Simple steps you can take to control your hormones and your weight

CONTROL your hormones! You might think that’s easier said than done – but our minds are funny things.  They can lead us to amazing success or they can keep us stuck in the same old, same old.

One thing I’ve noticed in the 10 years since I launched Slimpod, is that many people get stuck in a pattern of doing the same thing over and over again but expect a different result each time.

That’s why the Slimpod programme is so different.  It opens up your mind to help you see different routes to go down and helps you find solutions to why you’ve been stuck.

It helps you look at things from a different perspective because instead of throwing in the towel and screaming ‘It’s not working’ – I’m confident the answer is there for you.

You just have to allow yourself to become unstuck and then look in a different direction.

So if you’ve been a bit stuck and the fat isn’t budging as quickly as you’d like it to be doing, this week’s video about how to control your hormones could well be exactly what you need to watch!

Control your hormones – Nicki’s expert advice

Recently I asked my friend and hormone expert Nicki Williams to share her knowledge with our Slimpod Extra group and what she told them about how to control your hormones is so useful, I felt I needed to share with my whole Slimpod community.

Even the edited version is over 40 minutes long so I highly recommend you find a good chunk of “me time” and settle down for a fascinating and valuable bit of viewing.

Nicki is an award winning nutritionist, the author of It’s Not You, It’s Your Hormones, a podcaster and founder of HappyHormonesFor Life.com, so she certainly knows her stuff about how to control your hormones.

We have more than 100 hormones pumping through our bodies but in the video, Nicki identifies what she calls the Feisty Four hormones because they seem to rule the roost!

When you’re heating healthy food to control your hormones, it really is so useful if this becomes a habit.

Join me on my live chat tonight (May 18) on our main Facebook page (Slimpod for weight loss) at 7.30pm UK time when I’ll be talking about how to make healthy habits stick.

If you like to FB page you’ll get a notification when I’m live!

Also, do follow me on Instagram where I post an IGTV every week which will also help to keep you on track.

Now click on the image below to watch Nicki’s video on The Slimpod Channel on YouTube:

Nicki explains the role each of the four hormones plays in your body and how you must get them all into balance. Once you can control your hormones, you will improve your physical and mental wellbeing.

Nicki is such a fountain of knowledge that my interview with her just seemed to fly by and I’m positive everyone will find it extremely useful.

By the way, there’s an additional pod you can buy called Balancing The Menopause. There’s £25 off if you use the discount code GOLDTHANKS, making it yours for just £14.99. Click here to try it

Control your hormones – it’s for men, too!

One important point, by the way: we tend to associate hormones with the menopause and so we assume they’re just a cross we ladies have to bear. But in fact, much of Nicki’s advice about how to control your hormones and their effect on your weight applies to men, too, so don’t be put off watching, fellas!

While you’re watching the video on The Slimpod Channel on YouTube, make sure you hit the Like and Share buttons. And if you’re new to Slimpod, please follow me on Instagram.

And please leave a comment below to let Nicki and I know what you think of our interview.

The post Simple steps you can take to control your hormones and your weight appeared first on Slimpod.

Losing the desire for sugar is all about freedom of choice https://t.co/m5RQlda9KX #Slimmer

Losing the desire for sugar is all about freedom of choice https://t.co/m5RQlda9KX #Slimmer

— Cathy Fernie (@Cracenduch39) May 4, 2021

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Cracenduch39

Losing the desire for sugar is all about freedom of choice https://t.co/m5RQlda9KX

Losing the desire for sugar is all about freedom of choice https://t.co/m5RQlda9KX

— Cathy Fernie (@Cracenduch39) May 4, 2021

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Cracenduch39

Losing the desire for sugar is all about freedom of choice

I WAS so proud and excited to appear on the ITV Tonight programme Giving Up Sugar For Good last Friday. It was all about the crucial role Slimpod has played in transforming the health and well-being of staff at Tameside hospital, Manchester, and how we changed the restaurant into a sugar-free zone.

My dream is for every hospital in the UK to follow Tameside’s example because our wonderful NHS staff need all the help they can get when it comes to losing the desire for sugar and staying healthy.  But sadly hospitals are full of sugar which is making them sick.

If you work in an NHS hospital and would like us at Slimpod to help make your workplace healthier, just like we did at Tameside, please ask your occupational health department to contact me and I’ll be glad to help!

On ITV, Tameside’s director of transformation, Angela Brierley, who’s a type 2 diabetic, told her inspiring story of how Slimpod helped her lose six stone and keep it off for over two years. She’s now been able to drastically reduce her diabetes medication.

If you missed the programme you can catch up with it on the ITV hub.

But good as the programme was, it wasn’t able to tell whole story in just 30 minutes so I thought it would be a good idea to explain some of the background.

This was me on the ITV programme

 

I was asked to run a Slimpod weight loss project at Tameside for 100 hospital staff to change their eating habits and help them lose weight by losing the desire for sugar.

To support the project, a “Slimpod Special” healthy menu was offered as an alternative to the other things on the menu.  This was a roaring success. The staff loved it!

This was then extended gradually over six months, as the head chef Simon Smith severely reduced the unhealthy food on offer.

The desserts disappeared from the menu for a trial period of three months and Simon says no one missed them.

They’ve now gone for good, being replaced with fruit. Finally, confectionery and sugary fizzy drinks have also disappeared for both staff and visitors.

Here’s one of the special recipes Simon created for Slimpodders.

A happy Angela Brierley on the ITV show

 

Tam Fry, Chair of the National Obesity Forum, said the initiative was “trailblazing” and should be spread across the whole of the NHS.

You can read lots of the Tameside staff’s success stories and watch a whole host of videos the nurses made by clicking here: Making a difference in the NHS

Losing the desire for sugar – the explanation

But there’s always a lot of confusion and debate about sugar and I’d like to explain in a bit more detail the way Slimpod gives people the freedom of choice about cutting down – and in many cases, cutting out – sugar and how this differs from making a conscious decision to stop eating sweet things by using willpower (as you would on a diet).

Remember, the sugar we’re talking about here is refined, processed sugar, not the natural sugar that comes from fruit and vegetables (in which the healthy nutrients and fibre more than compensate for the small amounts of sugar they contain).

For a start, should sugar be cut out or cut down?

The answer is that refined sugar has no nutritional value and the body is perfectly happy without it.

But even if you only reduced your intake by half, you’d be making a significant contribution to better health.

If you cut down or cut out – surely that’s dieting and restrictive behaviour, which is the opposite of what Slimpod is all about?

Well, if you were on a diet then you’d be using willpower, or conscious control, to restrict your sugar intake. This creates cravings and it all becomes very hard.

But Slimpod is very, very different. It works with your subconscious and your brain’s reward centre to make sugar less attractive – so you find it far easier to reduce your sugar consumption and stop snacking.

Slimpod helps you with losing the desire for sugar.  It flicks a metaphorical switch so your brain learns it can get pleasure from healthier food and exercise, rather than just sugar.

Then having a piece of cake or some chocolate becomes your choice rather than something you have no control over or which is banned by a diet.

But two things may make losing the desire for sugar a little more difficult.

ONE: If you’re in an environment where you’re constantly surrounded by sugar and snacks – for example, hospitals!

TWO: If you have a strong emotional connection with sugar and your brain is getting intense pleasure from it. In other words, sugar is an addiction.

Losing the desire for sugar if you’re addicted

If you discover you’re a sugar addict, Slimpod will still help to reduce the desire but you may have to go one step further and decide you have to eliminate sugar completely.

This can be difficult for a few days but then it gets so much easier and eventually you’re free.

In Phase Two of the Slimpod programme you’ll find lots more information about the neurotransmitter dopamine and how the brain gets hijacked by sugar.

In my Live tonight on our public Facebook page tonight (May 4) at 7.30, I’ll be explaining in a lot more depth how Slimpod helps you to ditch sugar automatically.

I’ll also be diving deeper into how you can tackle sugar addiction.  If you’re new to Slimpod, do follow me on Instagram too.

And please let me know in the comment section below how you’re getting on with cutting down – or ditching – sugar for good.

 

 

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Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown https://t.co/cuXXKhjHqo #Slimmer

Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown https://t.co/cuXXKhjHqo #Slimmer

— Cathy Fernie (@Cracenduch39) April 21, 2021

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Cracenduch39

Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown https://t.co/cuXXKhjHqo

Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown https://t.co/cuXXKhjHqo

— Cathy Fernie (@Cracenduch39) April 21, 2021

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Cracenduch39

Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown

FOOD and stress are inextricably linked in a remarkable way that most people would never imagine. This is especially relevant right now because lockdown has been super-stressful for most of us.

We’ve just been through the double whammy of winter AND a pandemic. Work lives have changed for lots of people, and we’ve been cut off from family and friends.

Many people have been homeschooling as well as working and we’ve been denied so many of the normal pleasures of life. All the time, the threat of the virus has been hanging over us.

The toll on our bodies has been immense and stress will have had a huge impact on the hormones cortisol and insulin.  These are both literally fat storage hormones!

They cause weight loss resistance which means the fat stays around your middle and is very slow to leave.

I call this lockdown belly!

But the good news is you CAN do something about it!  Watch my video and find out how…

Food and stress – the weight gain link

Food can change how we look, how much energy we have, what mood we’re in, how much sleep we get, how well our brains work.

If you’re going to get your hormones in balance then look at food as one of the main things to help you!

Don’t look on food as calories but as information for your brain. Yes, food IS information! It sends messages to the part of the brain that controls your cells and your hormones.

Food can tell you to burn fat or to store fat. It can tell you to be happy or to be sad. It can make you feel more energetic or it can make you feel lethargic. It can change how your brain functions. And it can even switch on the genes that cause disease.

Using your Chillpod (which is one of of the Slimpod programme tools) regularly will help to overcome the effects of stress. But one of the quickest and most powerful things you can do is to restore nutrients to your body.

The best nutrients are oats, nuts ,seeds, leafy veg, meat, fish and dairy.  These contain the B vitamins.  Then the C vitamins are crucially important.  Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, especially bell peppers, kiwi fruit, citrus fruit and green leafy veg.

Magnesium is also super important and is found in dark green leafy veg, avocado, brown rice, dark chocolate and again most fruit and veg.

Food and stress – the 28-day challenge

Here’s my stress-busting, fat-burning challenge to you:  For the next 28 days, add healthy superfoods to your shopping trolley. It’s as easy as A-B-S…

Avocado, Broccoli, Spinach.

Then every day make a superfood salad that will boost your entire system and help create more of the natural chemicals like glutathione which encourage the body to burn fat instead of storing it.

Are you up for the challenge? Let me know by leaving a comment below. And do share your tips for relieving stress – other people will find them very helpful, I’m sure.

Food and stress – making a superfood salad

Start with a handful of spinach. Add some chopped carrot, cucumber, radishes and some shredded little gem. sprinkle a teaspoon of flaxseed over it.

Chop some celery, pickled cucumber then add a touch of mayo, a little beetroot and a spoonful of sauerkraut

Try topping it off with half a pear, half an avocado and a chopped Brazil nut. Add a twist of salt and you have a delicious superfood supersalad.

Food and stress – your way ahead

Stress severely affects your immune system and causes all sorts of illnesses. The most important thing now is to prioritise YOURSELF.

During the past year, we have been all things to everyone and we often come way down the list.  But please take some time now to look after yourself.

If we’re not looking after ourselves and our mental health, we’re no good to anyone else.

Join me on our live chats

I’ll be talking about food and stress in my live chat in our members-only Slimpod Club tonight (Wednesday April 21) at 8pm so please do join me there. And I’d love you to connect with me on Instagram.

Last of all, when you’re watching this week’s video on The Slimpod Channel on YouTube, please subscribe and you’ll get priority notification every time I post a new video. And do hit the Like and Share buttons as this helps spread my important messages to lots more people.

The post Break the hold food and stress have over your life in lockdown appeared first on Slimpod.