HOW TO EAT AT CHRISTMAS TIMEAt this time of year we often begin a self-destructive cycle of overeating, then feeling guilty and mad at ourselves for the overeating.
But here’s the thing. This time of year should be filled with joy and laughter, happiness and fun. It should be spent loving and celebrating with all your special people. And ironically, the connection between our mind and body causes these very things to make our body metabolise our food easier and more efficiently...in simple terms, we burn the food off faster. We also become more relaxed as we move into holiday mode, which in turn, again speeds up our digestive system and metabolism. Stress, negative self-talk, lower moods and exhaustion all create our bodies to hold on to as much energy as it can, so we slow our metabolic processes right down. This equals fat storage. So. My advice, if you are worrying about waistlines and overeating around this holiday season... Is to enjoy, to love, to be happy, to relax and to celebrate. Food is something we get to cherish, it’s a joy and a pleasure, and when we should be feeling gratitude for it, we instead be angry at it. If you desire the food, just ensure you consume it with deep joy and your body will take care of the rest through happily metabolising it. We must stop this self-punishment mindset around enjoying food. Food is by far NOT the reason we don’t like our body shape and size. When was the last time you said thanks to your food? When was the last time you were grateful for your food? Enjoy your Christmas, and enjoy the foods that come with it! On an extra note, when we allow ourselves to enjoy food mindfully (meaning being present and thoughtful of our foods), we fill our pleasure tank quicker, meaning we require less food. The best way to reduce over eating is to ALLOW yourself to enjoy the pleasure from food! Kerri x
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These black bean, gluten-free, dairy-free and refined-sugar free muffins are deceivingly good...so good that the children in my house beg me to make them.
I'm not a big baker, so when I do bake the only criteria I have is that it has to be fast, easy and not create very many dishes to wash, so creating this recipe to taste good and meet my bakers criteria has been a large success. Part of loving yourself unconditionally is seeing your journey as your own. This life you are on, it's here for you. For you to learn and grow and to fulfill your life purpose.
There’s a really big myth in the exercise world that the more you do, the fitter and stronger you get!
Cauliflower has always be under-rated by me. It's not a vegetable I naturally choose to eat, however I am well aware of the extensive research done proving it to be classed by some as the 'healthiest food on earth'. But I've just never been a fan. Until now.
My issue was I hadn't tried it in all its many ways it can be used, and slowly I am starting to realise how tasty, versatile and easy it is to use. Plus, to me, the biggest upside is my obsession with filling my body with nutrients! So what makes cauliflower so special? So I have confession. And it's this - a pancake in a jar! It is a new food-favourite that has almost taken over my life. My partner and I have been having this at some point every day for the last couple of weeks because it just tastes so bl**dy amazing! It works for breakfasts! It works for snacks! It works for lunch! It works for dessert!
Do you feel like you 'try so hard to eat healthy all day only to then ruin it in the evening'?
This would have to be one of the most common statements I hear so I want to shed some light on this. Homemade muesli has always been one of my preferred choices of breakfast. To me, it meets so many of the requirements that I personally want from my breakfasts - energy dense, nutrient dense, the chew factor (chewing is a great stress reliever, believe it or not), low sugar, and it keeps me full for ages.
When I became a single mother four years ago, I had to find ways to ensure I could eat a nourishing and nutrient-dense diet with a smaller food budget each week. This taught me a new appreciation for foods that I previously had dismissed and not had any interest in trying, yet they were foods that supplied us with a great deal of nourishment at a much cheaper price. Some of the foods that I began to look at included vegetarian protein options such as chickpeas and lentils, and although these don't contain full protein chains like meats do (a fancy technical term meaning that they don't contain all the nine protein bits that we need), if I combined them with each other correctly I was getting everything I needed. At a fraction of the price!
One of the biggest questions people want to know is always about how and what to eat. And this is no wonder, when you look at all the many different thoughts, theories and diets out there recommending such a wide array of notions and ideas.
Carbohydrates get a bad rap sometimes, in this dieting world we live in. Many people ban them in a belief they are bad for our body's and the culprit that creates obesity. While there is some truth amongst these fears, it is not as black and white as we often think. There is a huge variation within the maconutrient carbohydrate, and on one end we have healthy and nourishing foods and on the other end we have white processed wheat, refined sugar and foods that contribute no nourishment to our body's.
Here's one for the kids (or if you are like me, the inner kid within you who still loves a chocolate chip biscuit!)
Would you believe me if I said these only had TWO INGREDIENTS?!!! These biscuits are a new favourite in our house. I have never been a person to overly enjoy baking biscuits, but these ones are so easy and quick, and taste amazing - plus they are super nourishing for you. If you're a home vegetable gardener and anything like me, you'll have loads of tomatoes turning red and be looking for idea's on how to use them. Even if you don't have tomato plants, they are cheap to purchase at this time of the year, or grab a can of tomatoes instead - but just ensure there are no added things you aren't wanting in the can. The fresher and more close to nature we can get our tomatoes, the more nutrient-dense, however season and convience isn't always on our side, so in these cases it's ok to opt for the canned tomatoes.
This super easy to make sauce has so much flavour, yet it is full off nothing but nutrients to nourish your body. There is no refined sugar or preservative-containing foods, and it takes only a few moments to create. Give it a go and let me know what you think! Here's a quick and easy mousse to make for when you just feel like something creamy and sweet, but without the poor nutritional quality.
When the banana's in my fruit bowl become too ripe to eat I chuck them in my freezer to use at a later date for recipes such as this. I find this chocolate mousse so satisfying to fix a sugar craving or just as a nice light option for a dessert. It contains so many nutrients that will help you feel full and energised, yet it isn't loaded with sugar that will spike your blood sugar levels, processed foods that will leave you feeling lethargic or wheat or dairy that can upset your digestive system. Takes only a minute to make, so give it a go! The New Year often calls for us to make a list of all the resolutions and goals we want to strive for in the year to come. I love this, I am big on goal setting and striving for things, I always have been. Much of the things I have achieved in my life are a result of serious goal setting. But in my belief, there is a specific way to do and not do this. There is a huge misconnection between how people are choosing to lose weight and how their body actually works for weight loss, and this shows through the fact that 98% of people who lose weight put it all back on again, often plus more - so only 2% have figured out how to do it successfully. Here’s what I want you to know.
The most important factor to always understand if you want to lose weight is that the mind and the body MUST work together constantly throughout every step of your journey. Why? Because what the mind believes, the body must action. Every single thought and every single belief you think in your mind is sent to every cell within your body telling it to respond accordingly. Quite literally, what you believe, you become. Science is now showing more accurately this intrinsic link between the mind and the body, and that your body only ever works as a response of the mind. Before you begin any attempt at weight loss, you must get your mindset right so that your body can respond to what your mind is saying. There is one opposite that occurs in nearly every decision we make in life and that is making the choice between fear and love. The opposite of fear is love, and the opposite of love is fear. If we fear something then we don’t love it, if we love it then we don’t fear it. In people who believe they are overweight their mind set is always one of fear, not love. They do not love themselves, they fear themselves. Some people dislike themselves, some people just dislike certain aspects of their body’s, and then others live consumed by their insecurities. The beliefs you have about your body and your reasons for wanting to lose weight ultimately make up the success of whether you achieve long term weight loss or not. Fear presents itself in the body in the form of insecurities. Whether you believe you aren’t good enough the way you are, whether you don’t love yourself, don’t feel worthy of being loved, or hate parts about your body and the way you look – these are all insecurities you have about your body, and they are all a pure form of fear. You are living afraid that you aren’t good enough the way you are, and your reasons for wanting to lose weight are to improve yourself, make yourself better, make yourself right. When we live in fear of ourselves it shows through self-destructive behaviours and a lack of motivation to look after your body. Why? Because what your mind thinks, your body must action. If you believe you too fat, unattractive or not good enough, then your body actions those beliefs and it does it by self-destruction to ensure your body matches your mind-set and remains ‘fat, unattractive and not good enough’, in your opinion. When your reasons for self-dislike come from body image, then that is the very thing you will sabotage – your body image. Your body will never succeed at doing anything that doesn’t match what your mind is saying. When people first set out on a mission to lose weight, they use share willpower and motivation. This may work initially as you are fighting your internal beliefs with one mind set saying ‘I must exercise, I must diet’. It may work long enough to allow you to lose some weight, other times you may just not have the strength to fight for long enough to see any change on the scales. Regardless, unless you change those deeply ingrained beliefs about poor self-love and feelings of not being good enough, you will not maintain the weight loss or have the motivation long enough to do what’s needed. The weight will just come back, and keep coming back until you learn to love yourself and feel worthy of loving yourself. If you don’t, you will continue a pattern of contradiction between your body and your mind – your mind says one thing but you are trying to get your body to respond in a different way. It’s not possible. When people think they just need a little more motivation and will power to be ‘good’ at eating and exercising, you are simply asking your body to perform against what your mind is dictating your body to do. You will never be able to succeed with that, your body is only a response of your mind, so you will never have the motivation and willpower to work against your mind for a long enough period of time. Eventually you will have to give up that fight. Unfortunately many people seem to have made this big connection between size and worthiness – if you are overweight then by default you become not good enough, not okay, unattractive or wrong. This mind-set is what is keeping nearly every overweight person living in fear of themselves and their body’s. But there is no connection, if you wish to let go of the need to hold on to body fat, then you must let this mind-set go. Weight has no effect on the value of a person. Punishing and hating yourself to lose weight and thinking you will be a better person when you’re skinny is an extremely unsuccessful way to lose weight. But instead if you flip your mind-set, so instead of wanting to lose weight out of fear, you do it out of love then the entire mind flips its perspective. It becomes love-based rather than fear-based. When you love yourself your body will respond to those thoughts and beliefs. If everything you do is from a place of self-love then they are the messages you are sending your body. Our body’s love healthy foods, they love regular activity, they love being looked after, so if you are in a place of self-love, or at-least choosing to do things from a place of self-love, then your body will want to do the things that make it feel good – eat healthy, exercise well, and look after itself. These are the signals your mind sends your body, and your body will respond without you having to fight to find motivation. Remember, the body only actions what the mind believes – believe you are worthy, good enough, and beautiful the way you are, and your body will work overtime to ensure your body matches your beliefs. Work with the mind and it will be so much easier. If you work against it, it will become a battle too hard. I have specifically created a 28 Day Self Love Journal for this exact reason – to help people just like you begin the process of loving and accepting themselves. These journals have five daily steps and are the exact process I used every day to learn to love and accept myself. If you are wanting to lose weight, please be kind and compassionate to yourself and begin the process by building the foundation of your self-esteem and self-worth first. If you would like one of your own journals to help you begin this process, you can grab these off my website by clicking here. Because you are worth it! Kerri x For a long time now I had been struggling with the poor nutrient level and taste of gluten-free breads. I know that my body and many others thrive much better with little to no gluten, but occassionally I would just feel like toast and the ease of preparation that comes with it. I had experimented with many different recipes for making my own but the lenghty process and the complicated ingredients list made it almost feel not worth my while. I began picking and choosing different parts from different recipes and eventually came up with this combination of ingredients that make the most divine gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and refined carbohydrate-free bread I think I have ever tried. Even more than that, it is so easy and simple to create,a and it doesn't come with an extensive and confusing list of ingredients that are hard to locate. Give it a go, its totally worth it! Hopefully you enjoy it as much as my family and I do. Kerri x Nut and Seed Bread
4 eggs ½ cup pumpkin seeds ½ cup sunflower seeds 1 cup walnuts ¼ chia seeds ¼ cup flaxseeds ¼ cup water ½ teaspoon baking soda Preheat oven to 180°C. Blend all seeds and nuts into flour using a high speed blender. Leave small chunky bits if you prefer a slightly more textured bread. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and then add water and baking soda and mix well. Add seed/nut flour to the egg mixture and mix well. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and pour mixture into tin and using the back of a spoon smooth the top flat. Bake for 45 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack. Slice thinly and enjoy fresh with your favourite topping, or freeze. Within our digestive system we have over 100 trillion little microorganisms, commonly known as bacteria. We have a combination of good bacteria and unhealthy bacteria, and for a healthy digestive system we need to make sure out good bacteria far outweigh the unhealthy ones. For optimum health we must cherish and care for these good bacteria by ensuring they are fed well, looked after and that their home in our gut is healthy so they can flourish. Through poor diet, too much sugar, high stress, not enough probiotic-rich foods, and too many pharmaceutical drugs, these good bacteria can diminish leaving room for the bad bacteria to run rampant. Once this happens we line our body up for a whole host of health issues, including but not limited to, weight gain, bloating and gas, skin issues (acne, eczema, psoriasis), fatigue and low energy, mood disorders (depression, anxiety), low immune system (often sick and catching colds/flu’s), and joint pains and aches. To help our gut bacteria remain healthy we need lots of probiotic-rich foods in our diet. Probiotics are strains of the good bacteria that you have in your gut. Probiotic-rich foods and drinks contain these live cultures, so when you consume them they enter your digestive system and help to repopulate your gut with lots of good bacteria while crowding out the bad bacteria. Ideally in a healthy gut you want around 80% of your gut microbiome to be made up of good bacteria, and the rest will be a small amount of the bad bacteria. To reach this ratio and to maintain it, it is crucial you consume foods each day that contain probiotics. This is a dietary requirement that has been around for centuries, but unfortunately in recent years the importance of these foods has been forgotten. Awareness of probiotics is coming back into mainstream living now, after the side effects of diets void of these foods has created so much damage and havoc in people’s health and wellbeing. It is recommended that every day you consume at least one to two forms of probiotic-rich food or drink, and if you are feeling as though your gut is not as healthy as it could be then even more is ideal. It is mindful to note that for really unhealthy guts and people with Leaky Gut Syndrome, when you first begin probiotic-rich foods you may experience some upset through bowel movements, sore tummies, or other feelings, so just begin small and gradually over a few weeks build the amount up as your body becomes more tolerant of it. Ironically though, often the more your body rejects them, the more your body actually needs them. What are Probiotic Rich Foods and Drinks? There are supplements sold that contain probiotics if this is the way you wish to go. It can be a great idea to help build your good bacteria quantity; however I am a supporter of using foods and drinks in the diet to achieve this instead, and just keeping supplements as a secondary source if needed. Probiotic cultures live in fermented foods (fermented with salt not vinegar) or yoghurts, with the best sources being:
All of these can be either purchased from a health or wholefoods store, or for a much more cost effective option, make your own. I have been making my own Kombucha and sauerkraut for a while now and it is a fraction of the price and super easy. If you are purchasing these options, just check you are selecting a good quality product that states ‘live cultures’ or a ‘probiotic source’ and has no hidden additives or artificial products on the ingredients list. |
Kerri van de Loo - Mindfulness coach, Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach & SELF-LOVE COACH:Join our Online Wellness Club here: https://www.bodyessence.co.nz/wellness-club.html Categories
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