(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I look around at so many people struggling to cope with every day life, desperate about the way they look and feel, my heart bleeds. Because I know there is a simple solution that gives back life, love, harmony, health and wellness. And it is not rocket science. It is living naturally – just as nature intended.
This is a subject I talk little about. I don’t particularly like to dwell on my history of poor health. It is something I left behind me. Thankfully.
However I am often asked how I became so obsessed(!) with health and fitness, and exercise and nutrition, and why, in particular, do I constantly promote the virtues of raw juices and smoothies and eating a plant-based diet.
So for those of you who are interested. Here’s why I am a plant-based junkie.
2002. I was at the peak of my profession as a Personal Trainer. Travelling throughout Birmingham seven days a week, training many clients and teaching a wide variety of classes. I often worked thirteen hour days to fit everyone in. Outwardly I looked great. Six pack abs, an amazingly toned back, rock hard legs and arms. I was in the best looking shape of my life.
I absolutely believed I was eating a healthy, wholesome diet. Meat, dairy, fish, grains and breads featured heavily in my diet. I followed the rule of eating only whole grains, and focusing on white meats and oily fish. Chicken, salmon, mackerel, slid, tuna, turkey, whole grain pasta, whole grain rice, whole grain bread, oats, nuts, seeds and veggies were the mainstays of my eating back then. Fruit didn’t really figure in the equation, and neither did raw veg. Almost all of what I ate was cooked, with the exception of a raw egg white, banana and milk smoothie now and again. I did not drink alcohol, nor smoke, and rarely indulged in treats like chocolate and biscuits. So I figured I was being pretty damn good with my food, and after all – my body looked amazing.
My health was rubbish. I could not understand why I was constantly tired, and often full of snot. In fact I was so full of snot I would often wake up at 1am in the morning my nose streaming and sneezing like crazy. I would carry pockets full of tissues to clients and be sneezing and blowing my nose through the morning. It normally took a couple of hours to clear. I had an allergy test done at hospital. It came back negative. I had a specific food allergy test done. Again it came back negative.
By mid afternoon most days I was taking on board protein shakes and bars in an attempt to fuel my body and provide energy to get me through another training session, another aerobics class. I always seemed to be fighting for energy.
I tried changing my diet. I upped the animal protein intake and reduced the carbs. Didn’t work. So I upped the carb intake and reduced the animal protein intake. Didn’t work. In fact, nothing seemed to work. I figured I was just one of those people who burnt energy quickly. So I ate a lot.
In October of 2002 I developed a really sore throat which turned into a nasty bout of tonsillitis. Something I had never suffered from before. It lasted around five weeks and took three courses of antibiotics to shift. Little did I know how much damage I was doing to my body by the repeated doses of high level medication.
I struggled back to work and picked up the pace once more, never really feeling 100%, often frustrated and wondering why. This lasted until July 2003 when my body just stopped. Absolutely stopped. I went from a full-time trainer with a big book of clients to lying on a settee without the energy to make myself a meal.
I spent hours and hours sleeping with little effect on my energy levels. I could barely walk 100 yards without being utterly exhausted, I had a sore throat and flu-like symptoms which lasted a period of three years, I became panicky, had a constantly funny taste in my mouth, and always felt wobbly and off-balance. The slightest exertion (such as walking upstairs) made me so unwell I would be confined to the settee for days. Exercise had suddenly become the devil. I could not conceive how this had happened. I was a fitness guru! I was supposed to be the healthy one…
Test after test and the final diagnosis after all else was ruled out was chronic fatigue. Fan-flipping-tastic. I was told I would have to pace myself, possibly for the rest of my life. My life as I knew it was over. No more bouncing around aerobic classes, no more weight training, no more teaching my beloved khai-bo. All gone, in an instant. The tears I cried over the loss of my health, and my career……
I was offered drugs (to help with the constant pains in my quads), behavioural therapy (to help manage the emotional side of the illness), and support through a local ME group. I declined the drugs and therapy and went once to the ME support group. I listened to people comparing ailments and decided it might be right for some, but it wasn’t right for me.
I knew I faced a journey to find recovery alone. No-one and no drug it seemed, could heal me.
In between long periods of rest and sleeping, I started researching this awful illness. I tried many diets and programmes advocated to help chronic fatigue. I had little success. But over time the diets that I researched – in-depth – and tried – without success – finally led me to the Hippocrates Health Institute. It was a light bulb moment. Within their website I first heard about many healing miracles through adopting a high raw food, plant-based diet, with raw juices and smoothies, wheatgrass shots, colon cleansing and exercise at the core. Little did I know at that time, but my own healing had begun.
Seven years later I can hand on heart say that plant-based foods gave me my life back. Is it any wonder I’m always harping on about the benefits? I now function better than I did when I was a full-time, busy personal trainer.
I may no longer have the killer abs, pert butt, or rock hard quads. But what I do have is my health. And I thank nature and plant-based foods every single day for that. Because until your health is taken away from you, you absolutely do not realise how terribly precious it is.
Légumes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I need no other proof than my own body to know that eating plant-based foods is the way to heal, to grow, to glow and to thrive. The proof is in my own body and how amazingly it has healed since I made plant-based foods the mainstay of my diet and life.
These days, if I choose to indulge in a non-plant based treat I feel the effects almost immediately. I fill up with snot, my heart rate increases, I sneeze, I feel sluggish, and my energy depletes. This can last up to two hours.
My body tells me that eating poor quality food is not the way to nourish and cherish myself and I need no other proof to continue the path I tread. I have nature to thank for my healing – clever little thing that she is.
Jenny 
I am often asked about the role of digestive enzymes, particularly because they are becoming more widely heard of and spoken about in the public domain. For those of you who wish to understand more about how vital digestive enzymes are for health, here’s the low down:-
- Every single function, system and part of the human body is governed and/or run by enzymes.
- Without enzymes you would die.
- Every single piece of food you eat, and the vitamins and minerals you take on board all require enzymes to be utilised properly.
- Enzymes are produced naturally by the body, but we do not have an unlimited supply.
- Nature intended we support our body’s own limited bank of enzymes by eating a high volume of raw foods which also contain living enzymes.
- Eating a high volume of raw food which contains living enzymes helps to ‘pre-digest’ your food making it more available as fuel and nutrients for the body.
- Processing and cooking food destroys living enzymes. Any sustained heat of 118 degrees or above will kill virtually every enzyme in food.
- When we eat food that is devoid of living enzymes we cannot pre-digest that food. It sits in the stomach for around an hour (where it would normally be pre-digested), before travelling to the large intestine largely undigested.
- When we do not pre-digest our food, our body has to call upon its own reserve of enzymes to help with the digestion of food. This places enormous stress on the pancreas and other organs, and depletes the ‘bank’ of enzymes our bodies require for all other bodily functions and processes. It is not hard to see why our bodies begin to break down and fail when our reserves of enzymes are depleted, and we continue to eat a high volume of “dead” foods devoid of their own life-giving enzymes.
- Eating a diet high in raw foods ensures our bodies retain their own banks of enzymes for the purpose they were intended for.
- Supplementing with a digestive enzyme at each meal quite literally provides our bodies with a health and wellbeing insurance.
Make high quality, suitable digestive enzymes part of your daily religion. Your body will thank you year upon year upon year.
Major digestive enzymes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
To finish with a quote:
“A person’s life span is directly related to the exhaustion of their enzyme potential. And the use of food enzymes decreases that rate of exhaustion, and thus, results in a longer, healthier, and more vital life.” Dr Howell – Enzyme Nutrition
Chia Seed is a little wonder. Throw some in a bowl, add some cold or warm water, and watch it change in to a gelatinous gloop (even though it is gluten-free). Because of its gel like consistency when added to water, it can be used as a replacement for eggs in recipes.
In Aztec times Chia Seed was used as the general unit of currency. Can you imagine? It’s a member of the mint family (although has no mint flavour whatsoever), and is grown mainly in Mexico.
Chia is a great source of fibre – helping to keep your digestive system functioning well, it is high in Omega 3, it is a complete protein with all 8 essential amino acids, it has five times the amount of calcium than milk, and around seven times the amount of vitamin C than oranges. Chia seeds contain more iron than spinach and more potassium than bananas. An all round super food don’t you think?
Chia Seed Pudding is easy and quick to make. We often eat it as a tasty breakfast treat. When you mix Chia Seed with water it forms a tasteless but nutritious base that you can then add all sorts of lovely flavour-some foods to.
A staple for us is our Chia Seed Pudding with sultanas and banana. Simple, nourishing, filling. Here’s the how to:-
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of chia seeds
2/3 of a cup of warm or cold water
Handful of sultanas
1 ripe banana sliced
Method:
1. Place the Chia Seed in a bowl and add the water. Mix thoroughly and leave to stand either in the kitchen, or for a colder dessert, in the fridge, for 10 minutes.
2. After ten minutes you will see that the Chia has absorbed the water and created a gelatinous base.
3. Simply throw on the sultanas and banana and eat.
Enjoy!
Next time you are in a public place.
Take 30 seconds to look around you.
How many fat people do you see?
Chances are, you’ll notice a fair few.
On the High Street, in the supermarket, at the restaurant, in the Doctor’s surgery, in the local school playground, at the gym….
If you are one of the many many thousands carrying surplus body fat – boy (or girl) look around – you’ll see you’re not alone!!! Fat is big business. It’s EVERYWHERE… and it’s growing…
An estimated 36% of males and 28% of females in the UK will be obese by 2015, and the World Health Organisation predicts that some 700 million people worldwide will be obese by 2015.
Do you not think that these are totally scary figures? I can tell you they freak us out a little (actually quite a lot).
We all know we have a super serious fat problem going on here, and yet it seems that the multitudinous diets supposed to target and help fat people are failing, because we are continuing to grow bigger.
What the hell should everyone do?
Whether you are fat or not, there really is only one answer.
Dump the diets and get your lardy lazy ass off the couch. There. I’ve said it.
Not exactly rocket science is it?
You get fat by eating too much and exercising too little. You get slim by eating the right foods in abundance and exercising often. It’s the only way. The proper way. The way to achieve long-term health and a slimmer, fitter, toned body.
I eat abundantly every day. I love, love, LOVE my food. Yet I’m slim, fit and healthy. How can this be? I eat more than most people I know. I’m often asked “How do you stay so slim when you eat soooo much?” This often happens at social gatherings where the person asking is knocking back their sixth large gin and tonic, wolfing down all manner of fat laden crudities, and talking about picking up a take out on the way home. HELLOOO!! Are you not aware of the crap you are shoving in your mouth?
I don’t diet – period. I don’t eat rubbish – period. I get my toned ass up off the couch and get active – period. I stay slim – period.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do I miss sugar? Nope.
Do I miss alcohol? Absolutely not.
Do I miss fat laden chocolate, cakes, biscuits, puddings, desserts? Not a chance.
Am I craving a take away? No way!
Do I love feeling well? God, yes.
Do I eat shed-loads of tasty food? Totally.
Do I look younger than my age? Absolutely.
Am I grateful for the body I have? I sure am – I work damn hard for it.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but it simply won’t cut it blaming everyone and everything else for your fat predicament. It’s not the dog’s fault, the fault of your nasty boss, or because your partner is a ***ick (excuse me). It’s not because you are out on the road all day, or tired from bringing up baby, because you’re not in the right climate or because you’re living in the wrong country. It’s not because you have no money, or, for that matter, too much money (have you seen how many fat rich people there are?)
You’re fat because of you and the unhealthy choices you make. You’re fat because of the way you are choosing to treat your own body.
In order to change your fat body, you are going to have to do what I do in order to be slimmer and healthier. You are going to have to be a big girl (excuse the pun), and take responsibility for your own body. You got it to where it is today. You want it to be somewhere different tomorrow? That’s your responsibility, and yours alone.
We can, however, offer you a little support along the way.
How about taking just four steps? Doesn’t sound too difficult does it? Here they are:-
1. Ditch the no-good diets. Period.
2. Cut out the fat laden, sugar filled, refined, unhealthy shop bought cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolates, crisps, pizza, pork pies, coleslaws, creamy sauces, microwave meals, white breads, canned goods, meats, dairy, caffeine, alcohol….
3. Get your girlie/guy ass up off the couch and start introducing some movement into your life. You know – walking, swimming, dance class, aerobics, skipping, Zumba, line dancing (hey – whatever floats your boat), WEIGHT TRAINING (see previous post), jogging (if you must), cycling, mountaineering….. It’s not as if you don’t have a world of choice when it comes to busting some body fat with some activity…. You’ll learn to love it – HONESTLY!
4. Eat as much fruit and veg as you can squeeze into your belly. Truly. Eat fruit and veg in absolute abundance. Complement this with healthy grains (quinoa, buckwheat, whole grain pasta, millet, whole grain rice etc..), lentils, beans and nuts. Yes you may have to spend some time checking out new recipes online (and possibly a bit more time on the toilet to begin with), you may have to organise yourself to ensure you can eat fresh food, and you’ll probably have to figure out how to work your cooker. But the results will be worth it. Truly, truly worth it.
That’s it. Just four steps. Take them, and find a beautiful, healthier, slimmer, livelier, more confident you. Want some proof? Check out “M’s” journey on the tab above. She took just four steps. She’s lost over 6 stones in body fat to date.
For a totally OMG healthy, filling, breakfast boost!
Buckwheat is a fabulous alternative to oat based porridges. Don’t be misled by the name – buckwheat is not a member of the wheat family, and unlike wheat, is gluten-free. It is not a cereal/grass. It is related to sorrel, knotweed and rhubarb. It is rich in iron, zinc and selenium, and is a good alternative source of protein with a high concentration of all essential amino acids.
This buckwheat porridge tastes absolutely delicious, is easy and cheap to make (just 3 basic ingredients plus water), and will help to keep you full and energised throughout the morning.
Ready to get cooking? Here we go…
Ingredients (Makes two good portions)
1/2 cup (4 oz) buckwheat (available in most supermarkets)
1 large organic banana – chopped into small chunks
1 organic apple – chopped into small chunks (leave skin on).
Method
1. Take 1/2 cup of the buckwheat, place in a sieve and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Then transfer the buckwheat to a saucepan (preferably stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic or glass). Add 4.5 cups of water to the pan. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and allow the buckwheat to simmer for 20 minutes. Use a timer…
2. When the buckwheat has been simmering for 10 minutes add the chopped apple and give it a stir. Continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes, or until all of the water has been absorbed. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
3. Add the chopped banana to the saucepan and give it a good stir. Allow it to sit for around ten minutes (if you can wait that long…)
4. Spoon as much as you would like into a dish, and add your favourite toppings. We’ve added a little raw cacao (buy here) for some healthy chocolate energy, but you can top with goji berries (buy here), nuts, seeds, berries and other fruit of your choice. Tuck in an enjoy knowing you are eating a healthy, nourishing, energy giving breakfast.
We save leftovers for pudding later in the day (stirring in raw cacao for a chocolatey treat), or we re-heat gently the following morning for another tip-top start to the day.
Simple. Cheap. Sustaining. Nourishing. Tasty. Plant Based Food.
Enjoy!
This is for all you ladies (and men), who are out pounding the pavements, in an effort to jog away your body fat.
It’s great that you have made the decision to commit to some exercise – and jogging will work well for your health, your heart and your happiness. What you might not realise is that there are much more effective exercises to target fat loss – exercises that enable you to shed inches without ever having to squeeze your ample busts into shock absorber bras, nor tuck your hair into an unforgiving cap to avoid rain induced frizz. In fact you don’t even have to leave your home to achieve a leaner, meaner body.
There is still a great deal of bad information about resistance training (or weight training if you prefer). Women in particular worry about swapping unsightly body fat for equally unsightly muscle mass, and there is a real misconception that weight training will lead to an overly-muscular, manly body. Great for all you men maybe, but most women would run a mile from sporting their own bulging biceps.
The trick that many overweight people are missing is the huge benefit weight training will have in helping to shed body fat, and the science behind this is simple.
When you apply a force against a muscle (by digging the garden, or doing a press-up, or carrying a heavy load, or lifting a weight for example), your muscle responds. When you regularly apply a force against that muscle it becomes bigger, stronger, and more metabolically active.
The ‘more metabolically active‘ is the most important part here. If you weight train your muscles regularly and correctly, the load you are making them lift results in muscle growth – not a lot - but enough to mean that muscle requires more energy (or calories) just to exist each and every day.
A good, regular weight training routine that targets all of the major muscles in your body will result in you burning more calories every single day. As this happens, and as long as you are eating a healthy, balanced diet, your body will use stored body fat to provide the extra calories to your muscles. The result is that you shed inches by weight training, and you can lose a large amount of body fat this way.
As you continue to make weight training a regular part of your life, you will see your body shape change. Fat will disappear and tone will appear. You will feel stronger, leaner and slimmer.
One thing that will not happen is massive muscle gain. In order to build noticeable muscle mass, to become really bulky, you would need to commit to hours of weight training with heavy weights every day. I have never yet had a client gain muscle mass through weight training, however I have had clients lose up to sixteen inches of body fat from their stomachs as a direct result of weight training and a healthy, balanced diet.
So, if you are out pounding the pavements in the hope that you will shed lots of weight, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate your fitness regime. Using jogging and other cardiovascular exercise to improve your health and fitness is brilliant, and should definitely be part of your exercise routine, but weight training will provide better fat burning results.
To achieve a slimmer, more toned body, weight training is absolutely key to your routine.
You need nothing more than a set of weights (available online and through high street stores for as little as £20.00), some time, commitment, and a simple weight training routine. You can find many weight training tutorials online – through utube and pinterest for example. We will be introducing a beginners guide to weight training shortly. First 100 copies ordered will be free. If you would like to reserve your free copy, simply email us using the form below.
If you make weight training part of your life, as you age you will notice your body remains toned and trim (see the picture of the 45 year old woman on the left who weight trains regularly), you will also protect yourself from the onset of osteoporosis, you will be strong, and you will be able to eat a delicious, healthy diet in abundance without any fear of gaining body fat.
