The 10 best Nutrition tips from a Health Coach - They work!!

1. Set goals and be accountable 

If you’re aiming to lose that muffin top, it’s important to set short (weekly) - and long-term (monthly or yearly) goals and be realistic about what you want to achieve – for example, an attainable goal would be to lose 0.5–1kg per week. Use tools like a food diary (take pics if it’s more convenient) or online apps to keep yourself accountable and don’t be too hard on yourself if you experience the occasional setback. It’s important you allow for allow for normal fluctuations in your weight as it can vary at different times of the day and month.

  

2. Avoid ‘fad’ and restrictive diets 

Restrictive diets have a whopping 95% failure rate and can leave you fatigued and dehydrated, and disrupt your digestion. Remember that while you may lose weight in the short-term on a fad diet, this doesn’t necessarily equate to fat loss – in fact, it’s more likely to be water loss. Food should be enjoyed – not feel like it’s an extra ‘chore’ to eat & organize.

3. Be an 80:20 eater 

Following this rule is easy: Make healthy choices 80% of the time, and allow yourself to indulge in less healthy choices 20% of the time. It’s a simple way to eat healthily for the majority of the time, without depriving yourself of the occasional treat. And don’t worry – you don’t need to get your calculator out to know whether your portions are exactly 80 or 20% ....use it as an approximate (you may want to try recording your food/drinks initially to get the idea!).

4. Stress Less baby

When we’re under pressure and feeling stressed, we’re more likely to over-eat and make unhealthy food choices. Stress can also cause us to crave foods that are high in fat and sugar. Next time you’re feeling frazzled, don’t reach for sugary snacks like your hormones may crave. Instead, try to manage your stress through meditation, yoga, exercise and whatever helps you to feel calm, whether that’s reading, listening to music or spending time with your family or friends.

5. Include protein where possible (particularly with carbs)

Try to eat carbohydrates and proteins together (e.g. eating blueberries with a handful of almonds) as this can help you to feel fuller for longer.

6. Try not to ‘lose it’ when you head out…

We all live in a world where food and dining out and is huge social norm, and chances are you’ll be heading to brunch or dinner with friends or weekend barbeques. If you’re going to a party, try to eat beforehand so you don’t arrive hungry. If you head out to a restaurant, try to avoid carb-heavy meals and opt for only one side dish with your main meal. ‘Crowding out’ and filling up with vegies, salads and lean meats first can be an easy way to not be too taken away by the fettuccine carbonara!! If alcohol is on the menu, make sure you’re alternating between a glass of water/soda water with fresh lime and your next glass of wine to help keep the calories and ‘next day hangover’ (which will get those cravings for greasy cheeseburgers spiking again) down.

  

7. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry 

There are many reasons why we eat when we’re not hungry. We may be bored, stressed, happy, sad, lonely or simply thirsty. Try to determine whether you’re eating to fill an emotional need or because you’re actually physically hungry. When you keep your food diary for a week, note down how you’re feeling emotionally when you do eat to see if any patterns are forming. If so – maybe try heading out for a walk or calling a friend to treat the emotional cravings, or drink a big glass of water before you grab your next piece of pie!

  

8. Always carry healthy snacks

Keep a few healthy snacks on hand so you’ll be less likely to grab an unhealthy option while you’re on the go. Good choices include fruit, nuts, Greek yoghurt, and hard-boiled eggs.

9. Drink more fluids

Our bodies are made up of more than 60% water, so it’s essential that you stay hydrated. Drinking enough water helps you to feel full, keeps your skin hydrated, aids in waste elimination and prevents constipation. So take a few water breaks throughout the day and keep a bottle with you when you’re out and about.

10. Eat more veggies

Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals. Delicious and cost-effective, these nutrient-rich foods are filling and provide you with fiber, which aids bowel function and helps to prevent LOTS of preventable lifestyle related diseases. So stock up your veggies with seasonal produce from the local markets and try to support local sustainable farmers wherever possible rather than going straight to the packaged chain store varieties.

The new tribe of women....the 'healthy-un-healthy' perfectionist - are you one of them??

This morning I met my girlfriend – and soon to be Bridesmaid at my October wedding (Weeeee – yeah, only a little bit excited!!).

We sat down, ordered our soy lattes and smashed avocado with smoked salmon on grainy sourdough and proceeded in classic ‘girly catch up’ conversation.

As we chatted through the weekend before’s events, the state of both of our partners, any ‘annoyances’ that we had been witness to between our other friends…….we eventually got talking about a past experience of one of her friends.

This friend I met over the weekend, was one of the loudest, bubbliest, confident, friendly and might I say ‘likeable’ people I had ever met. She was full of energy and life – almost to the point where I had to catch my breathe a few times from getting so caught up in her high end energy.

A story about this girl’s past came up that really got us thinking and caught us both in a real internal deep reflection as we sipped the next mouthful of our coffee.

This girl – who I know as such an abundance of ‘light and energy’ was actually suffering huge battles with her inner critic, her confidence in her body (mind you – she looked trim, fit and gorgeous to everyone else!) and although she looked outgoing and happy in her skin – her self love muscle was depleted to the point where it would almost be able to receive a ‘disability’ parking permit.

A few years ago, this girl formed a relationship with a fairly high profile sportsman. As you do being an awesome girlfriend, you hang out with the WAG’s (wives and girlfriends) of other team members. The thing about many higher profile ‘WAG’s’ is that often they are exposed to a little more scrutiny and spotlight than the usual gal. This means that they are can become very focussed on their appearance; what they eat, drink, how they exercise and the very best beauty techniques.

It’s crazy – but it actually becomes a lot like a competition which, usually derived mostly from the other women as they become so ‘grouply’ focussed on looking their best in front of each other, their partners and the surrounding world – that they have NO IDEA WHO they are, WHAT they enjoy doing and HOW it used to feel to love and appreciate the person you are.

I’ve said it before and I hate repeating it – but women are our own worst enemy.

With the access to and influence of social media, TV and internet – we are constantly exposed to seeing what other people are doing. As humans – we have learnt to (whether we realise it or not…for most of us it’s subconscious and unheard of until someone else points it out to us) compare ourselves to the lives of others. We look at how others look, dress, the social circles they are in, the career they have, the car they drive, the partner they have, the house they live in, the food they are eating……BAH – MIND OVER-LOAD!!!

With all of this comparison against ourselves and they way we live – how the hell are we supposed to remain happy in ourselves and not to conform to the pressures or influences of the world around us.

Don’t worry girls – I’m not saying we should all get out there and become nomads in the land of the ‘never-nevers’ – but it’s about bloody time we started to look at ourselves and how much of our true selves we are showing – and how much we are actually happy with….and I mean REALLY happy about!!

As it turned out – this girl’s boyfriend ended up breaking up with her after she became so caught up and consumed by the group of ‘WAGs’ who went out for brunch dates and only ordered a juice or a coffee as they talked about exercise and their latest diets. She lost a LOT of weight and took a HUGE chunk of her original bubbly self confidence from herself. She didn’t and still doesn’t like to wear bikini’s, let’s nobody touch her stomach (even her boyfriend) and has developed issues with approaching other guys……even though she is GORGEOUS!

Go figure!!

We all know that we’ve been there, or that we’ve felt the pressures and sense of ‘entrapment’ in the claws of womanhood…..so let’s start becoming aware of the real impact it’s having on us all.

Want someone to ‘vent to’ or to help you work through these thought processes, becoming not only more HEALTHY, but happy and with a CRAZY STRONG SELF LOVE MUSCLE –

Chat to someone who is impartial, supportive and has quite a bit of girly and professional insight into this ‘phenomenon’ – ME!!

In the meantime – start looking around, how do you sit in your self???

Raising your standards - how to check into yours and how to lift yourself into your BEST self!!

After listening to a solid 2 hours of ‘tips from high flyers’ around the world – one section from U.S born Tony Robbins (who has created somewhat of a million dollar empire in teaching people around the world how to face their fears in seminars, coaching and running events).

His first ‘tip’ was to ‘RAISE YOUR STANDARDS’. 

I guess this really resonated with me as it’s something I focus on with my clients – changing all of your ‘SHOULDs’ into ‘MUSTs’.

Each of us lives in a world which is run by our own set of standards and limitations for ourselves. This may have been something that originally developed within us years ago, perhaps form something that happened to us which we then decided we would ‘learn’ from or limit ourselves to doing to prevent it from happening again.

The thing about ‘shoulds’ is that is places an instant limitation in our mind of ourselves and what we are capable of.

Let’s face it – we all do it. ‘Oh, I should be cleaning the house’, or ‘I shouldn’t really eat that piece of chocolate because I’m on a diet’. Should-ing implies that we don’t really have a choice. It instantly puts pressure on us to make the ‘right’ choice or take the action we think we should, rather than do the thing that we know we MUDT or that we choose to.

Let me put this to you – if you had in your mindset that you must go for a run or you must go out and get that client or job you really want, it’s completely different to I should go out and get that client……but maybe I’m not good enough, smart enough, have enough time to really chase it or the resources to actually do it. See – straight away that SHOULD is so much less powerful in getting us to do the things we need to or want to do.

Take a second to look at your own limitations you are placing on yourself. Reflect on how they have started to impact your life, have they prevented you from really having a go at something you wanted?

When did you start to put these limitations on yourself? Did something happen in the past to make you change your thoughts to think this way?

Most of us have a ‘set point’. For some, this set point is set at a point which is comfortable, safe and at a place where being hurt or failing is highly unlikely. These people are less likely to challenge themselves, or even be who they really are. The limiting thoughts and mindset usually takes hold so strongly that they are unable to really grasp WHO they are, what they want and who their true personality is. Perhaps they have placed these limits on themselves for so long that they don’t even realise they have these limits – it’s become part of their beliefs.

For others of us – this ‘set point’ is higher. These people might have a belief that they need a certain amount of money (which is often higher than what they really need to live), or that they are at a fitness level close to an athlete (where being active and training hard are all part of their daily routine – compared to someone with a lower set point who thinks ‘yeah – maybe I should drag my butt out of bed today to exercise’…..completely different mindsets, ‘set-point’s and limitations.

Sometimes finding this set point or breaking out of the grip of those limiting beliefs needs to come from something really unexpected, spontaneous and something where you don’t have the time to plan and ‘prevent’ yourself from changing (kind of like ‘tricking yourself’ into doing something….it can be done even if you’re not a magician!). Try going out and doing something really spontaneous. Something ‘off-the-cuff’ or spur of the moment that is totally different from your usual routine. It might be something as simple as taking a drive out to the beach one weekend – just because. It could be putting yourself forward to take a job interview or ask for a promotion at work. Just something to break the routine and USUAL day to day routine that you keep…..and if you’re like me, everyday is routine…..be daring!!

When you push yourself out of your routine, out of your comfort zone or try something you have never done before – for a brief moment you tap into your inner ‘joy’. This joy is what really makes you who you are. It will often give you a huge energy rush because in that moment, you felt like you. You weren’t worried about what you should be doing, where you are meant to be, whether this was the right thing to do – you just DID IT!

It’s a really important practise to take up and I would highly recommend doing it on a regular (weekly, fortnightly or at minimum monthly) basis to remind yourself that you CAN be beyond what you imagined or limited yourself to.

The things you do consistently define you – or at least to your mind. If you are someone who regularly exercises, your mind sees you as ‘fit’ and you tend to continue doing this each day, usually to a higher intensity than someone who is active once or twice a week. If you only ever take on jobs that earn a minimal wage or a role that is always ‘in the back-seat’ as opposed to a managing type position – that is your definition of yourself (and your set point). If you are a smoker, for many people quitting smoking (whenever that may be) is always made harder because you have learnt to define yourself by your smoking – ‘it’s what you do’. If you always stay quiet in the back of group conversations, you have defined this to yourself and others that you are quiet and have less to offer the group……it certainly doesn’t mean it is true, but you have defined this about you for so long that you start to believe it.

If you took someone who really wants to break out in their industry and be known by others around them, pushing yourself to do the tings that someone in this position would do – you start to do them naturally until they become ‘your defined self’. Along the way, you have morphed into that $8000 a month earner and daily do the things needed tog et you there – speaking at events, recording yourself, advertising your new product to everyone you meet.

You act confident – you then define yourself as confident.

The body and mind are so connected that if both are acting in the way that you wish to be moving towards – you will eventually do this as part of your natural ‘self’. If you can DO and THINK the things you want to do – it will become who you are.

An interesting example of this thought process taking steed – You are at a circus with your family. The circus has elephants who are so strong, so powerful and could easily break out of the small harness they have been put in by the circus performers. This elephant however – chooses to stay here. For so long, it has been brought up to think that for as long as it is in the harness, it is to do it’s job and stay where it has been asked. It believes it is not strong enough to simply leave and go on about it’s day roaming around the surrounding paddocks.

This elephant identified itself as having to act a certain way or do certain things. It placed limitations on what it can or can’t do – and it believed it.

So – take a few moments to think about this deeply.

What standards have you set for yourself?

What limiting beliefs have you told yourself that may have created your mindset for you today? Have these beliefs prevented you from following through with certain areas of your life? Love, career, health & fitness?

One thing that you can always control is your own actions. You can never control others around you, but you CAN change your standards, imitations, beliefs and ‘self definition’ to get to the life or dream you want.