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November 24, 2009   Posted in: Feels like woah.  No Comments

Out of Balance is still out of balance.

Out of Balance is still out of balance.

I meet people in my travels how self prescribe him or herself the latest vitamin or mineral multi supplement and expect miracles.  You may have seen it advertised on the television or in some mode of the media and think yeh I have been a little tired lately and skipped a few meals why not take a multi.  So you begin taking it and for a few days you feel a lift like you are getting back to your old self and then it plateaus off, and you notice that spark is gone and you are feeling like shit again.

What happens in your body is that all minerals for instance work in relationships.  There are two kind so f relationships, they either work together or against each other. This is the kind of fun stuff that naturopaths learn in college. You see when you visit your local naturopath we conduct a consultation to gain insight as to what is really going on in your body, compared to what you think may be going on and we check out which nutrients are working together or against each other.  When we run a test called a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis we are able to see not only the nutritional levels but also the interactions and their influences on your body.

So in a typical analysis we see your profile that will generally have some imbalances whether in basic levels or in the way the minerals and trace elements are interacting with each other. Now if you take a multivitamin or mineral supplement that contains a little bit of everything, what you can be doing is raising your levels but they go from being out of balance to a higher state of out of balance. That’s right they are still out of balance. That is why you can feel a lift at first and then none.

The taking of supplements today can be essential to your health if you are cutting corners or eating calorie laden nutrition less foods. The secret is to get accurate advice first to what you really need to gain maximum benefit and regain that nutritional balance you are seeking. You local naturopath and many doctors nowdays can run a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis to see what is really happening inside.

October 9, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

Aromatherapy reduces the risk of car accidents

The leading causes of car accidents are distractions (such as using your mobile phone, fiddling with the radio or CD player, eating, grooming, dealing with the kids or picking up something you’ve dropped on the floor) and drowsiness. Have you ever felt tempted to rest your eyes for a few seconds while you’re driving, when you’re bored in traffic or at the end of a long trip? Ever found yourself racing to a meeting, battling traffic and feeling stressed and frustrated?

Dr Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford in England, says scientists are studying how our senses of smell and touch can be used to make driving safer – and he and his colleagues have shown that aromas such as citrus and Peppermint can improve concentration and help drowsy drivers to stay alert.

Using essential oils such as Orange, Lime, Lemon, Grapefruit (or even oils with a citrus-like aroma such as May Chang) can not only elevate the senses, mood and emotions, they can also assist in keeping you in a relaxed but alert state. May Chang has a delicious lemon sherbet aroma that helps to keep you feeling ‘up’, but calm, and when it’s used in combination with citrus essential oils such as Grapefruit, Ginger and Orange, you can create an environment that helps you to lighten-up and stop taking yourself too seriously – it helps you to regain that ‘cruisey’ feeling that you are really living and not just existing. And they can be easily used in the car. A car diffuser plugs into your car’s ‘power source’ (which used to be called the cigarette lighter). The car diffuser has a pressed paper pad that absorbs the oils. You simply add two or three drops of essential oil and the aromas begin to do their work. The car diffuser releases the oils slowly, and the scent can last up to a few days before it needs refreshing. Whether you commute to and from work or spend most of your day in the car, a car diffuser can help you to stay focused, prevent frustration and avoid fatigue. The only essential oil that I don’t recommend being diffused in the car is Lavender; its strong relaxing properties may prevent you from concentrating on driving.

As much as we all know the dangers of driving when we’re tired or bored, we also know that there are going to be times when we find ourselves in that situation, so why not be prepared and use essential oils to provide an aromatic, sensory experience that increases your alertness, lifts your mood, and prevents stress, fatigue, boredom and drowsiness from settling in.

October 9, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

How to rejuvenate and start the New Year with a plan

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of where you really are in your life – compared to where you might think you are. Take a moment to consider each of the statements below. If you can relate to any of these, there is a high likelihood that you’ve been burning the candle at both ends this year and that you could do with a little rejuvenation. But don’t worry; you’re no different to the majority of business people in Australia. Earlier this year we conducted some research together with Grand United Corporate Health Fund where we surveyed business people just like you, and found that only 6% of people thought that they had any sort of balance in their lives.

I wake up feeling exhausted and am slow to get going.

I experience aches and pains.

I have broken sleep.

I get headaches at least monthly.

The last thing I really feel like doing in the morning is exercising.

I could use a power nap in the afternoon.

I wish I had a sex drive.

My appetite is all over the place.

I look for a glass of alcohol to wind-down after work.

I eat lunch at my desk.

I feel emotionally flat.

I am tired of my co-workers or friends and family asking me if I am okay.

I am withdrawn and don’t want to be around others unless I have to be.

I am short tempered and get angry easily.

I have forgotten how to laugh, even at myself.

I experience mood swings.

I have lost interest in most things.

I feel disillusioned about my job.

The joy has gone out of my life.

How can you rejuvenate and get your life back on track?

The main body system that is responsible for our ability to cope with stress is the adrenal glands. These are small triangular organs that sit like caps on top of each kidney and provide us with the surge of adrenalin we need when we are faced with situations that call for unusual levels of physical or emotional exertion.

The adrenals work a bit like a like a bank account – you spend a little adrenal energy each day and each night you build up your reserves again. But the reality is that most people spend more than they re-invest and end up experiencing adrenal fatigue or exhaustion. The adrenals can adapt and handle stress for extended periods of time, which makes people think that they are coping, when in fact their bodies are sitting on the edge of burnout.

In my work as a naturopath I treat clients from the perspective of restoring their adrenal health and balance in their lives. There’s no pill or potion that you can take to replenish your adrenals, what will do it is regular and consistent good food, good rest and good play, and my 7 Steps to Sanity are the basic keys for integrating good food, good rest and good play into your life.

The 7 Steps to Sanity

Step 1  Respect Yourself

Start by realising that you need to look after yourself first, otherwise you’ll be of no use to others – there’s a reason why airlines tell you to fit your own oxygen mask first in case of an emergency – if you’re not okay, you can’t hope to be of service and assistance to others. It’s not selfish, it’s essential to look after yourself first.
You might start to do that by learning to say ‘no’ to unreasonable requests and demands on your time – and to do it guilt free. That might take a little practice if you’re someone who’s used to saying ‘yes’ to everything that’s asked of you. Next time you’re feeling overburdened by other people’s demands, don’t feel resentful of them for asking, you’re the one that said ‘yes’ and put yourself in the situation, and you’re the one that can change it by learning to say a guilt-free ‘no’.

When we are feeling stressed and anxious, one of the first things we do is start shallow breathing – which makes our stress feel a lot like fear. It’s a fact that fear and excitement produce exactly the same physiological responses in our bodies, the only difference is the way we look at the situation – are we afraid or are we excited? To help calm yourself and convert your fear into excitement take a few slow, deep breaths, it’s one of the fastest and most effective things you can do to manage stress and regain control of your emotions.

Step 2   Feed your Body

Although few of us really think about it on a day-to-day basis, the food we eat is fuel for our bodies. It forms the very building blocks of our bodies and it keeps us alive and well. These days we tend to eat for so many different reasons – because we’re bored, lonely, unhappy, happy, to be sociable – but rarely do we remember to eat because we need to nourish and fuel our bodies. It’s time we started to think differently about what we choose to put into our mouths.

There’s always a lot of discussion and debate about what the right diet is, but in truth, the formula for healthy eating is a very simple one:

Every day, drink two litres of water. If you want to drink tea, coffee and alcohol too, that’s fine, just balance it by drinking an additional glass of water for every cup or glass of tea, coffee and alcohol.

Six days a week eat foods as close to nature as you can – that means unprocessed and lightly cooked – and remove the ‘Bum Glue’ from your diet. Remember when we were kids we used to make glue from flour and water…and it used to smell foul after a day or two? When you eat refined grains, breads and pastas you are effectively eating that glue – and guess where it gets stuck? In your bowel, and it causes you to feel sluggish and unwell. Eliminating refined grains, breads and pastas from your diet is probably the single most effective thing that you can do to improve your general wellbeing.

One day a week, go to town, eat whatever you want, if you’re going to splash out make it count and eat the best, most divine and luxurious treats you can find and enjoy every mouthful – but only one day per week. It’s not what you do 10% of the time that matters, it’s what you do 90% of the time – so be healthful six days a week, and treat yourself on the seventh.

Step 3   Move your Body

Most of us don’t move our bodies nearly as much as we should – we weren’t designed to sit behind a desk, or to be confined to a small workspace for 40, 50, 60 or more hours per week – yet that’s exactly how most of us spend our lives.

I know you don’t have much time leftover for exercise, so go for quality rather than quantity. Interval training (which used to be called ‘Scout’s Pace’ when I was a kid) is an incredibly fast and effective way to build fitness and burn fat. You simply go for a 20-minute walk, run, swim or cycle, and go fast for one minute, then slow down and catch your breath for one minute, and repeat for 20 minutes. Exercise is more fun if you have a buddy to motivate you and help you stay committed to your goals, so find someone and exercise together. And remember, just like with your healthy eating plan, have a day off once a week, and spend it in guilt-free sloth!

Step 4   Play More

Do you ever take a look at yourself in the mirror and wonder when you became so serious? Life has a way of weighing us down and we forget that we’re supposed to be having fun, or even how to, so we need to make having fun a priority. You might even find that you become more productive when you’re balancing all that hard work with a little enjoyment – and you’ll be better company too.

We can start to lighten our moods by focusing each day on what we have to be grateful for, rather than always looking at what we don’t have or feel we’re missing out on.

Setting aside some time for fun until it becomes a habit is another good way of re-introducing fun into your life. Even if it is just for a few minutes each day, make an appointment with yourself to have fun. And ask a friend, colleague or family member to let you know when you’re starting to get a little too serious or stressed-out – but remember not to bite their heads off for telling you! It can be a great way to snap out of old habits and lighten the situation for everyone at the same time.

Step 5   Get a Life

It’s funny how we manage to achieve everything we need to for our work and families, but when it comes to ourselves, we’re prepared to let our health and happiness slide. It’s time to make the decision to ‘get a life’, and to look after every aspect of our lives as though life was the most precious thing we have.

One of the most valuable things you can do for your life is to look after your adrenals, which as we saw earlier, can only be done by enjoying good food, good rest and good play – in other words, by getting a life! I know you’re out of the habit, and you probably wonder where you’ll find the time, so the solution is to simply schedule your life in the same way that you schedule your work, until it becomes a habit. Make appointments with your self to eat well, drink water, have fun, spend quality time with your loved ones, exercise, relax and so on. If you don’t, you know you won’t get around to it.

Step 6   Do it Now!

As much as we tend to procrastinate doing the things we don’t like doing, we also procrastinate doing the things we would love to do – and all that procrastination is taking up a lot of time and energy! Whether it’s something you’ve been dreading, or something you’ve always wanted to do but never gotten around to, make the decision to do it now. Life really is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’, so don’t waste it by worrying about things you know you have to do, or depriving yourself of the things you really want to do. Identify those things you’ve been putting off, and choose to make them happen now.

Step 7   Chill Out

Understand and accept that you are only human, and you are going to get off track and make mistakes sometimes, so give yourself a break. Start by not beating yourself up for your so-called imperfections. If you do find yourself doing something that you know is counterproductive, don’t send yourself on a guilt-trip over it, instead choose to be pleased that you noticed and that you’ve given yourself to the opportunity to change track. Putting yourself through feelings of guilt and worry is one of the most damaging things you can do for your health – so why compound the problem? If you’re not on track, be pleased that you noticed, and correct your course.

And while you’re at it, why not choose to stop worrying about and fighting those things in your life that you can’t change? You’re the only one suffering the consequences of not accepting the way things are – it doesn’t mean you have to like what’s going on, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t choose to change it – but why worry and stress about it at the same time? Changing your perspective about your circumstances can literally change your experience of life. So instead of feeling overburdened by all of the things you have to do, why not choose to instead feel excited about all of the things you get to do? And as we head into the silly season, instead of feeling stressed and harassed by all of the people you have to do things for, why not choose instead to feel grateful for all of the people in your life – you might just find that your new approach not only changes your experience, but theirs too.

October 9, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

How do you get from here to there?

If I was going to drive from Brisbane to Perth, and I’d never made the trek before, it would be easy for me to just think, ‘Yeah, I know where I’m going, and our road system is good enough, so I’ll just get in the car and drive, following the road signs along the way’. A few hours into the trip, when I’m feeling a little fatigued and distracted, I might miss a couple of signs and after a while, find myself at the back of nowhere heading north instead of west. I might panic for a moment, start to stress, and spend a lot of time, effort and energy getting back on track again. Sure, I’ll eventually make it to Perth, but it will have taken me longer and cost me more than it would have if I’d taken the time to plan the trip before I headed off.

We all need a good road map (yes, even the blokes!).

Many of us treat our personal and business lives in the same way – we head off in the general direction of where we want to get to, hoping that we’ll spot all the right signs along the way, and when we find ourselves off track, it can really throw us for a loop! Just like in our road trip example, we don’t make firm plans for where we want to go, how we’re going to get there, and where we should be at certain points in time…and then we wonder why we’re working so hard but not getting to where we want to be.

In my experience, the most common things that stop people from achieving their goals are:

• lack of planning, and
• procrastination.

And sometimes we even procrastinate the planning! We all like to put off doing difficult or uncomfortable things, it is a perfectly human thing to do, but it often leaves us stuck on the road to nowhere.

If there’s anything that you want or need to do in life, realise that there will never be a more perfect time to start making it happen than right now, today. All you need to do is make the decision to just get on with it – stop thinking, worrying and stressing about it, and start doing it.

How? The fastest and easiest way to get from A to B, from Brisbane to Perth, or from where you are today to wherever you want to be, is to create a road map for yourself by setting goals. I’m going to walk you through how to do that, but before we get started, it’s important to point out the difference between dreams and goals. Dreams are just that, they’re fuzzy, feel-good fantasies that live in our imaginations, and that’s often where they stay. We all need to have dreams, but we also want to make some of those dreams a reality in our lives, and that’s what a goal is: something that we are aiming to actually make happen. Goals are the road maps that we create for our lives, they pinpoint exactly where we’re going and how we’re going to get there, and they help to give us a sense of purpose, direction and achievement in life.

So let’s start setting goals.

Make sure your goals light you up. The things we usually put off doing the most are the things we don’t like doing; the things that bore us; that aren’t fun and that don’t give us a sense of satisfaction. So, if you set goals around doing things that make you feel that way, you won’t make a true commitment to achieving them. Sure, we can’t always spend our days doing our favourite things, but there has to be a great pay-off in it for you – your goals have to light you up from the inside; they have to ‘feel’ right for you.

Goal Booster Because I am a natural health practitioner I use and recommend a lot of ‘natural medicines’ that can help in all areas of our lives. Ginger is a herb that is excellent for giving you a metaphorical ‘kick in the pants’! It’s brilliant for getting procrastinators into action. Anytime you need a bit of a push along: Brew yourself a cup of fresh ginger herb tea (hot or iced). Take a knob of fresh ginger, grate or chop it, and infuse a teaspoon in a cup of hot water – drink it warm or let it cool and drink as a tangy iced tea. Use some aromatherapy in your home or workplace. Vaporising some ginger essential oil, in combination with other energising essential oils such as May Chang and Grapefruit, will help keep you focused on the task at hand and lighten your mood when you’re feeling bogged down by it all. I have created an oil blend for this very purpose, it’s called Play More, just add 5-10 drops to an electric room vaporiser or car vaporiser.

Write your goals in language that excites you into action. What impact do you think your language has on your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing, and on what you achieve in your life? We all know someone who is ‘Mr or Ms Negative’, they always have a problem, an excuse, and a reason for why they can’t do what they want to do, or why they aren’t getting the results they want – and it’s always someone else’s fault! In reality, it is that little voice that we all have inside of us that can make us doubt and question ourselves – and some people are better at managing it than others.

You’ll never get that little voice to be quiet, but you can take control of what it’s saying and what you choose to pay attention to. The key to changing your self-talk is to first begin noticing it, and then to replace the negative commentary with a positive one. For example, you could replace existing scripts such as ‘I can’t do this’ with ‘I’m learning how to do this’, or ‘I am determined to become good at this’, or ‘I know I can do this’. So when you’re setting and reviewing your goals always use positive language, confident and inspiring words that describe you achieving your goals, and leave no room for negativity.

Shoot for the stars – one step at a time. Goals are about stretching yourself to achieve the things you want in your life, but we still have to focus on taking manageable steps along the way – you don’t have to achieve a lifetime’s worth of goals this year! For example, if I were to write down a goal to buy a $1 million beach house, and I earn $50,000 per year, the stress that sits behind this goal will sabotage my achieving it. It’s called non-integrative thinking. So while you might set a big bold goal such as this, within a short period of time you will start to realise that the goal is way too hard at this point in time, and that you’re not likely to realise it within the timeframe that you’ve set yourself, so you give up on it and it ends up becoming a de-motivator that spreads into other areas of your life as well. Remember, goals are meant to inspire you, not to set you up for failure, so make sure they’re challenging but achievable.

Set goals for your personal and business life. Setting goals in all areas of your life will help to ensure that you maintain a sense of balance, which in itself can help you to keep up the momentum needed to achieve your goals. Start by setting goals around:

Family and home life

Physical body and health

Emotional health

Spiritual health

Finances and career

Continued education

Social life and relationships

Write your goals in great detail. The more information and detail that you put into your goals, the more efficient your subconscious mind will be at helping you to achieve them. You see, when you write down a detailed goal, your subconscious mind takes that as an instruction to make that thing happen. It’s like when you decide to buy a new car, and you suddenly start to see that same type of car everywhere – what we tune our subconscious minds in to, we bring into our lives. So, if you’re setting a goal to take an overseas holiday, put all of the details about that trip into your goal – who you’ll fly with, where you’ll stay, what you’ll see there and so on. The more detail, the better.

Goal Booster Our memories are strongly linked to our sense of smell, you’ve probably had the experience when you smell a particular aroma and in an instant it takes you to another place and time in your mind. You can also use this memory association to help you focus on your goals. For example, this year one of my goals is to go to Turkey for the rose harvest (as an aromatherapist this is a very cool thing to do), so I have been vaporising rose essential oil and using a rosewater spritzer every day to help keep me focused on achieving that goal.

Keep them in your face. Out of sight, out of mind. If you don’t remind yourself of your goals every day, it’s very easy to lose track of them and just get busy with the day-to-day demands of life. I keep my goals in my diary, so that I see them every day. Reviewing your goals daily is a crucial part of your success and vital to make sure that your conscious and subconscious minds are focused on working toward them. Take a few minutes each morning to read your goals and visualise yourself achieving them (really do a little daydreaming here, imagine what it would look like and feel like to have achieved your goals), this is a technique that sportspeople use all the time to help them stay focused and committed.

Monitor your progress and adjust your goals. Review your goals periodically and adjust them as you go – just because you’ve set a goal doesn’t mean you can’t make changes to it along the way, you’ve got to be flexible. As you look at your goals and plan your day, ask yourself if what you are doing is taking you toward your goals or not. If it is, you know you’re on the right track, and if it’s not, see whether it’s your goal or your actions that need to be adjusted to get you heading in the right direction again. When you do find yourself off track don’t give yourself a hard time for it (I did say ‘when’ not ‘if’ because we’re all only human and we all wonder off track now and then), just be glad that you realised it, and get back to what you know you should be doing.

Goal Booster Learn to put up your hand and ask for help when you need it. You may never be able to achieve some of your goals without a little help or guidance along the way – but for some people (myself included), learning to put ego aside and ask for help can be a goal in itself! You’ll reach your goals, faster and easier and give other people the opportunity to be of service to you and to share in your success if you just learn to ask for what you need.

Share your goals with someone. Sharing your goals with someone you trust can be a great way of making sure you stay on track, and it can give you someone to help celebrate your milestones with along the way. But you do need to be careful about whom you choose to share your goals with. It’s human nature that some people will be excited about what you want to achieve and be there with you every step of the way, while other people can feel threatened, or jealous, or just put out that you’re making an effort to change your life while they’re not, and they can react negatively and make you doubt yourself. So choose one or two trusted people, who are as positive and ‘can do’ as you are and help each other to achieve everything you want in your lives.

Goal Booster Reward yourself! So often we focus on what hasn’t worked in our lives and what we’re yet to achieve, and we forget to acknowledge ourselves for what we do achieve. Make this the year of acknowledging and celebrating your achievements, and share that success with a friend. Within my own close network of friends, we have chosen this year to share all of our ‘Woo-Hoo!’ moments, whether by email, phone or in person, we connect with those people who share our vision and celebrate and encourage each other with some good-old positive reinforcement.

Everyone benefits from goal setting, without it, life can just seem to be happening to us, pushing and pulling us in all kinds of directions and we can start to feel powerless about what’s happening and where we’re heading. Remember to set goals for all areas of your life, it’s not all about what we want to achieve in our working lives, it’s also about ‘having a life’. Living a balanced life is about finding a way to have it all, without losing your health, sense of humour or sanity along the way! It’s about feeding yourself energy, not draining the life out of you – and simple goal-setting can help you to achieve just that.

October 9, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

Balanced ways to end the work day.

Its 5pm and all you are wanting to do is pack up your desk and head home. You’ve had enough and are hanging out for that long glass of “red”. As much as this sounds the best way to end the day, it is not necessarily the only way to end the day.

In a perfect world, you are living a life of prevention and are not ending your day wound up and “over it”. In the real world there is every chance this is what the end of many of your work days is like. What if you ended your day with a couple of basic steps to bring more sanity to your evenings?

When we did some research a few years ago we found that 83.5% of people feel that workplace stress has a moderate, high or massive effect on their lives outside work. Not only that, they were taking their work home with them, not physically but emotionally.

With this in mind, I thought I would share three practical steps for you to integrate into your life to let go of the day and be present when you are at home.

1. Move your body. Get out and play with your kids, go for a relaxing walk with your partner or even go and walk your dog. Just move your body even for 10 minutes. The aim of this is to relax your mind not necessarily your body.

2. Drink herbal teas. You have probably heard that Chamomile herb tea is a relaxant, but did you know that at your local health food shop you can also buy herb teas like lavender flowers and hops? Yes the same hops that go into your beer can be made into herbal tea. Taking hops as tea instead of in beer means you don’t get the calories that are in beer. This can calm nervousness and anxiety and promote sleep in cases of insomnia.

3. Vaporise essential oils. I have designed a new limited edition essential oil blend called “Unwind”. Unwind is a grounding but uplifting blend of Vetiver, Australian Sandalwood, Sweet Orange, Cedarwood, Patchouli and Geranium. Unwind is designed to settle your busy mind and lift your spirit so that you can let go of work and be grounded in your home life.

So instead of waiting to have a crappy night where your mind is still racing from a busy day at work, take a few minutes to unwind and enjoy your evenings with the people you care about the most about…… your family.

Since I am talking about family I thought I would share a couple of photos of my “kids”. Meet Ganesh and Shanti. Two of the most gorgeous loving cats when it suits them and two of the most mischievous kids when it suits them as well. Cats absolutley add to a family.

September 15, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

Loose Weight in as little as 20mins a day.

• The easy way to lose those unwanted kilos
• The right way to exercise, in the least amount of time so you no longer have to endure those torturous exercise sessions
• The simple way to eat to get the results that you want without having to go on a restrictive diet that leaves you starving
• What is really causing you to be overweight and not feeling good about yourself in the first place
• The hidden truth behind body fat and why we are really carrying too much of it…and the fastest and easiest way to get rid of it. This can take less than 5 seconds once you know the secret
• Why your emotions are slowly killing you but once you understand why they really exist you can master them to allow you to have the body and the life of your dreams.

The Activate Your Weight Loss Program will provide you with the correct information, tools and support to start creating your ideal body today!

• Train less and get double your results in half the time
• Eat more of the food that is good for you more often
• Have more energy to do the things you love
• Feel taught, trim and terrific in your new clothes
• Witness the amazement of your friends when they see the new you
• Be more attractive to the opposite sex
• Do things that you never thought were possible. Maybe you want to lie on the beach in your bikini without feeling self conscious, climb a mountain or compete in a triathlon.

• Learn the secret technique that controls all of your food cravings and addictions, so that you no longer comfort-eat when you are feeling down. You will wish you had known about this sooner.
• Lose your unwanted body weight / fat with ease and it has nothing to do with exercise or eating.
• Free your self from the burdens, emotional baggage and unfinished business that have been causing your excess body weight / fat in the first place.
• Re-create your body and sculpt it to look and feel how you want it to look and feel.

• Easily and effortlessly attract anything that you want in your life because of the incredible personal charisma and magnetism you are creating with your new body and self image.

• Attract your ideal partner,
• Attract your ideal level of wealth and prosperity,
• Attract your ideal business or career,
• Attract your ideal lifestyle…

• How to access within yourself a powerful tool that rests and rejuvenates your body so you have more energy – this one is a lot easier than you think.
• 5 easy steps for creating the body of your dreams from the inside out.
• 2 simple ways to put on muscle mass so you burn twice the body fat.
• How to increase your sex appeal and attraction to the opposite sex, in a matter of minutes.
• 3 proven strategies for losing weight and toning up whilst having fun with your friends. You will not be able to stop smiling when you perform these strategies.
• 7 Tips and Tricks for how to detoxify your body of all of its nasty impurities.
• A dirt cheap way to have your own personal gym without all the expensive equipment, without requiring a large space, without the exorbitant costs and you will be able to take it on business trips or holidays.
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The Activate Your Weight Loss Program takes the guess work out of creating the body you have always wanted by providing you with a unique and very powerful system designed to empower you to create and maintain your ideal body on a day to day basis, and includes;

• A very simple 5 step process that empowers you to create your ideal body and life and…
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August 31, 2009   Posted in: Loose Weight NOW  No Comments

Essentially for Women

In my years in clinic as a naturopath I found that the majority of women experience some kind of irregularity with their periods at some time. And the most regular time for these problems was after they had been more stressed than usual.  So why does this happen?

Whether it was a one off strange period out of the blue or the periods were off for a few months the main reason that I found was that the woman had experienced either a short burst of extreme stress or a prolonged time of it.

The body system that wears the brunt of stress is the adrenal glands and your adrenal glands are  a centre of influence for a woman’s hormonal system.

The adrenal glands are small triangular organs that sit like caps on top of each kidney.  The adrenal glands contain two very distinct parts, the outer cortex and the inner medulla.

The outer cortex known as the adrenal cortex produces three types of hormones which

• Stimulate the retention of sodium and the elimination of potassium.
• Metabolises Glucose, amino acid and fat
• Produces Androgens and estrogens, which are both found in men and women.
• It is the adrenals function of producing androgens and estrogens that is most important to the efficient operation of the reproductive system.

The inner medulla known as the adrenal medulla acts as the site for adrenalin and nor-adrenalin. For the fright, fight and flight response.

We have all heard of adrenalin and generally understand it to be produced when the body is placed in a position that calls on unusual efforts to be exerted.  These exertions can be either physical or emotional.  Adrenalin speeds your heart, raises blood pressure, increases the rate and ease of your breathing and diverts blood from your digestive system to your muscles so that you can stand and fight or get the heck out of there.

Now this response was very useful in the days gone by.  For instance in the days of dinosaur catching and killing, the people of the time would be confronted by this massive creatures that would frighten the majority of us.  They either had to take a stand and fight or run like heck to preserve their life.  The adrenals would kick in and they would handle the situation the way they way they had to.  Imagine they fought and killed the dinosaur, that animal would feed them for a very long time.  Life would be easier, stress reduces, their adrenals recharge and they manage life.  Today people are fighting dinosaurs at work, daily in many cases.  Their adrenal glands are not getting a chance to recharge.

Your adrenal glands are like a bank account for life’s energy or chi as it is referred to in eastern philosophies.   Everyone draws on this bank account daily and they are supposed to deposit back into the account with three things to maintain a positive bank balance.  The three things are Good Food, Good Rest and Good Play.

Over my years in clinic, the majority of women I have consulted on have their bank balances in so much debt it is scary.  People think of eating well and maybe having the odd massage etc, but they forget to play.  Bottom line if you are going to live the fast life, go for it, but remember to go for quality relaxation and play time to look after your adrenal glands.

This slide shows the main symptoms that occur when  your adrenal glands are being over taxed.

Constant over stimulation of the adrenals through physical or emotional stresses exhausts the adrenals and so affects the relevant body systems. The human body can only take so much stress. If the stress response does not terminate and the energy produced is not released appropriately at the end of a stress period or you are experiencing consistent stress periods, the adrenal and other hormone producing glands will get exhausted.  The end result will be an inconsistent supply of hormones and if as a woman you approach menopause being adrenally exhausted, you can expect trouble.

In my experience as a naturopath, I found that women experiencing any kind of reproductive system ailments were also adrenally exhausted.  Women are so good at internalising their stress, showing that they can handle whatever is thrown at them. As women, we feel the need to prove ourselves and show that we can do anything with or without help.  The majority of women fail to ask for help when they need it; they just get in and handle what they have to.  I am primarily like this as well, and being a Taurus makes my stubborn side want to do everything.  Believe me as being someone who has burnt out in the past, it is not worth. Asking for help can be the hardest thing to do at times, but it is the most important.  Today, I have more respect for people that will ask for help than for those who play the martyr and try to do it all themselves.  I believe that internalising stress is more damaging to all of your body than eating rubbish foods all day.

So how does all of this adrenal stuff relate to natural therapies and in particular aromatherapy?

From an aromatherapy point of view there are two essential oils that have the talent of being able to assist the recharging of the adrenal glands.  The essential oils are Geranium and Vetiver.  Geranium oil has a balancing action on the adrenal cortex and Vetiver is particularly effective at grounding a person through times of extreme stress and anxiety.  The more we can assist the body to handle life’s challenges the less stress on the adrenal glands.  Being realistic, stress is not going to go away, and a certain amount is good for us.  It is only the extremes and the prolonged periods without any chance to recharge that leads us to problems.

One of the most common imbalances comes in the form of good ol’ PMT. From an aromatherapy point of view making up a body oil with essential oils like Geranium, Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang, any of the Citrus oils, Rose  or Jasmine,

Lavender, Neroli  or Sandalwood will beneficial to help lift and balance hormones and the emotions that go with them.

From a nutrition point of view you are looking to Avoid refined and processed foods and in particular grains, Saturated fats like red meats and dairy, Stimulants like tea and coffee as they can all have an inflammatory reaction which can exacerbate PMT symptoms.
Look to increase the good fats like your omega threes found in fish and flax seed and the omega 6’s found in nuts and seeds and foods like avocado. Also remember to eat unrefined carbs like brown bread, rice and pastas and clean and lean protein as they will be more towards anti-inflammatory and can reduce symptoms of PMT as well. Come from a place of prevention not waiting to feel out of it each month.

The next major imbalance we see is menopause.

First remember that Menopause is not a disease; it is a normal process of life. It is said to occur when there are no eggs remaining in the ovaries.  Our supply of eggs runs out at different times for each woman.  In many cultures of the world a woman who has passed through menopause moves to the next stage of life where she is the greatly respected wise woman of the clan.  In western culture, we lack the respect for our elders and say things like “she is a silly old bat” and we send our wise women off to the retirement home.  It is time to change this and give our wise women the respect they deserve.  It is no wonder that so many women curse menopause and go through a kind of grieving about the process. The negative stress and expectations they have about going through menopause, feeds the possibility of a negative experience and drawn out symptoms.

There are many deciding factors to influence the timing of menopause; everything from whether you have been on the contraceptive pill during your fertile years or not to nutritional influences. Menopause simply means that you have run out of eggs and are finishing the fertile time of your life.  No big deal.  The problem is that there has been so much negative press about the horrors to expect going through menopause that there is almost an expectation that you have to have a horror time.  Naturopathically, the state of your adrenal glands is an influence as to how the ride will be.  It can take some women many years to complete the menstrual cycle.  Symptoms can include, hot flushes (power surges), headaches, dryness of the vagina, thinning and drying of the skin, inability to concentrate and crawly skin.

The topic of menopause is a lecture  on its own.  The topic is huge with so many influencing factors and to take a good look at all of the treatment methods available. And there is no room to touch on the subject as to why I personally feel that you should never go on hormone replacement therapy.  What I offer here is guide and starting point, you will gain relief with these ideas and some of you may eliminate symptoms all together. If your body is showing that you need something more to gain relief, I encourage you to contact your local qualified aromatherapist or naturopath to seek a more specific plan including nutritional advice.

When it comes to aromatherapy essential oils like Geranium, Fennel, Rose

Jasmine, Cypress can help to balance symptoms out and you use these diluted in a vegetable base oil or cream massaged over the abdomen daily.

Herbs also have a long and successful history in the treatment of menopause are

Dong Quai, Black Cohosh, Chaste Tree, Ginseng, Licorice Root and these can be taken as herb teas or if you go to see a practitioner we makes them up in the form of herbal tinctures that you take internally. They taste seriously bad but can work fast.

Ok lets look at nutrition. When it comes to foods you are wanting to focus on those  rich in Phytoestrogens and they are classified according to their chemical structure.  Phytoestrogens are compounds that occur naturally in plants which is where the  (phyto) part of the name comes from and under certain circumstances can have actions like the female hormone oestrogen. When eaten, they bind to oestrogen receptors and may act in a similar way to oestrogen. However, phytoestrogens are much weaker than human oestrogen, so their effects are different from those of hormones found in Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

The two groups are

• Isoflavones, such as soy  and
• Lignans which occur in linseed, grains and vegetables.

Phytoestrogen Rich Foods include

Soy beans           Dried beans

Lentils                Tofu

Oats / barley      Tempeh

Rice / rice bran  Alfalfa

Linseed              Mung beans

Sesame seeds    Apples

Wheat                Carrots

Berries               Wheat germ

The secret is to be consistent with them and a daily dose would be any of the following

• 2-4 slices soy multi-grain (for lignans)
• 1-2 cups soy milk (low fat,
• 150 grams tofu
• 30-40g linseed
• 1 cup soy beans/legumes

So in the naturopathic world menopause is very treatable and can come back to balance without a woman going on HRT. If you are on HRT and want to consider coming off, seek the input of a qualified naturopath so that it is done properly and they will look at the state of your adrenal glands etc to make sure the cause if looked at and not just the symptoms.

The next imbalance I want to look at is Candida which is commonly known as Thrush.

Vaginal candida is an imbalance of the good and bad bacteria in your gut which reflects in symptoms in the vagina. There are many causes of the imbalance; nutrition, antibiotics and state of the health of your body systems play an important. Many people think that because they experience the symptoms vaginally that it is localised to that area.  Not so, candida is systemic and thrives in your digestive system.  To get a nutritional plan to clear candida, contact your local naturopath.  In the meantime start this treatment as a minimum.  I have had endless patients use this simple treatment with great success. If you are sexually active it is important to get your partner to do this as well.  Although men do not show the symptoms that women do, they can still have candida and can pass it back to you.

At bedtime, peel and chop one small clove of garlic into pieces that you can swallow.  Wash it down with water without chewing.  If you chew it you may have fragrant breath and body odour the next day, although there is nothing wrong with that.  If you swallow the garlic without chewing you do not experience the fragrance.  The garlic spends all night scavenging around on bad bacteria; in the morning take a heaped teaspoon of acidophilus powder in water before you eat anything.  What you are doing is following up the garlic’s work of killing bad bacteria, by re-inoculating your digestive system with good bacteria.  Continue daily for three weeks, you will rebalance the gut flora and assist the elimination of the candida.  Important not, do to use acidophilus capsules as you can have candida in the mouth and you want the good bacteria in contact with everything from the mouth down, loose powder is better. Follow an anti-candida diet from your naturopath and use the following aromatherapy recipes to rebalance your body systems and symptoms.

Sitz Bath

Add the following oils to a large bowl or bidet of warm water and bathe the irritated area.

1 drop Chamomile

2 drops Myrrh

1 drop Tea Tree

Internal Vaginal Application

Add the above drops of essential oil into one desertspoon of natural acidophillus yoghurt, roll an organic cotton tampon in the mixture and insert. Repeat 2 hourly.

In this I have covered the main imbalances I have seen in clinic over the years. Bottom line, your reproductive system health is dependent on the state of your adrenal glands and even if you are nowhere near menopause time yet, remember you will get there, so look after your adrenal glands now and if you get a stray strange period, have a look at what was going on for the last month and in particular in regards to stress levels because generally that is what has allowed your body to go out of balance.

The most effective way to look after your adrenals glands is to not let them burnout in the first place. But if they do go out of balance just bring them back into balance with good food, good rest and good play. Remember to lighten up and have fun to recharge your body.

August 20, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

“Feels like Woah”

Aussie singer Wes Carr has a very cool song out at the moment called “Feels like Woah”. The chorus is

Stand up, hold on, let go, shout out
Don’t barf, free fall, begin right now
Get lost, get loud, wake up, break out
Don’t stop ’till it feels like Woah….

What a great affirmtion for life, Get lost, get loud, wake up, break out, Don’t stop ’till it feels like Woah….

I think the world need smore people taking that step, waking up, breaking out and really living life.

What can you do today that will light you up that you wont stop till it feels like woah?

August 16, 2009  Tags: Feels like woah., jennifer jefferies  Posted in: Feels like woah.  No Comments

The seven deadly sins of work life balance.

In the thirteenth century, Dante listed the Seven Deadly Sins on the pathway to Paradise: Gluttony, lust, greed, envy, pride, anger and sloth. Now, almost eight hundred years later, people are still committing these seven sins in Work Life Balance. So let me share with you the Seven Deadly Sins of Work Life Balance … and how to avoid them.

1. Gluttony: Trying to be all things to all people

Don’t try to be all things to all people. If you try to please everybody, you will end up satisfying nobody.

The secret to being successful at balancing life is to allow yourself to be human and release guilt from your life. Everyone gets wound up at times, when you notice it happening simply acknowledge where you are and move back to doing something more balanced. Don’t give yourself a hard time or anything-just keep moving forward.

Success with a balanced life is just like success anywhere else: You choose your market, find a problem, and provide a superior solution. If you try to be all things to all people, you’re not just a glutton – you’re a glutton for punishment.

2. Lust: Falling in love with “gimmicks”

Focus your time, money and energy on the things that matter, not just those that catch your eye right now. This doesn’t mean an endless quest for Mr. Right, but it does mean that you don’t have to settle for Mr. Right Now.

When it comes to balancing your life, this means stop buying a new thing every time you feel stressed or unhappy. Shopping has become the latest way that people try to make themselves happy. You keep buying stuff that brings happiness for a very short period of time and when this wears off you’re back at the shops again.

Next time you have this urge, speak to a close friend or colleague and share how you are feeling, if you just stop for a minute and acknowledge where you are at it passes. Go for things that really make you happy like time with good friends compared to short lived shopping trips for more dust collecting stuff.

3. Greed: Looking for too much too fast

When you first get started living a balanced life, there’s a temptation to do everything at once. But if you chase two horses, you’ll catch neither of them. The best way to get started is to choose one activity that is likely to give you high value, do that well, and then move on to the next.

That’s not to say that you should only be doing one thing at a time. But just be sure that everything you do is done well. Go for quality not quantity.

4. Envy: Copying tactics that don’t fit your strategy

A Russian soldier stationed in West Berlin after the Second World War wandered into an empty house and saw an electric light bulb for the first time. Fascinated by this magic light-generating globe, he cut it off with his bayonet and put it in his knapsack so he could carry around the light with him wherever he went.

The same is true with living a balanced life. Don’t just do what somebody else tells you to do, unless you know why they do it. If they are successful, what they are doing is just one part of their strategy. You can’t just pick up that one thing, put it in your knapsack, take it somewhere else and use it to light up your world.

For example, perhaps you know a person you see as living a balanced life you get all excited and choose to do the same things he or she is doing. The only problem is that you have no system to what you do, you shadow them and copy the superficial parts of their life and get exhausted doing it. Why, because they are doing the pieces behind the scenes elements as well, not just the apparent ones.

By all means, look around to see what others are doing, but don’t just copy their tactics without understanding how and where they fit your life. Get the whole picture and then implement it as a system.

5. Pride: Holding on to things that aren’t working

If what you’re doing isn’t working, do something else! I know that that sounds obvious, but it never ceases to amaze me how often people keep repeating unsuccessful patterns.

If you’re running tired all of the time, or don’t even have time to run tired, look at what you are doing. Your lifestyle is obviously not working for you if it is sucking the life out of you constantly. Find a system you can use to get what you want out of life and implement it one step at a time like you would with any new system in the workplace.

It usually doesn’t take much effort to solve these problems. But the first step is to recognise them, and commit to doing something about them one step at a time.

6. Anger: Blaming other people for your lack of success

If you’re not getting the success you desire, look to yourself first. Even if it is somebody else’s “fault”, you could be waiting a long time for them to fix things for you. It is far better to take responsibility yourself to find a solution.

For example, if you have lost your spark for life and your health is suffering, you need to look at what you have been doing to get to that state. You are responsible for what you put in your mouth each day, for how you treat yourself and for what you get out of life.

If you are treating your physical and emotional body like a second-class citizen then that is what you will get back in return. You will get a body that won’t give you the energy for anything. Accept the responsibility and be healthy now.

7. Sloth: Dragging your feet

Above all, do it now! None of the other advice in this article will do you any good at all unless you take action.

It’s too easy to say “I’ll go to the gym next week”, or “I’ll start eating healthy tomorrow”, or “I’ll fix my office environment after I finish this next project.”

It’s often easy to take action, but it’s almost always easy to not take action. Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people don’t do.

Your success is in your hands – it’s up to you!

August 10, 2009   Posted in: Articles  No Comments

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