The Don's Meddle

Febfast time again.  Where you give up alcohol for 28 days, raise funds and awareness for charity, how hard can that be right? Well now they have extended the Febfast range to include giving up sugar, caffeine and digital screens.  So for this to be a REAL challenge I have decided to give up ALL of the Febfast options.    You are giving up WHAT? I hear my coffee addict voice in my head scream at me.... but but how will you cope without coffee daily, how will you function, be alert, in control and survive?  That I will find out because I have NEVER given up coffee on purpose or for a purpose.  The only days I never drink coffee are the ones when I am feeling sick. So this is going to be HUGE and to not have something else to replace it with (ie with sugar & alcohol) will truly test my patience. So I have already apologised to those around me as I am not sure how my moods will be affected by this... I have given up alcohol before for th...

Happy Year of the Horse!  As the clocked hit midnight the first thing I thought was,  "I am getting married this year", then proceeded to nap on the couch, got to love being old (well I did drink an entire bottle of French rose to myself and a glass of Moet, party girl really)! 2014 is going to be a great year, I have so many personal goals to smash (health, fitness, career) plus I leave my 30's and head into my 40's -  I love that I will be 40 when I marry my gorgeous 39 year old fiancé.  In true Aries fashion nothing makes me smash goals like leaving things to the last four months before an event, I function much better on a smaller time frame & do think more clearer with some stress (it is a ram thing).  My  lists have started to grow and  I have ordered my lists by month to help me keep calm and have little boxes to tick off.  How very organised of me. Love being super organised. Keep calm and just do it. My brain goes...

So it gets to this time of year and all you hear about is Christmas parties, food, recipes, wine, bubbles..... and we all get stressed, which is quite silly really.  You don't have to give up on all your hard work for the year for the entire MONTH.  Treat December like you would any other month that has red flag days and plan accordingly.    Christmas parties are all the rage, you get invited to a couple, there are free drinks, finger food and it would just be rude or weird to say no right? Wrong. Why have the New Year start with you feeling like crap and your body not liking yourself or your body very much?  That is just madness.  I say you can still have fun and feel great to bring in the New Year, you just have to plan and be smart, and practice saying "no thanks".    Plan this Christmas season to:   * Choose which parties you will go to and have a drink or two and work out which ones you will be the designated driver f...

Yesterday I booked, paid & confirmed our honeymoon.  So very excited, looking forward to 12 glorious days spending time with my new husband on the beach, swimming, snorkelling etc and of course the first thing I think of is "new bikini".  As you do.  Then I think, I have been very um relaxed with increasing my fitness and reducing the little belly I have managed to create (will call him Bob).  Even though I do eat healthy majority of the time & train a few times a week, I know I could push myself more and I definitely have been a little relaxed of late with portions/snacks, when I am happy, I eat, I cook, I share food and wine.  Ah love & life. Ain't it grand.  No excuses just things taste good so I eat them. Simples.  I ain't whinging or moaning because I am happy. I just need to pull my finger out and say byeee to big Bob and introduce you all to leaner Bob, belly blob to belly BuffBob?!. So it is time to resh...

I put a post on Facebook asking "margarine or butter", it seems I hang around pretty switched on people, or are friends with online smarties ... being smart that we know (and have known for a wee while) that saturated fat is good for us, butter is way better than margarine because it is a natural product.  For years we have been told to reduce saturated fat to control or lower cholesterol and for years I have been thinking surely it is processed food related (after reading numerous blogs on paleo, listening to podcasts from scientists, doctors around the world).  And starting to see a pattern of what is actually healthy nutrition for us (no processed foods, sugars) good fats are well good.  For years I didn't want to further my nutritional studies to become a dietician/nutritionist because I don't believe in the Dietary Guidelines and  I am a big believer of practice what you preach.  I don't believe we need 5-6 servings of carbohydr...

  Taking note of  the simple things that make you smile or feel good can reflect on your overall happiness. Your bus arriving early with a friendly bus driver greeting you,  a smile from a stranger, a hug from your children, your favourite gym class moved to a time that suits you, helping someone with their pram when people have just walked past, talking to the lady at Woolies scanning your groceries or remembering your to your favourite program returning on TV on Monday nights! (zombie zombie zombie... oi oi oi).  The feelings that you receive daily from these little experiences truly help make you feel in a good mood, releasing serotonin into the body and making you feel less stressed, anxious. Try and focus on what made you smile at the end of each day before you go to sleep, not the things that made you frown.   Concentrating on the small things that make you feel alive each day and less on the things you ...

Fear.  We all have it,  fear is really a coping mechanism,  the flight or fight mentality to protect the body (keep us safe), but I think we also have more fear installed or conditioned in us than we have ever before, we are more stressed, which means producing more stress hormones in our body. To produce the fight-or-flight response, the hypothalamus gland activates two systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system which initiates adrenaline into the blood stream. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. You don't want too much cortisol in your body. We all are creatures of habit.  If we haven't stepped far out of our comfort zone the likely chance of us actually doing so is s...