How to Create Healthy Personal Boundaries

How to Create Healthy Personal Boundaries

Creating Healthy Boundaries Imagine you KNOW that you’re the most important person in your life…. You wake up with energy and can’t wait to get going! You look in the mirror and love what you see! You make time to calm your mind, move your body and feed your soul – every day. You love yourself – and it shows with every thought you think, word you speak, and food choice you make. If you don’t immediately and whole-heartedly believe YOU are the most worthy and deserving person in your life, then time to reassess why, and where the bulk of your

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Nutty Choc Granola Recipe

Nutty Choc Granola Recipe

Nuts for Chocolate Granola! I confess I’m a little late to the granola making party. Funnily enough I used to the love the cardboard boxed stuff years ago, and probably in retrospect had a mild addiction to the apple and cinnamon flavour. Granola wasn’t something I ever got around to making myself until a few weeks ago, after a rather inspiring episode of “Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen” on the Food and Lifestyle Channel. We loved this recipe so much I’ve made several more versions with various nuts, seeds and spice combinations. I first ate it with greek yoghurt, then coconut cream, pure cream, and also

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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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Meditation Basics and Dr Ian Gawler

Meditation Basics and Dr Ian Gawler

Meditation Basics Last week I had the wonderful pleasure of having Dr Ian Gawler and his wife Ruth over to my home prior to his Toowoomba seminar on “The Science of Health, Healing and the Mind”. Together we recorded an interview for my YouTube channel over a cuppa and some raw chocolate, discussing some of our favourite topics: lifestyle medicine, mind-body healing, epigenetics, cancer recovery, psychoneuroimmunology, and of course, meditation. Throughout an evening of research and inspiration, I saw many people inspired to begin meditating after experiencing a taste of inner peace first hand. Often people are curious about meditation

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The Quickest Way to Healing

The Quickest Way to Healing

The Way to Healing Please don’t think for one moment that I don’t have bad days or bad weeks where I feel overwhelmed, tired and fed up, and just want some time to myself. I’m not so great at resting when there’s so much I could be doing, so having to lay back for the last five weeks with my knee up after surgery has challenged me. Feeling vulnerable and frustrated that I haven’t been able to do things for myself and have to ask for help (especially when the children were home on school holidays) certainly tested my ability to stay cool under pressure! DEEP

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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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How My Late Mother Inspired My First Wellness Retreat

How My Late Mother Inspired My First Wellness Retreat

My First Self-Love & Wellness Retreat Take Time Out Before You Burn Out Many of you who have met me in person or follow my writings know that I lost my Mother to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when I was 24. Even though nearly 16 years have passed, her influence on my life still permeates each and every day. My mother was a most wonderfully warm woman, who never thought twice about helping anyone. She was generous and thoughtful, quick to laugh and smile and she was always ready with a helping hand or a soothing cuddle. As I meet more and more women throughout my work, I think of

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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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Let go of Anger and Find Inner Peace

Let go of Anger and Find Inner Peace

Let go of Anger, Find Inner Peace When I was a teenager – angry, in denial, resentful and heavy hearted – my reality was believing I was the victim of mistreatment and neglect. I had no sense of personal responsibility, control or conviction. I simply modelled the coping skills of those who raised me. I learnt how to get angry, yell, scream, blame, over-react, sulk, lash out and quickly ignore matters that were too emotional to feel. After each blow up, things would go back to normal – quickly forgotten, as if they never happened. This frustrated me so much when I was left

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Benefits of Meditation to Reduce Anxiety

Benefits of Meditation to Reduce Anxiety

Reduce Anxiety with Meditation Oprah and Deepak do it. The Beatles were huge fans. Russell Brand does it daily. Even Ellen DeGeneres, Clint Eastwood and Hugh Jackman do it. Yes, they all found meditation. I discovered meditation nearly twenty-five years ago, to aid in my stress and struggles through the beginnings of adulthood. Now, using Meditation Therapy, I teach others how easily this ancient practice can significantly plant the seeds for health and healing in modern life. What’s Good About Meditation? The benefits of meditation have been thoroughly researched and documented by world class research institutions such as Harvard University,

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Gluten Free Grain Free Banana Bread Recipe

Gluten Free Grain Free Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Bread! Banana Bread! Oh, I do love a moist, soft and tasty banana bread. Especially when it fits under the category of clean and healthy eating, holistic living and gluten free, grain free. (Dairy free too if you prefer it). Banana bread is a scrumptious comfort food on a cold day when warmed with grass-fed butter on top and a cup of herbal tea! Am I making you hungry? Better get to the recipe quickly then! This recipe was one that I adapted from the lovely Jane at Marinya Cottage Kitchen, who adapted it from another blog, Sleep Love Eat. My recipe takes

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How Food Can Improve Your Mood

How Food Can Improve Your Mood

Improve Your Mood with Food Are you finding it hard to juggle the daily demands of life, work and family on top of balancing your eating habits? You’re not alone. Many of my busy clients struggle to get going in the morning and don’t take time to give themselves a nourishing head start. Unfortunately this regular denial creates a cascade of cravings and energy dips for the rest of their day, ruining their healthy eating intentions. When the brain is lacking nutrients, it often overrides the conscious mind by reaching for convenient, packaged and processed foods to ensure it gets

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10 Tips to Stress Less Now!

10 Tips to Stress Less Now!

Stress Less Now! Stress is now the number one underlying cause of all illness and disease in modern society. If you’re not sure what stress actually is or how it affects the body (physiologic responses) then check out my article on What is Stress that also includes 10 tips for promoting the Relaxation Response. Over-stimulation, achievement, demands, stimulus, finance and relationship challenges, children and lack of exercise…. the responsibilities all adds up. If we’re not stopping regularly to recharge our minds, bodies and spirits, then chronic stress hormones begin to damage the body and lead to illness and disease down the track. You

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3 Ways to Create Confidence and Build Your Self-Image

3 Ways to Create Confidence and Build Your Self-Image

Create your confidence and build your self-image by these very simple yet life-changing daily practices. You don’t need anything fancy to begin. You simply need to start making yourself a priority in your own life and pay attention. 3 Ways to transform your confidence:   1. Write down five things you are currently grateful for. (Use the term, “I am grateful for…”.) Focus on the positive feelings that come up as you associate them with your gratitude. Read them aloud and look for new things throughout the day. 2. Look in the mirror and name out loud, five things you admire most about

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