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Good fats and bad fats and how to use them in your detoxing…

Fats are good for you . . . yes you heard right fat fat fat!!

But are you eating good fats like avocados, coconut, some nuts and seeds, or bad fats that harm your body?

Good fat does not make you fat alone, simple carbohydrates like pasta and breads, bad fats like oils, chemicals and refined sugars, flours and bad food combining makes you fat. Good saturated fat is nourishing and gives you energy and keeps you fuller for longer . . .when eaten in the right food combination away from fruit and proteins. Fats also slow down detoxification as they put stress on your kidneys, so if you are trying to move your lymphatic system I do suggest limiting your fats to below 5 % of your nutrition plan or temporally avoiding them.

Good fats and are essential for the brain and body. Without good fats your body starts to break down and health issues arise. Fat is essential for growing children’s brains and they need more as they grow and then can even out later on. Fats are essential in preventing ageing concerns like Dementia and Alzheimer’s and Depression. The increase in health issues has arisen through low-fat chemical foods and getting away from traditional nourishing foods. But the amount of fat to eat is often over exaggerated. We do not need spoonfuls daily, or the amount we find is raw desserts and nut laden treats.  And we do not need for each meal to have fat in it. All whole foods have protein and fats in them alone side carbohydrates like a banana. Each person will need a different amount of fat depending on the individual and on how toxic they are and how much thy need to detoxify.

  • if they are a child before 7 years old they will need more for there growing brain so let them eat avocados and coconut galore.
  • a teenager going through puberty will need more to cope with neurone changes.
  • if your are ill you will need less until your body has cleansed out the virus, disease or build up of waste as fats slow down detoxification.
  • if your are pregnant you again will need an adequate about to support you and baby in the second and third trimesters.
  • if you are old you may need a small daily amount of fats but be guided by you digestion.
  • if you have candida which will show up in psoriasis or eczema you will need to go 0-3% fat until your body has cleansed the waste out then you can slowly add in a small amounts again.

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I can’t stress strongly enough about good fats and children on the spectrum as it’s been proven that a good levels of omega 3 fatty acids can improve the brains function and repair neural pathways. Supporting depression and anxiety and healing the gut.

So start to increase your good fats daily starting small and building up to about a 1/4-1/2 avocado daily or 1–2 raw coconuts a week or 1 glass of raw nut or seed milk daily depending on your bio-individual needs and weight, if you are trying to loose weight do not eat too many fats and always in the right food combinations. I do not recommend cooking with ANY oils as when you heat them, they change and become more volatile and carcinogenic rendering them toxic and unable to be digested by the body. Nuts and seeds should be eaten raw to get the good saturated fats from them and to keep them as a rich nutrient dense food. NEVER COOK/ HEAT NUTS!

Of course avoiding all the bad poly- unsaturated and trans-fats that cause many health concerns and are toxic and rancid like:

  • Borage oil, Canola oil, Corn oil, Cottonseed oil, Evening primrose oil, Rapeseed, Safflower oil, Peanut oil, Sunflower seed oil, Vegetable oil, Olive oils, Avocado oil, Coconut oil, Sesame oil, Nut and Seed oils.

These are not fresh and become rancid within hours. They are not in there whole food state and can not be digested and used by the body!

When you make an oil from a plant or whole food is no longer is a whole food and looses all its nutrients and life force even organic. 

  • And that means processed and home cooked food that these oils are in too:
    ALL– crisps, crackers, chips and frozen foods and meals, corn chips, biscuits, lollies and sweets, chocolate, Processed meals, sauces and jarred products, pastas and noodles, bakery products, veggie burgers, patties, meats and deli meats , hams and sausages ect

Eat fats in the right food combinations so they can digest efficiently and send that goodness to the brain, so its not stored as waste in the body!

If you are new to increasing fruits for detoxification and health, you may feel a little tired if you have lots of fat in your system then you eat fast digesting fruits. I suggest as you increase your fruit you reduce your fats for optimal digestion and energy…

Check out the truth about fruits here: The truth about fruit . . .

How your thoughts can heal your body.

Your mindset can heal your body beyond what food and supplements can do. It has taken me a long time to really connect to this thought but i have seen it over and over with clients. We often put a lot of effort into taking the right supplements, green juices and organic foods that is what our bodies need for fuel and to heal. But with every negative thought or judgment of yourself or others you counteract all that good work you’ve done. Don’t get me wrong eating junk and loving your self is not the road to health but eating well and not looking after your mind allowing ‘chatter’, doubt and self criticism that arises daily is not the answer either.

I use to think it was ok to talk to myself and beat myself up in my head. Tell myself I’m not pretty enough, slim enough, talented enough i’ve done it my whole life – hey we all do it, we are all stressed its normal right? . . . but it is not ok and we all do it and we all think the other person has an easier life clear of stress and negative thoughts. Well ladies we all have insecurities and we all think we are not good enough! WHY?

In my dream world we would all celebrate each other, support each other’s dreams and love our differences. We would not look at the girl across the street and think I wish I had her car or her hair or I wish my legs looked like hers or my job was as well paid full of envy and jealosy.

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But we have all heard this before right? Well did you know that every negative thought about you or someone else surges Cortisol through your body and it can take up to 1 hour to process that and disperse it out of the body. It uses up vital minerals and nutrients and stops your body using your fat cells for energy and it therefore runs off of glucose instead which is needed for healthy brain. Meaning it keeps you in that “fight or flight’ state we hear so much about. The mind looks to the past for happy memories to release happy hormones making the future an anxiety fueled place to be. So ladies don’t do it. Live in the now!

Stop that ’chatter’ in your head and stop the negative banter and worry especially what others think of you. Live from your heart not your head, be truthful to yourself and your loved ones. We are all in a vulnerable state and need love. If you have someone in your life who judges you and does not give you what you need . . . maybe now is the time to shed yourself of him or her. You don’t need that in your life so only surround your self with those who make you feel great, support your life and when you come away from them feel secure in that relationship. You need to be surrounded by loved ones who get you without judgment and need things in return. It sound tough but in the long run of your life it is best for you.

Choosing your mindset is as easy as dropping guilt for an action you did in the past – hey you can’t change it and you can’t re-do it, so let it go . . . . I personally held that over myself for years, flogging myself with guilt, self hate, blame and hating the decisions I’d made. But at the time I just did my best with what knowledge I had. A big part of my healing was to forgive others and myself and ‘let it go!’

You choose your actions, mindset and path not your parents, lovers or friends so stop blaming them for your life. Yes others actions and your environment may have influenced you, but you have the choice of how you act or respond to life situations. You can either turn a bad situation in to a positive or let that toxic situation eat you up and make you unwell. Been there done that – no thanks!

When William was diagnosed I fell in to deep depression after struggling to cope for 2 years it was enough to break me. After hitting rock bottom and I mean rock bottom, with the amazing support of my husband a few great friends I worked my way back up and saw all the positives that can come out of out of our new life path. Like a chance to learn and grow and change, to clean up our lives from chemicals and toxins, eat cleanly, live within our means with joy and simplicity. Not to take material things for granted and to stop climbing ladders and striving for goals that are unreachable and unimportant and to share my journey and help others. I had to go through an element of grieving for the life I thought I’d have but now every decision we make or step we take we ask ourselves is this best for the boys our family and in line with our values. This has led us to set up our businesses and we have met some truly beautiful friends on our journey to health who have shown us what’s important.

We are told often to ‘let it go’ and my dearest girl friend and I often laugh at what that means when you’re stressed, up to your eyeballs and exhausted. But over time we have both learnt it means to forgive ourselves, to be kind to ourselves and to let the small things, like a clean floor or perfect makeup or being on time go. These things are all surface things. The true importance is love, health and wellness of mind and compassion for each and every person. The rest you can ‘let go’ really you can let it go and that comes from a control freak with OCD for a clean house haha, you should see my house now!

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A few things that have helped me and still help when I fall off the mindset train of living from love and when I go back to my head and live in fear and with ‘chatter’ are:

Mediation: there is a common misbelief that to meditate you must have a totally blank mind. If you can achieve that, then that’s amazing. But you still get the benefits if you just slow down . . . breath deep belly breaths -In from your nose belly expand and out from your nose belly falls. Even 10 deep breaths will calm your nervous system down. If you find clearing your mind difficult focus on one thing like a candle flame or a tree and hold that thought for a long as you can. If stuff enters your mind sweep it away with a big brush and start again. Laugh at your thoughts and keep trying. Your ego wants to be “chatting” all the time. Don’t let it take over who you are. We use apps on our smart phones to start our mediation off each evening and they are handy if you are in the car before school pick up or a big work meeting. Yoga can help with this too and walking in nature daily.

Mickel Therapy: which is talking based therapy about taking action when an emotion arises and moving through it fast to clear you physical symptoms.

www.mickeltherapy.com/what-is-mickel-therapy/

Homeopathy: which works on lowering your level of stress building your nervous system and supporting you whilst you heal. I have used Dhanvanatari Collage and also more recently Michael Higginson in Geelong to support me.

http://www.geelonghomeopathic.com.au/about.html

http://dhanvantaricollegeofhomeopathy.com.au

A gratitude diary: I write 3 things I am grateful for each night in my phone. This helps me see the positives in the day, even if there were more negatives. So that last thing I think about are positives. We do this with the boys each night too, we talk about their day and pick 3 great things that happened and not dwell on what they may have done wrong or if they were upset.

Debt Clearing: no matter how hard it is if there is something upsetting me or someone had said something that has hurt my feelings I clear the debt by talking it through and not going to bed on it. This means setting boundaries and protecting myself first. It does not mean confrontation or stomping back in to a shop because someone was rude to me. Just simple clearing the air so it does not fester and become a physical symptom.

Happy list: each week I look at my dairy and decide if the tasks in it are + or – and if I have more – than + I plan a trip to the movies, yoga or catch up with a friends or get my nails done to balance up the week. This is putting joy into my life. Making sure I don’t get bogged down with the task of mother hood and running a house or running a business and not going without joy and fun for my being. Its unrealistic to think I can spend my time just in the + zone but if I have a few to look forward to it keeps me from feeling a lack of joy. The body is amazing it likes joy and fun and if it doesn’t get enough it makes you go back in the mind to find it. So feed it joy and fun and show it love and it will keep you in the now and physically strong.

So . . .

When you feel you’re self ‘chatting’ in your head STOP be aware – take action – and practice – clear your mind and start again.

When you have a week of – plan some + joy and fun!

Write down your gratitude list each evening.

Debt clear every night and set boundaries so your not being hurt.

Put yourself first and remember to love yourself and do your self care daily be that a new nail polish, a cup of tea in peace or a day in a spa to unwind or talking to your best friend.

As woman we put our children, partners or bosses first . . . please stop that we come first!

I find as i’m a visual learner I write positive athermations on my walls, mirrors and on postie notes in my car and keep them on my phone to remind me how to think and act. If you are a kinetic learner maybe you could listen to self help books. Find what works for you. . . and roll with it!

The only person that can heal you is YOU! The only person that can truly make you happy is YOU!

Choose to be happy and to live in the now, not the past or future, as that is where anxiety and fear is bred from.

Namaste beautiful ladies x x x

Trusting your instincts . . .

As a new parent you’re bombarded with information and advice from health care workers, family and friends about the ‘best’ way or the ‘right’ way of looking after your child.

But what do you do if that advice conflicts with your instincts? What do you do, if you know in your gut, that following all the ‘good’ advice is not what’s best for your family?

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Society seems to want to condition us to conform to a ‘normal’ way of parenting, a ‘normal’ way of eating and a ‘normal’ way of thinking. But how can we be normal when everyone has their own brand of ‘normal’. We are all individuals and all need an individual approach but thats not main stream health care.

You need to feel confident in trusting your instincts, even if your instincts lead you beyond what you already know and to a scary place.

For me, I learned the value of trusting my instincts in finding the path to better health, nutrition and wellbeing when I began to look for answers to ease physical, behavioural and digestive symptoms being experienced by our then-toddler son William, who was diagnosed with high-functioning autism aged two-year-old.

In those early days before his diagnoses I had applied my own brand of ‘normal’ to transitioning William to solid food, and I was quite certain I had it right. After all, I had worked in the organic food industry, food was my passion and being healthy was a conscious goal.

But, as I applied my knowledge to feeding my child – my gut, my instinct as a mother, told me that something was not right.

I had always fed William organic home-cooked foods that I thought to be healthy but the more I read and saw others’ journeys, the more I realised that was far from what I was doing. At one point he was eating three or four safe foods and a carrot or tomato was causing him skin reactions, tummy pain, behavioral issues and sleepless night. How could this be!

I felt so lost and very depressed but I knew that there were more answers to be found.

So we followed our instincts and started working with a Biomedical Doctor who guided us thorough the midfield that is food sensitivity, intolerances and food allergies. We used supplements to build up what his body was lacking. And the results were clear, our gut instincts had taken us on the right path and we were beginning to see results.

That’s when we moved from working instinctively to purposefully seeking answers. We started moving away from Biomedical treatments to a softer approach of Homeopathy and found that to work for us.

Soon we came across the GAPS Diet and, after the initial hard intro stage and changing our mindset about grains, fats and learning to cope with lots of detox, we started seeing massive improvements cognitively and behaviourally with William, and our younger son Edward. And my husband and I have transform our diets to be happier and healthier.

Our instincts were right. Our instincts have taken us down the right path and have led to happier, healthier life for my family, and a way of eating that has seen William’s stress levels within his body ease, giving him the space to make the most of early childhood intervention therapies.

But best of all, easing the stress within William has given him the opportunity to see beyond the anxiety that autism brings, and has made him calmer so he can now embrace emotionally family, friends and even kindergarten. All of this from a boy, who we were told would never feel empathy, be social or be able to love.

Thank goodness I trusted my instincts.