(First Posted on Facebook)
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Do you want to know how to waste a billion dollars??

Here is a great example of why most women over 40 struggle to lose weight.

➡️When I studied nutrition, lots of what I was thought was wrong. So how does the average person have any chance….

A Women’s Heath Initiative was set up in the early 90’s which would study…you guessed it…women’s health.

One of the biggest questions they tried to solve was – whether a low fat diet prevented heart disease or cancer in women.

🙋‍♀️50,000 women enrolled

They then took 20,000 of them at random and instructed them to eat a low fat diet with plenty pf fruits, vegetables and fibre.

The women were given regular support to help them to stay motivated and on track.

💥On average, and without being told to do it the researchers noted that these women also consumed 360 calories less per day than when they did before taking part in the study.

➡️By the way this study cost in the range of a billion dollars⬅️

💥These women on average were eating almost 20% less calories than what public health agencies from all over the world are telling us women should be eating. If’s fair to say that they were underrating.

(I absolutely hate when people are told to exercise more and eat less to lose weight and then sent off to try figure that one out---that’s drives me crazy but is a story for another day)

⚠️So the moment you’ve been waiting for….what was the result.

🙈After 8 years…EIGHT YEARS!!!...these women lots on average TWO POUNDS EACH

🙉AND their average waist circumference INCREASED!!

💥This indicated that the 2lbs wasn’t even fat but was muscle…the very things we all want to increase.

(Also the study failed to prevent heart disease and cancer)

🙋‍♂️Listen up folks….trying to live on a chicken and broccoli diet will not help you to achieve long term sustainable results.

⚠️My guess is that these women did lose more than 2lbs. They probably lost more than 2lbs multiple times throughout the 8 years. But…just like lots of other people and maybe just like you…every time they lost some they gained it back again.

Your results from a starvation diet will only last as long as your ability to starve yourself!
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✅🔥When you focus on reducing sugar from your diet BUT at the same time focuson increasing fats you will stay full, satisfied, have an abundance of energy and most importantly KEEP THE WEIGHT OFF LONGTERM!🔥✅

(First posted on Facebook)

➡️"You should EAT MORE and EXERCISE LESS"

That is an exact phrase I use with lots of women who start with us.

They are trying to live on porridge, fruit, salads, low cal breads and wraps, pasta meals, rice meals, rice cakes

Lots of those foods that I just listed have very low nutritional values.

They are spinning 4 or 5 days a week or do a mix of classes and walking or jogging.

AND…they are getting nowhere!!!

Maybe they initially lost a couple of stone when they started but they are now stuck and many still have a few stone to go.

➡️This is because what they are doing is better than what they were doing…..but it’s not ideal.

It might have worked for them a decade or two ago, but now that they are in their 40’s or 50’s they need to approach it differently.

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Every single person that starts with us has been failing up to that point because they don’t understand nutrition.

It’s not because they aren’t exercising enough and the crazy thing is that the vast majority think that that is the reason.

?‍♀️‘Well it can’t be my diet because I eat healthily’ they say.

?I wish I had a euro for every time I heard that.

When someone says that we say….enlighten me

And I then start writing down what I know they'll say before they say it:

?️Porridge, fruit, salad, wraps some bread but trying to cut down, typical Irish dinners your meat, veg spuds and things like curry, stir fries, spag bol

Hand up if this sounds like you?‍♀️

And then they say….and this is where I fall down and they say they have a biscuit or two or a piece of chocolate in the evening.

➡️You’ve all been fooled for decades….I too was fooled.

They don’t realise that there was more sugar in their porridge than in their biscuit.
Sure how could that be they say…porridge is healthy.

Well a cup of oats has 25g of carbs (taking the fibre out) – carbs are sugar – so it has 25g of sugar.

The milk you added has 10g of carbs. Skimmed milk has the same amount of sugar as full fat.

The few berries you added or the spoon of honey has another 5g of carbs/sugar.

So that’s about 40g of sugar with your healthy breakfast.

A spoon of sugar has 5g.

So you have 8 spoons of sugar for breakfast.

A biscuit would have half that.

?Guess how many carbs in bacon and eggs – zero

Guess which has more nutrients and tonnes more of the essential macro-nutrients i.e. fats and proteins

✅Bacon and eggs

Who wins

✅Bacon and eggs

So what will I have instead?

✅Bacon and eggs

One more time let’s all say it together

✅Bacon and eggs ??

(First posted on Facebook)

➡️I bet the advice that you were given on how you should proceed with your diet is wrong.
I’ll tell you why in a minute, first it’s good to understand a few points.

The term cholesterol in the way that it’s most commonly used doesn’t actually make any sense. The good and bad cholesterol (HDL and LDL) aren’t actually cholesterol, they are lipoproteins which carry cholesterol.

So the first point is that cholesterol is cholesterol. HDL and LDL refers to something else.
Now you’ve probably been told to reduce your saturated fat in order to reduce your ‘cholesterol’. I urge you to not only read this but to also do a bit of your own research before you make some pretty big decisions about your diet.

➡️Yes, saturated fat raises LDL (AKA bad cholesterol) levels but when first studying this many studies ignored the fact that saturated fat also raises HDL (AKA the good cholesterol).
Now we need to go a small bit deeper.

> It turns out that LDL (in the way the term is commonly used) isn't actually bad after all as there are different types of LDL.

> Small dense LDL can cause heart disease as their small size allows them to pass through the arterial wall easily. Also known as VLDL (very low-density lipoprotein)

> Large LDL cannot easily do this. It’s the small dense LDL which can become oxidized therefore leading to heart disease.

> People who have large LDL are far less likely to get heart disease.

➡️So the second point is that we want large LDL and far less small LDL.
________________

AND here’s the thing!
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Saturated fats change LDL particles from small to large!!

So even though saturated fat does raise LDL they are changing the LDL to the type which reduces the risk of heart disease.

>>> ALSO

Low carb diets, those which promote high fats are shown to reduce the number of LDL particles in the bloodstream.

>>> AND

Low fat diets are shown to do the opposite!!

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➡️Many recent studies have shown that there is no link between saturated fat consumption and heart disease!

And these are some of the biggest and best studies.

When are you likely to hear this advice from your doctor…..well unless they have done their own research then it’s likely that you won’t.

Do your own research!

(First posted on Facebook)

➡️If you are serious about losing weight then it’s important to understand fats, protein and carbohydrates and how they effect your body. At this stage people are pros at counting calories and could probably tell you how many there are in a bagel just by walking past a bread shop and smelling one.

Counting calories isn’t half as important as counting fat, carbs, and protein (macros for short).

If you are aiming to eat 1800 calories in a day you are basically aiming to eat acertain amount of food.

⚠️But which foods??

Let’s say that you eat 2000 calories a day and you read a magazine article that told you to cut out 200 calories a day to lose weight.

▶️Should you drop 200 calories of protein, fat or carbs?

And now let’s look at it another way….. say you ate 1800 calories with the majority being fats one week & 1800 calories with the majority being protein the next week and 1800 calories with the majority being carbohydrates the week after……..

⚠️Do you think that your body will react the same to those foods! That it doesn’t matter what you eat but once you stay at 1800 calories you will lose the same amount of weight each day?

It simply does not work like that.

➡️Many studies, which were randomised controlled trials (which basically means they are the best type of study) show this to be true. These studies are not hidden away and have been published in many medical journals. The problem is that the average person wouldn’t come across them unless they went looking. Instead they are constantly being told to cut calories and therefore in most cases cut fats.⬅️

Macronutrients are metabolised very differently. There are many complex processes involved in both digesting food and converting it to energy. Fats are not proteins and proteins are not carbohydrates, yet all are put under the one heading of calories.

▶️If someone says drop 200 calories just ask them which one should I cut out?
▶️200 calories of fat or of protein or of carbohydrates?
▶️They might say fat so then ask them, why fat?
▶️They’ll then say because it contains twice as many calories as protein and carbs. So then ask them why that would matter?
▶️That is, if 200 calories is 200 calories no matter what then why cut fat?

They might start to sweat at this stage...

(First posted on Facebook)

➡️Fat Loss and Failure⬅️

In most cases a 6 weeks fat loss programme doesn’t lead to sustainable results…

Unless you have a stone or less to lose. If you have more to lose then it's too difficult to continue on afterwards on your own. Lots say it’s not. Lots fail. Especially since the last 7lbs to 14lbs are the hardest to shift and in lots of cases you will need to change tactics.

➡️What has worked up to the last stone might not work anymore or it might work but at an incredibly slow pace.⬅️

You can congratulate yourself for finally getting back into your size 12 or even 10’s 😁 but you will still have that pouch left ☹

If doing a short programme I would actually spend most of that time teaching them how to keep the weight off afterwards – not spending time teaching them how to lose it. Fast weight loss is simple to teach and for a lot of people it’s not even that difficult to follow as the rules are so simple and straight forward. Fast weight loss is the dreaded chicken and broccoli type approach. Not tasty but it’s quick.

➡️I hate using it and will only do so if absolutely needed⬅️

However, you will gain it back much quicker than the 6 weeks it took to lose it if you don’t understand what healthy maintenance nutrition is.

And it’s NOT porridge, brown bread, wraps, brown pasta, brown ice, rice cakes, slimming bread, endless bowls of fruit and all the other things which we are told are healthy. 

And let’s face it, it’s a waste of time losing it and then gaining it back again.

I will admit that I’ve had a few clients who just need an initial chat and they’re off…I mean they hit the ground running and are just absolutely flying it.

They rarely touch base with me (even though I have my clients send me daily updates) and they are just losing it consistently week after week. The reality is that these women probably only need 6 weeks because they are so focused and self-motivated, and they don’t have any emotional connection with food. They eat to fuel and will do whatever is best, no questions asked.

They have the information – they implement it, and that’s it.

Don’t worry if you aren’t one of those people. Hardly anyone is that type of person. They are rare. But they are an absolute dream to work with! The truth is that I might only have one or two people at a time working with me who have that drive and determination…

➡️Back to the topic of 6 weeks…

⚠️In most cases people need more time
⚠️They need to adjust
⚠️They need to form new habits slowly
⚠️They have bumps along the way
⚠️And when they do, sometimes it can take a few weeks to get back on track 
⚠️But they do get back on track
⚠️And they continue
⚠️And if they hit another bumpy patch 2 months later and stall for a couple of weeks – that’s fine. 
⚠️We’ll deal with it.
⚠️Normally it might happen if they have exams, or if a loved one has become ill, or maybe they just went on holidays.
⚠️It’s just a bump
⚠️If we then plan it in – we deal with it – and they continue
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NOW
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Imagine you are doing a 6 week ‘diet and fitness plan’ and you hit a bump on week 5….or if you hit a bump on week 12 which is 6 weeks after the plan has ended. I would say that in 90% of cases that will be that.

The person feels totally disheartened and feels like a failure (yet again) and before they know it they are back to where they started a few months ago. But now they feel even worse because they have let themselves down.

My advice is to start a programme with the intentions of sticking with it until the job is done which should also include spending a few weeks at the end in maintenance so that you are completely ready to go alone.
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As always if you have any questions or would like more information just shoot me a message.

(First posted on Facebook)
I’m going to continue on from my recent tips on starting your day in a more positive way...
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I get it, you don’t want to be hurt anymore. I don’t mean being hurt by others. I mean being hurt because you let yourself down AGAIN.

>> I work with a lot of women who don’t even tell their partners that they are being coached by me at the start. They are so afraid of failing again!

Not only will they let themselves down, they’ll having their partners and friends thinking “what is she up to now”....“what’s this new thing that she’s trying”

They’ll only speak to me when they are at work or out for a walk on their own.

When people then ask how they are losing weight they feel so good in themselves and so positive that they then tell them or else just say they are eating better.

Typically these clients don’t even do any workouts with me. They wouldn’t even want to be seen workout out as they feel like such failures.

Imagine that ….or maybe you don’t have to imagine it. Maybe I’m describing you.

It’s very very unfair. How many times have they gotten excited about a new programme in the past and then felt so low after they failed yet again.

This has happened so many times that even their partners don’t believe they’ll ever lose the weight.

⬇️⬇️
BUT…..it’s not their fault. It mostly happens when peoples past weight loss attempts were based around exercise instead of nutrition. Or if it was a nutrition based programme like a slimming club then they were doing the wrong things. It’s easy to go wrong when a nutrition programme isn’t designed for you. And also, I’m talking about women who are mainly of an age range of 40 plus. When you are 25 almost any ‘diet’ can work!!
⬆️⬆️

Sometimes people are trying to follow a diet that younger women and men are also following and the chances are that it won’t be ideal. If you have 4 stone to lose it might be enough to get you halfway there, but in a lot of cases the results stop there.

>> It also might have worked when you yourself were 20 years younger, so you are wondering…why is it not working now!

YOU are not the problem. The problem is that you are following a weight loss approach which isn’t specific to you and your current circumstances.

Don’t be afraid! Re-educate yourself! Natural dips in hormone production, including hormones that when younger help to prevent weight gain along with increases in another hormone called insulin (which is the fat storing hormone) are both working against you.
****If you have any questions on this just ask!****

It can be hard to be positive all of the time, and of course, it is not possible to never have any negative thoughts, but if your negativity is mostly coming from the fear of failure then I hope that you now have a better understanding and can seeing where you might have been going wrong.

If you can learn to switch your mindset a bit and practice positive thinking, this can have a great impact on your life and yourself in general.

Try not to get scared by the fear of failing or not reaching your goals and know that even if you do make a mistake, you can try again.

Believe that you will achieve your goals and you are one step closer to doing so.
***Remember that any mistake made is just a lesson to learn from. And if you have made many then you must be very wise indeed***
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The video is my workout from today. Hopefully it'll help you to get started. Keep it simple when you start...just doing something is a bonus in itself.

(First posted on Facebook)
​A positive attitude will make you happier and increase your success in all areas both personally and professionally. I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that.

It's a bit of a vicious circle. A positive attitude will make you more creative but sometimes it can take a bit of creativity to find the solution to help increase positivity in your life.

I'm going to post about this for awhile so I'd like some feedback on your thoughts. What makes you feel positive?

For many that might be a hard question to answer, however, I'm sure you all could easily reel off lots if examples of things which make you feel negative.

(For many it can be as simple as catching a glace of yourself in a car window and hating the shape of your body.)

Let’s start with mornings, as that will set the tone for the day. Let’s create a attitude-boosting morning routine that puts you in a good mood so that you can start the day on the right track.

We’ll keep this simple - you don't need to be a yoga master or a fitness freak to try these.

1. Spend 10 minutes in silence just concentrating on breathing. I know I have no chance of doing that with a 3 year old and a 5 week old but maybe some of you can!
2. Get in a short workout
3. If working out isn't your thing why not try some light stretching/yoga/Pilates
4. Eat a good meal - if you haven't planned ahead and feel guilty after eating a high carb breakfast like toast and a banana then plan ahead and make that first meal a good one.
5. Have your clothes ready - why start off in a bad mood because nothing fits

Five very simple steps that anyone can do! If you are already making excuses when reading this and thinking about reasons why those steps wouldn’t suit you then be true to yourself and realise that you are just making excuses. 

You can do just one or you can do all five. Let me know what you think and if you can help others by letting us know what helps you to stay positive then comment below. I'm sure that small act of kindness will help both you and others to feel more positive!

​There are tonnes of reason why the scales go up instead of down every now and again and it has nothing to do with fat gain.

A lot of new clients are always caught up on the scales and ignoring the fact that their body shape is changing as they are dropping inches really quickly, their clothes are getting looser, people are complementing them on how they've lost weight and even other things like their energy is boosted and their skin, hair and nails are in much better condition.

Stand back and look at the bigger picture. Your fat loss doesn't run on 7 day cycles.

In fat many people sometimes drop a few pounds every 7 - 10 days. That would be a frustrating 10 days waiting to see movement if you weren't aware of your weight loss pattern when it comes to the scales.

>>> The scales doesn't show an accurate fat loss result so they are pretty useless.

You might be wondering why the scales isn't very accurate.

I also speak about this in podcasts which I share with clients as it's a point I want to drill home. There is nothing worse than seeing someone losing inches but because they didn't see a drop on the scales for a few days they get upset and order a pizza. What a complete waste of good progress!!

​I discuss water retention in the video below but I want to add some extra reasons on here.

The following are some more reasons why your weight on the scales fluctuates but which has nothing to do with body fat. Remember, if you are seeing positive change in your progress photos and/or measurements and if you are seeing change in your clothes then it doesn't even matter what the scales is telling you. It will catch up anyway in a matter of days in most cases.

These are the main culprits for overnight weight gain i.e. water retention:

1. Menstrual Cycle (regularly as much as 7lbs)
2. Alcohol (regularly as mush as 7lbs - will take up to 5 days to flush out)
3. Extra salt from one day to the next (slight increase and decrease)

If you happen to have more sodium today than yesterday then that will act as a magnet and attract water. So it doesn't matter if it feels like you are taking two steps forward and one back. Losing 2lbs today and gaining one back tomorrow. Look at your weekly result, bi weekly results and monthly results. If things aren't changing when they should be then we will start using a trick to bump things up anyway. So don't panic.

4. Starches or sugars
All starches and sugars are carbohydrates. Your body has a huge capacity to store carbohydrates socking away at least 500 grams. To put that in perspective one slice of bread packs 15 grams of carbs (that's 3 spoons of sugar by the way and includes wholemeal bread). When you eat more carbohydrate than your body immediately needs, you'll store the leftovers in your liver and muscles, which will stay there until they're needed for fuel. And for every gram of glycogen you stockpile, you also put away up to 6 grams of water, so essentially it's a double whammy when it comes to your weight.

This water weight can then take a week to flush out.

5. Being constipated can cause you to weigh more until your body releases the waste it’s hanging onto. It’s not uncommon for women to experience constipation in the first couple of weeks or as part of PMS, but stress, too little sleep, and travel can also be triggers.

If you think you are retaining water try drinking more water as this actually helps your body to release the water that it's hanging on to. Also potassium rich foods like cooked spinach have a natural diuretic effect helping to flush the water out. Just remember that there is nothing actually wrong with water weight other than the fact that it's making you look heavier on the scales.

Weight loss is rarely a steady decline until you reach your goal so this is why I use specific techniques to make sure my clients fat loss results are always as high as possible. 

​Bottom line: it’s actually normal for your weight to ebb and flow, so if you see a slightly increase, don’t panic. When clients follow our plans which are designed specifically for them taking into account their age then it is literally impossible for them to gain fat.

This means that if their weight on the scales increases by one pound and if they haven’t consumed anything that they shouldn't have then they can rest assured that they haven’t actually gained a pound of body fat. 

So shift your focus away from the scale and toward how you look and feel. It’s very possible to see more muscle definition and even a reduction in inches when your weight in pounds hasn’t budged.

The only time I ever get a mail from someone worried about their results is if that person hasn't updated their progress pics or measurements. It literally never happens otherwise!

This is why I'm always talking about the importance of the measurements, progress pictures and using goal items of clothing. 

Each week we have clients seeing big improvements in their pictures and measurements while seeing little or no movement on the scales for a few days. It changes week to week.

The scales could easily then drop by 7 lbs over night. I've seen it happen tonnes of times. It's too unpredictable. Just ignore the scales, you'll be glad you did in a few weeks. Time and time again I hear people who when looking back at the first few weeks realise it was a big mistake to keep going by the scales. 

​The following are the main 3 reasons why someone might not be seeing progress:

1. They are not following the correct plan.

It might have worked for you before but now that you are over 40 you need a specific plan for your age group. This is mainly due to a hormonal imbalance. in lots of cases the hormone in question is insulin.

2. You are on medication which prevents weight loss.

3. You have an allergy or intollerance to a food that you are eating which is causing lots of water retention and bloating.

Did you notice that I have not mentioned eating too much, portion size, calories or lack of exercise. These terms are too broad when working with over 40's

I tell my clients eat as much as they want. Especially when it comes to fats and proteins. I don't use a high protein diet unless someone is looking for rapid fat loss but a diet which is low in fats and proteins is a diet which is high in carbohydrates. Everyone who starts with us is coming from a diet which is high in carbohydrates. My diet was also very high in carbohydrates when I was 2 stone overweight. People need to understand that carbohydrates as written on the labels means sugars. The added sugar in grams just means ........added sugar. The carbohydrates are the sugars which are already in the food. And before you say it...it doesn't matter if they are looked at as being 'natural'. Natural sugars are as fattening as added sugars.

So it's not that people are eating too much. It's that they are eating too much carbohydrates.
Their portion sizes are too big unless they are eating lots of carbohydrates.
Their is no point in talking about calories as all foods are calories so you might as well just use the word food.

And finally, it's very difficult to burn enough calories to lose weight unless you are willing to exercise for hours each day.

It's a lot easier to lose weigh in your 20's. When you are in your 40's and 50's you will need to get this right!