NOTE: If you would like to do a Detox please contact me here for more information.

You know those times in your life when you’ve partied a bit hard? Maybe you’ve been working long hours and eating crap? You feel exhausted, lethargic yet anxious and frankly not on top of your game. It’s time like these that you need to Detox. There are a plethora of Detoxes to chose from, lasting from one day up to three months. But before you go launching into the first brand you come across be warned, choosing the program can mean the difference between having a Detox that rocks or having Detox Disaster.

The Benefits of a Detox

Besides the usual benefits of increased energy, clear eyes, skin and regulated moods, Detoxing has many other benefits:

• Improves our Immune Function
• Reduce the amount of toxins and pollution into our body to lessen the burden against the detoxification organs
• Promote healthy eating, nutrition and supplementation to help our body effectively clear the toxins
• Scavenge free radicals and eliminate toxins
• Strengthen body’s fight against cancer cells and generate healthy cells in our body
• Cleanse mucous, congestion, fermentation, inflammation in our digestive tract
• Purify our blood
• Reform our lifestyle addictions for sugar, salt, high glycemic carbohydrates, alcohol, junk foods, nicotine, etc

Things to be Aware Of

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Choosing the right snacks for low calorie diets can be really tricky. They need to be tasty, nutritious, filling, and easy to prepare. Here are my favourite 150 cal snacks (600kj). Please note to convert KJs into Cals divide by 4.

Nutrient Dense Whole Foods

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Tagged As: diet, snacks, Weight loss

Protein intake is a passionate topic. Read any body building website and you will be bamboozled by the latest and greatest protein supplements. Then there are the other punters who cry that we are eating too much protein and our health will suffer. So how do you sort through the contradicting press and how much protein do we really need to look great, and feel healthy?

Recently I came across a comprehensive article written by The Fitness Spotlight on Protein intake per day. If you are looking for some more detailed insights, read their article. It details techniques such as protein pulsing and intermittent fasting as well as analysing some recent data.

Why is Protein Important?

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Tagged As: muscle build, protein, Weight loss

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Depending where you live in the world you may be swimming in tomatoes right now. Traditionally the overabundance of tomatoes leads to the process of cooking sauce and canning it for the months to come. When the more intricate process of canning is not available it is perfectly fine to freeze your sauce and enjoy it just the same. This post explores the health benefits of tomatoes and shows you how to make your own tomato based sauce from scratch.

If you don’t have a favorite sauce recipe or if this is the first time you may be considering this delightful kitchen project here is a great marina sauce recipe. It even has instructions on how to take out the seeds if this is your first attempt.

Cooked Tomatoes Powerful Benefits

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Tagged As: antioxidants, diet, Health, nutrition, tomatoes

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Much of the to do list of eating and living healthy can be achieved by simply using awareness. Paying attention to food and life style choices and actions made daily can simplify the sometimes confusing and contradictory health advice that is available on the Internet and elsewhere. Mindfulness puts the locust of control with you and your body.

What is ‘Mindfullness?’

It is with an understanding of what is meant by mindfulness when we speak of it in terms of eating. Mindfulness is clearly non-judgmental paying attention. Sounds simple and clear enough and this is a great place to stop and do it! Pay attention to what you are doing right now, do it with a noticing, a curious awareness and with out labeling it good or bad -simply notice. Yes, and then if the judgmental thoughts come up… notice that! Being aware of what is present for you in each moment physically, emotionally and physically can free you from reactive patterns and unhealthy habits. Being aware of what is actually happening right now gives you freedom of choice and a sense of balance. Read more…..

Tagged As: diet, eating, meditation, nutrition, Weight loss

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Herbs (grown naturally in temperate regions) and spices (grown in tropic and subtropic regions) are an incredible and simple way to add flavor and powerful nutrients to your meals. Notice when foods are cooking and the delicious aromas fill the kitchen? The mixture of herbs and spices are releasing some of their aromatic oils to the air exciting the palate and preparing your body for digestion.

The Joy of Herbs and Spices

One of the easiest ways to get involved in your food from the ground up is to grow a simple herb garden. Food takes on a whole new and exciting feel when we have had our hands in the earth in which it was grown. Clipping your home grown dill for lunches cottage cheese or cutting basil for dinners. Pesto makes even the most resistant cook feel more like a creative chef and when we feel good and creative about preparing our food we make better food choices -naturally.
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Tagged As: diet, herbs, nutrition

Editors Note: This post is written by weight loss expert (and former couch potato) Meg McFarlane. Meg has experienced the weight loss journey first hand and has chronicled this in her blog, Spud On The Run.  She has a Bachelor of Science from Sydney University is currently working in IT.

You can read Megs full Bio on the About page or visit her blog http://spudontherun.wordpress.com

Would you like a quick fix on your diet? A few additions that will make a big impact to your energy levels? Add at least one of these in every day and watch your health levels jump up a notch or two!

1. Avocadoes

Every diet should contain healthy fats and avocadoes are one of the best sources of monounsaturated fat out there, plus they have the added benefit of helping lower your cholesterol as well.  Avocadoes are also rich in vitamin K, vitamin C and potassium. Current research has shown that the nutrients in avocados help lower blood pressure and protect you against breast and prostate cancer, so you definitely should be adding a few slices of avocado to your lunchtime salad.

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Tagged As: diet, nutrition, superfood, Weight loss

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch without Ed.

What should I eat?

As a nutritionist this has to be the most common question I encounter and on the other hand the answer I am about to share with you is commonly the most ignored. Why? Because it is so easy and people believe healthy changes have to be difficult.

Let me begin by putting you the eater in the seat of authority. You are your own best expert and I trust you will not only hear what the answer to “what should I eat?” but will run it through your own filter of being. Only when you use your own mind-body as a filter do you ultimately make healthy decisions for your own body.

Step up the quality of your food

Yes that’s it in a nutshell. I use the term step up because it is not usually possible to make all the changes you may desire all at once. In stepping up the quality you will lose the need to make a perfect change and thus eliminate falling into good/bad or black/white thinking. Perfectionism will undermine even your best efforts because there is no perfect and you will never reach the goal of being perfect so just let go of perfect right now and enjoy stepping up.

Some step up quality clues

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Tagged As: food, healthy eating, nutrition, Weight loss

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her full Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Water is the source of healing on the most basic level in our bodies. We tend to look at our water intake as something to do to keep from getting dehydrated and ill for over heating or even to avoid the discomfort of thirst. Somehow we have been trained to know we need so much protein, fat and carbohydrates a day yet tend to leave water to the thirst to detect. This is a grave mistake.

If you’re thirsty its too late!

We usually feel the sensation of thirst when we are already in early stages of dehydration as adults due to our thirst mechanism being inefficient. This can have us re-hydrating behind the ball all day if we are not cognizant of the need to be fueled with water just as diligently as we fuel with macronutients through out the day. Waiting for a thirst cue is much less reliable than the bodies hunger cues as the water storage is more easily depleted than the fat stores the body can pull from for caloric needs.
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Tagged As: Dehydration, diet, Water, Weight loss

Do you ever feel tired, dizzy, have shortness of breath, heart palpations (awareness of your heart beat), headaches, or leg pains? These are all symptoms of Anemia which is one of the most common ailments affecting humans. It mainly affects women of child bearing age, intense exercisers, teenagers and young children, however all age groups are susceptible. Here are some important tips to ensure you are eating enough iron, and absorbing it properly.

Heme iron is a lot more absorbable than non heme iron:

There are two types of iron. Heme iron is derived from animal sources such as red meat, where as non heme iron comes from plant sources such as chickpeas. Heme iron is more easily absorbed by the human body. You can affect the absorbability of iron by eating it with other vitamins, for example eating foods that contain vitamin C with iron, increases its absorbability. However eating calcium with iron decreases its absorbability.  Having some heme iron with your vegetables will increase the absorption of the non heme iron (For example you will absorb more iron from your spinach if you have some red meat with it).
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Tagged As: diet, energy, Iron, Meat, nutrition