Fi Jamieson-Folland highlights the 3 keys to creating your ideal shape…naturally!
Do you ever feel like you’ve tried EVERYTHING, and you’re still no closer to fitting into your favourite jeans? And you’re feeling a sense of almost rising panic as the festive season approaches, knowing the tempting treats will be too much to resist?
Well the chances are, you can benefit from one or several of the following 3 Keys to maintaining your ideal weight, without dieting!
Key #1 – Breathe!
Often over looked, or missed altogether – being able to take in oxygen and get rid of the waste gasses from breathing (including carbon dioxide) efficiently is often the place to start to create big and lasting changes with our energy.
Just how important is breathing then? A good way to tell, is to think about how long we can last without food? Actually we can go for weeks without food.
How long without water? A matter of days, rather than weeks.
And how long without air? A few minutes for most of us.
It’s the way we directly power our cells (along with nutrients etc), and also help them to remove their waste, after they’ve done their job.
And given we’re ideally taking this action up to 24,000 times a day, it’s makes sense to make the most of it!
This process actually helps to spark your internal furnace – which is how you burn your body’s fuel supplies (namely the food you’ve eaten). Plus it also acts as a way to remove some of the waste products your body, and therefore can help with detoxing. This is an important step in the process of releasing fat.
Take Away – Take deep breaths – in through your nose and out through your mouth, and 5 times each cycle. Repeating this process a minimum of 3 times a day is a great place to start.
Key #2 – Hydrate
Such a simple thing, to make sure we’re drinking enough water…although not always so easy to make sure we do!
One of the biggest reasons to make sure we’re drinking enough water is also to help safely remove some of your body’s waste products, and therefore can help with detoxing. And as before – this can help you release fat.
Interestingly, the signs of dehydration can be so subtle – everything from lack of focus, dizziness, tiredness, headaches, and bowel upsets, to hunger and a lower immune system. And this can be a tricky one to keep track of, given how busy we can get.
So, do all drinks count? Unfortunately not! Some salty and sugary drinks and foods actually rob our bodies of water. So the best guide, is for adults to drink 1.5-2 litres a day (and for kids – 5 year olds to drink 5-6 cups a day, and for 11 year olds to drink 7-8 cups of water a day). Plus when we exercise, or are in an air conditioned environment, we lose more water, faster.
Take Away – Measure out your water at the start of the day, so that you know the amount you need to drink (simple, although it works.) Likewise, pop a reminder in your phone (along with your deeps breaths reminder!) – it doesn’t need to be technical; simple is effective J
And for kids – find a way to help your child understand how drinking water is something important to do, all day. Make it fun! Help them picture how our bodies are made of 65%+ water, in each of our cells!
Trial a fridge sticker-chart, with a reward gold sticker at the end of the week, once each day’s water is finished.
And what’s not in the water is important too! Even some of the basic water filters available, will really help to reduce the chemicals like chlorine that are added to the main water supply (unless of course you have tank water.)
I remember when I was getting headaches after moving to a house near Auckland city, and I couldn’t figure out why! As soon as we fitted a water filter, my headaches went away!
Key #3 – Nutrients – the right ones!
Whilst nothing can replace a healthy, nutritious diet, it’s worth thinking about how much goodness is actually in our foods. Our bodies are like chemical labs, and are able to make everything that we need to work at our best…so long as we get the right ingredients, in the right amounts, and in a way that our cells can absorb them! And without the right nutrients, we often end up picking at the wrong kinds of foods.
Sadly, the way our food is grown and processed these days, before we eat it, it often means that there are lots of gaps in the most important goodies our bodies need, called enzymes, vitamins, phytochemicals and minerals. We need these, as well as the fats, proteins, carbohydrates and fibre for our cells to work at their best.
At the end of the day, of course we always do the best we can with what we have – including eating as well as we possibly can. Although even mainstream medical journals like JAMA are now saying that appropriate supplementation has it’s place.
Take Away – Make eating well a fun thing for your family! Look for recipes for foods that look interesting, and based on natural ingredients. Start a habit of reading the labels of foods, which shows you if there are any additives, and also helps give you a clue on how processed they may be.
If you’d like to receive your own, personalised FREE Discovery session with me – where you get to find out exactly how to move closer to your ideal healthy weight, and if you feel it’s time to go from the 2D theory to 3 dimensional, real-time results, then it’s time to take action! These sessions are usually booked out in advance, so make sure you mention Nicole’s newsletter in your email, and we’ll make sure we schedule you for as soon as we can! I’d love to chat with you!
Just email fi@fijamiesonfolland.com with ‘Discovery Session’ in the subject line.
Fi Jamieson-Folland D.O, is a Lifestyle Consultant, with over 20 years experience in Europe, Asia and New Zealand as a qualified osteopath, certified raw vegan gluten-free chef, educator, writer, speaker and health mentor. She lives in Auckland with her husband Chris, relishing an outdoor lifestyle and time with family and friends.
As seen in Nicole Dellow’s ‘Lifestyle Cover NZ’ newsletter 12.14