“Spring Six Week Accountability Special”

If you’ve been hibernating over winter and come to a standstill with fat loss, or if you’ve been meaning to get around to ‘starting again’ with your healthy eating habits, now is the time to make the commitment to get back on track.  It’s all too easy to keep thinking “I’ll start next Monday”, but before you know it, Monday has been and gone, along with your good intentions!

Sign up now for my Spring 6 week accountability special.  Many clients tell me that they need accountability to keep them on track.  They think they can do it on their own, but without someone to check in with regularly, they just don’t make progress.  If this sounds like you, and you are ready to roll again, let’s get started.

The 6 week package includes a 30 minute nutrition consultation where we will do a measure up, re-set goals and write up a new plan, plus 5 x weekly 15 minute appointments to keep you on track to meet those goals.

The deal is that you book and pay for the six week special in either one or two payments and then you are committed to those appointments.  Tough love to drop those kilos before swimsuit weather arrives.   Are you ready to get serious and re-focused on meeting targets again?  The cost for the 6 week special is just $170.00.  Contact me now to get started!

Don’t be embarrassed to come back if you have fallen off the wagon.  Lately I’ve caught up with several clients I hadn’t seen for a while and they all said that they were waiting to lose weight before coming back to see me, but realised it just wasn’t going to happen on their own.  Does that sound like you?

Have you noticed that quite a few chemist stores are promoting various meal replacement diets?  These usually consist of shake sachets, soup sachets and bars.  These VLCD (very low calorie diets) are often fronted by someone who has lost a large amount of weight very quickly.  And you will, if you can live off soups, drink powder sachets and bars every day, because these diets often come in at under 1000 calories per day.  Starvation level.

The problem is that these diets do nothing to teach you about keeping the weight off.  About how much to eat, when to eat it and all the other the factors that are important in not only losing weight, but in learning to keep it off.  No one size fits all.  We each have our own likes and dislikes – and issues around food.  Simply cutting back to starvation level does nothing to address these.  What does work is an individualised plan and regular appointments to help work through problems as they occur.  There simply is no magic bullet or quick fix.

When we think of spring, we think of renewal, new leaves on the trees, new baby lambs, maybe some spring cleaning at home and attending to jobs we didn’t get around to over winter.  What about our bodies?  How about a spring clean for them?

Optimal digestive and liver health are essential for healthy bodies.  Yes, we are what we eat, but we are also what we absorb.   Without optimal digestive health we may not be absorbing the nutrients from our food and if we aren’t absorbing them, then we can’t receive the benefits of them.  If you suffer from excessive gas or bloating, constipation or hormonal issues, then it’s time to look at optimising the health of your liver and digestive organs.

When it comes to digestion, let’s start at the top with a few tips that need little explanation.  Eat slowly.  Chew your food well.  Don’t bolt your food.  Pay attention to your food as you eat it.  Eat mindfully.  Only eat sitting down and not while watching TV, reading or working on the computer.  Don’t eat large amounts at once – it’s like putting two loads of washing in the washing machine if you eat large amounts of food and it’s unrealistic to expect your body to digest it efficiently.

Your liver is your second largest organ (after your skin) and it performs many vital functions, including detoxification of every substance that goes in or on your body.  Sadly all too often it gets abused with excess alcohol, caffeine, toxins from the environment and from what we put in our mouth and on our skin.

Carrying excess fat around the abdominal area and eating and drinking the wrong kinds of thing can lead to a fatty liver.  If you imagine your liver as a big sieve, and that everything you ingest eventually goes through it (via your bloodstream), then imagine what happens when the sieve gets clogged with fat?  It can’t function properly!

You don’t have to do any fancy de-tox programmes to improve your liver health, but you do need to provide it with the right nutritional and lifestyle support.  It always comes back to basics, plenty of fresh, clean water, ‘real’ food, regular exercise and moderation of things like caffeine and alcohol.

I can’t emphasise enough how detrimental it is to your liver to over indulge in alcohol.  Remember, the ‘safe’ daily limit is two standard drinks for women (as in 2 x 100mls of wine) and 4 standard drinks for men – with two alcohol free days each week.  Humans were never designed to be drinking alcohol every day and in the amounts it is now consumed.  Keep in mind that your liver is also your biggest fat burning organ and you want it in tip top shape.

For your liver to carry out its detoxification processes, it requires the right nutrients, especially amino acids.  Amino acids are what make up proteins, so regular intake of low fat protein is essential for liver health, as is a good intake of fresh vegetables and fruit.  Lemons are plentiful at this time of year and a great liver cleanser is a glass of freshly squeezed lemon juice in warm water first thing in the morning.

Fresh, leafy green vegetables are essential for our bodies for so many reasons.  They provide minerals and fibre, help make our blood more alkaline and have been shown to help prevent bowel cancer too.  Remember, our bodies are made from what we eat, so if you put poor quality, nutrient lacking foods into your body, then that is the raw material with which it has to use to replicate all its cells, manufacture hormones, build an effective immune system, as well as carry out many, many other functions that are happening within us constantly.

Can you really expect to have a strong, healthy body if year after year you don’t provide it with the right building materials?

Water, water, are you drinking yours?

If the taste of ‘plain water’ puts you off drinking it, try one of these options:

• Float lemon, lime or orange slices in a jug of water in the fridge and fill your water bottle from it.
• Place a piece of fresh, unpeeled ginger (about the size of your thumbnail) in a heatproof container and poor boiling water over it. Cool in the fridge and use to top up your water bottle for a refreshing ginger flavour
• Squeeze the juice of a lemon or lime into your water bottle and chill

Off the Shelves

Foodtown and Countdown have their own FreshLite brand of dried fruits and nuts, some of which come in a packet of 5 x 40g bags.  The Invigorate Mix is a very nice blend of walnuts, cashews, peanuts, almonds and dried fruit and is useful to throw into your glovebox or handbag for a snack on the run.  They contain around 165 calories per 40g bag.

An easy, healthy snack for kids could be an Annies Veggies and Apple fruit leather bar.  They are normally found in the fruit and veggie section of the supermarkets and contain two strips of fruit and vegetable leather.  Just ensure the kids rinse their mouth out with a swig of water after eating the leather as it may stick to their teeth.

Website Links

As you probably know by now, my website has been updated and all my recipes are on there.

This month another batch of recipes has been added, including two sweet ones plus the following meals:

• Kumara and cottage cheese lunch
• Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
• Beef Burgers
• Smoked Chicken and Roast vegetable dish
• Felafels

To save my newsletters from becoming too long, future recipes will be added to the website and I will advise you what has been added.

To check out the recipes, follow this link:

http://www.nutritionforlife.co.nz/recipe-index/ recipes are in alphabetical order

I’ve also loaded more tips on my tips page; go here to check them out:

http://www.nutritionforlife.co.nz/weight-loss-tips-and-healthy-eating-guidelines/

The tips are added in chronological order, so new ones appear first.

More testimonials have also been added, check them out here:

http://www.nutritionforlife.co.nz/testimonials/

Lael is very proud of having lost 13 kilos to date and really looking forward to her upcoming overseas holiday.

Sally’s Fitness Tip for September www.fitnessfix.co.nz

Find an Exercise Buddy

If you are new to exercise it is a great idea to find a buddy to work out with.  If you make a commitment to a friend you are much more likely to exercise.  It is also a great way to be social at the same time as getting some exercise in.

Now that spring is in the air why don’t you find a friend who you can meet 2–3 times per week for a walk.  My tip is to vary your walk each time and try to add some hills so that you get a good cardio workout.  Make sure that you walk as fast as you talk so that you can maximize your workout effectiveness!

Odds and Ends

Online Supplement Company

I highly recommend Healthpost as a great company to order your supplements from.  They have a huge selection of brands, great prices and superfast delivery.  They also have articles on various conditions on their website and are very quick to respond if you have any queries.  Check them out here:  www.healthpost.co.nz

Are you a knitter?

Every winter many South Auckland babies and children are admitted to Kidz First Children’s Hospital with respiratory illnesses. As part of an initiative by the South Auckland Health Foundation teams of ladies are knitting baby clothing and baby beanies and desperately need donations of knitting yarn, any colour, wool or acrylic, double knit, 4ply and 3ply.  If you are able to help with knitting or with donations of wool please contact Bronwyn on 0274286797 or email delaceys@clear.net.nz.  Guidelines and the baby beanie pattern are available on http://www.sahf.org.nz/?id=305.   I decided to dust off my knitting needles and am really enjoying beanie making.  It would have been a lot easier though without the ‘help’ of Simba who, before I had even finished casting on, bit through the wool and took off with it wrapped around his legs!

Do you know of someone who is interesting getting into business for themself?

Remember the Spring 6 Week Special if you are ready to get back on track and want to benefit from weekly appointments at a great price.  Call me now to set up an appointment time.

Lynda