So, when you pick up a product and turn it over, the first thing you need to look at are the serving facts.  One constitutes a serving size, and the second is how many servings are in an entire container or package.   This is sooooo important to look at to avoid a “calorie overload”.

For example, a bag of nuts and dried fruit (which seems like a great option for a snack) may have such a small serving size that a small bag provides six servings.  To you, by the size of the packet, it may look like one serving, but when you look closely, the label states it actually contains six servings.

With six servings per bag, a seemingly harmless 120 calories per serving snack ends up being a whopping 720 calorie snack if eaten in one serve.

For many years, before I read food labels, I would look for something “healthy” and see something like nuts and dried fruits and just eat the small packet and feel great that I was being healthy.  How wrong was I.  It is all about education, education so you can make better choices.

Reading food labels is not hard when you know how.  You will be very surprised by some things you are eating when you start doing this.

Now, for two simple things to look for.

1)      If a product gives more than 5 grams of fat per 100gram serving, it probably should be avoided.

2)      If the total grams of sugar per serving are greater than 20 per 100 grams serving the item should be avoided.

I want you to be able to make informed decisions about your choices.  If you can eat something that tastes as good as something else, why wouldn’t you want to choose the one with half the calories.  I can’t tell you the amount of things that I find that taste so similar but one brand will have half the calories of another.

So, follow those few simple steps and you will be making such better choices, shedding that weight you want to and feeling in control.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

Me before losing 43 kilos/95 pounds and then after

“the most important conversations you will ever have are the ones you have with yourself”.

So, you need to be really careful with the words you use.  Most people are constanly talking about wanting to lose weight.  That is really a crazy statement as do you ever want to find it again????  I would say not.

Most people don’t realise what an influence your words have on you, in particular your subconscious mind.  Think about it, how many times have you “lost weight” only to “find it again”.

So, from today, I want you to think of something else to say.  Whether it is for example “I am getting rid of this weight“, or ”letting go of this weight“, “shedding this weight” or even “dumping this weight“, whatever works for you, but this time, you are not taking it back.  It is going to be gone for good.

So, no more “I am losing weight”, because this time my friends, you are NOT finding it again.

Do we have a deal?  Great!  Next time you say “losing weight“, give yourself an upper cut, or at least think” no way, I am not losing it cause this time I ain’t finding it!!!!”

Now, while you are here, let me just check you are following my other tips,

1)  Are you asking yourself every time you go to put something in your mouth, “will this heal me or hurt me”, therefore being REALLY conscious of everything you go to eat.  That way, at least if you want to eat something that will hurt you, you are concsiously doing it.

2)  Have you written your Non-Negotiables down?  If you have not, you are not REALLY serious about making a change.  When you are really serious, these will be down and they will be specific and you WILL stick to them.

3)  Are you drinking at least 2 litres of water a day?  I drink far more than this, but is a minimum standard.  If you are not, read my post of the importance of water, if you want to “kick start your metabolism” as so many products claim to do, start drinking more water, this is the fastest and most effective way.

4)  Are you exercising at your fat burning zone with your heart rate monitor.  I don’t need to specify WHAT exercise you should be doing, as long as that heart rate is in the fat burning zone and I have given you this formula.

I am going to give you many more ideas and education, but if you really want long term success, you really need to get these basics right first.

I have had so much positive feedback, so please keep it coming.  If you read a post and would like to comment, please feel free, it is great to get the sharing happening.

I really want this site to be somewhere you feel safe and motivated and get ideas and tips that WILL give you long term successful weight loss.

If you are liking this site, please recommend it to your friends as the more people we can touch and help, the happier and healthier this world will be.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

Me before losing 43 kilos/95 pounds and then after

To make this a little easier for you to work out, to find out if it is a “live” or “real” food, you can ask yourself the following question, was it growing, running, flying or swimming before it was harvested for your consumption. Processed or packaged food does not fit into this criteria.  Therefore if it was one of the above, it is a “live” or “real food” and we should be eating more of these.

Food that looks further away from its natural state is less nutritious and contains more harmful chemicals.

Nature is grand and always manages to create perfection in all areas, including the food we need to live a healthy life.

All we need to do is to EAT these foods…….

The problem most of us have is that we have gotten in to the habit of eating quick and easy, processed foods that have little or no nutritional value.  You find yourself eating copious amounts of food, but your body is starving.  Sound crazy, how can that be, well your body is starving for nutrients so it keeps you feeling hungry, so you eat more, looking for the nutrients it needs, but if you just keep feeding your body processed foods, it continues to starve.

If eating organically is an option for you, the benefits are huge.  Eating organic food will increase the amount of nutrients available to your body. Organic contains 40-60% more nutrients than non-organic options. Also there is far less chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. This will help you eat less food to meet your body’s nutrient requirements.

If eating organically is not an option for you, still go back to the above and look for the “live” or “real” food choices.

This journey is all about making changes.  Changes about the way you feel and think.

For me, I ate soooooo much processed food.  To be honest, a piece of fruit  did not really appeal to me.  I did not eat very many vegetables and just made really poor choices.  It took a while for me to realise I could still eat great healthy food and it tasted fantastic.  For ages, I felt like I was being punished if I “had” to eat healthy, how crazy is that!!!!

Let me share something with you I only discovered the other day.  My 12 year old son said, freeze some grapes Mum, they are delicious.  I did and now I am addicted, they are so yummy, frozen grapes.  I would choose them over a chocolate any time.  Healthy food is delicious, just start spending some time to re-discover it.  Go out and find all the fresh seasonal fruits out there, chill them, cut them up and enjoy!

If you have children, it is the biggest gift you can ever give them.  To get them eating healthy great food, so they don’t start on the journey you have been taking, but that is a whole different post.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

Rebel Before & After

I get very frustrated in supermarkets because marketers are very clever.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean….

The term “Light”, can mean light in colour or light in flavour.   Light does not mean the product is “light” as in low calorie.

When I first started learning about food labels, I was amazed at what the terms could actually legally represent.

A company can write 50% less fat on a product, but that can mean 50% less fat than another product in their range, it does not  necessarily mean 50% less fat than any other brand.

Argghhhh, how are we supposed to win????

Then you read “99% fat free”and think great. You grab it off the shelf trying to do the right thing, however, very often the sugar content is high in these products.   Some 99% fat free yoghurts for example, have the sugar content of some chocolate bars.  So, if you see 99% fat free on something, check the sugar content. They do this to make the product taste good, because they want to sell the product so beware….

It doesn’t take you long to quickly look at a food label (once you understand their secrets).  Once you have done it once for a certain product, you then know which brand is the best option for next time.

Another thing to keep an eye on with food labels is the salt content.  Often foods our children LOVE have a very high salt content, which is not good for their health.

I am sure you have seen products that say they are 90% fat free.  We see the “fat free” and purchase the product, trying to do the right thing. If a product is 90% fat free, it has 10% fat and that is not a low fat product..

Marketers are taking full advantage of people wanting to eat low fat and are trying to entice people with “90% fat free type advertising”.  So we load up our trolleys with these products and think we are being “good” and just end up putting more weight on instead of losing it.

Another problem I personally had was because I thought I was eating “low fat”, I felt guilt free and ate more of whatever I was eating.   This was a huge problem as not only was I over eating, but the foods I thought were low fat, clearly were not. I was over eating on high fat or high sugar products and wondered why I was putting on weight.

If you really want to know what you are buying, instead of reading  shallow claims on the front of the product, flip over and read the label and make a wise and intelligent decision yourself based on the facts.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

Rebel Before & After

I was fortunate enough to have the Worlds Best Personal Trainer as my trainer, (well I believe he is anyway).

I had joined a gym and was very large at the time.  My days at the gym consisted of walking on the treadmill whilst reading a magazine.

Mark Frankel, who became my trainer, actually approached me (thank God) and the rest is history.

Me before losing 43 kilos/95 pounds and then after

I can’t share Mark personally with you all, (I would if I could) but I have asked him to help in the best way he can, via a blog…..

His experience in the fitness industry is second to none and his specialty is weight loss, not only via exercise but via getting your head right.   He has helped thousands of people gain their life back and is passionate about achieving results and kicking old habits that do not serve you well, to the curb.

So, over to Mark……

Hi Everyone,

The most common question I get asked is what are the best exercises for weight loss?

And how hard should I be working?

The short answer to those questions is anything that is going to elevate the heart rate and any activity that is going to place a stress on the body!

Now not all stress is bad, the good stresses in our life like exercise make the body go through a physiological process that in the end gives us a change in our body.

Running, swimming, boxing andweight training are all great ways to lose weight and mantain lean muscle tissue.

As I am not there to train you, a great way for you to determine exercise intensity is heart rate training.

To properly calculate your training zone start with the number 220, subtract your age from this figure, example 220 -40yrs = 180 beats per minute as your MAX heart rate.  Now if you wanted to work at 80% of your MAX heart rate simply times 180 x .8 which gives you 144 beats per minute as your 80% marker.

Using a heart rate monitor which you can purchase from a sports store will give you instant feedback as to how hard you are working as well as keeping you in those FAT BURNING ZONES.

If you are going to give up 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour or more to exercise, make sure you are getting the maximum result.  By using a heart rate monitor you can ensure you are doing that.

In the early stages, you may be able to get your heart rate up to this fat burning zone, just by walking, but as you get fitter, you are going to start seeing you will need to do more, to get that heart rate up into the target zone.  This will keep you pushing yourself and progressing.

I know Rebel has posted blogs about your Non Negotiables for this weight loss journey.  Grab it now, because one of your Non Negotiables needs to be that you will train in your fat burning zone, which you can now work out.

So, go out there and change your life….

Mark.

My biggest problem, prior to losing my 43 kilos/95 pounds was emotional eating and a lifetime of emotional eating.

Me before I lost 43 kilos/95 pounds

For 95% of my clients, emotional eating is a real problem.

Below I have included an extract of a journal from one of my successful clients.

“A life not lived to the fullest, a life full of regrets. A thousand broken promises to myself that I can not mend and a mind full of dreams that seem impossible to make a reality. This is my life and I am but 20 years old. I weigh 138 kilos and am trapped in a body that is slowly killing me everyday. I have no self esteem, no confidence and don’t really care whether I wake up tomorrow or not. My weight has swallowed up my life. I feel too far gone to be helped and even if I could be I am not sure I have the energy or the will to do it anyway. I wear size 26 clothes and my mum shops for me. Despite loving the water I have not swam for years, my once tanned skin is now pale and never revealed. I have no summer wardrobe as it is always winter in my life. My life revolves around two thoughts – What I am going to eat next and what the hell am I going to do about my life”.

For this client, her biggest problem was emotional eating.

So, how do you stop emotional eating?

The answer is not a quick one.  However, if you take the time to sort it out, your life will change forever.

Firstly, you need to be aware that you are doing it.

You need to work out when are your danger periods.

If you can work that out, you have won half the battle.

How do you work that out?  Well, keep a journal for one week of every single thing you put in your mouth and then beside it put what you were doing and how you were feeling when you ate it.

It is a real wake up call to

a) how much you are eating;

b) what sort of food you are eating;

c) when you are eating; and

d) how you are feeling when you are eating.

You will be surprised by the outcome of this.  Remember, be really honest, because if you don’t, you are only cheating yourself.  This is for you to have a reality check of your eating habits.

This will really show you your danger periods.  When you work them out, you then need to put together a game plan.  What are you going to do, at your danger periods?

Look for something really productive that will make your life better.  For me, it is exercise.  Even if it is grabbing my dog CJ and my children and just getting outside.   I am now at a point though, that I just don’t go for food to fix my problems.  This, however, takes a while to create the new habit.  Potentially food has been your “crutch” for a very long time.  You now need to teach yourself some new habits.

As I mentioned in a previous post, every single time you eat something ask yourself, will this heal me or hurt me? This question will just make you aware of what you are doing.

So go ahead, grab an exercise book and do this for just 7 seven days.  Commit to it and then use the information you gather to take control of your life.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

Well, what I want to talk to you about today will CERTAINLY speed up your weight loss.

Today I want to chat to you about WATER….  Did you just roll your eyes?

Before I kick started my weight loss, I never drank much water.  If I was thirsty I might have a glass of water, (I say “if” as I would have preferred soft drink or cordial).

Do you have any idea how important water is for weight loss and health?

Do you know what, by the time you “feel” thirsty, your body is already dehydrated.  Feeling thirsty is the last outward sign of dehydration.

OK, so why is water so important.  This might sound a little technical but it does make sense.  We have all heard the term metabolism (the metabolism of fat).  One of the  functions of the liver is to convert stored fat to energy.  However, if we do not drink enough water, the poor old liver has to ”help out” the kidneys, which need lots of water to function properly.

If we don’t drink enough water, the kidneys have to “recruit” the liver to help do their job, as well as the liver having to do its own job, which in turn means the liver can’t function as well.

And, you guessed it, the liver then can’t metabolise the fat as efficiently as it should.

Makes sense doesn’t it!

I recommend to my all clients to drink AT LEAST two litres of water every day.  Usually I get the “I can’t possibly drink this much, I am on the toilet all day and night” and I say GOOD!!!!  Do you know what is happening to your body?    Your body is just getting rid of the water it has been holding on to because you were not giving it enough.  As you continue to drink enough water every day your body will get rid of that excess fluid you may have been holding on to, in places like your ankles, hips, thighs and tummy.  How exciting is that!  Your body says “Yeh, finally you are giving me what I need, so I am going to get rid of these stores”.  If you continue with your new regime and drink at least two litre every single day,  the constant going to the toilet will settle down and sit back and watch the benefits.  Yes, weight loss, but watch how much better you will feel.

Water

OK, so last point, if you think, how am I going to get through that much, here are a couple of tips.

1)  Measure out  a minimum 2 litres at the beginning of the day so you know EXACTLY how much you to drink.

2)  Make it one of your non-negotiables that no matter what you will drink it.

3)  As soon as you get up in the morning, have a big glass of water and then before and after every meal, have a drink of water.  This will also help with digestion.

4)  Have a bottle of water handy at all times to sip on.

Get to it today and enjoy the benefits.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.

One of my clients kept a detailed journal, every single day (which I thoroughly recommend as it is very therapeutic) of her weight loss journey.  The following was a part of one of her entries…

Stupid scales I need to throw them off a cliff. I had finally managed to get half a kilo under my barrier weight, which I had not broken for a long time and I get up this morning jump on the scales and the ½ kilo is back on. That is despite the fact I did the lookout run yesterday, drank 4 litres of water and ate nothing wrong. Seriously no wonder people get disheartened.

Rebel has told me about 1 billion times to throw out my scales, but I guess like a lot of other people I will always be a slave to them. It is amazing that what those scales tell me on any given day, can then go on to affect my mood for the rest of the entire day. I know it is pathetic to let numbers ruin your life like that, for me though it is just the way it has always been”.

This is such a typical comment from people I work with.  Seriously, scales can be the most sabotaging piece of equipment you will go near.  The reason being, as this client said, she had done the lookout run, drank 4 litres of water and eaten great healthy food the day before and had put on half a kilo.  Now, half a kilo, could be a drink of water.

You can see how silly it is.

What then frequently happens is, your mood for the rest of the day, changes.  It is crazy to let a number on a scale, determine whether you have a good day or a bad day.

I have to say, for years, this is what I did.  Every single day, I got on the scales,  If I got on the scales in the morning and lost weight, I had a great day but if I got on and had put on weight, I had a terrible day.  I would be in such a bad mood.

I would often quit trying because I thought, “well I am doing everything I can and it is not working so I am not doing this anymore”.  I would eat junk all day because I felt so bad and often the next day when I got on the scales, I had lost weight, and was then angry at myself for getting so off track the day before.

It is such a roller coaster.  If you want to get your head right for weight loss, get off the scales.

Take your measurements every month, this will not fluctate like the scales will.

When you get your head right for weight loss and get off the scales, eat well, drink at least 2 litres of water every day and exercise, you will lose weight and you won’t need to get on the scales every day to prove that, your clothes will tell you.

Successful, long term weight loss is more about getting your head right and the rest will follow.

Yours in Health,

Rebel

“Knowing what to do isn’t the problem, it is doing”.

Most of us basically know what we should be doing but we just don’t do it.  I know that was me totally.

I had tried it all, you name it, I had done it.    I knew what I had to do, I just hadn’t made the decision to do it.    I had never totally sold out to the fact that no matter what, I was doing this.  In some strange way, as much as I felt like I hated where I was, it was like I secretly wanted to stay there. I was constantly self sabotaging myself.

I needed to change my thinking, so I made the decision that no matter what, this time, I was doing it, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and I wanted to take control of my life.

I sat down and wrote my non-negotiables for this journey and stuck to them.  Was it easy to stick to my non-negotiables?  No, it was simple, but not easy and there is a difference.

It really is not rocket science, but, until you get your head right, it is like the hardest thing in the world to do.

Did I still have bad days along the way, when I fell off the band wagon?  Absolutely, but on those days, I stuck to my non negotiables (and on the days you want to quit or give up, you have got to dig deep and stick to your non-negotiables).  That is one big reason you need non-negotiables, to get you through the tough days.

What are your non-negotiables for your weight loss journey?  It may be that you will exercise for 45 minutes 3 times a week without fail, and you will drink 3 litres of water every day.  Whatever you make as your non-negotiables, get them out of your head and on paper and stick to them.  They are called non-negotiables as you cannot negotiate them with yourself when times are tough.

So, take some time, sit down and commit to some non-negotiables for yourself.  Then put them up somewhere where you can see them and read them and stick to them.

I cannot stress highly enough, the importance of doing all the small tips I give you, they all come together and will help you unscramble the weight loss jigsaw puzzle.   Just take the time to do them, I did and it paid off big time for me and I want to be able to share this with YOU and help you make the changes you want to make.

Before I go today, I would also like to say thank you for the feedback about the site.  Please feel free to share this site with any friends you feel could benefit from it.  If you have any comments or questions from any of the posts, please feel free to comment under them.

Yours in Health

Rebel.

My family would know when things were not great in my life as I would “suddenly” start piling the weight on.  As a teenager, my Mum would say, “what is wrong love” and I would say “why” and she would say “because you are standing at the cupboard eating”.

One time, that comes to mind, I was standing at my grandmothers fridge, eating cold chicken and rice, with my fingers.  I know that sounds disgusting, but I was emotional eating.  I was “pushing” my emotions down with food.

Another scenario, when really worried about my escalating weight, I would head for the kitchen, I would have a biscuit, still hungry, some icecream, still hungy, some chips, still hungry, a chocolate, still hungry, nothing I ate, satisfied me.  The reason being, I was not hungry, I was looking for a “feeling” and of course food was not going to give it to me.    Isn’t it funny, we never crave carrots or celery when we are emotional eating…

I felt so sad inside, I just wanted to feel better.  Now, of course, after all of this food, I would then feel ten times worse, because now, not only was I “fat” but I just ate so much more “junk”.   The cycle is just crazy.

For someone, like my Mum,  who for most of her life, struggled to keep weight on, they just don’t understand this.  They don’t understand how if you are sad about your weight, why you would eat more food and expect to feel better.

In my sane mind I knew that was true, but I felt like someone else took over my body, like it wasn’t really me.   I felt like an innocent bystander, like I had no control over it.   I could eat a lot of food when I was emotional eating.

So, how after following this pattern my whole life, did I “break free” from it and I do say “break free”, as that is what you will feel like when you do?

Firstly, I made a decision that no matter what happened, when I felt like turning to food, I would consciously go for a walk or do something that was going to make me feel better NOT worst.

Two, every single thing I put in my mouth, in the early stages, I asked myself, will this heal or hurt me.  This one statement just made me conscious of my eating.

It all comes down to making a decision that no matter what, you are doing this, and then following some simple strategies to make some life long changes.

Nothing worthwhile is every easy and let me assure you, shedding those 43 kilos/95 pounds, have changed my life forever.

Make the decision, that today is your day, the day you take back control of your life.

Yours in Health,

Rebel.