Hormone Balancing – Viki Thondley | Mind Body Food | Depression, Stress, Eating Disorders

{Podcast} Self-Care, Cancer & Making Friends with Guilt

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on April 9, 2016 / Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Lifestyle, Mindset, Personal Growth, PODCAST, Positive change, Self-Care, Self-Esteem, Stress Management, Wellness Coaching

NEW MINDBODYFOOD PODCAST SERIES I have an inspiring and awesome new free resource for you, in the form of my brand new MindBodyFood Podcast series. An easily downloadable audio mp3 interview and meditations series you can listen to on the go. Hormones and Self-Care are huge topics for many women, so first up is an honest, practical and very inspiring self-care journey that started with a shock thyroid cancer diagnosis at 23, forcing a high-achieving, people-pleasing music teacher to reassess her life choices and start making herself and her health a priority. This meant learning to make friends with guilt and stop feeling resentful when

How to Get a Good Night Sleep

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on October 1, 2015 / Benefits of Meditation, Health & Fitness, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Lifestyle, Mental-Health, Mindset, Self-Care, Wellness Coaching

Get a Good Night’s Sleep I openly admit I’ve been guilty of prioritising emails, phone calls, and tweaking my website over getting to bed at a decent hour. Once I’m actually in bed it’s very tempting to check my Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts – and I know I’m not the only one! Sleep deprivation affects a large percentage of the population and contributes to various health concerns. It’s hard to show up every day and be productive, effective and vibrant when you’re consistently lacking sleep. According to Shawn Stevenson in his latest book, Sleep Smarter – a scientific look at

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

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on February 7, 2015 / dieting, Eating Disorders, Food, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Mental-Health, Nutrition, Nutrition & Weight Loss

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

Are You Drinking Enough Water?

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on December 12, 2014 / Fat Loss, Health & Fitness, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Self-Care, Wellness Coaching

Drink Water, it’s Healthy Do you notice if you’re thirsty right now as you read this? Are you tired, or struggling to stay awake, or concentrate? Water does way more than simply quench our thirst, and yet we often don’t realise the benefits of drinking up. Blood is 83% water. The brain is 74.5% water. It’s fair to say that without enough water being replenished into the blood stream to carry nutrients and oxygen to your cells, regulate your body temperature and nourish your brain, you’d easily start to feel tired, cranky and thirsty. As much as I know myself

How to Make Sauerkraut

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on November 24, 2014 / Food, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Medicinal Nutrition, Mental-Health, Nutrition

Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Kombucha GUT problems? Bloating? Irregular poop? Eat Sauerkraut! Cultured or fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir grains, kombucha, yoghurt and cheese are fantastic to feed your good gut bacteria (your microbiome). They contribute immensely to healing and building our inner ecosystem. Friendly bacteria naturally present in the vegetables quickly lower the pH, making a more acidic environment so the bacteria can reproduce. The vegetables become soft, delicious, and delightfully “pickled.” Fermenting creates beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics. Cultured vegetables are made by shredding cabbage, or a combination of cabbage and other vegetables, and

Acai Berry & Maca Breakfast Bowl

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on November 21, 2014 / Food, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Nutrition

Breakfast Bowl of Champions! REAL FOOD FRIDAY This week is a nourishing and satisfying breakfast bowl of hormone balancing and antioxidant goodness for you! Acai Berry & Maca Breakfast Bowl with homemade Nutty Choc Granola! I’ve been making this for quite a while now, and when I’m out of Acai Berry powder I simply use my greens and reds powders instead for a “Green Hulk” bowl. Breakfast is often the easiest meal to skip, but it’s also the easiest meal to plan and create without too much effort. You can of course make plenty of dinner and keep the leftovers

60+ Healthy Chocolate Delights Recipes – My NEW eBOOK!

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on November 11, 2014 / Food, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Hormone Balancing, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Raw Chocolate Making, Workshops

MY BRAND NEW EBOOK! Do you love chocolate, but always have this guilty feeling associated with it? Guilty pleasure. Guilty addiction. Equals shame. Eating chocolate for me used to be a guilty pleasure. I was addicted to the false pleasure I experienced due to the massive sugar high in my brain. It triggered my reward centre to release a hormone called Dopamine – I felt FINE when I was eating chocolate. I even felt pretty damn fine after I ate chocolate…. But then after a little while, I felt low, lethargic, irritable…. and disgusted – with myself and my lack of willpower; with my body and the excess

This is my Beautiful 40 year old Body

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on October 3, 2014 / Body Image, Confidence, dieting, Eating Disorders, Fat Loss, Health & Fitness, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Inner-Strength, Lifestyle, Mental-Health, Mindset, Personal Growth, Self-Care, Wellness Coaching

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

Are your Cravings really an Addiction?

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on September 22, 2014 / Body Image, dieting, Eating Disorders, Eating Psychology, Emotional Eating, Food, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Mental-Health, Nutrition & Weight Loss

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

Are Your Cravings Real?

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on September 17, 2014 / dieting, Emotional Eating, Fat Loss, Food, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Nutrition, Nutrition & Weight Loss

Mind or Body Cravings? In previous blog posts I’ve explained how when we restrict and deny nourishment to our body (dieting), we often wrestle with cravings (also tiredness and mood swings) until the brain overrides our willpower and has us reaching for a quick fix of fat, sugar and salt. Hunger and cravings are two different sensations. The body regulates our hunger, while the mind wields greater power over food cravings. Hunger serves a more functional purpose, signalling our brains that it’s time to eat and replenish the energy and information we’re running low on. To recap previous articles about the

Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on August 10, 2014 / dieting, Eating Disorders, Emotional Eating, Food, Health & Fitness, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Meditation, Personal Growth, Stress Management

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

Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on July 10, 2014 / Eating Disorders, Emotional Eating, Food, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Nutrition, Wellness Coaching

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

How Food Can Improve Your Mood

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on May 30, 2014 / Food, Health & Fitness, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Medicinal Nutrition, Nutrition, Positive change, Wellness Coaching

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

Do You Feel Safe in Your Body?

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on April 14, 2014 / Body Image, Emotional Eating, Fat Loss, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Mental-Health, Mindset, Nutrition & Weight Loss, Stress Management, Wellness Coaching

That weighty feeling Who’s been on a “diet” before – lost weight, regained weight and done the whole thing over again? I’ve tried numerous diets over the years and a few methods I made up myself. But nothing ever truly worked until I learned to listen to my thoughts and understand what my beliefs and fears were saying to me unconsciously, continuing to trigger my fat storing hormones. What’s the difference between losing weight and regaining, and losing weight and staying there? It’s our emotional, mental and spiritual experience of whether we feel “safe” at a lower weight and comfortable

FREE ONLINE SCREENING “Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight”

By Viki Thondley | The MindBodyFood Coach on April 8, 2014 / Emotional Eating, Fat Loss, Holistic Health, Hormone Balancing, Meditation, Mental-Health, Mindset, Nutrition & Weight Loss, Stress Management

Lose the Stress, Loss the Weight It’s here! The online world premiere of Jon Gabriel’s newest documentary film, so I wanted to be sure you didn’t miss out: Watch Now! World Premiere of Tapping for Weight Loss (online for 10 days!)* “Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight,” is a powerful film created by Carol Look, Jon Gabriel and 12 remarkable (and brave) volunteers who are struggling with stress-related weight gain. In my professional and personal experience, stress is the #1 issue we all need to work on to achieve weight loss and well-being long term, so I can’t think of a more effective approach than learning stress management tools you can do at home (alongside

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