Throughout my teens and early twenties I was always relatively healthy and within healthy my weight range. I played netball throughout school and university had a gym membership as soon as I was working. I had my daughter when I was 26 and although I gained a lot of weight, with healthy eating and regular gym workouts I was back to my ‘normal’ weight within eighteen months. At 28 my life changed and I was living life as a single mum and juggling the demands that working part time and raising a young child brings, however I was still able to manage a relatively healthy lifestyle and regular exercise and maintain a healthy weight.

Soon after I turned thirty I returned to full time work and this suddenly meant a lot less time for myself. Long work hours and lack of planning lead to weight creeping on until I had gained 19kgs at my heaviest (61kg – 82kg). At 163cm tall 82kgs my BMI landed me in the ‘obese’ range. I was unhappy, no, miserable. I refused to buy nice clothes as this wasn’t the real me. I was frumpy, lumpy and avoided social situations unless it was with close friends or family and refused to have my photo taken.

I tried a range of quick fix diets, you name it I tried it – shakes and endless Very Low Calories Diets, fruit only until lunch, fat blaster tablets the list goes on. They were all essentially the same – limited weight loss (they were all too restrictive and boring to sustain), limited exercise (you couldn’t exercise as you had no energy) and all resulting in me regaining any weight I did lose, and then some. I was an 80kg yo-yo!

In early 2011 I had a bit of a wake up call – ending up in hospital with kidney stones. This along with the fact I was fast approaching 40, I decided that once and for all enough was enough and I had to do something about my health and weight – the good old fashioned – tried and tested way – healthy eating and regular exercise.

I set out to find a personal trainer to get me on track and keep me accountable – and found Angus. Training with Angus got me back into regular exercise and it wasn’t long before I started feeling better and seeing improvements. Those small changes inspired me to do more.

In July 2011 signed up with a friend to complete a ‘mini triathlon’. The trouble was while I could swim and ride a bike (albeit slowly) I ‘couldn’t’ run, and I was still 15kg overweight. With Angus’s supervision and guidance and encouragement, I eased myself into running on a treadmill. At first I had trouble lasting 30 seconds, but slowly built up the running time and lessened the walk breaks. I grew to love running and added 3 x 30 min treadmill runs to my week.

During this time I also started paying close attention to what I was eating. Again with advice from Angus I modified what and when I ate, but never considered myself to be on a diet. I slowly but surely started seeing the weight disappear. It was almost effortless.

With the mini triathlon not til the end of January, I was getting keen to test out my newfound love of running. I bravely entered my very first ‘fun run’ (I never thought I would use fun and run in the same sentence) in early December. I was so overwhelmed that I spent the first kilometre trying not to cry and just pulling myself together. I had come such a long way in only a few months but it only dawned on me running through St Kilda on a very cold December morning. That morning for the very first time, I ran 5km, WITHOUT STOPPING and completed the run in 31 minutes! I was so proud of myself that during the 3 hour drive home I kept telling daughter and fiancé over and over again ‘Guess what – I just ran 5km – WITHOUT stopping!!’. Luckily for me they are both very supportive and put up with me carrying on the whole way home!

Over the summer I continued to train for the mini triathlon, which was in January, and it was lots of fun. I finished the 300m swim, 9km bike ride and 3km run in under an hour and proudly wore the number texta’d on my arm and leg all day! The trickiest bit of a triathlon, I think, is getting your shoes and socks on when your still dripping wet from the swim. The best thing about both the fun run and the mini triathlon was that they were quite small, women only and really really supportive.

By now I was on a roll and looking for my next goal. A friend and I agreed to meet in Canberra for the Mother’s Day Classic and run 10km. I hadn’t trained as much as I should have and found the run tricky but I completed it and ran 10km without stopping for the first time. It was really rewarding and I loved it so much that I entered myself in the Mt Beauty 10km at the last minute for the following weekend. Angus decided he would come along and cheer me on, but not being one to sit on the sidelines he decided to enter on the day and pushed his two boys in their pram the entire 10km !!!

After the Mount Beauty run, my friend was contemplating completing a marathon. I decided to support her by entering the half marathon at the same event. I figured that it was a rather lofty goal and one I had to work at – I couldn’t just rock up on race day and run that distance. So for four months I plodded away at training, slowly increasing the distance I ran and completed another 10km race during that time.

I run on my own as none of my local friends are runners, I enjoy the solitude and focus, but to mix things up I also tried a few boot camp classes – to meet other exercisers and get some fresh air, and of course kept up my personal training sessions with Angus.

Last weekend was ‘race day’ and a beautiful day in Sydney. I joined 8500 other people and ran 21.1km across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and throughout Sydney. It was a great experience and a real challenge. I finished within the time frame I anticipated and without injury or pain. I will certainly be doing it again next year – heck I may even do two next year!

Oh – and I almost forgot – I lost 15kg before my 40th birthday in November 2011 last year and have kept it off for over 10 months!! I am getting married in November and am looking forward to wearing an amazing dress and starting my married life looking fabulous, feeling amazingly fit and healthy and embracing being 40!

Update 1: Got married in November 2012 – looked and felt fantastic – photos that I will be proud to show for years to come.

Update 2: January 2013 – no longer do my New Years resolutions contain goals like – lose X kilos or get fit. Now they look like – complete X number of fun runs !!

Update 3: An wonderful and somewhat unexpected benefit of this journey is that I have been setting a great example for my teenage daughter. My daughter has now taken the initiative to change her eating habits and start exercising regularly again having given up dancing twelve months ago. If I wasn’t setting the example I have been it would be even harder for her to adjust and lead a health and active life.

Update 4: Now I am training to raise money for CARE Australia.

As a recently transformed couch potato with a new-found passion for fitness and continual improvement, I decided to choose a number of fun runs and cycling events to complete between April 1st and December 1st, 2013. In order to complete these events I of course need to train for them. With some calculations and advice from my personal trainer, Angus, I have worked out a training plan for the next 8 months. When I added up the kilometres that I need complete over this time, it works out to be approximately 3,550km – almost the distance between Albury and Timor Leste!

I have pledged to complete 3755km in training and chosen cycling and running events to raise awareness and $10,000 for CARE Australia and Timor Leste by December 1st, 2013.

I have established this website so that you can share my experience on this personal challenge, learn more about CARE Australia and donate to the work that CARE Australia is undertaking in Timor Leste. You can follow my progress here on my Blog, on Strava and Facebook.

I hope you will join me and support this fantastic cause!

Regards

Jo Parker

If you remove your daily latte you could lose 10 kgs over the course of a year without doing anything else.

A medium sized latte contains around 200 calories. If you remove that from your daily ritual you are removing 73000 calories from your diet over a year. You need to remove 7000 calories from your regular diet to lose 1kg.

So by switching that daily latte to a green tea or black coffee you can potentially lose 10kgs over the course of a year with no effort and save yourself well over $1000 also.

If you are used to having a large or mega sized coffee with flavourings you have the potential to lose even more weight!

And just out of interest- you would need to walk an extra 5 hours a week on top of what you do already for a whole year to lose that same 10kgs.

Choosing your foods based on the glycemic index can be misleading and even useless in many cases.

Case in point…

Watermelon has one of the highest measured GI’s of all foods (much higher than even cake and ice cream). However, a normal serving of cake and ice cream may give you a whopping 600 to 800 calories, whereas a typical serving of watermelon may give you 50 to 70 calories max! You’d have to eat a massive quantity of watermelon to rack up any significant grams of carbs.

Trust me… watermelon isn’t making anyone fat… But cake and ice cream are!

The lesson… GI is almost useless when you’re not considering “Glycemic Load”, which also factors in the quantity of carbohydrates ingested in a typical serving.

So aim to eat foods with the smallest amount of carbohydrate in them as possible, regardless of the GI. If you are going to eat something with a decent amount of carbs in it like potato or bread- make sure you only eat within the two hour period after a workout.

Did you know that it’s estimated that 370 Million people worldwide have some form of diabetes… and nearly one in four Australian adults over the age of 25 years have either diabetes or a condition known as ‘pre-diabetes’. Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes., and most of them don’t even know that they have it.  Now that’s a full blown epidemic that should have us all concerned.

Why has this become such a growing problem in recent years?

Well, the main reason is that we’ve become of world of carb addicts.  There’s other factors too…less exercise, the chemical burden that we are exposed too, etc…but the main reason is the massive excess of carbs that comprises most people’s diet.

We’ve gone from our hunter-gatherer ancestors (with a diet high in protein, healthy fats, and low to moderate carbs from fruits and veggies) into a modern day world of carbohydrates everywhere we look.  And I’m not just talking about the refined “bad carbs” that everybody talks about… sugar, corn syrup, refined flour, etc.

I’m also talking about the so-called “good carbs” that the food industry wants you to think are “healthy”… In fact, that “whole grain” bread and cereal that you’ve been brainwashed into thinking is healthy has actually been proven to raise blood sugar levels even higher than refined sugar many times (depending on the type of grain with wheat being one of the worst).

This constant assault on your pancreas to produce insulin in response to all of these “whole grains” that everybody loads into their body on a daily basis not only causes insulin resistance over time, but also added weight (particularly in the abdomen from chronically high insulin), higher triglyceride levels, and eventual type 2 diabetes.

I’m always shocked (and a bit saddened) when I see that most people don’t realize that type 2 diabetes can be 100% completely reversed through diet changes and exercise.  It’s as if our entire world is brainwashed to think that drugs are the only answer.  I’ve even talked to actual doctors that don’t even understand that type 2 diabetes can be reversed without drugs.  It’s almost as if they’ve forgotten fundamental biochemistry of the body.  Let’s just think about it logically for a second…

Type 2 diabetes is 100% caused by poor diet over years and years, and can be 100% reversed by a good diet along with exercise.  Very simply… do the opposite of what caused the diabetes, and you will reverse it.

Its so sad to watch people end up having to take medications long term or even insulin injections like a type I diabetic just because they werent taught how to manage their diabetes properly.

Most people can reverse their type II diabetes simply by changing their lifestyle to

a) eating a diet based around fibrous carbohydrates like leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and lean protein sources instead of supposed “healthy” processed carbohydrates like bread, cereal, muesli bars, pasta, and fruit juice. (yes I did say fruit juice)

b) aiming to consume substantial sources of carbohydrate ONLY close to the time that they doing intense exercise.

c) doing resistance training regularly and increasing the lean muscle in their body which speeds up the metabolism and increases your ability to burn up blood sugar and lose weight.

d) regularly doing cardio exercise with a decent level of intensity. Walking won’t cut it unless it is quite challenging for you.

Even if you watch the popular TV show, “The Biggest Loser”, you’ll see that so many of the contestants on that show start the season with full blown type 2 diabetes, and when the season is over, they are 100% cured of their diabetes, simply because they lost most of their body weight and changed their lifestyle.

Who is at risk of type 2 diabetes?

People who have a family history of type 2 diabetes

People who have a close relative with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Those who have one parent with type 2 diabetes are over two times more likely to develop the disease than those without a family history.

People who are overweight or obese

People classified as overweight (body mass index (BMI) 25 or over) are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes and obese people (BMI 30 or over) are four times as likely to develop diabetes as people in the normal weight range. In 2000, 60 per cent of Australian adults were overweight or obese and Australian adults under 65 years gained an average of 1.8 kg over the five years from 2000 to 2005.

Waist circumference is an indicator of abdominal fat. Excess fat around the waist increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke).  Waist circumference measurements indicating increased risk are:

Ethnic group                                                                         Male                Female 
European, African, Eastern Mediterranean                    94 cm               80 cm
Middle Eastern, South Asian, Chinese,                          90 cm               80 cm
Asian-Indian, South & Central American, Japanese
Men with a waist circumference of 102cm or more and women 88cm or more are at a substantially increased risk of diabetes.

People who are inactive

In 2004-05 only 30 per cent of Australians 15 years and over undertook sufficient levels of physical activity. Physical inactivity increases the risk of developing diabetes.

People with pre-diabetes

Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) are both conditions where blood glucose levels are higher then normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

The term ‘pre-diabetes’ is sometimes used to describe these conditions. People with pre-diabetes are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop diabetes than those with normal blood glucose levels.

People with high blood pressure, abnormal blood fats or cardiovascular disease.

People with type 2 diabetes often have high blood pressure and raised triglyceride levels and low levels of ‘good’ or protective HDL cholesterol (blood fats), which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart and blood vessel) disease.

Reducing dietary fat, particularly saturated fat, eating more fibre from fruits, vegetables and whole grains, being more active and losing excess body fat, helps to reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The prevalence of diabetes in some Aboriginal communities may be as high as 30 per cent.  Type 2 diabetes often occurs at a younger age in Aboriginal people, and can even develop in childhood or adolescence. Risk assessment should begin from age 18 in people from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

Groups at particular risk include people from Pacific Islander, Southern European, Middle Eastern, Northern African and Southern Asian backgrounds.

Women who have had diabetes while pregnant (gestational)

Gestational diabetes occurs in around five per cent of all pregnancies in Australia, though occurs more frequently in certain ethnic groups (see above). Increasing age, being overweight and having a family history of diabetes increases the likelihood a woman will develop gestational diabetes. The risk of gestational diabetes in subsequent pregnancies is increased and there is a high risk of type 2 diabetes later in life.

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and overweight

Studies estimate that 12 to 21 per cent of pre-menopausal women have PCOS, yet up to 70 per cent of women remain undiagnosed. Common symptoms of PCOS are:

• Irregular, or absent menstrual periods
• Infertility
• Increased body hair
• Thinning hair on the head
• Acne

PCOS is associated with increased risk of obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

Find out more information about PCOS

Smokers

Smokers have a fifty per cent greater risk of diabetes than non-smokers. Smoking also causes damage to the heart, lungs and circulation and increases the risk of developing several types of cancer.

People on antipsychotic medication

Certain antipsychotic medications used for the treatment of schizophrenia can raise blood glucose levels in some individuals. Some medications may also lead to weight gain which contributes an additional risk for developing type 2 diabetes.  People taking these medications should be tested for diabetes. Antipsychotic medication should not be stopped Diabetes can be controlled, speak to your doctor if you are taking any of the medications.

So if you think you might be at risk of Diabetes make sure you see your doctor and get started on a Diabetes Reversing Lifestyle as soon as possible. You will lose weight, feel better and save yourself from many potential medical issues in the years to come.

At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn’t necessarily make you fat. Its unhealthy fats and over consumption of processed carbohydrates that is more likely to increase your waist line.  In fact, it’s absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and prevent cravings.  Here are 7 examples of “fatty” foods that can actually HELP you to get lean…

1.  Super Dark Chocolate (at least 70% cacao content or higher) – It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.

However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you’re the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts.  In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or other dessert.

Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70′s in % cacao content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content (I’ve seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to the amount of healthy fats.

The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood sugar response compared to other “sweets”.

In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants, including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits.  The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats.  Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.

The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 70% cacao content is that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar.  However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness.  If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better. Otherwise, a good 70% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste.  Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!

You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.

2.  Coconut milk, coconut flour, and coconut oil –  Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system, and is lacking in most western diets.  In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as bodyfat compared to other types of fats.

Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we’ve also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!).  Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!

3.  Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter – yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER( real butter that comes from cows that eat grass, not grains)… It’s delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to get lean. Just use it in small amounts as it is calorie dense.

There’s a lot of confusion about this topic… in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter.  It just shows that the majority of the population has zero idea that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet. Just remember that it needs to be grass fed.

In fact, there’s even ample evidence that REAL butter can even help you to lose body fat for a couple of main reasons:

a.  Grass-fed butter is known to have high levels of a healthy fat called CLA, which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties, and also has been shown to help burn abdominal fat and build lean muscle.

b.  Grass-fed butter also has an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (unlike conventional grain-fed butter) which helps fight inflammation in your body, and can help balance hormones.

c.  The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also contain MCTs, which help to boost your immune system and are readily burned by the body for energy.  The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also help to satisfy your appetite and control blood sugar levels, both of which help you to stay lean!

4.  Whole Eggs, including the yolk (not just egg whites) – Most people know that eggs are one of the highest quality sources of protein.  However, most people don’t know that the egg yolks are the healthiest part of the egg… that’s where almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such as lutein) are found in eggs.

In fact, the egg yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids.  Also, the protein of whole eggs is more bio-available than egg whites alone due to a more balanced amino acid profile that the yolks help to build.

Just make sure to choose free-range organic eggs instead of normal grocery store eggs.  Similar to the grass-fed beef scenerio, the nutrient content of the eggs and the balance between healthy omega-3 fatty acids and inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (in excess) is controlled by the diet of the hens.

Chickens that are allowed to roam free outside and eat a more natural diet will give you healthier, more nutrient-rich eggs with a healthier fat balance compared with your typical grocery store eggs (that came from chickens fed nothing but soy and corn and crowded inside “egg factories” all day long).

5.  Grass-fed beef  (NOT the typical supermarket beef!) – I know most people think that red meat is unhealthy for you, but that’s because they do not understand how the health of the animal affects how healthy the meat is for consumption.  Keep this in mind — “an unhealthy animal provides unhealthy meat, but a healthy animal provides healthy meat”.

Typical beef that you see at the supermarket is raised on grains, mainly corn (and to some extent, soybeans). Soy and corn are NOT the natural diet of cattle, and therefore changes the chemical balance of fats and other nutrients in the beef.  Grain-fed beef is typically WAY too high in omega-6 fats and WAY too low in omega-3 fats.  In addition, the practice of feeding cattle corn and soy as the main portion of their diet upsets their digestive system and makes them sick… and it also increases the amount of dangerous e-coli in the meat.  This is not the case with grass-fed meat.

On the other hand, grass-fed beef from cattle that were raised on the type of natural foods that they were meant to eat in nature (grass and other forage), have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fats and lower levels of inflammatory omega-6 fats (that most people already eat way too much of) compared to grain fed beef.

Grass fed meats also typically contain up to 3 times the Vitamin E as in grain fed meats.

In addition, grass-fed meat from healthy cattle also contain a special healthy fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in MUCH higher levels than grain-fed meat.  CLA has been proven in scientific studies in recent years to help in burning fat and building lean muscle (which can help you lose weight!).  These benefits are on top of the fact that grass-fed meats are some of the highest quality proteins that you can possibly eat… and this also aids in burning fat and building lean muscle.

Grass-fed meats are a little harder to find, but just ask your butcher or find a specialty grocery store and they usually will be able to get it for you.

6.  Avocados – Even though avocados are typically thought of as a “fatty food”, they are full of healthy fats!  Not only is this fruit (yes, surprisingly, avocados are actually a fruit) super-high in monounsaturated fat, but also chock full of vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, and antioxidants.

Guacamole (mashed avocados with garlic, onion, tomato, pepper, etc) is a delicious food topping, and you can be happy to know that it’s also one of the healthiest toppings you can use on your foods.  Try sliced avocados or guacamole on sandwiches, eggs or omelets, on salads or with fish, or as a delicious side to just about any meal.

The quality dose of healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients that you get from avocados helps your body to maintain proper levels of hormones that help with fat loss and muscle building.  Also, since avocados are an extremely satiating food, eating them helps to reduce your appetite in the hours after your meal.  Say goodbye to junk food cravings and bring on that fat burning!
7.  Nuts:  Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Macadamias, etc –  Yes, this is yet another “fatty food” that can actually help you burn belly fat!  Although nuts are generally between 75-90% fat in terms of a ratio of fat calories to total calories, this is another type of food that is all healthy fats, along with high levels of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  Nuts are also a good source of fiber and protein, which of course, you know helps to control blood sugar and can aid in fat loss.

Nuts also help to maintain good levels of fat burning hormones in your body (adequate healthy fat intake is vitally important to hormone balance) as well as helping to control appetite and cravings so that you essentially eat less calories overall, even though you’re consuming a high-fat food.  Yummy healthy nuts are pecans,pistachios, almonds, macadamias, and walnuts, and by eating them in variety, you help to broaden the types of vitamins and minerals and also the balance of polyunsaturated to monounsaturated fats you obtain.

Try to find raw nuts instead of roasted nuts if you can, as it helps to maintain the quality and nutritional content of the healthy fats that you will eat.

Also, try to broaden your horizons beyond the typical peanut butter that most people eat, and try almond butter, cashew butter, pecan butter, or macadamia butter to add variety to your diet.

One of the little “tricks” you can do when trying to cut down body fat is to eat a small amount of nuts such as almonds or pecans about 20 minutes before lunch and dinner.  This ends up being a perfect time to control your appetite before lunch or dinner and helps you to eat less overall calories on that meal.

I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the healthiest “fatty” fat-burning foods you can possibly eat.  Enjoy them in small amounts regularly and be sure to maintain variety!

fitpeople are bringing Margie Cummins from The Biggest Loser to Albury Wodonga for a health and fitness even that is not to be missed. The event will also feature Sharif Deen who was also a finalist on The Biggest Loser Couples. Margie and Sharif both lost 72.5kgs. The event will also entitle you to “Turn Back Your Body Clock” testing to see how your body age compares with your birthday age.

For more information   =>click here<=

 Fill your salad dressing container with these approximate ratios of liquids:

• 1/3rd of container filled with balsamic vinegar
• 1/3rd of container filled with apple cider vinegar
• fill the remaining 1/3rd of container with equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and flax seed oil
• Add just a small touch (approx 1 or 2 teaspoons) of real maple syrup
• Add a little bit of onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper and then shake the container to mix all ingredients well.
• Keep in the fridge to preserve the flax oil.
• Enjoy.

By not using dressing from the supermarket you are avoiding processed and inflammatory ingredients like soy bean oil and high fructose corn syrup. This dressing tastes great and is filled with healthy natural ingredients.

Soup is a great nutritious meal option with certain types of soup even proven to help support weight loss, advises nutritionist Susie Burrell.

We’re now well and truly into winter season, the temperature has dropped, the days are shorter and suddenly salad doesn’t seem like such an appealing lunch option. It’s time to bring on some soup! It may surprise you to hear that not only are soups a great option nutritionally, but certain types of soup have also been proven to help support weight loss.

In particular, vegetable-based soups are a great option nutritionally as they combine a high nutrient density with a low energy density – this means that we get lots of key nutrients including vitamins and minerals for relatively few calories. At a time where foods with a high-energy density and low-nutrient density such as white bread, snack foods, sugar-based drinks and high-fat fast foods dominate our intake, a low-calorie option that fills us up is a much better option for optimal health.

Studies have repeatedly shown that when diners consume a low-calorie vegetable-based soup before their main meal, they consume up to 20% less calories at a meal. The reason is simple. Basically the bulk of the soup helps to fill us up so we eat less. Nutritionally this is also beneficial as the nutrients found in vegetables including many water soluble vitamins such as vitamin B, C, K as well as dietary fibre and a range of minerals, also helps to regulate the digestive tract and ensure that we get the number of key nutrients we need each and every day.

In addition to this, eating soup has an extra benefit from a weight and fluid retention perspective; soups that have a base of leeks, onions and celery are also particularly high in the mineral potassium. As potassium helps to bind excess sodium, it helps to rid the body of excess fluid. As many of us carry fluid and regularly feel bloated thanks to a high-salt diet and a lack of activity, dropping as little as 500g of body weight after a few vegetable soups, even if it is just fluid can make us feel lighter and leaner instantly.

Soup can be a simple meal addition – a way to ensure that the family gets all of their vegetables and nutrition; a filling afternoon snack or an entire lunch or light evening meal, especially when beans, potato or sweet potato are the base providing heavier carbs as well as chicken, lean sausage or some mincemeat for protein. It is important to remember that rice, noodles, legumes and pasta do add considerable carbohydrates and calories to your soup and are likely to negate any weight loss benefits. On the other hand, broth-style, vegetable-based soups have virtually no calories and can be consumed relatively freely (but of course you do need to count any bread).

While bulking meals up with low calorie options such as vegetable soup on a regular basis is a great way to load up on nutrition in general, for those wanting to drop a couple of kilos quickly, replacing the evening meal with a vegetable based soup is a safe way to do it. The low energy content helps to keep your total calorie intake low, while the bulk prevents you from feeling hungry and deprived the way you would if you were eating very little on a regular diet, or using meal replacement shakes.

Naturally, homemade soups are the best option. This way you can control the type and amounts of vegetables that you use to make your soup as well as choosing to use salt-reduced stocks and few other additives. Pre-made soups and packet soup mixes tend to be exceptionally high in sodium (salt) with the average packet soup containing a massive 800-1200mg of sodium or a third to half of your total daily sodium limit. Premade soups also tend to be relatively low in protein and high in carbohydrate thanks to their base being potato starch. If you must seek out a pre-made soup option, look for varieties that contain <20g total carbohydrates per serve and <800mg of sodium.