Feelfantasticnow's Weblog

7 Day Bootcamp – Yes, You Do Need to Exercise!

feelfantasticnow — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:40:30 +0000

Day 4What we know about exercise is that it Increases Insulin Sensitivity.
Remember how we spoke about how Insulin moves the sugar from your blood into your muscles and your fat cells?

Exercise uses this sugar in your muscles so that when insulin comes and tries to shuffle more sugar into your muscles, your muscles will accept it!! Bottom line…less fat deposited to your waist!

In this way also it stabilizes your blood sugar by providing a consistent “burn” of your body sugars for fuel.

How many times a week do you have to exercise?
Ideally 5-6 times a week with a day or two off.
30-60 minutes per day is a good workout. If you are only starting to exercise, then a 30 minutes fast walk around the block will get your metabolism going. Then if you want you can progress to a jog or a run.
For some resistance training to build more muscle and burn more fat we would highly recommend doing some weights. Preferably start in the gym, so the instructors can show you what level you need to start at. You really don’t have to go nuts here, you don’t have to be at the gym for 3 hours weightlifting, or running marathons, but we do want to get your heart ticking, so moderate to high intensity for the duration of your exercise is great.

Choose something YOU like to do. Its important you do something that you enjoy!
If you really hate running, then don’t run. Play tennis, go dancing…and bring someone with you. Because the hardest thing is to start, once you start then you know you can do it and keep it going. So do a little bit and keep it consistent…make that a priority.

If time is an issue we have found what works is building it around your day.
For example:

Walking/ Running to work
Parking the car away from work/ getting off at an earlier bus/ train stop and making the rest of the way on foot.
Exercising with some friends at lunch time.
Walking to the local shops/ restaurants (sometimes its actually quicker than public transport or finding parking And cheaper!)

Its amazing how all of this can add up and be fit around your normal day without taking a lot of time.
Your body and mind will thank you for exercising. You will feel great about yourself and be motivated to keep going losing weight because you will see the results happening much quicker!

Tomorrow we will go into more details about your new nutrition program…so you can really start taking steps to your ideal weight!

Talk tomorrow

Kathryn

Click Here To find out about the a program that takes the guesswork out of weightloss. And all you need to do is 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day!

7 Day Bootcamp – Learn How Supplementation Is Fundemental In Your Weight Loss Efforts

feelfantasticnow — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:49:33 +0000

Day 3

Remember how we said that if we keep the cell healthy, then our cells will take care of the body?Our cells need a huge amount of vitamins, minerals every day to help these cells work to the max.

What ask all our clients to take a High Quality Supplement every day, as well as Essentials Fatty Acids. “Essential” means our bodies cannot produce it, so we need to get it from outside sources.

Lets answer a few common questions here:

Why is Supplementation so Important?

Let us quote Dr. Bruce Ames, professor of toxiclogy in UC Berkeley. He says “a deficiency is any of the micronutrients such as folic acid, B-12, B-6, iron or zinc mimics radiation and chemicals in damaging DNA”

What he is saying is that, in fact, the damage your system will endure from a nutrient deficiency is hundreds of time greater than any damage by radiation or chemicals.

Amazing to think that is we do not get an optimal supply of micronutrients, it’s WORSE than exposure to chemical radiation!

Also the Surgeon general in the US quoted recently that 68% of disease is caused by improper nutrition.

So it makes sense that if we feed our cells properly, that when they duplicate they will create more healthy cells. Conversely, if we keep depriving ourselves of the proper nutrients, our cells will duplicate that too and it will eventually lead to disease.

I Eat Healthy, Why do I need Supplementation?

We always get asked this question. Well if we lived in the 1900s then we probably cold get all we need from our food because we grew most of our foods ourselves. But the problem today with over-farming, over fertilization, chemical pesticides, there is no longer the nutrition in the soil. So if the nutrients are not grown in the food, then we are not going to get them either.

For example you have to eat 8 oranges today to equal 1 orange back in the 1900s. That’s just to get the optimal amount of Vitamin C a day!

You have to eat 33 pounds of spinach to get your Vitamin E quota a day! Or how about 2.2 pounds of almonds? Not very good for your weight loss efforts if you eat that many almonds a day!

So it’s important that as well as supplementation we eat as well as we can. It doesn’t work if you go out and eat Big Macs and think supplementation will save you! J

How do we Supplement?

Twice a day, morning and evening. We need the right amounts of nutrients during the day, but also we need our nutrients to help repair our bodies as we sleep.

What supplements do we recommend and why?

We recommend the Essentials and the Biomega supplements from Usana Health Sciences [links on all of these].

We have researched the whole industry for the best supplement on the market. As wellness coaches, what we recommend reflects our reputation and we have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this company.

Some of the reasons are:
The founder is a scientist (not a marketer), with a double PHD in Microbiology and Immunology
He is a world expert on cell nutrition
He recently won the Albert Einstein Award for Life Saving and Life Preserving technologies
The Essentials have been voted #1 in The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
All the worlds Top Womens Tennis players use our products
Many Olympic Athletes take our products, including recent Australian Pole Vaulter Olympic Gold Medalist Steve Hooker.
Manufactured to Pharmaceutical grade Standard (not Food grade like most of the supplements)

To summarize, there is no MIRACLE supplement that will allow you to lose weight in a safe manner. But the benefits of receiving the optimal supplementation in the body IS Necessary to help improve or maintain your health.

I’ll leave you with a few shocking statistics to prive that Not getting your daily dose of the Good Vitamins and Minerals may just mean that weight loss is the LAST thing you have to worry about!

High doses of Vitamins C and E can cut death from Heart Disease by 50%
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1996, Volume 64

Grape Seed Extract kills prostate cancer cells, breast cancer cells and colon cancer cells
Biofactors. 2004 21(1-4):197-201.
Gen Pharmacol. 1998 May;30(5):771-6.
Mol Cell Biochem. 1999 Jun;196(1-2):99-108.

Until tomorrow,

Kathryn

Click Here to Access a Safe and Effective Program that Guarantees a 2-5 Kilo (4.5 to 10 pounds) Weight Loss in one Week!

7-Day Bootcamp – What is the Glycaemic Index?

feelfantasticnow — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:23:30 +0000

Day 2

We spoke about this topic before but I want to explain it in more detail, or in an easier way. It’s not that difficul to get but I want everyone to GET how easy it is to go Low GI and see the weight just drop off…

Natural sugar in foods like bread, rice and noodles can raise our insulin levels Just as high as raw sugar in our tea or a spoon of ice-cream!

Why? Because they are all in the High GI range of foods. GI is the measure of sugar in our carbs and starches. GI foods range from 0-55 (Low GI), 56-69 (Medium GI) and 70-100 (High GI). The higher the number, the faster it raises your blood sugar.

Our bodies work off a narrow band of blood sugar. If we upset that sugar balance (say by eating a fast food meal) it would send our blood sugars sky rocketing. This is what we cal Hyperglycaemia. The brain says “hmmm, too much blood sugar, let me trigger the release of Insulin to take this sugar out of the blood” .

So where does insulin put this sugar? It puts it into the muscles where it is stored as energy. And WHAM. Now that there is no sugar in our blood we start to feel a bit shaky, cranky, and we crave those starchy, sugary and carb laden foods to get some sugar back in there again. This is what we call Hypoglycaemia.

Now here’s where things can go terribly wrong. What if we do not use the sugar stored in these muscles? It will stay there. And what if we keep ‘spiking’ our blood sugar? Well our muscles will say “Actually I have enough sugar here thank you very much, please take it somewhere else”.
And where is that somewhere else? Your fat cells of course! Predominantly those fat cells around your waist.

This is why we see an expanding waistline around middle-age (although look around and we see plenty of kids with huge waistlines too). And to make things even worse, fat cells multiply…our body doesn’t just make one or two cells, it makes a whole batch, enough for the storage of more fat to come.

So it makes sense to stick to a LOW-GI diet, which does not spike your blood sugar levels. This would consist of most fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, seeds.
Avoid processed refined grains like crispbreads, pastries, sweet biscuits, rice crackers. With these foods, once you pop you can’t stop!

Pasta is ok, but better in wholemeal form. If you are eating rice, stick with long grain rice or basmati. Stay away from too many potatoes and French fries, and try sweet potato instead.

If you really want to kick start your Low-GI eating, our program is devised with the foods that are certified Low-GI, it will kick start your metabolism and help you to lose 2-5 kilos in the first week and a kilo a week after that…

Remember, weight gain IS reversible and CAN be kept off long term. We have proven it.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathryn

Click Here To Find Out How YOU can Access the ONLY Certified Low-GI Weight-Loss Product on the Market in Australia Today!

7-Day Bootcamp – Do You Want To Be Healthy For Life?

feelfantasticnow — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:11:50 +0000

Day 1

First of all what we are about to teach you will not only benefit you, but also your children if you have any. We say this because we truly believe that any nutrition program should be applicable to both adults, teens and kids. A bad diet affects teens and kids immensely; they can also develop obesity, low energy, moodiness, ADD and learning difficulties.

OK, so the 3 main things we are focusing on in this boot camp are the 3 main components of health. What we call The Triad of Health.
One fix is never enough if we want balance in our life…and this is no different.

1: Nutrition

This is where will spend a lot of our time on because this really is the base and the most important aspect of health to grasp.
With regards nutrition, we are going to focus on Low Glycemic eating… NOT dieting. Diets do not work. We are going to be talking about the program that we have been using with clients around the world for the past 4 years, called the RESET Your Body program, which has a Phase 1 and Phase 2 component.

2: Exercise

You will be glad to know you don’t have to go overboard here

3: Supplementation

The PROPER amounts, ingredients, that actually benefits your body (and doesnt just create expensive urine) High quality supplementation, not just anything on the market.

So why do diets not work?

We are finding in Australia and worldwide that diets do not promote long-term weight loss. ANYONE who has been on one or more diets has experienced the depressing phenomenon of rebound weight loss.
In 2007 in the University of California, a study of 31 weight loss diets found that dieting does not result in permanent weight loss and most regain the kilos they shed.

Diets do not work because:

1. Diets don’t change unhealthy eating habits. Nobody can live on apples or cabbage or low carbs forever – it’s too repetitive, nutritionally restrictive and socially isolating.

2. Diets damage your metabolism. Every time you restrict food, you slow down your metabolic rate so it’s less able to burn the kilos. The reason for this is that you are your main fat burning component in the body …well, your muscles! When you ‘come off’ the diet, your health and metabolism are in a MORE unhealthy state.

3. Low Kilojoule diets can actually cause weight GAIN! Eh, how is that? It’s because your body goes into famine mode when you restrict the kilojoules and tells your hormones to store body fat. The latest celebrity diets should have a warning saying “This may slow down your metabolism, decrease your muscle and promote fat gain!”

4. Dieting can cause Allergies, Premature Aging, Cystitis, and a Suppressed Immune System. Skipping meals, or eating meals with no carbs, or exercising too much stimulates release of adrenalin. This makes you feel good in the beginning but long term high levels of adrenalin cause your body to literally eat itself because it stimulates breakdown of proteins in your body. Adrenal burnout can cause Allergies, Fibromyalgia, Cystitis, decreased bone density and a lowered immune system.

So now you know you should NOT diet, what should you do?

- avoid fad diets that restrict food groups
- avoid like LIKE THE PLAGUE fasting on juices, using diuretics and diet pills
- eat a good protein, fat and carb at every meal (we will go into this in more detail later on)
- avoid sugary foods
- eat more vegetables and fruit

To make it easy for you, the program we use allows you to do all this without having to think to hard. It’s convenient, simple, tasty and IT WORKS!
click here to find out more

So what are the benefits to YOU with this program :

Long term weight loss

We are going to teach you how to implement changes in your lifestyle that are easy and inexpensive.
NO MORE YO-YO DIETING!

Lose Fat around your Waist

Now wouldn’t this be nice?
You will find that doctor these days will almost always take a waist measurement. This is an indication whether you have a risk of diabetes or heart disease. A slender waistline not only looks good, but it means that you do have good health. You will also learn WHY we tend to put weight on in the middle section and how You can use this knowledge to help you lose the inches here!

Increase Energy and have a Stronger Immune System

With the right foods you will feel great. An example of this is what you will wake up with energy, AND you will not need as much sleep as you normally do. What is your energy out of 10 on average? We aim to get yours to a MINIMUM of 8!

Reduce Cravings, Hunger and Stress Eating

When you eat small meals with a mix of good carbs, fats and proteins, you will not feel hungry and you will not crave sugary or savory foods.
This in itself is one of the things our clients are very happy with because they feel they have more control over their own bodies, and their own lives.

Fitness

This is the way athletes eat for more energy and to help muscle repair

Reduce Risk of Degenerative Disease

Yes it’s true. You may not have Alzheimer’s, Arthritis, Cancer, Heart Disease right now, but do you rally want to risk finding out in 10, 20, 30 years time that you have these conditions?
This program WILL reduce the risk of every degenerative disease known to man.

Low Glycemic, Mediterranean diet, Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle

While this type of lifestyle has been the norm for most of the Mediterranean people for centuries, we are only begging to see WHY these people have the lowest rate of degenerative disease in the world.

See you tomorrow, where we explain why eating Low-GI foods help you to keep weight off for good!

Kathryn

Click Here To Kick Start Your Weight Loss By Losing 2-5 Kilos in your first week!

Recipe of the month

feelfantasticnow — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:43:37 +0000

Why not continue with our healthy chocolate theme…

Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup soy milk
3/4 cup cocoa powder (try Organic Pure Raw Chocolate Powder from www.powersuperfoods.com)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup raw sugar or rapadura (evaporated sugar cane juice available in some health food stores)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 egg whites (large), at room temperature

Cooking Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cake pan.
2. Heat the soy milk in a medium size saucepan until barely simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa until thickened and almost smooth (some tiny lumps will remain). Let stand 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla extract.
3. Mix the flour, 3/4 cups of the raw sugar, the baking powder, soda, and sea salt in a large bowl.
4. Beat the egg whites in a medium size bowl with an electric mixer until thick and foamy. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup of raw sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form when the beaters are lifted.
5. Pour the cocoa mixture over the whole wheat flour. Stir just until blended.
6. With a spatula, gently stir about a quarter of the egg whites into the whole wheat flour mixture. Fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain. Pour into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Garnish with your favorite fresh fruit.

Chocolate – A Natural Source of Antioxidants

feelfantasticnow — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:42:32 +0000

Supplemental antioxidants are a necessity these days but you can also increase your dietary intake of antioxidants.
Cocoa beans contain substantial amounts of antioxidants, dietary substances that mop up free radicals. Disease-fighting antioxidants are also present in blueberries, kale, spinach, green tea, red wine, and grapes. But chocolate is a particularly potent source.
Chocolate and cocoa powder are derived from beans that contain large quantities of natural antioxidants called flavonoids. Researchers have found that natural cocoa contains the highest capacity of the antioxidant procyanidin.

Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate
The higher the cocoa content, the higher the antioxidant capacity. Dark chocolate — but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk — is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy’s National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature.
“Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate.”
Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure
Dark chocolate — not white chocolate — lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Eat in Moderation
But don’t let that give you an excuse to go on a chocolate binge! You still need to remember that chocolate is high in calories so you’ll need to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.

Source: Brenda Rogers – USANA Naturopath

What is GI or the Glycemic Index?

feelfantasticnow — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:22:32 +0000

The glycemic index (GI) is a way of measuring the rate at which carbohydrates are broken down and appear in the blood as simple sugars. In high GI foods the sugars enter the blood stream very quickly, providing quick energy, but it is short lived. We are now beginning to understand that this blood sugar “spiking” has many detrimental effects on our health over the long term.Low GI foods provide greater satiety and sustained energy. By virtue of their slow digestion and absorption, low GI foods can help control appetite and delay hunger

Benefits of a low GI diet
• Help to control weight
• Increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin
• Reduce blood cholesterol levels
• Reduce cardiovascular disease risk
• Reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
• Prolong physical endurance

The Glycemic Index concept
Glycemic Index (GI) is used to rank foods based on their immediate effect on blood sugar level on a scale of 0-100

Glycemic Index range:
• Low GI = 55 or less
• Medium GI = 56 – 69
• High GI = 70 or more

Low GI carbohydrates are digested and absorbed more slowly thereby having a lesser impact on blood glucose levels.

For mroe information go to www.healthyforlifeanz.com.au or call/text 0422480163 for a free health assessment.

What’s Happening This Month in Australia and New Zealand?

feelfantasticnow — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:17:15 +0000

USANA Health Seminar 2008

Would you like to improve your health and wellbeing? Do you need motivation to get fit and healthy? Change your life around today. Learn how to overcome adversity and challenges with your health. Discover how to overcome difficulties associated with weight gain and obesity. Be inspired by elite athletes and learn the nutritional products they love! Book today and attend Health Seminar with your family and friends.Guest speakers include: Health expert Dr Tim Wood, Australia’s first Biggest Loser Winner Adro Sarnelli, five-time Olympian Clint Robinson, marathon runner Tracey Clissold, and sports and television personality April Ieremia.

For more information on this seminar (October 26th) call 0422480163, visit http://sonas.usana.com or email sonas@usana.com

Optimal Health LiveMeetings

Men’s Health – 13 October
7.00pm AEST / 9.00pm NZT

Men are often reluctant to discuss health issues. However, there is more evidence to suggest natural ways to prevent health problems and nutritional supplements available to help with existent health conditions. Learn helpful information and discover which USANA products are recommended for men’s health including skin, vision, circulation, prostate, and other specific male health concerns.

Weight Management – 27 October
7.00pm AEST / 9.00pm NZT

Did you know that nearly 9 out of 10 people with newly diagnosed type II diabetes are overweight? (American Diabetes Association) The alarming issue of obesity and type II diabetes are serious health conditions affecting many people today. Discover how USANA’s 12-week Reset Program – combining healthy diet, exercise program and balanced nutritional supplements is the winning formula to a healthy lifestyle.

Click here to attend Live Meeting.

Download Instructional LiveMeeting PDF for local times, phone numbers and instructions on how to access Optimal Health LiveMeeting. For upcoming LiveMeetings visit Optimal Health LiveMeetings on USANAtoday.

Flaxseed Oil & Fish Oil Raise Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels in Human Blood Cells

feelfantasticnow — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:11:01 +0000

Fish oil supplementation is known to result in an increase in plasma omega-3 fatty acid content, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Alpha linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in plants, is the direct precursor of EPA and DHA and should show effects similar to fish oil. Until now, however, this has been challenged because of reported low conversion of ALA into DHA. A recent study provides evidence that the ALA supplemented from flaxseed oil is effectively converted to EPA and DHA and accumulated in human blood cells.Recently reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers designed a clinical trial in which flax oil, fish oil, and sunflower oil (placebo group) capsules were given to 62 firefighters. The firefighters were randomly divided into 6 experimental groups receiving 1.2, 2.4, or 3.6 grams of flax oil/day; 0.6 or 1.2 grams of fish oil/day; or 1 gram of sunflower oil/day for 12 weeks. Blood was drawn every 2 weeks, and the total phospholipid fatty acid composition of red blood cells was determined.

As anticipated, fish oil produced a rapid increase in DHA and total omega-3 fatty acids. The consumption of either 2.4 or 3.6 grams of flax oil/day was sufficient to significantly increase blood levels of ALA, EPA, and DPA (docosapentaenoic acid) fatty acid content.

The consumption of ALA-enriched supplements for 12 weeks was sufficient to elevate blood levels of EPA and docosapentaeoic acid content, which shows the effectiveness of ALA conversion and accumulation into red blood cells. The amounts of ALA required to obtain these effects are amounts that are easily achieved in the general population by dietary modification or by modest dosages of omega-3 rich foods such as flax oil.

Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 88, No. 3, 801-809, September 2008

See http://sonas.usana.com for information on high quality, mercury free, fish oil.

Calcium & Vitamin D Supplements Enhance Health Benefits of Weight Loss

feelfantasticnow — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:26:13 +0000

Research has demonstrated that overweight individuals with low calcium and dairy intakes have an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Naturally, this suggests that adequate calcium intake could create a healthier metabolic profile ” one more similar to a balanced diet and regular exercise.

In a recent study, researchers explored this possibility by testing cardiovascular health indicators after long-term calcium supplementation in women with usual low calcium intake. Healthy overweight or obese women with a daily calcium intake of less than 800 mg per day were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: group A received two tablets/day of a calcium + vitamin D supplement (600 mg elemental calcium and 200 IU vitamin D/tablet), while group B received a placebo. Both groups completed a 15-week reduced calorie weight-loss program.

Significant decreases in LDL cholesterol levels, as well as improvements in the ratios of total to LDL and LDL to HDL cholesterol were seen the calcium + vitamin D group. These changes were independent of changes due to fat loss and reduced waist circumference. Tendencies for more beneficial changes in HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total cholesterol were also observed in the calcium + vitamin D group.

This study demonstrates that adequate consumption of calcium and vitamin D during weight loss enhances other beneficial effects of body weight loss on cardiovascular risk factors in overweight women with previously low calcium intake.

Article Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 1, 54-59, January 2007