Blog

Congratulations, you’re pregnant! Although I’ve experienced pregnancy just the once, like everyone else, I too encountered the many ups and downs that tend to arise when you’re expecting. During the first trimester I felt quite nauseous, which is common and is linked to increasing levels of hCG and oestrogen. During my second trimester, I was much better and more at ease from a safety perspective and so I finally began to enjoy being pregnant!

Over the next nine months you are probably going to realise that there’s some things you can control and many things you can’t. Most women I know, myself included, have felt empowered and committed to optimising their pregnancy nutrition, knowing that they were helping to give their unborn child the best start to life.

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Did you look in the mirror this morning and a dad bod looked back? Perhaps you’re wondering how this crept up on you… perhaps you’re not even a dad!

As for how it happened, it may have involved;

• Friday night beers with mates turned into Monday through Sunday beers;
• A few too many burgers with chips, kebabs or pizza;
• Breaking off a Kit Kat (or three) for afternoon tea;
• Skipping the gym again in favour of working late or sleeping off that hangover from above-mentioned beers;

Or simply too busy, can’t be bothered to shop or cook, or can't cook!

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These yummy cookies will satisfy your Anzac cravings and leave you feeling gratified and better yet, guilt-free!

Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) which was established in World War I.  The biscuits were initially known as ‘soldier biscuits’ and were sold at fetes and public events to raise money to support the war effort. Later they were included in parcels that loved ones and charities sent to the troops, as the biscuits tended to last well.

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Recommended Pre-Reading:

Supermarket Swindles: How to read food labels & make healthier choices

Marketers do a great job making products more appealing to consumers, especially on the shelves of your local supermarket.  Thankfully it’s my job as a nutritionist to help you cut through the hype and sort fact from fiction.

These days, choosing healthy options is a minefield of competing product claims, making it virtually impossible for anyone without a Food Science degree to make sense of it all.  But not anymore.

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If you’re trying to stick to a diet or healthy eating plan, you need to know what you’re actually eating and sometimes the supermarket labels can be deceiving.  You need to be able to navigate the sometimes wildly exaggerated health claims of product labels to know if a product is truly healthy or is it just a marketing hype. So if you’re searching ‘how to read food labels’, now is the perfect time to learn your way around a food label and it’s easy with our guidance.

Lucky for us, food labelling in Australia is governed by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) which means we have a consistent set of information that must be contained on every label.  So really, those healthy choices are right in front of you, you just need to be able to make sense of it all.  And that’s where we come in.

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For most keto dieters, eggs are the go-to breakfast staple – scrambled, fried, poached, boiled or as an omelette – anyhow you like them is fine.  You can also freely eat your fill of bacon, avocado, cold cuts, olives, nuts, smoked salmon and cheese as well as adding any healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, mayonnaise and coconut cream.  Keto friendly vegetables include leafy greens, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus and eggplant to name a few.

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Understanding the Keto Diet

The ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet that forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.

Because of the low carb intake, your body goes into a metabolic state called ketosis. This is where the body produces small fuel molecules called ‘ketones’ from burning fat for energy (instead of glucose which is derived from carbohydrates). When the body is in ketosis, the fat for energy is drawn from either the dietary intake or fat stores in the body, which is one of the reasons this diet is linked to weight loss.

A typical Western diet contains approximately 250g of carbs per day, whereas ketogenic diets limit carbohydrate to just a fraction of this amount. Suffice to say, adopting a keto regime can be quite a radical change from many people’s normal eating habits!

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Learning the art of healthy food swaps is so important if you want to establish a healthy body weight and maintain it for life. Here we show you how.

Firstly, what exactly do we mean by food swaps? Well, it’s simply choosing a more nutritious or lower calorie meal or snack option rather than going for the most tempting, heavily laden with fat and sugar, nutrition-less version.

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There are so many benefits to meal planning, it’s a wonder that more people don’t do it.  I have found that some are reluctant to give it a go as they think it’s too hard or they doubt themselves in the kitchen.  Others find excuses like “I don’t know what I’ll feel like eating on Thursday” or they try it but don’t keep it going long term.  In this article I want to show you just how easy it can be.  Once you’ve got the hang of it, I promise, you will be confidently meal planning in just 5 minutes per week!

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Daniella Calci, owner and franchisee of Vision Pt Balgowlah talks to us about goal setting and how it's an integral part of achieving positive results. Vision’s core focus is based on improving weight loss, strength and fitness by applying these 3 simple but important fundamentals:  

1. Be realistic - Understand your body type and any limitations when setting weight loss goals.

2. Be practical - Set achievable nutritional and fitness goals. If the client can only exercise 3 days per week that’s OK, we set the goals to suit them.

3. Be supportive - Daniella has worked with 100s of clients and the one thing everyone needs is encouragement and support. This is the best thing about one-on-one Personal Training, it’s much more personal and therefore has greater benefits.

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