Elimination day 3 and finally a cure for pregnancy acne!

Well this last week has been hectic to say the least. I finally moved home on the weekend and it's great to be back. Although I can't get used to not having to go to work. Think that may take a while!

Now that I'm home I've gone back on Elimination and it's been great. I'm loving it and the fact that I have the kitchen at my dispoal any time I want makes it sooooo easy!

Today is day 3 and it's been an absolute breeze! My body is loving it and my pregnancy acne has practically gone, (although I think that also has loads to do with the fact I'm no longer living in a cupboard, sleeping on a sofabed and completely stressed out all the time!).

The great thing about elimination is that the more often you do it the easier it gets. You know exactly what to eat, you have loads of recipes in mind that are quick and easy and I actually really look forward to my meals. I love that I'm doing the best for my baby and I'm sure tadpole is appreciating it too!

I'm still craving fruit like crazy but I'm sure that probably won't change.

For those of you who are still sceptical about elimination and the restrictive nature of the diet here's what I've eaten over the last 3 days:

Thai beef salad
Chicken Curry
Masala mincemeat and peas
Banana eggs
Muesli
Yogurt
Fruit of all colours!
Fudge walnut bounce balls (protein snack - all natural ingredients)
Loads of veggies done every way!

Tommorow I'm making blackberry muffins, yummy!

The only thing I'm struggling with is finding a raw milk supply near me. There's loads of farms seeing as I'm out in the West Country so I think I'll just get in the car and drive and see what I find!

"Honey....oh sugar, sugar"

76 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D
Author of the book Lick The Sugar Habit

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.

2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.

3. Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.

4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.

5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.

6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.

7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.

8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.

9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.

10. Sugar can cause premature aging.

11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.

12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.

13. Sugar contributes to obesity.

14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.

15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)

16. Sugar can cause gallstones.

17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.

18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.

19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.

20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.

21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.

22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.

23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.

24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.

25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.

26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).

27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.

28. Sugar causes food allergies.

29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.

30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.

31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.

33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.

34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.

35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.

36. Sugar can cause emphysema.

37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.

38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.

39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.

40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.

41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.

42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.

43. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.

44. Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.

45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.

46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.

47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.

48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.

49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.

50. Sugar can cause depression.

51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.

52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.

53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.

54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.

55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.

56. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.

57. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.

58. Sugar is an addictive substance.

59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.

60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.

62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.

63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.

64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.

66. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.

67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.

68. I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.

69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.

70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.

71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.

72. In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.

73. Sugar may induce cell death.

74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.

75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.

76. Sugar can cause gum disease.

Bookieboo

I currently blog on a couple of fitness mum sites, one of them being Bookieboo. Bookieboo was created by Leah Segedie to bring a wealth of fitness, nutrition and wellbeing information to one central place for busy mums.

The site is so supportive and it helped me through the hard times at the early stages of my pregnancy when I was feeling low and lonely.

In the last couple of months I have chatted with Leah on a regular basis and she's been great with advice. She's also really funny and makes me chuckle with some of her emails!

Anyway, this morning I had this special message from her son, whom the site was named after.



Find more videos like this on bookieboo


It definitely made my day. I'm paying this forward and sending a special message to someone I'm thinking about and want to say thankyou to. I guess my message today is don't forget to take the time to make someone special smile today!

The one week quitter!

A few weeks ago I had a client quit, after just 6 days. Now it's a rare occurance to have a client quit and especially so early on in the programme. Not because I'm blowing my own trumpet about how great a trainer I am, but because the consultation process usually weeds them out so they don't start in the first place.

Without going into too much detail the consultation process we use here at the studios really gets down to the core of a person's motivation and commitment and if they're not willing to give 100% then we don't accept them as a client.

Anyway, so here was this great client, raring to go and all fired up. I gave her strict advice on the nutrition, training, hydration, sleep cycles and homework that she would have to do for the next 30 days and she was ready to give it her all.

And she did!

For 6 days.

I had a message over the holiday weekend saying she was struggling and when I saw her the following week she told me the programme wasn't working for her and she wanted to quit.

Why?

Well in her mind she had a very good reason. She'd been trying really hard, eating everything she was supposed to, doing her homework and training with me, (we had almost 2 sessions), but she hadn't lost any weight. To add to the distress, she'd put on 1cm.

Now 6 days is no time to be able to assess anything. Detoxing the body can have many different effects and cause varying symptoms in the first 10 days. If you do find you are feeling bloated there are several things that may be causing this.

Possible causes of initial bloating during detox

Bloating due to the initial reaction to toxins being released
Hormonal fluctuations - particularly if there are existing hormonal imbalances or sensitivties
Initial water retention due to release of toxic load into the body's extracellular environment
Hydration levels
Food sensitivity - in particular: raw food, higher fibre foods, new foods
Lack of sleep
Altered glucose sensitivity
Stressor reponse

The list goes on..

So what I'm saying is, with any change in lifestyle you need to give your body time to adjust and settle. The body is a cybernetic organism. That means there are many different systems that work synergistically. If any one, (or all) of these systems undergo a dramatic change it will affect the entire balance of the body. So not only do you need time to clean the body up you also need time for it to rebalance and settle into it's new routine.

This will take a minimum of 10 days to clean up and at least 30 days to adequately assess how the body is responding to different stressors, be they exercise, diet, rest, hydration, hormonal....

So please, don't be too impatient when starting something positive. 6 days of a new lifestyle may seem like an age to you, but think of it in relative terms. If you've been putting rubbish into your body for months/years then even 30 days is a very small comparison.

Balance and how I found sanity...

So two days back at work and I feel normal again.

Had a well dodgy tummy yesterday, as a kickback from the weekend and as a result only had a couple of pieces of gluten free toast for tea, (translation: dinner), last night and feel ten times better today.

Had a lovely start to the day as I got to work early and practised Body Balance, which I teach.

Body Balance as the name suggests is a harmonious workout for the body. It centres and balances through controlled breathing, mental focus and structured stretches, strength poses and co-ordinated and flowing movements. It combines Eastern practices such as Tai-Chi and Yoga, with modern disciplines like Pilates and Feldenkrais.

The music is a huge part of Balance and is absolutely amazing as it takes you through a different journey on each track.

I found Balance back in 2002 when I was going through a real difficult time. I was under a lot of emotional stress and it all got too much and I had a mini breakdown. I was severely depressed for a couple of months but hated feeling like that and wanted to recover from it as quickly as possible. I went through a really tough time, but 6 months of anti-depressants, counselling and diary writing really sorted me out.

Body Balance was my time out of my head space. My instructor at the time was also a friend.

Her name is Alana and tragically she was hit by a van about 6 months after my black period. She survived but was left with severe brain damage. Bless her soul.

I digress, Alana helped show me that through Balance I could escape what was going on in the outside world and truly focus on connecting with my body and the things about myself that I loved. Balance helped me find stillness and peace and I love it to this day.

Over the last year, since I've been teaching Balance, I've brought that same feeling to my class and I've had lots of people crying at the end or experiencing great feelings of calm and inner joy.
It truly is the most effective method I've experienced of reconnecting with your inner self and establishing true body focus and awareness.

In this world of hectic pace, fast living and always rushing to get to the next thing it's so worthwhile to take some time out to just stop.

If you don't have a Balance class near you or just don't have time for one more thing, take the philosophy and spend ten minutes a day breathing, meditating and connecting with your body and mind.

My birthday, the Queen and a lot of food.....

The mayday weekend is always the first bank holiday of the year in the UK, where we get a long weekend with Monday off of work! It also happens to fall on my birthday almost every year. My Birthday is the 6th May, (today, yippee!), so I always celebrate over the entire 3 day break.

Yes you got it, I love my birthday and make the most of it by claiming from Friday to whatever day it falls on that, "it's my birthday!". This, however, turns into a bit of an excuse to eat and drink whatever I want, because....,"it's my birthday!".

This year was no different, and I probably gave myself even more leeway than normal, "because I'm pregnant". (Don't worry not using that one evey day!).

Friday turned out to be a bit of a disaster as I had planned to have dinner with my dad and boyfriend that evening after doing a favour for a friend. Unfortunately the favour turned into a bit of a nightmare. My friend works for a big name hairdressers and needed a model for a show, so I agreed I would be the model. We arranged that she would cut and colour my hair, early Friday evening before I went out.

What started well and was supposed to takle only a couple of hours turned into a 5 hour nightmare, with me obviously having to cancel my birthday plans with my dad. I'd been at work since 7am, drove straight back from London to the hairdressers and finally left there about 9:45 pm that evening.

I was not best pleased as you can imagine. And starving. And in the bad books with my boyfriend.

Got back to my dad's and it was too late to eat anything so just had half a tin of rice pudding that was in the cupboard and went to bed upset.

Woke up feeling, much better but still upset I hadn't seen my boyfrined yet. Had a good breakfast and then went off to do some birthday shopping in town. Stopped in the supermarket and bought lots of healthy salad stuff and had a good lunch.

I carried on in this vein that evening at my birthday dinner with friends and had a chicken salad and two glasses of wine. So all good!

Then Sunday came and those two glasess of wine hit you when you're pregnant! Woke up feeling tired and queasy but ate my yoghurt and fruit and felt slightly better. Carl and I went to the market and there was the sweetie stall!

During this pregnancy I have turned into sweetie monster! It was always chocolate before but I'm off that now and just love sweets! I picked at a few then we stopped and shared a mincemeat curry, (lush!).

3 hours later I was picking again and had some aubergine pakora that we'd bought earlier from the Indian stall and a chocolate dessert thing.

Then, we were out for dinner that evening with my mum! We went thai and I tried to stay good and had the thai beef salad and a little rice. ALL GOOD SO FAR!

Then the dessert menu came out and I had to have lemon meringue ice cream!

Still stuffed when I got in I managed to eat a piece of cornish fudge.

Monday after a healthy breakfast we went shopping for my new camcorder, (it's really cool!). I had to go into MacDonalds for the toilet and came out with large fries and a chocolate milkshake!

AGGGGGHHHH!

I didn't realise how much all that was till I wrote it down - I'm so glad birthdays are only once a year! I wonder how the queen manages to stay trim..she has two!!

My first scan! (...oh and me, my IBS and my midwife)

Yippee, yippee! I had my first scan and it was sooooo cool!!

I did not know you could see so much! It even had a zoom in feature so I got a close up of my little tadpole, (gotta think of a new name, it's so not a tadpole anymore!)

Anyway, he/she was very active and was waving at the camera and spinning around. It was so exciting and I feel so much closer to my bump now that I've seen it is real!

I'm so excited now about moving home, it's only 4 weeks and I'll be out of this place and back where I belong. The thing I'm looking forward to most, (apart from being free from stress), is the fact that I'll be able to get my nutrition back on track.

Whilst I've been in London I've been working some serious hours. My first client is at 7am and my last is either finished at 8/9pm every day bar Friday. What this means is that when I get home I force myself to eat something but have no time or inclination to prepare food for the next day. Unfortunately we don't have a fridge at work so I end up buying and eating 3 meals plus snacks at work.

I try and stay healthy but often the cost of buying all my meals from local cafes restricts how much I eat. Therefore, I often end up going whole days with just 1 proper meal and then snacking on clementines, raw veg and hoummus. Considering my job as a personal trainer and lifestyle coach this is just not acceptable! I would have serious words with any client of mine who did that.

My IBS has really been flaring up lately, (Kathleen, I hear you on the gassy lady bit!), and I know that when I don't eat regularly my stomach will go haywire. Cramps, bloating and pain are not fun. So roll on the end of May when I'll be back to my normal healthy diet of organic meat, lots of veggies, gluten free and organic muesli and bread and no processed cr*p!

I have started today:

Brekkie: Live yoghurt, gluten free organic muesli, grapes

Lunch: Spinach, watercress and rocket salad with smoked mackerel fillet, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and coleslaw

Was all going well until I had to go to my booking appointment with my midwife and she made me down a bottle of Lucozade. Agh, the sugar! Unfortunately I couldn't argue as she needed to do some tests on my blood sugars.

I am now feeling the consequence, I'm bloated and gassy again. For pete's sake people! Please let me eat normally!