Weight Loss

Missing Your Mojo? Welcome it back with Studio You Cleanse!

“This is not a diet, it is a way of life! Show me the way!”

“While the meal plans and recipes alone were absolute gold, the community support was priceless. It is SO much easier to make a huge shift when you have a community that is doing the journey with you.”

 

With over 180,000 Australians currently battling symptoms of chronic stress and adrenal fatigue, millions more suffering constant tiredness, not to mention Australians leading the obesity charge, lacking mojo is a modern-day issue with far-reaching consequences.

What to do? Simple! A life of joyful abundance, mental fitness, clearer skin, less bloating, weight loss, improved concentration and digestion, better quality sleep, and best of all, a kicking mojo are all the deliverables of my Studio You Cleanse – a four week, life changing, online program.

To find all of this in just one month sounds like a big call, but my promise is this cleanse is backed by real results. With over 14 years of clinical experience with my own clients, and hundreds of happy ‘Cleanse’ participants to date, the proof is there.

The digitally delivered course includes regular live Q&A sessions so participants have all their burning questions answered. Menu plans, shopping lists and dozens of quick, delicious, wholesome recipes make your cleanse as simple and effective as possible.

There are 2 different levels to choose your cleansing capacity from;

MOTIVATE YOUR MOJO – A great introduction to re-installing your long lost Mojo (perfect for pregnant Mummas too!)
MAXIMISE YOUR MOJO – Boost your cleansing and Fast Track your results with bonus exercise videos and 3 practitioner only supplements that support liver detoxifications and optimise gut health.

You’ll have full online access to me and an enthusiastic community of supportive, engaged and inspiring fellow Cleansers 24/7. […]

By |August 17th, 2016|Community Cleanse, Detox, Emma's Detox, Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Mojo, Nutrition, Recipes, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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The Tigernut Story & My Latest Recipe for You

In my quest for information about gut health, I read a lot of research, which makes its way into every aspect of my life. As a speaker, I hold keynote talks about gut health and it was at one of my events that the founders of Health and Harvest found me.

Health and Harvest import Tigernuts, and no, they are not actually nuts!

Tigernuts are hugely exciting for me, due to their nutritional qualities. You may have read my blog post on resistant starch. Often resistant starch is a little unfriendly to use. Think of green bananas, potato starch powder and cooked then cooled legumes.

Tigernuts are user friendly tubers, a type of root vegetable that can be eaten whole, soaked to make Spanish style horchata or ground to make flour. They are gluten free and contain a bucket load of fibre along with the Superfood of all Superfoods, resistant starch. Resistant starch is a kind of prebiotic, which helps to keep your probiotics happy and well fed.

It also turns out that Tigernuts are about as Paleo as Paleo can get, and are a true evolutionary food with Oxford Uni discovering they played a key nutritional role in our evolution. See research here >>

When you chew a Tigernut, take your time and chew well. The more you chew, the more the natural sugars are released and the flavour is part coconut, part chestnut. Per 100g of Tigernuts have 400mg resistant starch, 5.9mg iron, 23.5g fibre and 915mg of heart healthy potassium.

So, I went ahead and made some mini banana and Goji berry muffins for Sophia, using Tigernut flour. She is brutally honest with me when it comes to food so she is the ultimate recipe tester! Thankfully, these little beauties passed […]

By |June 21st, 2016|Children, Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Paleo, Recipes, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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What Juicer Should You Buy, And Why

I was recently contacted by Vitality 4 Life, asking me to test run a juicer, and provide some feedback. Over the last 15 years I have always had one kind of juicer, or another. I often make up a juice combo to address an ailment, as the power of food as medicine is incredible. Mother Nature has a medicine chest full of therapeutic nutrients!

A three day juice revamp is the absolute perfect way to flood your body with energy boosting vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
What Juicer Should I Buy?
This is a great question! Juicers generally fall under two categories – centrifugal or cold pressed. I used a centrifugal the first few years of juicing then I upgraded to a cold pressed, an investment that has paid for itself many times over.

The differences are:

Centrifugal:

Most common type of juicer for domestic use
Uses a high-speed metal blade and spins the pulp and juice against a mesh filter
The fast spinning blade creates heat, which reduces the enzyme and nutrient content of the juice
Are less expensive

Recommended brand – Breville Juice Fountain as you don’t need to cut up the produce RRP $199

Cold Pressed:

They crush, squeeze and then press the produce
Have a higher yield
Don’t generate much heat at all
Are much quieter machines
Are an investment, but last 10 years
Retain far more nutritional content
Can make nut milks

Recommended brand – BioChef Atlas Whole Slow Juicer RRP $399

What I loved about the BioChef

It is the only slow juicer on the market with a wide juicing chute so you don’t have to cut up everything into small pieces. This makes it far more likely I will actually juice as it doesn’t seem like a big process of cutting all the produce into small pieces.
You can fit […]

By |May 25th, 2016|Detox, Emma's Detox, Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Recipes, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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How your bedtime affects your BMI

Key Message: The length and quality of your sleep can impact your weight

Action Point: Try to get the recommended hours of sleep per night and take measures to ensure your quality of sleep is as good as it can be. If possible, go to bed early at least one night per week
 

No matter what your age, too little sleep and too-late bedtimes may result in weight gain according to new research.

Babies, toddler and preschoolers need plenty of sleep and when they don’t get enough, it takes a toll. Due to busier schedules and more casual bedtimes, kids these days are sleeping less than their parents did at similar ages and going to bed later.

It has been shown that quality of sleep is very much linked to metabolism and any disruption could lead to weight gain in the long run.

A recent study conducted on young adults and adolescents showed that a later bedtime was associated with weight gain regardless of the total hours of sleep. This could be due to a number of possible causes such as eating meals later in the day. In a study conducted last year in Akron, Ohio it was found that there are significant associations between sleep quality, duration, bedtime stability and obesity.

“There is a strong relationship between sleep duration and obesity in both children and adults, in particular between short sleep and obesity,” says Dr Nathaniel Watson, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Not only is the quality of sleep important but also the time of day. Nighttime sleep is associated with the release of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. In addition, untreated sleep disorders such as sleep apnea can reduce people’s motivation to exercise and […]

By |March 2nd, 2016|Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Research, Uncategorized, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Should Diets be Tailored to Your Gut Microbiome?

Key Message: There is “no one size fits all” dietary advice.

Action Point: Diets should be tailored to individuals based on a number of factors and further study is needed to determine if gut bacteria is one of them.
According to a new study, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all dietary advice. Everyone metabolises meals differently so based on this, Israeli scientists believe that diets should be tailored to an individuals microbiome or combination of gut bacteria.

The three phase study shows that different people can have a very different blood sugar response to food. It appears that the individual’s gut bacteria was a key factor influencing whether a food delivers a long, slow rise in blood sugar or a short, sharp spike. 1

Over one week, hundreds of healthy and pre-diabetes volunteers had their blood sugar levels monitored and also recorded their every meal and daily activity which revealed dramatic differences in each person’s blood sugar response to different foods.

An algorithm was developed to predict an individual’s glycemic response to a food based on factors such as their microbiome, daily activity, blood parameters and food content.

They then tested the algorithm against customised advice of experienced dieticians for a group of people with pre-diabetes and found that the algorithm created a better diet that would improve people’s blood sugar profile that are considered at risk.

Interestingly, some of the food ingredients included in these people’s good diets were also included in other people’s bad diets.

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, director of the Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service, commented on the study stating that such information was already well known as “the response was influenced by factors such as exercise, sleep and stress.”

She also stated that the variation of glycemic […]

By |February 3rd, 2016|Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Naturopathy, Nutrition, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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The Science Behind Snacking

Key Message: There is no evidence that snacking boots metabolism

Action Point: Snack quality is more important than frequency and should take into account the individual’s lifestyle
You may not know it, but “snacking” is a uniquely American tradition – and a recent one at that. In most cultures, people do not snack between main meals. Only in America do the majority of people snack. What’s more, a 2011 report from the US Department of Agriculture found that Americans now snack twice as often as they did in the late 1970s.
The reasons for this are varied. Some people say they eat between meals because they believe this is healthy or will help them control their weight; others report eating because of cravings for sweet or salty foods; while some snack out of simple boredom or to deal with unsettling emotions – so-called “emotional eating.”
There is no doubt the latter two reasons for snacking are unhealthy. But the idea that eating small meals regularly may be healthy – in particular, that it may keep the metabolism “revved up” throughout the day – has become widespread. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown no evidence that eating more often boosts metabolism, and in most cases, the added calories from snacking simply lead to a higher calorie intake over the day and thus an increased chance of becoming overweight.

Studies have shown that the jump in metabolic rate or thermic effect of food is not dependent on meal frequency however there has been some research to show that there is a slight benefit to appetite control when six meals are consumed compared to three and eating less than three meals per day is unfavourable for appetite control.

Both the Evidence Analysis Library of the Academy […]

By |November 29th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Mojo, Nutrition, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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The Effects of Eating Organic Food

Key Message: There are many benefits from eating organic foods

Action Point: Eat organic foods or grow your own to improve your health and physical wellbeing
More and more grocery stores are beginning to stock organic produce. Whereas once these items made up a small selection of available products, they now make up a sizeable proportion of any large store’s stock. From meat, to veg, to fruit – organic is everywhere.

If you’ve seen organic food in your local grocery store, you’ll have noticed it costs a little more than the same item in non-organic form. There’s a reason for this. Organic foods are made without the use of hormones and artificial growth enhancers. This means such products can’t be produced on mass. That’s a good thing though, especially when it comes to your health.

Organic food provides a range of benefits. Here are some of the most important.
More Nutrients
Sometimes, food tastes so good, we actually forget what our reason for eating it is: To stay healthy.

When it comes to comparing the nutrient profiles of organic and non-organic food, there’s only one clear winner. The European Union was one of the main bodies to confirm this, having conducted a multi-million dollar study into the effectiveness of organic produce.

Not only are organic products grown in a higher class of soil, they’re allowed to develop as nature intended them to – which can only mean they’re packed full of goodness. You can reduce vitamin and mineral deficiencies simply by changing your diet.
Better Taste
Organic foods taste better. Sure, there are probably studies that confirm this, but why bother listening to them when you have your own set of tastebuds?

Chicken, tomatoes, green vegetables, and eggs are all foods that taste far […]

By |October 11th, 2015|Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Dieting is making us fatter

 
Key Message: Dieting not only increases your weight in the long term, it also messes with your hormones.

Action Point: If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, join me for my next Community Cleanse, kicking off August 23rd – http://www.emmascommunitycleanse.com.au/

It’s common knowledge that being overweight is bad for our heath.

In fact, recent findings from leading health experts point towards a worrying trend.  One in five cancer deaths is caused by obesity, which is on track to overtake smoking as the main cause of cancer, according to international cancer specialists 1.

But with so many new fad diets and so much conflicting information about food out there, how do we know which diet is the best?

While restricting your food intake may seem like a quick way to shed kilos, think again. Experts say that dieting actually makes you fat in the long run.
Ditching the diet altogether might just be the way to go
The fact is that the vast majority of dieters eventually go back to their pre-diet weight or become heavier than they were before.

While many people seem to know that dieting doesn’t work in the long run, most are shocked to hear that the process of dieting itself actually increases your body’s propensity to gain weight.

In a previous blog post I wrote about the dangers of weight cycling and how skipping meals actually increases abdominal fat.

There is plenty of evidence to back up the claim that quick-fix approaches to weight loss will never solve the problem and are in fact more likely to make you fatter.

A 2011 study on more than 2000 sets of twins from Finland found that not only is dieting (independent of genetics) significantly associated with accelerated weight gain, it also increases the risk […]

By |August 15th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Weight loss tips backed by science

Key message: Take your dieting advice from the experts – not a health guru, sales rep or a popular Instagram account.

Action point: If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, join me for my next Community Cleanse, kicking off August 23rd – http://www.emmascommunitycleanse.com.au/
Want to know the most effective ways to lose weight? Then turn to the experts for advice. Here are six weight-loss tips backed by decades of science:
1. Dieting is more effective than exercise
Decreasing food intake is much more effective than increasing physical activity to achieve weight loss. Studies which have pitted exercise against diet have shown that participants tend to lose more weight by dieting alone than by exercise alone1.

This is because people tend to naturally compensate for the calories they expend. Firstly, exercise affects hunger and appetite hormones, making you feel noticeably hungrier after exercise. The other problem with exercise without dieting is that it’s simply tiring. If you are wiped out after exercise, you are more likely to rest afterwards.
2. There is no ‘miracle’ diet
There isn’t any evidence5 that one particular diet will work better with an individual’s specific metabolism. The truth is that all diets will work if you follow them for long enough.
3. All calories are created equal
A calorie is a calorie. For energy balance, it’s the number of calories that matters.

You can gain weight eating too much healthy food as well as unhealthy food6 – although it is a lot easier to overeat calories from junk food than healthy food.

But the source of calories matters for other reasons, including how they influence satiety. A Harvard study 7 has shown that ‘more nutritious’ means, among other things, the opportunity to fill up on fewer calories.
4. Exercise kickstarts an ‘inflexible’ metabolism
While […]

By |August 1st, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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    Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 4) – Weight loss: part B

Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 4) – Weight loss: part B

In this 6-part series, I look into some recent science in the field of health and wellness. As a clinical naturopath I read so much research and want to share with you some highlights. Happy Reading!

 
Nutrition is more important than exercise for weight loss
Yes, they are both important. But what you eat plays more of a role in your weight than how much you exercise. Studies that have pitted exercise against diet have shown that participants tend to lose more weight by dieting alone than by exercise alone.
Reference: Foster-Schubert KE, Alfano CM, Duggan CR et al. (2011) Effect of diet and exercise, alone or combined, on weight and body composition in overweight-to-obese post-menopausal women. Obesity (Silver Spring). August; 20(8): 1628–1638.

Exercise is still vital for a healthy metabolism
While exercise may not be as important for weight loss as calorie restriction, it’s important in another way: it begins to repair a broken metabolism.
Bed-rest studies conducted by NASA indicate that within a couple of days of non-activity, the metabolism becomes ‘inflexible’. Metabolic flexibility is the ability of the human body to switch from one fuel source to the next: from fats to carbs and carbs to fat.  When you have a flexible (healthy) metabolism, your body efficiently burns whatever kind of food you eat.
Reference: Jost PD. (2008). Simulating human space physiology with bed rest. Hippokratia, 12(Suppl 1), 37–40.

Your brain controls your weight loss or gain
When it comes down to it, it’s not the body or the metabolism that are actually creating overweight or obesity – it’s the brain. Over time, poor decisions lead to significant changes in how the brain governs – and responds to – the hunger and satiation processes.
The good news? By developing new habits, […]

By |July 31st, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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How to Heal Your Adrenals Naturally

How to Heal Your Adrenals Naturally

Adrenal fatigue is one of the most under diagnosed illnesses in western society. Download a copy of my free ebook to learn about the symptoms and how to heal your Adrenals naturally.

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