Beat the Bulge this Festive Season

For me it’s a rare time of the year that all the family is together and an opportunity to catch up with friends that we don’t get a chance to see throughout the year, I want to enjoy it, relax and make the most of this time. So I am definitely a little more relaxed with my diet and I will have a few drinks here and there that I would normally not have. I know that by sticking to my 5 Festive Season Tips I will have that balance between having a good time socially, but not over indulging to run down my immune system, and implement strategies to support digestion limiting the chances of feeling sluggish, terrible and carrying too much FAT.

I always suggest to clients over the break to implement the 5 easy tips below to maintain or only put on a little bit of body fat rather than’blowing out’ and spending the first 3 months of the year trying to get back to their pre Christmas body composition and fitness level.

Remember “it’s much easier to maintain, than to lose it and try and get back” . Come the New Year when all your friends are complaining about how much weight they’ve put on and how terrible they feel, you’ll be glad you implemented my 5 Tips.

“The things that are easy to do are also easy not to do”.

1) Take your vital greens with you where ever you go.

There are so many reasons to take Vital Greens, it’s hard to know where to start. For me this is the biggest bang for your buck supplement and is what I will generally recommend for ALL clients to take before anything else.

When I travel the first thing I pack is my vital greens, Christmas time it is especially important to make sure this is packed as a high priority!

Clients that have a few too many drinks than they should generally are the biggest advocates of Vital Greens because they notice a difference when they take it for the dreaded hang over . I don’t drink often so when I do I feel absolutely terrible the next day – Having Vital Greens the next day definitely makes a difference and ease the ‘pain’ of my hang over. It assists in getting the body alkalined and is filled with antioxidants to combat oxidative stress to help protect the liver from the damage of alcohol, improving liver function.

Vital Greens is jam packed with:

Phytonutrients (Offer many health benefits from plant based compounds through their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and or other properties)
Antioxidants
Vitamins
Minerals
Superfoods
Keeping a correct ratio between acid and alkaline foods in your diet are critical to your health and fat loss – if your body is acidic you will struggle to drop body fat. Too much acid in the body is the cause of many types of health problems including fatigue, obesity and then onto much bigger health challenges & disease.

The more green foods you have in your diet the more fat you will drop due to the thermogenic effect of these foods.

Problems that can occur if your body is overly acidic:

If you are overweight you will more than likely be acidic.
The damage from free radicals to cells is accelerated. This causes premature aging. Wrinkles, poor hormone regulation etc.
Without doubt our most popular supplement is vital greens because it gets results. Members and clients feel better, have more energy, get sick less often and drop body fat due to the thermogenic effect of vital greens and extra green foods in their diet.

Detoxifier/Cleanser – detoxifying and gently cleansing your colon, liver and working on every single cell in the body. The unique combination of nutrients will help your body progressively eliminate waste which builds up on the bowel walls, cleansing the liver which is the body’s main filter organ
Energiser/alkaliser – Vital Greens contains many super foods to help give you more energy, feel more vibrant and less sluggish and stressed. Alkalinity is promoted which results in feeling more balanced and alive!
A MUST HAVE IN THE FRIDGE AT ALL TIMES, BUT IN PARTICULAR IN TIMES OF STRESS I.E. XMAS THE BODY IS UNDER STRESS WITH EXCESS FOOD AND ALCOHOL!

2) Support Detoxification

It’s no surprise that we make our bodies more toxic this time of year. Below are a few easy tips that can help your body detoxify:

Our skin is one of the major components the body uses to detoxify. Have a regular sauna (make sure you are hydrated), this tip I got from one of Jeannette Bessinger articles (The Clean Food Coach) -Before a bath use a hot wash cloth over your body to help stimulate toxin release. Use circular strokes over the joints and long strokes over arms, legs and torso, always toward the heart.
Exercise to get the lymph system going
Vital greens and lots of colourful veggies
Lots of water and and a green tea twice a day. Green tea has been shown to inhibit bad bacteria to help detoxify and can even help drop fat – green tea activates the metabolism.

3) Make Smart Choices
The good thing about this time of year there is no shortage of food choices and in particular protein, which is a good thing for a lean physique – if possible make sure it is organic and or free range.
On the flip side there is always more temptation on offer from high carb/sugar food sources which play havoc on your insulin health and fat gain. When a high carb meal is consumed this produces an insulin response from the pancreas to process the blood glucose, this then leads to a drop in blood sugar which leads to craving more carbohydrates to re elevate blood sugar. This is what I refer to the over indulging roller coaster.
“Control your insulin you control your body composition”
These tips will help manage your insulin:

Eat your protein first to reduce over eating and in particular carbs.
Opt for low G.I option carbs and gluten free where possible. If you do have high G.I carbs combine it with a high fiber, low G.I carb option.
Take Omega 3 supplement..Refer to point 4
Your plate should look something like this (Got this simple but effective guide from Performance Coach Brian Ellicott, which he got from Metabolic Effect). Great plan to follow in general regardless of the time of year.
If you keep most of your meals like this over the festive season you’ll be on track – Christmas Day will be one of my blow out days, can’t say my plate will be like this that day.

4) Supplement With a Good Quality Fish Oil
Due to the high meat consumption during this time of year, that often is not from animals that have had diet that is natural to them meaning free range and or organic, along with far too much of the bad fats there is often a lot of inflammation issues, due to too many omega 6′s and not enough omega 3′s.
You need to get your omega 3 fats in to increase your omega 3:6 ratio. Consuming too much omega 6′s produces inflammation, while omega 3′s are pro inflammatory. Supplementing with fish oil at each meal will help manage your insulin and reduce inflammation.
A good Quality Fish oil supplement is by far my number 2 biggest bang for you buck supplement, they have benefits to just about every disease known to man, but in particular for the purposes of this article they turn on the genes that burn fat and turn off the genes that store fat and help you manage the roller coaster of carb cravings.
In terms of insulin management they reduce the amount the pancreas secretes and work at a cellular level by increasing insulin sensitivity – the more insulin sensitive you are the more fat you will lose.