Not achieving the results you want? Not living up to your potential? Tired of setting goals but not being able to see them through to completion? Would it help you to show up centred, grounded, authentic and powerful in any situation? Check out my Client Praise page. Contact me for more info – or use the calendar below to make a booking.
Remember: the best is yet to come – you are capable of so much more!!
My journey to wellness
My journey to wellness has been interesting to reflect on.
I was not particularly athletic as a young person and did not pursue any sports in my 20s. My early 30s were taken up with home making, working and having children. Then in my late 30s for six years I found myself a single parent with two children, at the time a 6 month baby and a 4 year old . These were hard years, working two part time jobs and feeling like a duck who was madly paddling under the surface of the water to keep afloat. The focus was on providing what my children needed to flourish. There wasn’t much time for me to think about health and wellness.
I suspect that my chronic fatigue had been building for a while, but having been through a divorce and having young children I thought the fatigue I was feeling was only to be expected. However when I started a new full time job at the beginning of 2004, it felt like I walked into a brick wall. I was suddenly exhausted. At first I thought it was the stress and the busyness of the new job, but by mid 2004 I was at the point of thinking I would have to give up work. I was putting on weight, had no energy, feeling depressed and unable to enjoy life at all.
Chronic fatigue was horrible, and not something I wanted to live with. I desperately wanted to be well. I tried all sorts of things, some of which helped a bit, until I finally found a supplement that provided relief and put me on the road to recovery. The first major difference was that the mental fog lifted. I could think clearly at last, and felt more like my old self. Gradually the physical symptoms disappeared and I began the process of regaining my strength and wellness.
I loved being able to approach life with energy and enthusiasm again. You don’t realise until you lose your health how vital it is. Since 2004 I have completed multiple triathlons, the 12 k City to Surf fun run, a half marathon, three round-the-river 53 k Great Bike Rides, a 567 k Great Escapade bike ride round the hilly south west, …. and the list goes on. Always a student of personal development and fascinated by the workings of the brain, I discovered a huge mental component to my recovery.
Menopause of course put a spanner in the works. I suffered with hot flushes, mostly at night time, for 6 years after entering menopause. This meant I had disturbed sleep as I woke frequently through the night to throw the covers off and put them back on. I woke up in the morning feeling trashed physically and mentally. Finally someone told me about a doctor who specialsed in balancing the complete hormone picture, and this was a game changer.
I realised that maintaining fitness through diet and exercise was part of the solution to address menopause symptoms and the key to being my best self and I pursued that path, adopting a ketogenic way of eating for many years.
The COVID pandemic made me very glad my lifestyle produced a body that was metabolically healthy and I became even more determined to protect my health and stay well.
By this time I was in my mid sixties, and began to think about the issues of ageing and became interested in longevity. I read books like
* Super Human – Dave Asprey
* Lifespan – David A Sinclair
* Outlive – Peter Attia.
I was fascinated by the idea that growing old does not have to equal being frail and demented. There is a lot we can do to prevent the typical health issues that tend to come up in later life.
I had an Aunty Min who lived in the village of Rusthall near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. She lived to 104 and was well, active and had all her marbles right up to the end of her life. She became my inspiration, and I set my intention to be like Aunty Min and live to 104.
Over the years my coaching focus has shifted from weight loss to wellness and vitaility to longevity. These things are all connected of course, but the longevity – which to me means both living long and living well – requires a very deliberate and well thought out strategy.
I will be writing a series of posts about various aspects of longevity in order to connect with like minded people, share the journey and encourage each other.
I also want to inspire others to catch the vision for a life that is lived long (lifespan) and lived well (healthspan).
Click here for an outline of my five steps to ageing well program.
I invite you to connect if you have questions/comments/suggestions.
Perimeter Shopping
Have you heard the term Perimeter Shopping? It means shopping around the border or outer edges of the supermarket. This is generally where you find the fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat, eggs, seafood. These items are easily recognisable as food, they are in their natural form and no labels are required to explain them.
The general idea is to stay away from the centre isles of the supermarket, because that is where you find all the highly processed foods with little nutritional value and lots of additives. We all know these things are addictive, mess up our metabolism, rob us of energy, and are making us fat.
Many of the things in the middle aisles are not easily recognisable as food – they are in packages, boxes, bottles and tins. We need to read the labels to know exactly what is in them. Warning: you won’t like what you read. Watch out for the terms “low fat”, “low sugar” and “added calcium”. These are trade-offs. Low fat items are often loaded with sugar or salt to make up for the reduction in fat. Low salt is often loaded with sugar and fat. When they splash the phrase, “added calcium” on the front, that’s often a signal that the product is loaded with all three.
There are some items located in the perimeter that are not good buys: pre-marinated meats (have you looked at their ingredients list?), flavoured milks and sugar-added yoghurts, packets and bottles of sauces and flavourings to which you “just add meat” for an instant meal, and salad dressings. For good health you want to eat natural food in preference to these sorts of processed items.
You pay for the convenience of pre-prepared and packaged foods in two ways – they cost more money to buy and they cost you your health. We know we need high quality fuel to get the best performance from a racing car. Similarly our body will only be in peak condition when we feed it the highest quality food.
Your health is your real wealth. It is worth investing in. You deserve the best.
Where is your lifestyle taking you?
Maintaining our health to live long and well depends on simple lifestyle choices we make every day, often unconsciously.
To identify how long and how well you’re going to live, the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) asks questions such as:
• Do you sleep 7.5 hours/night on average?
• Do you exercise for 30 minutes/day?
• Do you eat mostly whole foods?
• Do you have friends (at least 3) that you can call and that actually care?
• Do you have a sense of purpose that you can write down that gives meaning to your life?
• Are you a non-smoker?
• Do you have protected sex with people that you don’t know?
If you can say yes to all these questions, they tend to predict that you’ll live healthy until 90 years old on average.
As you say no to some of them your lifespan starts to decrease.
Time and again we see the basics play a major role in our lives. Simple choices we make every day but seldom think about. Habits that run on autopilot but do not support our health and wellness.
Unfortunately the bulk of western medicine is centred around treatment of disease. We don’t pay a doctor to keep us well. We pay the doctor to treat us when we are sick. The cure frequently involves taking some kind of medication. Education about lifestyle changes to return is to health is not often provided.
What if we placed more focus on maintaining our health, instead of fixing disease when it turns up?
If you want to learn how to make some simple changes to support your health and wellness and think a holistic approach would work for you, contact me for more information about HoloBody (Holistic Body Wellness).
DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU?
What if you activated your own inner doctor? Knowing ourselves and our bodies, knowing what makes us feel well, alive and vital lets us tailor a lifestyle uniquely suited to us as individuals.
I am a big believer in this. There is no one size fits all. We all have a different genetic makeup, different environmental influences, different history of body and mind stressing events.
When it comes to weight loss I think everyone can find their way in terms of choosing a way of eating that will work for them. There is no one right way.
It is the same with our health and wellness. When we want to experience more energy and vitality as we get older, we need to discover how to tweak the various levers that will get us feeling invigorated, vibrant and joyful.
I believe we all have an inner power, intuition, insight and understanding about ourselves. We can find a lifestyle that supports our inner power, allows us to release that inner power and protects us from inadvertently harming ourselves through choices that don’t propel us towards our end goal.
Do you know what is right for you? Yes, you do. It is just a matter of having some guidance, information, prompting to help you tap into that innate inner power. You may need to address some bad habits, limiting beliefs, inaccurate or outdated information.
HoloBody (short for holistic body) can help. The approach is always respectful of your uniqueness and your own inner wisdom. You are supported and encouraged to be self-directed about supercharging your wellness.
It’s like the old adage: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” HoloBody produces a life change that is lasting, because you develop this ability to tune into your inner wisdom and be self directed.
If that sounds right for you, Contact me.
Drinking Warm Lemon Water in the morning
Personal sharing – this is one of my morning rituals. Every morning when I get up the first thing I do is drink one litre of slightly warm water with the juice of one lemon added. This is not a new fad, I have done this for many years.
Why do I do it?
What you put into your body first thing is important. You have just been fasting all night. Hydrating is a good first step.
We all know we are supposed to drink more water. I struggle to get my water intake throughout the day, and a litre first thing in the morning gives me a head start. Sometimes I drink another litre of sparkling mineral water in the evening, and those two things together are a big plus in the hydration department. Adding lots of sips as I move throughout the day is also important.
Why add lemon to my morning glass of water? It tastes better than drinking plain water. It gives me some extra vitamin C which helps my immune system and I get a nice clean and clear feeling in my body.
A glass (150ml) of lemon water with the juice of one lemon provides approximately:
• 4Kcal / 16KJ
• 0.1 g Protein
• 0.8 g Carbohydrate
• 65 mg Potassium
• 18 mg Vitamin C
Other benefits to consider:
• Aids in weight management: Drinking water can aid in weight management by supporting hydration, boosting energy and helping to regulate metabolism and digestion. Drinking water before a meal also curbs the appetite. It doesn’t have to be lemon water, but if the lemon flavour encourages you to drink more water, that is a plus.
• Improves your skin: Lemons, like other citrus fruits, are high in vitamin C, which is essential for the production of collagen. Collagen is responsible for the elasticity and strength of the skin. According to research vitamin C is also a powerful antioxidant that neutralises free radicals present in the skin that build up from air pollution and ultraviolet radiation. The juice of one whole lemon delivers between 20 to 25% of your daily value of vitamin C.
• Helps digestion: Drinking your lemon water warm “can loosen things up,”. Many people report that warm liquids help stimulate digestion and gets things moving.
And here’s a helpful tip:
The acid in lemons may be a problem for teeth. Lemons contain citric acid, and too much acid can wear away tooth enamel. So I drink my morning lemon water with a straw.
Why not try it and see how you feel?
Know what to do, but can’t make yourself do it?
You are not alone. This is a common problem for people who are trying to lose weight. You probably are really hard on yourself. You think you are weak or lazy. But that is not true.
The fact is that there is a wealth of knowledge out there on the internet. Lots of information about anything you want to know how to do. When it comes to weight loss, there are many different approaches that work when implemented:
- Keto
- Carnivore
- Vegan
- Calorie counting
- Low carb
All of these have their pluses and minuses. I personally favour keto, but it is not the only or best approach, nor is it an approach that suits everyone. I personally can’t stand calorie counting – that would drive me to distraction – but it works for some people.
The problem is not usually with knowing what to do.
The problem is usually that you can’t make yourself do it (oh – no – that’s it, isn’t it?).
The solution does not lie in accountability to keep you on track with your plan. This sometimes helps, and may be effective in the short term. You join a program or hire a coach. It helps. But it is not a pathway to long term success.
If you want to make a lasting change it needs to be a lifestyle change. Otherwise it is difficult to implement and even harder to sustain over the long term.
HoloBody is a holistic approach that uses techniques such as MCII (Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions) to drive action. MCII is a scientific method that creates implementation intention.
HoloBody (holo being short for holistic) addresses more than diet and exercise. It is about more than weight loss – it is a pathway to your total wellness. It is a journey to being the best version of yourself. And with HoloBody you will find you CAN experience success that lasts.
Contact me if you want to make lasting change.
Be, Do, Have
When we try to shape behaviours we usually do it around the outcome we want. We focus on the end result, on what we want to HAVE and work backwards. I want to weigh x kilos, therefore I must do y and z.
But if this goes against the grain of who you are (your BEing), it can be hard to sustain the DOing. This is a recipe for initiating new behaviours that you can’t make stick. The new behaviours are only temporary changes that seem difficult and cannot be sustained over the long term. You never get to HAVE the outcome you want.
Here’s a tip to make things easier. Start with BEing.
Ask: Who do I need to BE? Who is the type of person that gets the outcome I want? If I want to lose weight, what would a person who is losing weight do?
Take action with a focus on your identity (who you are BEing) rather than your outcome (what you want to Have). This creates a self-improvement feedback loop. You identify the kind of person need to BE. You start with one behaviour that kind of person does. The more you DO that behaviour, the more you reinforce the belief that you are BEing the kind of person that gets the result you want. Magic!
For example, a person who is losing weight plans in advance what they eat so they can choose foods that fuel their body rather than eating whatever is on hand or most emotionally satisfying.
You begin to plan your meals in advance.
Now you are BEing the person who is DOing the things that result in your desired outcome.
You have created a spiral. The more you DO the thing, the more you come to believe you are BEing the kind of person who gets the outcome you want. Doing the thing gets easier and easier. The behaviours become integrated and automatic.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to BEcome.
It eventually becomes a part of who you are.
Way to go!!
Contact me if you want to change who you are BEing.
You just need to balance calories IN and calories OUT (!!?)
That was my doctor’s advice. It didn’t work for me. It doesn’t seem to work for most people.
How your body burns calories depends on a number of factors. Two people can eat the exact same number of calories but have very different outcomes.
Have you addressed these factors:
- Gut microbiome
- Nutrient richness
- Hormone levels
- Inflammation in the body
- Sleep amount and quality
- Stress resilience
- Social connection
- Connection with nature
- Frequency of body movement throughout the day
- Sense of purpose
If you want to create lasting change you need to look at more than just diet and exercise.
HoloBody’s mind-body approach is holistic, addressing all the factors above. It provides tools and exercises that condition not just your body, but your mind and even your soul, giving you a lifetime of optimal health, healing, and vitality.
Contact me to start your HoloBody journey.
Are you conscious or unconscious in your body transformation?
Have you previously successfully followed a diet and exercise plan to achieve your goals, only to find that 12 months later you are right back at your starting point (or worse still) even heavier and/or unhealthier?
Is this a repeating pattern for you? Able to achieve your goals by short term intensive effort, but unable to sustain the result? Do you feel like somehow your body is just not cooperating with your mind’s goals and intentions?
One of the biggest shifts you can make to achieve your health goals is in your body relationship beliefs. These unconscious beliefs are running the show, causing resistance and undermining your ability to make results stick.
Exposing your unconscious beliefs and establishing a relationship with your body that allows you to deliberately, consciously and harmoniously adopt systems that support your body transformation is a game changer.
This is one element of HoloBody’s mind-body approach.
Contact me if you want to make lasting change.
