolise it in the liver and clear it from the body in the digestive system (hello gut and liver health!)

Aromatisation

It’s a big word and what it refers to is the process where testosterone is converted to oestrogen.

This is part of normal metabolism, but, performed in excess, it can cause problems.

So what causes it?

  • Being overweight
  • High alcohol consumption
  • Zinc Deficiency
  • Insulin Resistance (eating too many carbs)
  • Low vitamin D3 (not enough sunshine)
  • And of course…. stress

So you can see that better dietary habits; more zinc rich proteins like seafood, reducing alcohol and processed carbohydrates and getting outside and some sun on your skin (sadly not this time of year) help with hormonal balance but so does losing weight.

So losing weight helps with hormone balance and hormone balance helps with weight loss. Therefore the two are not separate, but the same journey!

Things that improve the picture are:

  • Flaxseeds - grind them up and put them in a porridge or a smoothie
  • Green Tea - 2-4 cups per day
  • Isoflavones - found in pulses
  • Flavonoids - onions, broccoli, celery, parsley, apple, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, blueberries, raspberries, red wine in moderation, apple
  • Stinging Nettle
  • Vitamin C

So the rules are simple, eat more of the good stuff and less of the bad.

Detoxification

I’d like to keep this short and sweet.

Detoxification is a really misunderstood process by the general public - I will dedicate a post soley to explaining why.

For now I just want you to know that hormones must be detoxified and broken down and the liver is the place where this happens.

Healthy liver function is really important for healthy hormone balance and this means:

  1. Generally reducing exposure to environmental toxins
  2. Eating foods that supply the nutrients for the different pathways in the liver to work well.

For oestrogen metabolism, these foods are important ones to have in your diet:

  • Cruciferous vegetables containing Indol-3 Carbinol (I3C) and DIM
  • Berries
  • Flaxseed
  • Caffeine - woohoo!
  • Rosemary
  • Exercise

Things that may get in the way include:

  • ​​​​​​​Thyroid problems
  • Smoking
  • High fructose diet (fruit juices, dried fruits, processed foods or excessive fruit consumption)
  • Excess sugar consumption
  • Omega 6 fatty acids (especially processed seed oils)
  • Various medications
  • Pesticides
  • PCBs found in plastic packaging
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - found in blackened or barbequed meat

Finally, I MUST add…

Once we have processed oestrogen in the liver, it needs to get out somehow.

This happens via the bowels. So basically, you need to make sure you toilet habits are “regular”, which means good digestive health, otherwise you potentially risk reabsorbing oestrogen back into the body again.

​​​​​​​So all you need to do this week is reflect on these lists.

How can you increase the good and reduce the bad?

What small (or big) changes could you make to take one step further forward to better health.

I think it would be a good idea to bust some of the myths about detoxification in the next “episode”.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Female Hormones Part 1: Welcome to your cycle

This month I am focusing the blog series on female hormones and how to use a natural approach to balancing them with food, supplements and lifestyle.

This is a topic that is close to my heart (as are many topics it is becoming apparent).

When I first moved to London in 2008, the stress of the change in lifestyle in addition to poor dietary choices due to exposure of a different culture caused me to reach “rock bottom” where my health and hormonal balance was concerned.

I was suffering from burn out, IBS, my skin wasn’t the same as what it was and my periods were extremely heavy and very painful.

After digging around on the internet I suspected I had endometriosis.

The suspicions were confirmed went I visited a gynaecologist in South Africa that December. He suggested a laparoscopy.

The good news was the laparoscopy came back clear. I didn’t have endometriosis.

The bad news - well I still had no explanation for why I felt like sh*t.

Except I did.

For the past year my life had been bonkers.

Despite the fact I had a degree in Human Movement and Biochemistry, was working as a personal trainer AND completing the final year of my nutrition degree, quite frankly I was doing a lot wrong and very little right.

I wasn’t eating properly - living on a small budget and over-excited by all the convenience food we never had in a small town in SA.

I wasn’t sleeping enough - I was working every morning and evening, getting to bed late, up early and studying between. Not to mention crazy house mates throwing parties and coming home all hours of the night.

I was exercising too much. Everyone talks about the “Heathrow Injection”. You come to London from SA and you automatically gain weight. In an attempt to not be affected by said condition I was trying to maintain the same exercise levels I had in SA. Which meant lots and lots of cardio, usually on not enough food or sleep.

Stress levels were through the roof for every reason possible. Not having a stable place to live, financial insecurities, adjusting to living in a busy city on a different continent in a new hemisphere, the stress of studying on top of that and no real support network.

So after that “You don’t have endometriosis” December I started my path to learning how to look after myself again.

It took me I good 3 years to start to return to something that seemed “normal”, which was 2011. And in the 5 years since I have been on a continuous journey of self care.

This is why I am so passionate about this.

Because I have been there on this journey that so many women tell me about.

I know I didn’t have endometriosis but I have coached clients through it, not to mention those affected by PCOS, fibroids and menopause.

What is becoming increasingly apparent is that most women aren’t looking after their basic needs.

I used to teach nutrition & weight loss like this…

unnamed-1

 

But now I want to start teaching like this…

 

unnamed-2

 

And that’s why everything I wrote about in the stress series (which you can catch up on previous posts) needed to come first.

​​​​​​​But now, it’s time to talk about the sex hormones and introduce you to your cycle.

screenshot_79

To keep things simple, I am mainly going to talk about progesterone and oestrogen for now.

They are the 2 main female hormones and this is a healthy pattern across a month.

If you are taking any hormone replacement therapy like the contraceptive pill or injection, your cycle won’t look like this because you will be over-ruled by the artificial hormones. Sadly, this means this series is not for you.

In the first half of the cycle oestrogen should be higher than progesterone and surge around the 14 day mark to allow for ovulation.

This can be the first thing that can go wrong, if you are unable to create an oestrogen surge, you won’t be able to ovulate (and I’ll be talking about what could affect that in following emails).

In the second half of the cycle progesterone is higher than oestrogen. This can often be where the second problem arises. If progesterone is low relative to oestrogen we get what we call oestrogen dominance which is then associated with many hormone related problems like PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids and even menopausal symptoms.

I’ll be going into more detail about what causes oestrogen dominance and how you can balance it. But in a nut shell, managing stress is the root of it all.

The first half of the cycle is about accelerating.

It is about getting the body to prepare to become pregnant. If you can’t “accelerate” falling pregnant may be a problem. You may notice a shortened cycle.

The second half of the cycle is about breaking.

It’s about activating the immune system (if you don’t fall pregnant) to prepare for the shed of the uterine lining (essentially an immune response - which explains why from ovulation onwards women with endo may have more symptoms). You may experience a longer cycle if you aren’t “breaking” properly.

When the immune system is imbalanced - which comes back to the concept of inflammation and digestive health - this can affect the acceleration and breaking cycles.

So hormonal balance ultimately comes back to stress management and gut health.

That is a very short summary of everything we’ll cover this month.

The question is, now, what do you do about it?

The answer to that will follow next few weeks as we pick apart piece of these mechanisms. I do deliver information in small chunks and give a lot of repetition so that you can absorb it in small amounts.

It also means you have the space to reflect on your own life and what actions, however small you can implement THIS week to make a small difference across the month.

Good luck!

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Balancing Female Hormones: The Impact of Stress

Today is the last day of the October Stress Series!

And today I want to write a little bit about the impact of stress on female hormones, because…

In November, this is going to be the topic of the email series (the in December we can talk about surviving Christmas without putting on half a stone).

As always, if you are new this series, I would recommend you catch up on the whole series on my blog, starting at the beginning.

I’ve also been doing some some Video on my Facebook Page so if you haven’t already been following me on Facebook, I’ve put some videos on this blog and you can also watch then on my Fan Page. The most recent of which is talking about sugar cravings!

Okay, so, formalities out of the way, let’s talk Stress and Female Hormones!

Just to freak you out I’ll share this with you…

steroidogenic-pathway

Now before I cause too much stress, don’t worry about understanding this. We have the rest of November for that!

What I do want you to get from today is that our stress hormones (bottom right) are created through the same pathway as our sex hormones (left hand side).

I love to use the naughty child analogy.

If you have two children and one of them is very naughty, where does all the attention go?

To the naughty child of course! And the good child can often get neglected.

Same goes for our hormones.

If the body is focusing all its energy at creating stress hormones, healthy and balanced production of sex hormones can get neglected.

The other thing to notice on this diagram is that progesterone (one of the important female hormones) is used to make cortisol, the main stress hormone.

This means that if we have to make a lot of cortisol because we have a lot of stress, we can get what is called the pregnenolone or progesterone steal.

This is when our body steals resources from progesterone to ensure we have adequate hormones to respond to our environment. Stress, and NOT fertility, is the biological priority at this point in time.

It’s not a bad thing in the short term because it doesn’t make sense to get pregnant when you are in danger. But in the long term with chronic stressors, it can cause hormonal imbalances like PMS, exacerbate PCOS, endometriosis and uterine fibroids or even increase menopausal symptoms.

That is about as much detail that I want to go into today because I will be going into A LOT more detail across the month of November.

The last thing just to mention though is that many women approach me with hormonal problems. PCOS, PMS, menstrual migraine, endometriosis, fibroids etc.

There is a lot that can be done with food and supplements to support these conditions. However, do not forget about the power of lifestyle balance.

I honestly believe that it is one of THE most powerful tools in any health journey. Whether you want to lose weight, fix your digestion, work with some auto-immune condition or balance your hormones.

That’s it from me, I hope you have enjoyed this stress series and I will be writing to you soon.

If you would like a little more science then you can also catch up on this video I created to explain what causes longer cycles in women and how this relates to stress.