All posts tagged detox

Health and Wellness – Keys to Success: Part 2

Phase 2 – Adopt Habits that Nurture

Listed below are our top tips for looking and feeling great!

• Drink more water – drinking an adequate amount of clean water is essential to maintaining your health and performance. You should aim to drink 30-35ml of water per kg of body weight, per day, eg: if you weigh 55kg, then you should drink approx 1.7 – 1.9 litres of water per day. Add a pinch of salt to each litre of water to improve taste and helps to maintain the correct salt balance in the body.
• DETOX – your body and your life at least once a year. De-toxing is a process of eliminating toxins from the body. Dealing with or eliminating toxic things from your life, such as unhealthy business/personal relationships can also give you a new lease of life. When making decisions, ask yourself: is this going to be ‘toxic or tonic’ for my life? (See Part 1 for more detailed information on ‘Detox’).
• Eat natural foods – you are what you eat! Poor choice of foods (fuel) equals poor performance. Eliminate processed foods from your diet and replace them with natural foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Try to eat more raw, water rich foods. Buy organic.
• Plan ahead – failing to plan is planning to fail! Don’t’ get caught out, plan what you are going to eat for the week ahead. Schedule in your shopping trips and make a list of what you are going to buy to avoid temptation. Put your leisure and self care time in your diary – treat them as you would important meetings and avoid re-scheduling wherever possible.
• Daily practice – create daily practices that support and nurture you. These might include: a morning routine that starts the day with an intention, rather than a mad rush; creating space and time for yourself during your working day to re-focus; planning to meet with people that motivate and inspire you. Find what works for you!
• Move your body – exercise and physical activity is one of the best ways to shed those excess pounds. Choose something active that you enjoy so that you will make an effort to do it, rather than it becoming a chore. Remember – sex is great exercise too!
• Cut down on carbs – eliminate or cut down the amount of high carbohydrate and processed foods in your diet. These are high in calories and affect your blood sugar levels which can cause you to get hunger cravings, energy dips, and adversely affect your concentration.
• Have fun! Play! – life is for living, create a menu of different things that you love to do – ranging from simple things like sit in the garden and read a book through to your favourite days/nights out and holidays. As mentioned above, plan these into your work/life every week. Avoid re-scheduling them unless there is a genuine emergency – hold them as sacred self care time

3 Steps to Success

Having read through the list you may be thinking – but I already know most of this stuff. This is true for most people, so what next? Ask yourself the following questions: What needs to happen for me to be living this rather than just knowing it? How can I make it real? Try our simple 3 step process to get you started on the road to greater health, wellness and success:

1. Identify your 3 main fitness goals/exercise objectives. Try and be as specific as you can. Avoid writing something like “I want to get in shape” – that’s not going to help anyone. An example of a more specific goal would be “I will lose 12lbs of fat and gain 6lbs of muscle over the next 12 weeks”. Also try and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, so results will not necessarily happen over night. Be realistic with your goals and the time frame that you want to achieve them in. A realistic time frame is a minimum of 12 weeks. How will you know when you have achieved your goals? Also write down a description of a measurable result for each goal.
2. What habits do you currently have that are not going to help you towards achieving your 3 goals? Patterns of behaviour that are not in alignment with your new goals will not take you any further – in order for you to move forwards, they must go. List 3 patterns of behaviour that you think are no longer acceptable. Once you have written them down, look at them again, and ask yourself ‘Am I really willing to give these things up in order to achieve my objectives?’
3. What new habits do you need to adopt to replace the old ones which no longer work for you? List 3 to start with. Avoid trying to adopt too many new patterns of behaviour at once. It is best to focus on just a few at a time. The good news is that good habits tend to be linked to each other, so by adopting the first few you are paving the way for more to follow, without too much extra effort.

Now commit yourself to achieving your goals and changing your lifestyle!

By now you have written down some specific goals, identified 3 patterns of behaviour that are no longer acceptable and 3 patterns of behaviour that you need to adopt. So you are on your way to a new level of success! It is important that you now commit yourself to making the changes that you have specified. The bottom line however, is that self-discipline is not the key to success. In fact many unsuccessful people are where they are today, simply because they are “disciplined” to the wrong rules – they’ve chosen (either deliberately or accidentally) to follow patterns of behaviour which are not in alignment with their goals. So, rather than focusing on self-discipline, develop the habit of changing your habits! When you master that skill, you’ll experience an ever-increasing level of performance, satisfaction and confidence!

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Health and Wellness – Keys to Success: Part 1

Start by asking yourself this question: ‘Of what value is the success you achieve in your life, and work, if you do not have the health and energy to enjoy it?’

When was the last time you felt truly energized both at work and at home? Can you recall a time when you felt vital, vibrant and ready to take on the world? Hopefully you can say yes to that, but if you can’t you’re not alone. In today’s fast paced world thousands of daily responsibilities and pressures take a tremendous toll on our physical bodies, greatly affecting both our health and energy levels. This is a vicious circle we put ourselves into because the careers and lifestyles we choose often demand high energy, yet that very vibrancy is what most people severely lack.

Most people know that maintaining a high energy level is a key element of both life and business success. We know the benefits of having a healthy body and a clear, focused mind. We’ve heard that stress ills and eventually kills. We know we need to find a balance as the lines between work and play, home and office become more and more blurred – otherwise we will eventually end up on the road to exhaustion and burnout. So how do we achieve it?

Phase 1 – DETOX

To feel energised and alive you must maintain both a healthy body and a healthy mindset. There is no way that one can happen without the other. You have to revitalise your body and switch the juice on at the brain and let it run through your arms and legs, heart, soul, career and lifestyle.

As a result of the environment in which we live, most of us gradually become more and more ‘toxic’ from one year to the next. This gradual accumulation of ‘toxins’ is almost impossible to notice and is yet so obvious by the lack of energy and vibrancy that most of us experience from day to day. By using the term ‘toxins’ I am not only referring to the chemicals and toxins in our food and environment that contaminate our physical bodies, but also the mental clutter, self limiting beliefs and negative influences which also drain our mental energy and lust for life. The first step to greater health and energy is to rid ourselves of all of the things in our lives that no longer serve us. The focus here is DETOX, not only your body, but your whole life:

• DETOX your Mind – One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to direct the focus of your mind toward empowering thoughts so that it can heal your body instead of weakening it. Yes, you’ve heard that before, but really think about putting it into action today, right now! What you say to yourself can make or break you from the inside out. Start to become aware of what you focus on and consciously choose where you place your attention. Simply focusing on different things or changing your language can have an immense impact. Choose language that focuses your mind on what you can do, rather than what you can’t do; focus on what have to be grateful for in your life, as opposed to the things you don’t have yet; and focus on what you have achieved already, rather than how much you still have to do. These simple steps will create a tremendous shift in how you feel.
• DETOX your Body – Put together a program that includes eating healthily, exercising, and building a strong physiology to support your physical and emotional body. Move your body and fuel it with the good stuff that it needs to sustain you. You are what you eat!
• DETOX your Relationships – Never underestimate the impact that the people around you have on your life. Take a look at your relationships with your friends, family and work colleagues and ask yourself whether they are TOXIC or TONIC? Begin to focus on amplifying the positive and supportive influences in your life and transforming or distancing yourself from those that hold you back and drain your energy. Surrounding yourself with friends, family and colleagues who support you is vital to your success. A coaching program is an excellent option to explore as well. After all, you can never have too many people in your cheering section!

We’re sure that part one of this article has given you some food for thought and useful first steps. Check out part two for our top tips for long term success and our simple 3 step action plan.

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Re-energise Your Body and Mind

Don’t let the winter blues get you down. Many of us are trying to implement our New Year health kick, recover from our holiday season indulgences, detox and shift a few pounds, so here are our 5 top tips for looking and feeling great:

1. Drink more water – drinking an adequate amount of clean water is essential to maintaining your health and performance. You should aim to drink 30-35ml of water per kg of body weight, per day, eg: if you weigh 55kg, then you should drink approx 1.7 – 1.9 litres of water per day. Add a pinch of salt to each litre of water to improve taste and helps to maintain the correct salt balance in the body.

   Also avoid diuretics (drinks that dehydrate you) such as tea, coffee and alcohol. Which will also help you detox too. Drink herbal teas and fruit juices instead

2. Eat natural foods – you are what you eat! Poor choice of foods (fuel) equals poor performance. Eliminate processed foods from your diet and replace them with natural foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Try to eat more raw, water rich foods. Buy organic.
3. DETOX – your body. De-toxing is a process of eliminating toxins from the body and cleansing your system. This process gives your body a new lease of life and will result in better sleep, waking up fresher and more energised, and generally putting the bounce back in your stride.

   Steps 1 and 2 will help you to cleanse your body from the inside out. Ideally you want to eliminate all of the following foods for at least 7 days: Sugar, salt, wheat, dairy products, all refined and processed foods, caffeine, alcohol, meat, and fish. So yes, as I hear you gasp, that does only leave you with fruits, vegetables, salad, wholegrains, beans and pulses, and nuts. Come on, you can manage on that for 1 week – it’s not going to kill you!

   To supplement your internal detox, I’d also highly recommend that you detox the largest organ in your body – your skin! Contact us to receive a copy of our Home Spa Regime. Just enter your contact details, put the request in the comment box, and click send.

4. Daily practice – create daily practices that support and nurture you. These might include: a morning routine that starts the day with an intention, rather than a mad rush; creating space and time for yourself during your working day to re-focus; planning to meet with people that motivate and inspire you. Find what works for you!
5. Have fun! Play! – life is for living, create a menu of different things that you love to do – ranging from simple things like sit in the garden and read a book through to your favourite days/nights out and holidays. Plan these into your work/life every week.