Hey everyone!!
Sorry have been off here for a while! I have been busy trying to come up with a new website and doing some stuff on youtube now to help people a bit more and more easily answer any questions and so on that people might have.
I have decided to go more into the medicines side of things and really help people understand what these meds are doing to them! I thought the best way to do this was to start a video series in which I will go through the most common medicines and explain what they do, how they are supposed to work, what symptoms they are supposed to be managing and so on. Then I want to explain what the impacts of lifestyle changes will do - ie how will eating better foods help to manage those symptoms, and how will simple compound functional exercises help with the symptoms...
It's tough for your GP to keep up with all the latest research and updates regarding health and wellness! The area is just so broad these days and includes so much! Your doctor is no doubt busy seeing lots of people and so any extra research on the latest developments in nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle factors would have to be done in their own time! And who wants to work all day and then research all night, missing out on family and friends and the rest of life?
So this is why I thought I could help people really understand what medicines the doctor has given you and help you really understand the impacts that good nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle changes can have on the same symptoms that you are taking that medicine for...
Check out the video below for a quick intro to the series....
Oh and our new website by the way is
wwwdotfitproclinicsdotcom
we still working on it clearly but at least you will see the blogs there more regularly...
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Wednesday 22 August 2012
What will it take??
I've been thinking this week about what will get people to make lifestyle changes. Particularly men. As we all know men's health is in most cases worse than that of our female counterparts. There are probably lots of different reasons for this - many of which science probably is not yet aware of. Whatever the reason the issue still remains.
What we need to do is find out what the motivator is for men to have healthy lifestyles. Clients of mine seem to be so busy being busy that they forget that life isn't all about "busyness". You've probably heard of the 4 hour workweek - the book that outlines how we can aim to be more effective in what we do, thus freeing up time to do more of what we want to do. It's a great book to read - even better if you actually apply some of it!
Anyway after reading that and doing some thinking I've decided to focus the work I do more on men's health. Today I read this article today which highlighted for me what happens when we don't make the changes we need to make - and this guy is only 39! Pretty sad really. It is said that sudden death is usually the first sign of cardiovascular disease - too late to know obviously. This guy was lucky.
So the question is what will motivate our men to do make lifestyle changes they need to make? Surely it doesn't have to get to the point that they have a cardiac arrest! Any ideas? I would love to hear from you about the men in your life and what motivates them or what you think would motivate them...
What we need to do is find out what the motivator is for men to have healthy lifestyles. Clients of mine seem to be so busy being busy that they forget that life isn't all about "busyness". You've probably heard of the 4 hour workweek - the book that outlines how we can aim to be more effective in what we do, thus freeing up time to do more of what we want to do. It's a great book to read - even better if you actually apply some of it!
Anyway after reading that and doing some thinking I've decided to focus the work I do more on men's health. Today I read this article today which highlighted for me what happens when we don't make the changes we need to make - and this guy is only 39! Pretty sad really. It is said that sudden death is usually the first sign of cardiovascular disease - too late to know obviously. This guy was lucky.
So the question is what will motivate our men to do make lifestyle changes they need to make? Surely it doesn't have to get to the point that they have a cardiac arrest! Any ideas? I would love to hear from you about the men in your life and what motivates them or what you think would motivate them...
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Sugar Free Family!!
It started with my wife deciding that she would give no sugar a go for 21 days! While not a new thing for her to cut out sugar, this was longer than any other attempt.
By about days 4 and 5, it was starting to get tough. Everything with sugar in it all of sudden seemed to stand out and say "Eat me!"
Measures needed to be taken like moving the brown sugar container (previously used for morning porridge) to a less prominent spot in the pantry and was promptly banished to the back! Visuals were also required and so the fridge became the count down calendar.
Most important though was the mental struggle to get through the 21 days - initially this required a fixed vision of the ideal figure she was after. With that firmly in mind she was able to avoid sugar temptation for the first week or so. Later on in the challenge however the motivation turned to the health aspects of cutting back on the sugar. Reduced inflammation around the belly, less afternoon crashes and increased energy levels! Of course she got through the 21 days without sugar which is awesome! As a "reward" for herself she went and ate a magnum and had some Dr Pepper and felt sick the rest of the day....lesson learnt....
One of the cool things that came out of it though was that her example meant that our oldest daughter Liahona also joined in. She started about day 14 with Mum and did really well in her little 4 day challenge she gave herself.
It might seem stupid that people deprive themselves of something. When you take a closer look at it, you realise that actually you are just cutting out foods that are good for us anyway. These are foods that make us feel tired, sick, bloated and overweight. If cutting them out means that I feel healthier, more alert, have increased energy then why would I feel deprived?
So now there are a few of us in the FitPro Clinic doing a 12 week no sugar challenge (although fruit and honey are allowed). This one allows a 24 hour window each week of eating whatever you like, and also has a 100 burpee penalty for any slip ups on the other days (someone is actually doing burpees as I write lol...)
I also know another 152kg guy who just by eating real foods (no processed foods) for the last 3 weeks has already lost 16kg! His goal is to get to 86kg by the end of the year! Imagine what that will do for his diabetes and cardiovascular health! He has now introduced a bit of walking on the treadmill to get some more movement happening in his life and he is feeling great. Just takes a step to get started - or a challenge with a group of others around you.
Find a few others close to you that are keen and give a no sugar challenge a go and see how you feel. Do it for as any days as you like, there are no rules as far as I'm concerned. ANY reduction in the amount of sugar you consume will be of benefit. There really is no other way to find out if it works for you or not - you have to actually give it a go....
By about days 4 and 5, it was starting to get tough. Everything with sugar in it all of sudden seemed to stand out and say "Eat me!"
Measures needed to be taken like moving the brown sugar container (previously used for morning porridge) to a less prominent spot in the pantry and was promptly banished to the back! Visuals were also required and so the fridge became the count down calendar.
Most important though was the mental struggle to get through the 21 days - initially this required a fixed vision of the ideal figure she was after. With that firmly in mind she was able to avoid sugar temptation for the first week or so. Later on in the challenge however the motivation turned to the health aspects of cutting back on the sugar. Reduced inflammation around the belly, less afternoon crashes and increased energy levels! Of course she got through the 21 days without sugar which is awesome! As a "reward" for herself she went and ate a magnum and had some Dr Pepper and felt sick the rest of the day....lesson learnt....
One of the cool things that came out of it though was that her example meant that our oldest daughter Liahona also joined in. She started about day 14 with Mum and did really well in her little 4 day challenge she gave herself.
It might seem stupid that people deprive themselves of something. When you take a closer look at it, you realise that actually you are just cutting out foods that are good for us anyway. These are foods that make us feel tired, sick, bloated and overweight. If cutting them out means that I feel healthier, more alert, have increased energy then why would I feel deprived?
So now there are a few of us in the FitPro Clinic doing a 12 week no sugar challenge (although fruit and honey are allowed). This one allows a 24 hour window each week of eating whatever you like, and also has a 100 burpee penalty for any slip ups on the other days (someone is actually doing burpees as I write lol...)
I also know another 152kg guy who just by eating real foods (no processed foods) for the last 3 weeks has already lost 16kg! His goal is to get to 86kg by the end of the year! Imagine what that will do for his diabetes and cardiovascular health! He has now introduced a bit of walking on the treadmill to get some more movement happening in his life and he is feeling great. Just takes a step to get started - or a challenge with a group of others around you.
Find a few others close to you that are keen and give a no sugar challenge a go and see how you feel. Do it for as any days as you like, there are no rules as far as I'm concerned. ANY reduction in the amount of sugar you consume will be of benefit. There really is no other way to find out if it works for you or not - you have to actually give it a go....
Tuesday 3 July 2012
Are we really addicted to sugar?
Could we really be sugarholics? Are there actually sugar addiction groups?
Apparently we are sugar addicts and sugar is a poison. Just finished reading Sweet Poison and Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie - very interesting books and ones you should read to understand more about this whole sugar thing that many have been asking me about.
Basically, the simple story is that there is A LOT of hidden sugar in our diet. And it is pretty much in everything that comes in a package, packet, can or box in the supermarket.
What happens is that it gets added to foods so that we enjoy the taste of them - some other stuff I have read about actually shows that we feel rewarded (dopamine is released in the brain) when we eat sugar which is why we keep wanting to eat it - check out the 60 minutes video about sugar.
Best thing you can do to reduce sugar in your diet is to eat in a primal / paleo / ancestral / old school pre 1950s or whatever you want to call it type of way..
That means IGNORE most if the stuff you hear these days from the Heart Foundation or other National organisations telling us to eat heaps of grains as per food pyramid (which now contain lots of sugars), eat no/low fat options (which means we don't get full and so want to eat and eat and eat), and eat only x calories each day (which makes us count calories and forget how to listen to what our body is telling us).
What we need to do is eat like our grandparents / great grandparents ate. Eat REAL FOOD that doesn't have a label on it naming all those things we can't pronounce and your body can't metabolise, eat more good fats (yes there is such a thing), and eat until you are full.
Once you start eating less sugar and hopefully get rid of as much of it as you can from your regular diet and the family diet, then your body will switch to burning fat mode and you will use that stored energy all the time. Yes, that is what fat is - stored energy.
The other day I went through HOW sugar gets turned into fat (when there is too much of it going around in the bloodstream), with one of our corporate teams. They found that particularly interesting so maybe I will have to try doing a few pictures here on the computer and put that in the next blog.
Til next time people - CUT the SUGAR!!
Apparently we are sugar addicts and sugar is a poison. Just finished reading Sweet Poison and Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie - very interesting books and ones you should read to understand more about this whole sugar thing that many have been asking me about.
Basically, the simple story is that there is A LOT of hidden sugar in our diet. And it is pretty much in everything that comes in a package, packet, can or box in the supermarket.
What happens is that it gets added to foods so that we enjoy the taste of them - some other stuff I have read about actually shows that we feel rewarded (dopamine is released in the brain) when we eat sugar which is why we keep wanting to eat it - check out the 60 minutes video about sugar.
Best thing you can do to reduce sugar in your diet is to eat in a primal / paleo / ancestral / old school pre 1950s or whatever you want to call it type of way..
That means IGNORE most if the stuff you hear these days from the Heart Foundation or other National organisations telling us to eat heaps of grains as per food pyramid (which now contain lots of sugars), eat no/low fat options (which means we don't get full and so want to eat and eat and eat), and eat only x calories each day (which makes us count calories and forget how to listen to what our body is telling us).
What we need to do is eat like our grandparents / great grandparents ate. Eat REAL FOOD that doesn't have a label on it naming all those things we can't pronounce and your body can't metabolise, eat more good fats (yes there is such a thing), and eat until you are full.
Once you start eating less sugar and hopefully get rid of as much of it as you can from your regular diet and the family diet, then your body will switch to burning fat mode and you will use that stored energy all the time. Yes, that is what fat is - stored energy.
The other day I went through HOW sugar gets turned into fat (when there is too much of it going around in the bloodstream), with one of our corporate teams. They found that particularly interesting so maybe I will have to try doing a few pictures here on the computer and put that in the next blog.
Til next time people - CUT the SUGAR!!
Wednesday 20 June 2012
STOP and LISTEN!!
It is probably something you have heard before - "Just do the basics well". Yet we seem to be very adept at making things more complicated than they need to be - we look beyond the mark, find complexity, see obstacles, use excuses and basically find ways NOT to do things as simply as we could...
Perhaps it is part of human nature as the more we complicate things the less inclined we are to do them and that therefore provides us a reason NOT to do anything which ends up being the path of least resistance...
You see simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. In fact to keep things simple and resist the urge to overdo or complicate things is most often quite a bit harder to do. In fact, to simplify is usually to improve.
So what? Well a lot of life is about making things as simple as possible. Lets use nutrition as an example. Do we read and read and read and try and try and try all the latest things out about nutrition and still not get the results we want.
Do I count calories or not, buy free range or hormone free, go vegan or go raw or vegetarian, eat this meat or that meat, drink fruit juice freshly squeezed or eat fruit, do I have this food or drink 30 minutes before or 2 hours after that....... and on and on it goes until we get to the point where things are so complicated you either don't eat anything or you just eat everything!
Keep it simple I say. The simplest way I've found is to listen to what your body tells you. Get really good and knowing yourself and understanding how you are feeling. Sounds a bit weird but hey if I feel like a drink I'll have one, if I'm hungry I'll eat and by the same token if I don't feel hungry I won't eat.
We seem to have gotten so out of touch with what our bodies are trying to tell us that we have ended up eating ourselves senseless - as in no longer able to make sense of or understand what our bodies are telling us.
Simplest thing you can do is STOP and LISTEN! Get to know what that food is doing to you!
Perhaps it is part of human nature as the more we complicate things the less inclined we are to do them and that therefore provides us a reason NOT to do anything which ends up being the path of least resistance...
You see simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. In fact to keep things simple and resist the urge to overdo or complicate things is most often quite a bit harder to do. In fact, to simplify is usually to improve.
So what? Well a lot of life is about making things as simple as possible. Lets use nutrition as an example. Do we read and read and read and try and try and try all the latest things out about nutrition and still not get the results we want.
Do I count calories or not, buy free range or hormone free, go vegan or go raw or vegetarian, eat this meat or that meat, drink fruit juice freshly squeezed or eat fruit, do I have this food or drink 30 minutes before or 2 hours after that....... and on and on it goes until we get to the point where things are so complicated you either don't eat anything or you just eat everything!
Keep it simple I say. The simplest way I've found is to listen to what your body tells you. Get really good and knowing yourself and understanding how you are feeling. Sounds a bit weird but hey if I feel like a drink I'll have one, if I'm hungry I'll eat and by the same token if I don't feel hungry I won't eat.
We seem to have gotten so out of touch with what our bodies are trying to tell us that we have ended up eating ourselves senseless - as in no longer able to make sense of or understand what our bodies are telling us.
Simplest thing you can do is STOP and LISTEN! Get to know what that food is doing to you!
Saturday 16 June 2012
Food is SOOOO IMPORTANT!!
Was out visiting another corporate team yesterday introducing the 13 week program for health and wellness that they have just started with us here at FitPro Health Clinics.
Being proactive they have already done plenty of measurements like hip:waist ratio, heart rate, blood pressure and so on for baseline measures. Many of them are looking to improve their health and wellness and most are wanting to lose weight and expecting that I would talk about what exercises were going to help them lose the most weight.
Once I mentioned that nutrition was so important and that abs were actually made in the kitchen not the gym there was lots of discussion from everyone! So many people are confused with all the different theories and advice that is being pushed out there from all manner of sources - GPs, nutritionists, dieticians, friends, weekly magazines, trainers, neighbours and pretty much anyone else you can think of.
Should we eat eggs or not, can we eat cereal, what is the best breakfast to have, when should we eat and how often each day, what is this thing about coconut oil, is sugar bad for you, my doctor says that my cholesterol is high so what can I eat and probably the most often asked questions of "what will I eat if I can't have what I'm eating now?!"
Big food industry has done a great job of making us think like the 'food' they make is the only food we can eat. I was so glad when one of the people there actually brought up about how we should simply eat what our grandparents ate 2 generations ago - SO TRUE! I'm not sure how many people realise that if we did that we would have about 50kg less sugar per year than we currently do! 100 years ago it was 2kg per person whereas today we are consuming about 70k per person each year (that's on average... so some actually have a lot more than that!).
The best advice I would say is to do your best to reduce all processed foods from your diet (diet as in what you eat for life - not the latest fad 'diet') and eat as many good real foods as you can! Good real foods include things that organic meat and veges, a little fruit, some nuts.
Try it for 7 days and see what happens and how you feel - just eat meat, LOTS of vegetables, eggs, a little fruit, and some nuts and see how you feel your body will actually have a chance to absorb some nutrient dense foods and start to build your body with some good building blocks.
You probably have some questions too about nutrition. I'm about to come up with some short answer type information leaflets for the corporate team I'm working with now so if you have a nutrition related question that you are not sure of flick us an email with your question and we will answer them over the next few weeks and even send you a copy of the leaflets we make up..
Have an awesome week eating awesome foods!!
Being proactive they have already done plenty of measurements like hip:waist ratio, heart rate, blood pressure and so on for baseline measures. Many of them are looking to improve their health and wellness and most are wanting to lose weight and expecting that I would talk about what exercises were going to help them lose the most weight.
Once I mentioned that nutrition was so important and that abs were actually made in the kitchen not the gym there was lots of discussion from everyone! So many people are confused with all the different theories and advice that is being pushed out there from all manner of sources - GPs, nutritionists, dieticians, friends, weekly magazines, trainers, neighbours and pretty much anyone else you can think of.
Should we eat eggs or not, can we eat cereal, what is the best breakfast to have, when should we eat and how often each day, what is this thing about coconut oil, is sugar bad for you, my doctor says that my cholesterol is high so what can I eat and probably the most often asked questions of "what will I eat if I can't have what I'm eating now?!"
Big food industry has done a great job of making us think like the 'food' they make is the only food we can eat. I was so glad when one of the people there actually brought up about how we should simply eat what our grandparents ate 2 generations ago - SO TRUE! I'm not sure how many people realise that if we did that we would have about 50kg less sugar per year than we currently do! 100 years ago it was 2kg per person whereas today we are consuming about 70k per person each year (that's on average... so some actually have a lot more than that!).
The best advice I would say is to do your best to reduce all processed foods from your diet (diet as in what you eat for life - not the latest fad 'diet') and eat as many good real foods as you can! Good real foods include things that organic meat and veges, a little fruit, some nuts.
Try it for 7 days and see what happens and how you feel - just eat meat, LOTS of vegetables, eggs, a little fruit, and some nuts and see how you feel your body will actually have a chance to absorb some nutrient dense foods and start to build your body with some good building blocks.
You probably have some questions too about nutrition. I'm about to come up with some short answer type information leaflets for the corporate team I'm working with now so if you have a nutrition related question that you are not sure of flick us an email with your question and we will answer them over the next few weeks and even send you a copy of the leaflets we make up..
Have an awesome week eating awesome foods!!
Thursday 31 May 2012
Just start eating better!! Can you trust the health profession?
I don't know how it is with you but it seems most people get stuck on the whole healthy eating thing when it comes to good nutrition.
There is so much misinformation (is that even a word?) out there that it's no wonder people are confused. To make matters worse, even the health profession / industry can't seem to get it right. I just read this the other day in the recently released NZ Primary Care Handbook 2012 under a section called "The NZ cardioprotective dietary pattern".
They recommend
- veges 3-4 servings per day,
- fruit 3-4 servings per day,
- breads, cereals, grains at least 6 servings per day,
- low-fat or fat-free milk products 2-3 servings a day,
- chicken or lean meat 1-1.5 servings a day
- peas, beans, soy products 4-5 servings weekly
- fish, seafood 1-2 servings weekly
- eggs 3 weekly
- liquid oils, unsaturated margarines and spreads 3 or more servings a day (and they even say to have products made from sunflower, soya bean, olive, canola, linseed, safflower, or nuts and seeds OTHER THAN COCONUT! - could not believe that since coconut is probably one of the BEST foods we could have and has many health related benefits.
and on and on it went....
here is the link in case you just can't believe it either...
http://www.nzgg.org.nz/library_resources/92_primary_care_handbook
If that isn't a diet aimed at fattening you up then I don't know what is. If people were to follow this 'cardioprotective' diet here then we would see an increase in cardiovascular disease - and what do you know that is exactly what has been happening the last 40-50 years since this type of diet came out and was promoted. Maybe next time I will go through and highlight WHY and HOW this type of diet actually makes things worse!
It makes you wonder does anyone really know what "healthy eating" is? What are the "right foods" that we are supposed to be eating. What is healthy eating for cardiac sufferers and what is healthy eating for diabetics? Is there even a difference?
Is the 'food' that we see these days full of chemicals and stuff we can't even pronounce properly actually even food?
Many of my clients ask me what they should be eating. Who am I to say what they should be eating? All I know is that I'm still learning about what the best foods are for me - far be it from me to start prescribing diets for others.
However what I find really handy is for people to start actually writing down what they eat each day. Try it for a week and then go back and look over it. You can probably pick out what stuff should not really be in there and so try the next week cutting it out or eating less of that stuff. Changing food / diet is a part of lifestyle change. It happens gradually if you are persistent and keep working at it.
There are a few principles of nutrition that I know have worked for many - and those are usually the things that I recommend to people that ask me about nutrition. Basic as stuff like;
1. eat REAL food (that means miss all the aisles in the supermarket pretty much if you shop there)
2. avoid the foods that have labels full of chemicals you can't pronounce - they usually come in boxes, bags, tins, containers and are stored for ages on the shelf
3. grow as much of your own food as you can
4. buy and eat as many organic vegetables as you can
5. eat meat sparingly (and make sure it is as clean / grass fed meat as possible)
6. reduce your intake of processed foods (that means any food that goes through lots of refinement and processing before you can eat it)
7. eat when hunger ensues naturally
Try doing that for a few weeks or go for the 21 day challenge of eating ONLY REAL foods and see how you feel. Most people find it tough for the first week or two as their bodies adjust but if you can make it through you will be happy with the rewards! I'm not going to tell you what they are cause that will spoil the fun - only those willing to DO will discover... as is the case with everything else in life...
There is so much misinformation (is that even a word?) out there that it's no wonder people are confused. To make matters worse, even the health profession / industry can't seem to get it right. I just read this the other day in the recently released NZ Primary Care Handbook 2012 under a section called "The NZ cardioprotective dietary pattern".
They recommend
- veges 3-4 servings per day,
- fruit 3-4 servings per day,
- breads, cereals, grains at least 6 servings per day,
- low-fat or fat-free milk products 2-3 servings a day,
- chicken or lean meat 1-1.5 servings a day
- peas, beans, soy products 4-5 servings weekly
- fish, seafood 1-2 servings weekly
- eggs 3 weekly
- liquid oils, unsaturated margarines and spreads 3 or more servings a day (and they even say to have products made from sunflower, soya bean, olive, canola, linseed, safflower, or nuts and seeds OTHER THAN COCONUT! - could not believe that since coconut is probably one of the BEST foods we could have and has many health related benefits.
and on and on it went....
here is the link in case you just can't believe it either...
http://www.nzgg.org.nz/library_resources/92_primary_care_handbook
It makes you wonder does anyone really know what "healthy eating" is? What are the "right foods" that we are supposed to be eating. What is healthy eating for cardiac sufferers and what is healthy eating for diabetics? Is there even a difference?
Is the 'food' that we see these days full of chemicals and stuff we can't even pronounce properly actually even food?
Many of my clients ask me what they should be eating. Who am I to say what they should be eating? All I know is that I'm still learning about what the best foods are for me - far be it from me to start prescribing diets for others.
However what I find really handy is for people to start actually writing down what they eat each day. Try it for a week and then go back and look over it. You can probably pick out what stuff should not really be in there and so try the next week cutting it out or eating less of that stuff. Changing food / diet is a part of lifestyle change. It happens gradually if you are persistent and keep working at it.
There are a few principles of nutrition that I know have worked for many - and those are usually the things that I recommend to people that ask me about nutrition. Basic as stuff like;
1. eat REAL food (that means miss all the aisles in the supermarket pretty much if you shop there)
2. avoid the foods that have labels full of chemicals you can't pronounce - they usually come in boxes, bags, tins, containers and are stored for ages on the shelf
3. grow as much of your own food as you can
4. buy and eat as many organic vegetables as you can
5. eat meat sparingly (and make sure it is as clean / grass fed meat as possible)
6. reduce your intake of processed foods (that means any food that goes through lots of refinement and processing before you can eat it)
7. eat when hunger ensues naturally
Try doing that for a few weeks or go for the 21 day challenge of eating ONLY REAL foods and see how you feel. Most people find it tough for the first week or two as their bodies adjust but if you can make it through you will be happy with the rewards! I'm not going to tell you what they are cause that will spoil the fun - only those willing to DO will discover... as is the case with everything else in life...
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