I thought I’d share with you an easy lunch that would be suitable for most of my Metabolic Balance clients. The quantities would vary slightly according to your personal details, and you may not have all of the items listed on your personal plan, but for those of you who are wondering what sorts of meals you might be having on the plan I hope this gives you some inspiration and ideas!
Serves 1
Salad base
90g of baby spinach leaves
20g of cucumber, cubed into small pieces
20g of green olives
On the top
130g of cooked prawns
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp of grated ginger
1 clove of crushed garlic
1/2-1 finely chopped red chilli (according to taste!)
Dash of fish sauce
Mix the oil, ginger, garlic, chilli and fish sauce in a bowl. Add the prawns and coat them in the marinade.
Assemble the salad in the meantime, and add the prawns together with the marinade on top. Enjoy!
Another lovely story from a happy Metabolic Balance weight loss client:
I decided to follow the MB eating plan to rebalance my metabolism and get my body in better overall working order – and with two main aims in mind. Firstly, with a view to losing the two stone I had put on since having had my first child and having unfortunately experienced a number of miscarriages trying to have a second one. Secondly, with the aim of getting my body fit to cope with trying to have another baby and avoid having another miscarriage in the process.
As eating plan aims to reduce your insulin levels, keep cravings at bay and encourages your body to keep any weight loss from coming back, I thought this plan to be a good choice for me personally.
Month one of the eating plan was focused and challenging. However, because the weight loss was rapid I was spurred on to keep going. I lost 9lbs within the first couple of weeks. Since the first month I have kept to the principles of the eating plan but not stuck rigidly to the plan itself but I have still continued to lose weight. Overall I have lost 17lbs and dropped two dress sizes. I have lost 4 inches on my hips, 3and a half inches on my waist and two inches on my thighs. Wow! I’ve never been on a diet in my life and this was certainly the best one to go for. The great thing about the eating plan is that you can follow it again properly for an amount of time to lose some more weight when you want to.
I am happy with my weight loss to date and have wanted to let both my body and my emotions get used to the weight loss before trying to lose more weight again. I am now following it again for a month and hope to lose about half a stone – I will then leave it there for a while and see how I feel in a couple of months.
I have to be honest and admit that I feel that the weight loss was relatively easy to achieve. I am the sort of person who loves eating, is always out socialising and drinking, and hates feeling deprived. I genuinely believe that if I can do it, anyone can!
Did you know that the Metabolic Balance programme is great for any women suffering from PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)?
One of the main problems of PCOS is a disordered insulin metabolism, which makes it easier to gain weight weight and more difficult to lose it. Other issues include hirsutism (increased facial hair) and sometimes poor skin condition. Because the Metabolic Balance programme helps balance the biochemistry behind your metabolism, it can be a great help for many of these not so pleasant side effects of having PCOS. So not only will you find it much easier to control your weight, but you could also get support for the excess facial hair and get a better looking skin.
If you suffer from PCOS and would like to improve your hormonal health, perhaps to conceive, or to feel better and lose weight, do get in touch with us and book in for a free initial consultation.
Phenylethylamine (PEA) is a neuromodulator or neurotransmitter in the brain. It has a positive effect on mood and is commonly known as the ‘love molecule’ as it has been identified as one of the chemicals associated with falling in love. Recent research indicates that PEA levels increase with moderate exercise and may cause the euphoric mood or ‘runners high’ associated with exercise. PEA is also found in chocolate and is believed to produce chocolates positive effects on mood.
As well as being found in foods such as chocolate, PEA is also found in a particular strain of blue green algae, known as Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA). The levels of PEA in AFA are many times greater than in chocolate, and numerous studies have shown PEA to be effective in helping to elevate mood. PEA can therefore be useful in a nutrition programme designed to help individuals to overcome depression, as well as eating disorders, where a reduced levels of the feel-good neurotransmitters are observed.
If you suffer from low mood, depression or an eating disorder then please do contact us at one of our London nutrition clinics to discuss how we can help you.
Julia
We have just had a really fun week doing an event at Olympia in London – We were at the Spirit of Summer Fair – and we were there to talk to the public and to do a series of workshops on Getting a Summer body! At The Nutrition Coach we have two different approaches to Weight loss – One is our Dump The Diet Programme, which is for those of you who are sick of yo-yo dieting and want to get off that treadmill forever. It is about knowing what to do, and having a coach (usually me Kate) taking you through it. I love delivering this course (by the way we do it one on one and also in groups) – it covers what I call “dieting metality” too – ie the “head” reasons as to why we dont apply something we know would really improve our lives. It is more of a broadbrush stroke approach and we deliver it over a time span of three months so as to make new habits a part of daily life. I call it a Forever Diet! Our other approach, The Metabolic Programme is a based on a blood test and is more precise in terms of how you apply it (weighing food for example) it is great for those of you who have seriously tried to lose weight but cant whatever you do!
At the Fair – Sanna and I gave a number of talks on our two different approaches! Here is Sanna on the podium delivering her stuff!
Metabolic Programme -Sanna doing her stuff at The Spirit of Summer Fair
Sanna Anderson talking about the Metabolic Balance
Last week we were asked to come and talk about the Metabolic Balance programme at The Spirit of the Summer Fair in Olympia. Amidst the loveliest beach wear and sandals it was great talking to people about their weight loss goals. The warm weather brings with itself less clothing, and more attention the extra curves often accumulated over the winter months.
I have spoken to so many women who have been frustrated by various different weight loss programmes that haven’t helped them achieve their goals. Or worse still, they’ve achieved their goal, only to put the weight back on in a very short space of time, plus some!
The difference with Metabolic Balance programme is that it is not only tailor made to your individual needs, but it also addresses many of the underlying biochemical and hormonal issues that can have an impact on weight loss. For me as a nutritionist, the best part of the programme is the fact that it teaches the participants how to eat healthy foods that suit their individual metabolism. I’m not a great fan of meal replacements or overly restrictive diets. Once you’ve achieved your target weight after these types of diets, it’s often really difficult to integrate back into real life and work out how to eat to sustain your weight loss.
Metabolic Balance makes the re-integration easy, and therefore is much more successful for sustained weight loss than many other programmes. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch and book in for a free consultation to help assess your suitability for the programme.
