The other day I went through my old school notes and found this circle with 12 steps to better health. I thought it was so good and covers so many of the basics that I teach my clients, so naturally I wanted to share it with you.
The Integrative Nutrition plan has 12 steps, but you do not need to follow the steps in any order. Continue reading
Everywhere I go I see adverts for meal plans and exercise programs with overwhelming promises, especially this time of year when the dreaded season of overindulgence begins. We are all conscious about the fact that we will be eating and drinking more than usual during this season and come January we have regrets and start looking for these adverts I am talking about.
Fitness centres have the fittest person on earth on their posters and personal trainers are showing off their abs and we think that if you train with them we can get the same killer abs. I used to think that if I only sign up for the gym, I would naturally lose weight! Has this happened to you? I never went to the gym, but just the notion of actually signing up and having the card in my wallet should be enough to lose weight and get the body I was dreaming of having… crazy right?
My stepfather used to tell me that I should try to tan slowly throughout the whole summer and not try to tan excessively during one day. He said the rule was, the faster the tan appeared, the faster it would disappear!
Being a very white Scandinavian (he was Italian), I was always quite keen on tanning during the summer. We, pale white skinned, just look a little healthier when we have some colour on our skin. As a teen, as soon as the sun came out, I would get my bikini and lie in the burning sun. Most of the time I would get an actual burn and be in pain for days! And all of the time, he would be right. As fast as the tan appeared, it would disappear. But if I was smart about it and tanned little by little, then I would stay tanned for longer, also when summer ended.
Now, let’s not focus on how bad this was for my skin, although the vitamin D was good if I didn’t overdo it, but let’s focus on the concept of how wishing for fast results will just end in failure.
If you try to lose weight faster than your body is willing to, then you are just setting yourself up for failure.
“Lose 10 kg in 4 weeks!”
Guess what is going to happen? You may lose the 10 kg in those 4 weeks (although 2,5 kg/week is a lot!) but if you don’t find the underlying causes of why you gained weight in the first place, then the weight will just keep coming back. Maybe not that summer, and maybe not even the year after, but I can assure you that eventually it will come back.
Weight loss is about lifestyle change and really figuring out what’s behind it all. Rushing to see results will just end in failure. Be patient with your body, be good to it and be kind. Nourish it with good things that it can thrive on! Your body will thank you and repay you in ways that are unimaginable to you, including dropping all that extra weight, and keeping it off!
So before you spend money on the new diet trend or on the next 21-day challenge, really think about it! Are these changes sustainable? Will I keep doing them? What happens after the 21 days? Will my body thrive on this?
My baby is 15 months and I still haven’t lost all the weight I want to. But that’s ok. Because I know that all the weight I am losing now, bit by bit, will stay off forever!
Think about it!
I would like to introduce you to Dr. Michael Greger. He is an American doctor who, unlike other doctors, is specialized in how nutrition can cure disease.
His story started when he was young and his grandmother was dying of heart disease. She was sent home by her doctors in a wheel chair to die. She was only 65. She went home and saw a TV show about Nathan Pritikin that ran a lifestyle medicine clinic in California. He claimed to be able to cure heart disease.
Having nothing to lose, she went to California. She arrived in the wheelchair but left walking out the door!
In just 3 weeks she went from not being able to walk at all, to walking 16 km a day!!
How was this possible?
She was put on a plant based diet and moderate exercise. That’s all! She went on to live another 31 years and died at the age of 96. She inspired her grandson to become a physician and to find out the facts on food.
He did! And still does. He publishes all his findings here. He believes the public has a right to know what science discovers about the food we eat.
I couldn’t agree more. The food industry is unfortunately so corrupt and driven by money. There’s no big-broccoli to fight big-pharma… And doctors are paid to prescribe drugs instead of finding the underlying cause of disease. The most common diseases and causes of death are completely preventable through diet and lifestyle change!
I am reading his book “How not to die” at the moment and it’s fascinating. It has a lot of information, almost too much to fathom.
What I want you to know is that diet and lifestyle does matter and does affect your health. We used to believe that some people are predisposed to certain diseases through our genes, but this is old thinking. The relatively new field of epigenetics has proven without a shadow of doubt that environmental factors influences how our DNA is expressed. This includes the food we eat.
Nutrition and lifestyle does matter! And hopefully by now, you know where to go if you need help to straighten out your food and lifestyle choices 😉 (Email me! or book an appointment)
Have an amazing day!