How to survive the Festive Season (and still have fun!)

Tis' the season to be jolly la la la la la, la la, la la!

What an amazing time it is. The season of mulled wine and mince pies, office parties and catching up with friends and family. It's a great time to enjoy treats and everywhere you go there seems to be something on offer that you might normally turn down. So how do you keep a check on what you're eating when it's all around you?  We've put some tips together on how you can have a good time over Christmas without living to regret it in the new year. 

Tip #1

Don't eat it just because it's there

Sometimes we eat just because food is there. Don't feel obliged to reach your hand into the crisps bowl just because it's shoved in front of you. Be selective on what you eat. Eat for enjoyment and savour the flavour rather than eating mindlessly without any thought. Also, don't feel obliged to eat just because you are at someone's house and they offer you everything they have. Chances are that you will be offered plenty of treats. Take the ones you love and can't resist but leave the ones that you can live without. At home, try not to have too many nibbles out. Before you know it you'll be nibbling away at whatever is on the coffee table. Remember, you don't have to eat everything. Enjoy some treats without going overboard.

Tip #2

Make healthier choices

It's easy to have a delicious meal that is a little more healthy than your usual meal by making small changes that don't compromise on the taste. If you're making your own Christmas dinner consider the following:

• Switching from using white potatoes to orange flesh sweet potatoes, which are high in fibre and more nutritious and have a lower glycemic index. 
• Choose to cook with healthy fats like coconut oil or even butter rather than cheap vegetable oils. 
• Take the skin off the turkey. Fifty percent of the fat is in the skin. You will be reducing your saturated fat intake and your calorie intake by 50%! Well worth it.
• Choose a chestnut or fruit-based stuffing instead of pork meat and you could cut up to half the total calories and half the fat content.
• Remove fat from meat juices before making your gravy. Pour turkey (meat) juices into a jug and wait for the fat to rise to the surface. Spoon off or pour the fat off before making the gravy. 
• Use skimmed milk to make bread sauce, reducing your calories by more than 50%! Add a clove of garlic to the milk to add flavour.
• Drizzle olive oil on your vegetables rather than smother them with butter. Olive oil has a delicious taste and is just as good as butter at glazing your veg and stopping it from being dry. Olive oil is also very good for you eaten raw as it's high in monounsaturated and a better choice that saturated fats. You could even add some herbs and a little lemon zest.
• Swap brandy butter to low fat custard. 
• Have a smaller portion of Christmas pudding as it's high in sugar.
• Eat wheat free mince pies as the wheat in the pastry turns to sugar in the body making it a perfect scenario for weight gain and bloating.
• Eat stewed fruit with low fat cream or yoghurt.
• Choose chocolate over stodgy puddings (may be high in sugar and fat but at least there's no wheat so no bloating!)

Tip #3

Reduce alcohol intake 

Believe it or not your alcoholic drink is packed with calories. With a large glass of wine being almost equivalent to a Cornetto ice cream or three cans of beer equivalent to a fast food sandwich. If you can't live without a drink you may want to balance this out by having less dessert or vice versa. Just think of alcohol as liquid cake so you can't have double portions!

More tips include:

• Dilute your favourite drink with water to make it last longer.
• Choose low alcohol lager.
• Choose wine with 11% or less alcohol (they do exist!)
• Avoid sugary cocktails. They have all the calories of the alcohol as well as high sugar content from the fruit juice.
• Try non-alcoholic drinks. They are not as bad as they seem and great if you're driving home too.
• Don't drink! Now there's a thought. You can make the choice to abstain from drinking. This will make you a good candidate for driving people home and allow you the joy of a headache free Christmas morning! Two good deeds in one!

Tip #4

Stay active

It's so easy once you've done all the preparations to sit down and veg out over Christmas. While you may well deserve a good rest, you will do yourself a favour by keeping yourself active. Doing some light exercise will give you more energy and will keep you from slumping and feeling lazy. It will also help to burn extra calories and keep your digestive system healthy. If you suffer from a bad back it is also better to stay moving as your back needs nutrient rich blood flowing to it which it's deprived from when you're sitting down for too long. 

If you've been exercising, you will also be in a better position in January when you want to start a new fitness regime, both physically, as you'll have less body-weight to lose and also emotionally, as you won't feel so heavy and lethargic as you would if you've been a couch potato throughout the celebrations.

So choose to stay active by:

• Taking long walks after a meal
• Trying to get to the gym at least twice a week
• Doing some home exercises
• Playing on the Wii with the family
• Playing with your children and grandchildren
• Offering to take the dog for a walk!

Tip #5

Start your fitness regime early

There's no need to wait until January to start exercising and keeping healthy. You can have a head start by starting in December. In fact for many people December can be busy in the way of preparations but less busy work-wise. So incorporate some exercise into your daily routine like before you start your Christmas shopping or after a long day at the shops. You'll be glad you did!

Tip #6

Relaxxxx!

Finally, whatever you decide to do over Christmas, decide to have fun and enjoy it. The festive season is meant to be a time to celebrate and get together with friends and loved ones but too often it is filled with stress. Stress in not good for the body or the mind! Choose to give yourself some time to relax over Christmas. Try not to stress about what's been done or not done. Use this time to recoup and regenerate and dream about goals for the New Year!

Have a Fab, Fun and Fit Christmas!!! 

Sally x 

For more info on keeping yourself healthy get in touch for a free one to one consultation. 

Are vegetable and seed oils good for you?

At our recent Lifestyle Seminar we spoke about a number of ‘unobvious’ things that make our diet unhealthy. By unobvious I mean things that people wouldn’t necessarily deem as unhealthy.

It is interesting that there are many people that think that seed oils, like sunflower oil for example, are good for you. However, it is not surprising because we are constantly bombarded with health claims of these oils because of their low saturated fat content and high in polyunsaturated fat content. Of course most people don’t question whether this is true or not. You certainly wouldn’t look at a sunflower and think of it as unhealthy or question how healthy vegetables are.

So, how exactly are seed oils, like sunflower and vegetable oils made?

Firstly the main thing to remember is that to obtain oil from any such seed it has to be highly processed using industrial techniques in large factories because there is no simple or natural way to extract these oils from seeds. Unlike olive oil which is cold pressed to retrieve its oil. In fact seed oils are a fairly new addition to our diet that only appeared in the early 1900’s after the invention of industrial processing techniques (factories).

Ok, so a bit of processing won’t hurt you say. Really? Well let me tell you what kind if processing we’re talking about. 

We’re talking about heating the seeds at unnaturally high temperatures so that they oxidise (go rancid) then, process with a petroleum solvent to extract the oils, a chemical called hexane, (they get washed in this chemical for 70 minutes. This chemical is also used in the formulation of glues for shoes, leather and roofing!). Then acid is added to remove any nasty wax solids that were formed during initial processing. The oil is then bleached to improve the colour and finally the oil is deodorised to get rid of the terrible smell caused by the oxidation process (the rancidity). To see how seed oil (Canola) is made see figure 1 below and watch this video. (However don’t be fooled by the ‘health’ claim at the beginning! Canola oil is made from a hybrid seed made from rapeseed. There is no such thing as a canola seed!).

Fig. 1 How Canola Oil is processed

Now we could stop there and that should hopefully be enough to make you think twice before eating this stuff. But there’s more.

Polyunsaturated Fats - PUFA's

Vegetable oil, (wrongly called vegetable oil because it doesn’t come from vegetables but from seeds), is highly unstable. This means that when it’s exposed to air, light or heat it starts to oxidise or go rancid. The seeds themselves have naturally built in antioxidants but these antioxidants are destroyed during the processing. So it is very likely that even before you buy the oil and bring it home form the store, it has already started to go rancid just by sitting on the shelves, especially since it is packaged in clear plastic bottles. To further the problem, when the oil is heated it continues to oxidise so that any antioxidants that were spared during the first process have definitely been destroyed by now. When we ingest the oil it continues to oxidise in our bodies. The instability causes free radicals to begin to destroy the cell membranes and cause cell mutations. This results in inflammation and has been linked with many diseases such as cancer, heart disease and endometriosis.

The main cause of the instability in seed oils is PUFA’s, Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, also know as Omega-6 fatty acids.

You may have heard about these as being very good for you. The truth is they are good for you but in small proportions. The body needs these in equal amounts to Omega-3 fatty acids (ratio of 1:1) which are also essential for good health. However, in today’s Western diet we are having a ratio of about 16:1. Way too many of these Omega-6 fatty acids have entered our diet and thrown things out of balance.

Hydrogenation

To add to this very interesting process, when making vegetable spreads, the oils further undergo a process called hydrogenation, where a hydrogen atom is added to change the chemical structure of the compound so that it can be solid in room temperature. If you’re not sure whether your spread had undergone this process ask yourself the question, would this substance normally be liquid or solid in room temperature? You’ll find that nothing is solid in room temperature except for pure butter, which is high in saturated fats that make it solid. You can safely say that any vegetable spread that you have sitting in your fridge even olive oil spread has been through this process.

Cold Pressed Seed Oils

There is an argument for cold pressed seed oils versus manufactured oils. The argument is that when cold pressed they do not go through the same highly chemical process that they do when manufactured. This means that they have not been exposed to high heat making them unstable. I am still researching this as it is a valid argument and so far I have not found any proponents to this apart from those promoting these products. A more objective view is needed but for me, thinking about this commonsensically, there is still the issue of the high polyunsaturated fat content which is still a no-no as it causes oxidation, which leads to cell damage in the body. For that reason 'I'm out' as the dragons say but I will still be researching it for you and update you on what I find.

Here’s a list of the types of oils that go through this type of processing:

•    Rapeseed Oil (Canola Oil in US)

•    Corn Oil

•    Soybean Oil

•    Vegetable Oil

•    Peanut Oil (Peanuts are not nuts they’re seeds)

•    Sunflower Oil

•    Safflower Oil

•    Cottonseed Oil

•    Grapeseed Oil

•    Margarine

•    Shortening

•    I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter

•    Any fake butter or vegetable oils products

These oils can also be found in foods such as:

•    Salad Dressings

•    Store Bought Condiments

•    Mayonnaise

•    Chips

•    Artificial Cheeses

•    Store bought nuts and snacks (usually coated with oil)

•    Cookies

•    Crackers

•    Snack Foods

•    Sauces

Practically anything sold in the middle aisles of the store!

Better choices:

• Olive oil – raw not heated
• Coconut oil – for cooking, spreading, baking
• Butter – naturally processed but very high in saturates. Be careful not to use it too much! Try using coconut oil instead
• Oily fish
• Nuts
• Avocados

Happy healthy eating!

P.S. The next Lifestyle Seminar will be taking place on Saturday 2nd November 2013. Please see website for details or sign up to our regular newsletter for updates.

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September is here! Are you ready?

September is here! Are you ready?

As daunting as it may sound, some may welcome the safe boundaries of getting back to a routine. It's nice to sleep in, to go on holiday, have evenings out and BBQ's - but even that relaxed way of life can become tiring after a while, even boring. We begin to long for the routine again. To get our life organised and things we've neglected back on track.

September is a great time to do that. The sun is still shining and we've not entered dark days yet although they are soon coming! 

As a coach I often hear of four main areas that people want to work on to get themselves back on track. They are:

Fitness
Finances
Work
Relationships - not necessarily in that order!

It seems that when each of these areas is ticking along nicely we are content. 

The problem however, is that we often focus on one area of our lives at a time to the detriment of the others. Some people are so bogged down with work for example that they have no time to invest in their relationships. Or they are focusing on their relationships that they are neglecting their fitness.

Coaching brings clarity. It's time spent thinking about what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. It's a time to focus your energies on your goals-but not just to think about them, to actually plan around them.

Nothing feels better than being ready for a season change. Let's go into winter with a clear plan for work, coping in the winter months, our fitness regime, even Christmas! Take a look a look at our coaching offers below. It's not too late to start.

This year waste no time. Plan your life and live it to the full!

We look forward to helping you to live your best life ever

SHL Team

September coaching offers

One-to-one coaching - 30 minute coaching session - Free

Power Packs
Back on track
Fit 'n' Fabulous
Back to Work and Lovin' it!
Change Your Thinking Change Your Life
Change Your Eating Change Your life
Get organised!

Some programmes consist of coaching and mentoring. Please call for your free session to find out more.

To book call 0208 133 1997 or 07894 033 310 or email info@sallyhumphrieslifestyle.com

"It starts with food" - The Whole30 Programme

The Whole 30 Programme

This is going to be a quickie but I had to tell you about my experience on the Whole30 programme. See video below for more but here's a quick synopsis.

Just over a month ago one of my PT clients asked me to review a book for her. She said that she was thinking of going on this programme and wanted my opinion. She had already outlined some things about the book but told me to keep an 'open' mind. It's a good thing she said that because immediately my defences went up when she told me about omitting whole food groups but I decided to keep an open mind and read the whole book. 

Not only that but I went a step further. I decided to go on the diet myself and see if all the claims to restored health were true. Actually, I must admit as I was reading the book I saw the sense in what it was saying, so I was already convinced that this type of diet will have the effects on the body that it suggests as it's based on having NO processed food whatsoever. Not even whole grains (believe it or not these foods are processed as you can't eat a grain as it is without processing it) but only vegetables, fruits, protein and good fats.

The book itself mentions not to just go by the stats but be your own experiment. Now I wouldn't normally do this with any old book but I have to admit the food stuffs that it recommends and the explanations and science to back it up was pretty impressive.

They purport that the sugar, salt and additives that are added to foods in such excess make them into 'Frankenfoods', foods with exaggerated tastes not found in nature, so that we become addicted and have an insatiable appetite for them. They contain little nutritional value, over-stimulate our hormones, cause inflammatory responses and throw everything into disarray so that eventually we become sick or at least not very healthy. Our brains are triggered by exaggerated flavours and we eat without brakes because the foods we eat contain ingredients that cause us to eat constantly without realising that we are full. Of course this is having a terrible impact on health. On the Whloe30 people have reported being healed of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, cholesterol, arthritis, asthma and eczema. Not to mention overcoming sugar addiction and tiredness.

My report is that I feel amazing. From the moment I started I felt the difference. It has completely changed my view of how I eat, although I was relatively healthy before. For one I got over a sugar and carb addiction that we all probably have to some degree without knowing it. By replacing all my starchy carbs with veggies and salad, I got to eat more veg in one month than I have done in one year. I haven't been hungry because I have been eating as much veg and meat as I like. Sometimes the plate has been too full and I can't finish it!

I feel fuller for longer but without the bloating. My skin is clearer. I no longer have puffy eyes in the morning and a puffy face from eating rice and pasta. I don't have any digestion problems. I have lost weight and more specifically lost inches from my tummy which was always a problem area.

My summary is this: if you need an overhaul to reset your system after years of unhealthy eating or even just moderately unhealthy eating (because no matter how healthy we think we are there is always room for improvements) then you may benefit from this. It is not as drastic as some diets and only lasts 30 days, unless you want to make it into a lifestyle, which they highly recommend. The only food groups you leave out are the ones that are not doing you any favours in the first place. You eat plenty of the good stuff and if done correctly should have lots of energy all day and not feel hungry.

I found aches and pains disappeared. I slept better and feel alive and bouncy. My face has become defined and waist line dropped a dress size. What more could I want?

Now I'm not trying to plug someone else's book (although effectively I am) but I can't deny how good this has made me feel. I was feeling sluggish and uninspired now I feel healthy and alive without feeling hungry or deprived. 

So watch the video at me harping on about it and excuse the delay in the sound! 

Hugs x

Always seek medical advice before embarking on a programme like the above.

What's holding you back? Why we let precious time pass us by

 

Why we let precious time pass us by

 

We're so busy that at times we don't realise that time is ticking by quicker than we think. If we're not careful we can end up twenty years from now wondering where has the time gone? In fact so often you hear people ask that question 'Where have the years gone?'. You blink and before you know it time has slipped through your fingers and the things you said you'd do tomorrow, next week or next month haven't been done. 

Now I know this all sounds a bit doom and gloom but sometimes we need a reality check don't we? Don't get me wrong I am an optimist which I think it's a really good trait to have. But even us optimists need a good dose of reality every now and again. Why? Because our failure to pay attention is not going to reward us in the long run! Thinking things are just fine when they're not means we won't try to change them.

So why do people go their whole lives thinking things are ok or thinking that they can sort things out later and then run out of time and find themselves years later regretting what they didn't do?

There's nothing worse than running out of time and not having achieved what you wanted to. So let's explore why people so often ignore doing what they should:

1. Time - It's a classic. There's never enough time. You hear it all the time. You may have even said yourself. Never enough time to do those things you need to do, to have, be, or do what you've always wanted. That may sound like a good excuse but those same people look back in regret at what they didn't allow themselves time for. The truth is we will make time for whatever we think is important but if we talk ourselves out of those things being important enough, we won't do them. So make time for the important things, like spending time with your kids, because you won't find time spare anywhere!

2. Timing - Like time, timing is another reason for why we don't do what we should. It's never the right time to go to the gym or start that new diet. There's always a wedding or a party or a holiday that will mess it up. It's never the right time to start a new business or move house or start a family. Do you know however, that you can spend your whole life planning for that perfect moment and it never comes ? Yet people have had unplanned pregnancies and lost jobs unexpectedly and managed just fine. Sometimes you just have to be thrown in at the deep end and you'll swim - no problem! It's called survival instinct and we've all got it!


3. Feelings - I don't know about you but these babies have had me in a twist plenty of times. 'Feelings'. We won't go into definitions but there is a lot that can be said for our feelings and how they control us. If we 'feel' like doing something then we will. If it 'feels' right then it is. But how reliable are feelings? And what are they based on? Most often feelings are formed through people's personalities and their experiences, not to mention hormones and diet. You can feel on top of the world one day or one moment and then down in the dumps the next. So how can feelings be a good determinant for what we should do with our lives? I can assure you that feelings are not a good indicator or motivator. You will not always 'feel' like doing what's right but you need to do it anyway otherwise those little feelings can be stealing your time, your happiness and your success. By-pass your feelings and do what you know you should do to get what you should have.

4. Resources - We often think that we don't have enough or, the right resources. Like time, we need money and resources to get things done. While this is true to some degree, for everyone that hasn't done something due to a lack of resources, I can show you ten that have started with NOTHING but the desire and they have succeeded incredibly. Whether you believe in God or the Universe etc, there seems to be an unwritten law that once you get started, that the ball gets rolling and all that you need seems to come to you. A huge amount of very successful people that have reached the top started with very little but their determination, drive and motivation got them to where they are. So, no, you don't need resources. You need resourcefulness!

5. Confidence - A lack of confidence can be a factor in stopping us doing what we are meant to do. At last here IS a valid reason for not moving forward. In fact, the above can be excuses, nine times out of ten, for not having this one thing. Confidence. Do we really believe in ourselves or the things we're doing enough? Or do we doubt our capabilities? Think about it. If you knew you couldn't fail what would you do? Would you still make excuses for not getting going? No, you probably wouldn't. If 100% success was guaranteed why wouldn't you go for it? You'd be in the gym the very next morning or planning that holiday of a lifetime like you mean it. If you thought you couldn't fail you would get going but if you don't have confidence in the thing you're doing or yourself, you won't budge from that place of safety. 

6. Denial - Everything is fine syndrome. Not facing up to reality. Convincing yourself that it's all under control. Meanwhile you're not happy and with time it all catches up with you anyway. Now you can keep up appearances for others but at least try to be honest with yourself. I know its hard to face some home truths but if you don't do it, it could mean the difference between a house repossession or a lost relationship. The consequences far outweigh the little bit of discomfort that you may feel now. Don't assume that you won't be able to cope with the truth. Things seem far worse in our minds than in reality and besides how bad can it be when left undone it will be far worse? Allow yourself the opportunity to make the changes now to avoid heartache later.

Time to think?
We've discussed a number of factors that can hinder us from moving forward and doing what we really need to. Of course there are many more. However, here's the main point:

Ten to twenty years from now, every reason that you had for not getting going will seem so ridiculous that you will quite likely want to kick yourself or you'll be mourning the lost time and missed opportunities forever. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic. It's a horrible feeling to get to the end and find you haven't done half of what you intended. Indeed it's just as horrible to be young and going through life knowing all along that there's more you could be doing and experiencing.

So why not fast forward to twenty years time and imagine the desperation that you will feel when you realise that you've let time slip away. Then apply that feeling to the here and now, so that hopefully you can be compelled to do what you really need to do, right now. Even if what you want may not be a big thing; whatever it is and whatever it takes, do what is necessary at this present time to achieve what you will be happy with later.

Life is precious. Don't waste a moment of it!

Your coach,

Sally