How to Heal Your Gut (instead of bloating, fatigue and hormone imbalance)

How to Heal Your Gut (instead of bloating, fatigue and hormone imbalance)

Bloating? Fatigue? Hormone Imbalance? In the last two years we’ve heard more and more about the importance of gut health and it’s influence on the brain and mood – Largely thanks to the ABC Catalyst Program for their gut and brain function series last year which you can watch here. When I was navigating my way through Bulimia Nervosa for 18 years – eating and throwing up and literally hating my own guts – I had NO CLUE as to how our digestive health is intimately linked to our immune, endocrine, circulatory and central nervous systems… I didn’t realise that all the

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Mindful Eating 101

Mindful Eating 101

Mindful Eating Tips Having lived through 18 years of Bulimia Nervosa, I’m certainly no stranger to the “stuff it in before you realise how much you’re eating” habit. I wouldn’t even taste my food for fear of being too slow that someone might actually see me eating! We don’t just eat fast and mindless because of food or body issues, there are so many people in this fast paced world who are simply running on empty. They are “go, go, go” people with so much to do, but never enough time to do it in. This couldn’t be more true

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This is my Beautiful 40 year old Body

This is my Beautiful 40 year old Body

My Beautiful 40 Year Old Body For those of you wondering how my knee is healing after surgery in June, it’s been slow, especially as a secondary injury was initially overlooked. Over the years my body has faced tremendous abuse; physical, emotional and self-inflicted. I’ve been hard on myself and pushed my body to breaking point many times with several broken bones, tears and surgeries. Throughout many stressful years my weight struggled to settle because of the severe restriction, starvation and binge/purge episodes I put it through for 18 years. My hormones, metabolism and digestion broke down several times. I

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Are your Cravings really an Addiction?

Are your Cravings really an Addiction?

The Brain and Addiction Following on from last Blog article about Cravings, you now hopefully have a better understanding of the difference between “body hunger versus mind hunger”. In short, one is genuine and the other is playing tricks on us. Let’s look a little deeper into understanding the parts of the brain that are activated when we crave specific foods. In 2004, participants in a study were asked to think about a favourite food. The participants’ resulting fMRI images displayed three primary areas in the brain that lit up: the hippocampus, insula and caudate. [Source: Monell] The hippocampus, located in

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Green Smoothies and Raw Chocolate – A Food Demonstration Gig!

Green Smoothies and Raw Chocolate - A Food Demonstration Gig!

Green Smoothies and Raw Chocolate This last week I presented and spoke at the Annual ‘QLD Rural, Regional & Remote Women’s Network’ Ag Show Luncheon in Toowoomba. Packing my mason jars, greens, and Omniblend I was prepared for an inspiring food demonstration educating the ladies on the benefits of blending your greens (check out my article and greens video here) for health, energy, reduced cravings and better sleep and concentration. Sharing the stage with three other panellists from different backgrounds and expertise, we engaged in a discussion on, “Eating is an Agricultural Act” and discussed how we can start to improve our health by being aware

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Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Stress and Weight Wars A 2011/12 Queensland Health report revealed an average 57.3% of adults who are overweight or obese. On average, only 56.6% of adults reported getting sufficient physical activity, whilst 15.6% of adults reportedly drink alcohol every week. Eight in ten people with weight problems also suffer from chronic stress and some form of mental health issue. Why? Because our bodies react to stress and emotional trauma by packing on the pounds to protect us. When we experience stress of any kind – real or imagined – our thoughts contribute to the intensity of emotions we feel. If

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The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

2nd Annual Eating Psychology Online Conference It’s a sad fact that every single one of us has something negative to say about our bodies at one time or another. For many people, especially women, it’s an everyday never-ending torrent of disgust, shame and hatred. Another huge challenge is food and eating – what to eat, when, how much….. so many negative and worrying thoughts about our bodies, food and eating. I know all too well what this destructive relationship can do after spending over 15 years battling an eating disorder. It’s dark, painful and lonely. I don’t want that for anyone

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Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat (Real) Food I love to tell people about food designers, because most people haven’t even heard of the term, let along know it’s actually a job title. Food designers are a food manufacturer’s secret weapon. Their job description is to create the perfect ratio of fat, sugar and salt in a food product that will create opiates in the brain to have you craving more! Big fast-food companies rely on these food designers to create great wealth in their business at an even greater cost to public health. People restricting themselves on one diet or another especially find these

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Eating Psychology Conference 2014

Eating Psychology Conference 2014

FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference Obesity, overeating, body image concerns, emotional challenges with food, and diet-related health issues have permeated our society, culture and mindsets. We’ve become the most unhealthy and unhappy we’ve ever been! Throughout my own recovery a huge A-ha! moment was realising that even though I was trying my hardest to watch what I ate and eat “healthy” food, my constant dogmatic, rigid and restrictive thinking was placing so much stress and imbalance within my body that it was impossible for me to find a healthy balance and weight. My digestive fire was just a glimmer of

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How to Stress Less & Love Yourself More

How to Stress Less & Love Yourself More

Stress & Release We are such creatures of taking everything personally and feeling the weight of hurt and pain, rejection or worth. I love Anthony Hopkins philosophy that it’s none of my business what other’s think of me. The problem is I didn’t know that as a teenager and took EVERYTHING personally. Until a few years ago, well into my thirties, my mind and body was filled with the anguish of thinking I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, and especially not thin enough… I ended up spending the majority of my life creating my own internal stress and contributing to my

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Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Mind-Body Weight Loss If you’re stressed out, worried, fearful or lonely, the impact on your health is immediate and the hormonal imbalances created are the same imbalances that cause food cravings, which also lead to weight gain. This stress, tension and fear might be a demanding job, a hectic family life, an abusive spouse or any of the millions of emotional challenges we all face in life—but the biochemical result is the same. Your hormones become imbalanced, your food cravings increase, and you’ll very likely gain weight. As time goes on, your cortisol levels rise, your blood sugar sky-rockets, your

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What Works When Dieting Doesn’t

What Works When Dieting Doesn't

Dieting Disasters It annoys and saddens me when people ask, “So what diet do you follow Viki?” Let’s be clear: I DON’T diet. I spent years dieting and it got me nowhere. I tried diet after diet. I was hungry, miserable, tired, cranky and didn’t really learn much at all about myself, my body or why I was eating the way I was, to get to that point in the first place. Following a plan was challenging because I wasn’t allowed to be in control. I had to follow what was laid out in front of me and make myself adhere

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Transform your mind, body and life for wellness

Transform your mind, body and life for wellness

From Medication to Freedom! How my Achieving Your Wellness coaching program has helped my client move from medication to freedom. I have an intelligent, insightful and attractive young client who came to meet and work with me late last year in 2013. At only 18 she had spent years on anti-depressants suffering low moods, unhappiness, isolation and body image concerns that bordered on disordered eating. Her dreams of travel, true happiness, connection and vibrant health were being hindered by limiting beliefs and unhealthy habits and behaviours. She came to me with a desperate need to combat the life she had created for herself and turn

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Do you measure your worth by your weight?

Do you measure your worth by your weight?

Worth Your Weight Bathroom scales. Do you have one? We don’t have a bathroom scale in our house. I’ve not weighed myself in years. I don’t look to one for punishment, judgement or expectation ANY MORE. I once relied on the bathroom scales for my self-worth. I looked to it for my daily allowance of food. I feared its’ judgement but I was compelled to step on it and wait anxiously for my result. My whole mindset and mood was determined by that number. The thing now is that I no longer measure my self-worth by a number on the scale.

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Healthy Sexy Slow Eating

Pleasure Eating By Marc David, Institute for the Psychology of Eating In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2009, eating a meal quickly rather than at a slow pace, diminishes the release of hormones in the gut that help create the feeling of being full. When these hormones – specifically PYY and GLP-1 are low, the unwanted result is simply this: overeating. The implication here is that the body needs time to regulate the chemical messengers that control our food intake. According to another study, published in the British Medical Journal in October 2008

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