The Nutrition Coach Blog London Nutritionist The Nutrition Coach offers advice on healthy living, nutrition and diet issues such as IBS, bloating, gluten intolerance and more.

6 Ways to Stop Being Late

As the end of the year approaches you may be feeling that your body is crying out for a break from the stresses and pollution of everyday life.  Our bodies are constantly put under stress from the foods we eat, demands at work, juggling family commitments, environmental pollution and emotional pressures, and all this can have an impact on our health.  It’s not just our physical health that is affected, but also how we look and feel, which translates to other aspects of our lives. 

If it’s been a hectic year and your body is feeling the strain you may be experiencing:

• Lack of energy
• Weight gain
• Bloating
• Mood swings and depression
• Headaches
• Poor skin
• Hormonal imbalances

If this sounds familiar then your body is asking you to give it some attention.  These symptoms are your body telling you that something is out of balance and needs addressing.  When life is busy it’s often difficult to stop and take time to give our body the attention and nourishment it deserves and is calling for.   Instead you may reach for a quick fix, such as a coffee and chocolate bar for a quick energy boost, or an aspirin to ease your headache.  Unfortunately, suppressing what your body is telling you doesn’t fix the underlying problem, but causes a spiral of poor health. 

At The Nutrition Coach we know that it’s not always easy to listen to your body when you have other demands in life, and that is why we are here to offer a guiding hand to a healthier future.  Our New Year detox retreat is set in the beautiful Dorset countryside and is the perfect way to start 2010.  We will provide you with expert nutrition advice and life coaching that is tailored specifically to you and your life circumstances, so that sustainable changes can be incorporated into your diet and lifestyle after the retreat.  You will leave the weekend feeling healthy, radiant and positive for the year ahead.

The retreat is running from 21^st to 24^th January, and is being offered at the all inclusive price (including food, accommodation, life coaching, nutrition consultation, detox massage and body wrap) of £490 per person.  Places are limited to a maximum of nine people so please do register your interest with us to avoid disappointment. 

We hope to share this rejuvenating experience with you and journey deeply with pure foods, nutrition, life coaching and detox treatments.  Find out more about our detox retreats or contact us to book a place.

Motivation through Challenges
Individuals are motivated when they are working towards personally meaningful goals. Attainment of those goals must require activity that is increasingly difficult, but attainable. In other words, people like to be challenged, but they must feel their goals are achievable to stay motivated. This can be accomplished by:

• Establishing goals that are personally meaningful
• Making those goals possible
• Providing feedback on performance
• Aligning goals with the individual’s self esteem

Motivation through Curiosity
In this concept of self motivation we are talking about providing something in the individual’s environment that arouses their curiosity. This can be accomplished by presenting the individual with something that connects their present knowledge or skills with a more desirable level – if the person were to engage in a certain activity. So to motivate someone through curiosity, the environment must stimulate their interest to learn more.

Motivation through Control
Most people like to feel they are in control of their destiny. They want to feel in control of what happens to them. To stay motivated, individuals must understand the cause and effect relationship between an action they will take and the result. To motivate individuals through the use of control you can:

• Make the cause and effect relationship clear by establishing a goal and its reward.
• Allow individuals to believe that the work they do does make a difference.
• Allow individuals to choose what they want to learn and how to go about learning it.

Motivation through Fantasy
Another intrinsic motivating factor comes via fantasy. That is individuals can use mental images of things and / or situations that are not actually present to motivate themselves. You can foster motivation through fantasy by helping individuals imagine themselves in situations that are motivating.

For example, if you know that someone is highly motivated by the thought of being in control, then you can talk to them about a future point in time when they might be in charge of a large and important business operation.

Motivation through Competition
Individuals can also be motivated by competition. That’s because we gain a certain amount of satisfaction by comparing our performance to that of others. This type of competition can occur naturally as well as artificially.
When using competition to foster motivation, keep in mind the following:

• Competition is more motivating to some than others
• Losing in a competition de-motivates more than winning motivates
• Competitive spirits can sometimes reduce the likelihood of being helpful to competitors

Motivation through Cooperation
Cooperating with others or the feeling that you can help others is very motivating. Most individuals feel quite satisfied by helping others achieve their goals. As was the case with competition, motivation through cooperation can occur naturally or artificially.
When attempting to use cooperating to motivate, keep in mind:

• Cooperation is more important to some individuals than others
• Cooperation is a valuable skill that can be used in many different situations
• Interpersonal skills are important for cooperation

Motivation through Recognition
Finally, individuals are motivated through recognition. When their accomplishments are recognized by others, then they feel motivated. You need to make sure that recognition is distinguished from competition. With recognition you do not compare their achievements to those of others as you might with a competition.

Extrinsic or External Motivation
As previously mentioned, extrinsic or external motivation is the term used to describe external factors that stimulate our internal motivation. The concept of externally motivating someone is not at odds with the fact that motivation comes from within. The point here is that it is possible to provide others with situations or an external environment that is motivating.

Perhaps the most useful lesson for the leader then becomes how to motivate employees that report directly or indirectly to the leader. If you understand the intrinsic motivational factors previously described, then a game plan can be developed to foster motivation among employees.

Employee Motivation
Some of the most effective ways for managers and leaders to motivate their staff includes recognition, providing positive performance feedback and by challenging employees to learn new things. Many new managers make the mistake of introducing de-motivating factors into the workplace such as punishment for mistakes or frequent criticisms.

When followers feel they are being supported and they have the ability to remain in control of their workplace they stay motivated. Leaders can foster this feeling by allowing employees to take on added responsibility and accountability for making decisions.

But the important thing to keep in mind is that motivation is individual and the degree of motivation achieved through one single strategy will not be the most effective way to motivate all employees. The most effective way to determine what motivates others is through carefully planned trial and error.

A recent report in the Archives of General Psychiatry has shown that eating a traditional Mediterranean-style diet is associated with a lower risk of developing depression.  The key to a Mediterranean diet is to focus on eating vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, wholegrains and legumes.  The diet is low in meat and dairy products, and with only moderate alcohol intake.  The low intake of meat and dairy and high intake of olive oil, nuts and fish means the diet is low in saturated fat but high in beneficial mono and poly unsaturated fats.  Last year I lived in Cyprus where I was hosting detox retreats and nutrition consultations at a leading hotel.  My personal experience and observations of clients certainly confirms that following a Mediterranean diet can make you feel fantastic (… and the Mediterranean sun helps too!).

Other important steps to help lift your mood include eating a good breakfast, getting enough quality protein and avoiding short lived stimulates such as sugar, caffeine and refined foods.

Find out more about how diet and nutrition can help relieve depression, or contact us to book an appointment at one of our London nutrition clinics.

Julia Alderman

One of the most common complaints clients come to see a nutritionist with is IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).  It seems to be one of those terms that get used when no other explanation can be easily found for continued problems with constipation, diarrhoea, cramping and other unpleasant digestive symptoms.  If you’ve walked out of your GP surgery with the words ‘I think it’s IBS’ ringing in your ears, this will all be very familiar to you.

As the name implies, IBS is a syndrome, in other words a collection of symptoms.  However, knowing your symptoms will not necessarily offer answers as to how to alleviate them.  Many put up with IBS symptoms simply because of lack of awareness of different options available to treat them.  As it’s not the most glamorous subject to bring up and won’t really lift the tone of any dinner party conversation, many don’t even realise that something can be done to restore their digestive health.

Food intolerances often get mentioned in the same sentence with IBS, and many people end up on unnecessarily restrictive diets in an attempt to improve their digestive health.  Often, all this ends up achieving is lot of frustration with having only few ‘safe’ foods to eat without providing a real long-term solution to the problem.

The culprit is often elsewhere, usually either in the form of imbalanced bacterial colonies in your digestive tract, or some unwanted visitors such as parasites.  A comprehensive stool test can help to uncover these, and there are many ways to treat these issues through focused supplementation.

If you are suffering from IBS, here are my top tips for easing the symptoms:

1. Refined wheat is usually the biggest problem, followed by cow’s milk.  Cut these two from your diet for two weeks to see if your symptoms improve.
2. Any type of flour tends to slow down the bowel in sensitive individuals, so for the first seven days avoid all foods containing flour.
3. Instead eat more brown rice, potatoes, fish, lean poultry, fruit and vegetables.
4. Citrus fruits can also cause problems.  Instead, opt for berries and bananas, both of which have been found useful for easing symptoms.
5. Peppermint, fennel, camomile and rosemary teas can all enhance digestion and ease discomfort.

If you think you could benefit from some further help, do get in touch with me.