BEYOND THE DIET

AND FITNESS MYTHS

An ebook written by Ruth Smethurst

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YOU CAN DO THIS

Welcome to my e-booky thing.

Let me introduce myself, I’m Ruth Smethurst of The Playcation Experience…

After 15 years of working in the fitness industry and a life time of self-criticism,

deprivation, supposed failure, high hopes and a seemingly non-compliant body, I

realised it wasn’t ME that was the problem. Well it was me but not in the way I

thought. It was the things I had chosen to believe about diet and fitness that kept me

trapped in thinking I was not good enough.

I have spent well over a decade learning random things about the body, how it works,

how it responds and ways to MAKE it do what I want it to do. From exercise

prescription (which makes it sound like a medical treatment – no wonder we avoid it!)

to hormones and their effect on the body. From manual therapies to assist bodies to

move better, to a wide variety of sports and exercise styles that kept me temporarily

engaged until something new-er came along.

What all that learning has given me is NOT the perfect body or limitless fitness or a

badge of honour like a war hero (sometimes it felt like I was at war with my body). All

that learning and searching and trying things out created a deep respect, awe and

appreciation for this gorgeous vehicle I call my body. The more I learn the more I

realise how much I don’t know and the more curious I become to gain information

and experience the feeling of all that information in my physical body.

I’m a person who learns best by touching, feeling, doing and fully experiencing what

I’m learning. I’ve followed the advice of an ‘expert’ to just exercise more and eat less to

get the body I want and it hasn’t ever worked, so is it any wonder I doubt that

information as a valid learning for me? Over my years of playing around with body

learnings I have discovered that the ‘science’ of diet and fitness is ever changing

depending on who is trying to sell what.

The best and most valuable part of any diet, fitness or body transformation process is

the just that – THE PROCESS. What are the intentions, thoughts, beliefs, feelings,

connections that are experienced through the chosen process? Too many of us are so

bombarded, beaten down and befuddled that we give over responsibility of our own

physical experience to ‘experts’ and allow them to tell us how to feel in the process of

them sharing what they believe is THE truth about YOUR body.

The essence of my learning about my body over the years has culminated in this ONE

truth. I can, will and must take responsibility for my own body experience and in

doing so nurture the relationship with my body that was missing for years.

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I have to say it finally feels like a big ol’ sigh of relief and slump down into a comfy sofa

with my feet up after a really long and taxing day. Not because I finally have the

answers but because I finally chose to let go of needing to have all the answers and

prove that I was worthy of showing up in the world.

If you are here reading this, you are ready to make a change or at the very least get

curious about shifting or changing something about your body and mind-set.

This book is designed to give you some ideas about how to create an awareness of

your own body so that you can choose how you live in it best.

Our aim is to give you the knowledge and the courage to stop listening to the

marketing bull#@!* and to start listening to you, so that you can create the best of

friendships with your body. After all, it’s the only one you’re going to get so best learn

to like it!

It is our mission, passion and purpose to change the messages of the diet and fitness

industry from shame, guilt and fear to positive encouragement and acceptance.

By shifting this belief in yourself, you also help to shift the beliefs of those around you

and, perhaps even more importantly, have the power to impact the next generation.

How to use this e-booky thing

There are 5 sections to this e-book.

Each section invites you to experience your body in new ways and was created for the

sole purpose of discovery and learning to enjoy the process rather than relying on the

result for your happiness.

There’s a fair bit of info and also some tasks to play with…

If at any point you find yourself arguing with yourself, avoiding, overwhelmed – STOP!

Take a time out and ask your body what it wants. If that seems like an alien concept

and a little too hippy for you – please bear with, read on and just keep that piece of

advice in the back of your mind for when you need it.

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BREATHE

“When you own your breath, no one can steal your peace.”

Author Unknown

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YOU CAN DO THIS

Just breathe. As simple as that sounds, it is surprising how few people breathe

properly, fully and beneficially.

Breathing is an integral part of connecting you back to a deep inner awareness of

your body, mind, emotions and soul. No matter what level you choose to work at

when it comes to shifting your body into a more connected and contented place,

BREATHING is the key.

Take a moment right now and listen to your breathing, feel where it comes from, feel

the other parts of your body it connects you to. Now make that breath deeper and

feel how it shifts.

Does that feel different?

There is no right or wrong depth of breathing, there is only breath that is useful for

the moment, activity, or state that your body is in. However, there can always be

better awareness of breathing and that is the key to being in control and at peace

with your body and mind.

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Why breathing awareness is important

(here comes the science bit…)

Two branches of the nervous system are the Sympathetic and the

Parasympathetic ...

The SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) is your fight, flight, freeze response. It gets

and keeps you in a ready state to create action or to get you out of perceived

danger. That may no longer be the caveman instinct of survival when chased by a

wild animal, it may be as menial as the worry of bringing in enough money each week

to be able to put food on the table, or as insidious as the undercurrent of concern for

your child who is being bullied at school. The SNS is designed to keep us on alert to

take action to keep us alive.

The PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) is our rest and digest system. It allows

our body to process all that needs to be processed in a rhythmic and systemic

way. The digestion of our food, the release of oxytocin that allows intimacy with

friends and family, the clearing of toxins and waste products from our lymphatic and

neural systems, the recovery and repair of our body at cellular levels.

We need both systems to keep us functioning and thriving in life. However, many of

us remain in our SNS for too much of the day and don’t know how to get ourselves

into the calming restorative state of our PNS.

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BREATHING is THE most effective way to get you from an SNS response and into a rest

and recover mode that allows the body to do its internal workings as intended. And

you can use this tool whenever you like by playing with the following:

• Mindful and slowed breaths before eating, and whilst eating.

• Deep, connected and aware breaths before sleeping.

• Re-connecting to your breathing when feeling washed out and hitting a slump

after a stressful encounter or day.

• Full and deep breathing when dealing with a pain response in the body.

• Focused breaths when wanting to clear the mind.

Even when you are exercising or in a heightened state of excitement or activity, you

can still be breath aware and use that to improve your connection to the activity that

you are doing.

For example, if you are running you can find a rhythm of breathing to focus your mind

and keep you going for longer, in boxing or martial arts the breathing is timed to

various exertions and movements, swimming requires timing and movement to

breathe properly.

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A DAILY PRACTICE

• Lie on your back, anywhere you are comfortable and not likely to drift off to

sleep.

• Have your legs bent and feet flat on the floor.

• Place one hand on your diaphragm (the soft part just below your chest bone,

but before you get to your belly button) and the other hand below your belly

button just above your pubic bone.

• Breathe in through your nose, mouth closed, feel your belly rise upward like a

balloon filling with air. Both hands should rise as you inhale.

• Breathe out through your mouth, making a kind of Paaaaah sound, so that your

mouth and jaw are relaxed as you exhale. You will feel your stomach dropping

back down, your hands allowing you to feel the rise and fall of the belly as you

breathe.

• As you practice this, your belly movement will get smoother and the inhale will

fill more of your belly. Your chest will also stop rising and falling as much.

TIMING

Once you have got your belly going in the right direction and the chest doing less of

the breathing movement, you can begin to add controlled timings to the breathing.

Try the following three timing methods:

1. 4/4/4/4

Inhale fully to a count of 4, hold the inhale for a count of 4, exhale fully to a

count of 4, and hold the exhale for a count of 4.

2. 7/11

Inhale for a count of 7, exhale for a count of 11.

3. 5/hold/7/hold

Inhale for a slow count of 5, hold the inhale for a comfortable amount of time,

exhale for a count of 7, hold for a comfortable amount of time.

Try the above methods out so you know how they feel. Each day choose one or two

of the above methods and do 10 breaths. Some days you might find one method

works better than another, use whichever one gets you to relax into your belly

breathing best.

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ANOTHER BREATHING TECHNIQUE

Nostril breathing. This is a circular pattern of breathing only through the nostrils

which can create a release through the sinus cavities and bring balance back to each

side of the nasal breathing. It is also known to have an effect on mental state,

bringing and strengthening the connection between left and right side of the brain.

Use your fingers to close one nostril at a time, so that you are able to follow this

pattern: Exhale left, inhale left, exhale right, inhale right. Continue and repeat at a

comfortable speed.

Other ways to tap into the PNS in double quick relax time are:

YAWN - even if you have to fake it a few times. The extra air inhaled and the

stretching of the mouth and throat initiate the responses of the PNS.

Gently pull at your top lip with your fingers, stretching and relaxing it.

Do a horse blow - where you close your lips together and then attempt to blow air

out through the closed mouth, allow the top and bottom lip to do a relaxed

raspberry! You know 'A HORSE BLOW!' Very good for relaxing the face, not so

great in the middle of a stressful work meeting!

Breathe…

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YOU CAN FEEL THIS

Sleep

“Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”

Thomas Dekker

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Your body’s ability to repair and shift is greatly enhanced or impaired by sleep or the

lack of it. Sleep and resting are vitally important to your body.

How much is enough?

I often hear people say they can survive on 5 hours of sleep or less. Yes, I believe they

probably can survive. But can they thrive without an inevitable burnout or illness

occurring? NO.

Between the hours of 10pm and 2am your body is being repaired and restored.

Physiological recovery occurs in this window of time. Between the hours of 2am and

6am there is psychological repair and processing going on. The brain is making

sense of all that has happened the previous day and shifting and filing stuff as

necessary.

If you are regularly missing the hours of sleep before midnight, your body is missing

out on vital repair time. If you regularly go to bed around midnight that is up to 10

hours a week of repair time that you are missing out on.

Did you know that every 7 years you have a completely new body? All cells in the body

die, at different rates, and regenerate new ones to take over. However, the state a cell

is in when it dies, whether damaged, or with reduced function is the level at which it

regenerates.

Therefore, if a cell dies at 60 percent of its capacity then it regenerates at that level. If

you continue with the same life habits that caused the cell to deteriorate, then the

new cell will continue to be reduced even more, until it then regenerates at an even

lower level.

Et voila - AGEING!

Did you know that sleep or very deep meditative states are the only time the brain

gets to clean itself?

The rest of the body has the lymphatic system, which operates to remove toxins,

viruses, bacteria, etc. The lymphatic system works in conjunction with the circulation

of blood around the body and the pumping effect of the breathing mechanisms to

clear the body of toxins.

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However, the brain is not cleaned out by the lymphatic system; it

has its own fluid system, which only goes to work when you

sleep. So, without adequate sleep the brain doesn’t get a chance

to clean itself of toxins, viruses and bacteria. It also doesn’t get a

chance to file and process all that has gone on during the day

and make sense of it on a deep subconscious level.

If you are unable to sleep, or find sleep disrupted between 2am and 6am, there may

be some psychological triggers that are causing this disruption.

Sleep and rest are the most important functions for the regeneration of cells (along

with nutrition that supports cell health).

Take a look at how much sleep you are missing out on each night and how this might

be impacting your life.

If you have missed out on sleep you are more likely to eat erratically the following day,

to require stimulants to keep you going through the day and have a reduced

tolerance to stress and mental processes. All of which places enormous stress on

your system, which will probably leave you too stressed to fall asleep easily the

following evening, so there’s not enough time to repair the body and brain with the

appropriate amount of sleep…….

GGRRRROWL it’s a vicious circle.

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Here are 6 key points for improving your sleep and getting the most

benefit from it.

1

Introduce a routine before bedtime, just like you would with a child. Include

things which slow your mental and physical pace down, and allow the vital sleep

hormone, melatonin, to continue to be released.

2

No screen time from 7pm onwards, or for at least two hours before going to

bed.

3

If you need to be on a screen for some reason or have bright lighting in your

house that you cannot change, then purchase either yellow tinted glasses or

yellow tinted screen covers for anything you are watching in the evenings.

4

Have your sleep space as dark as possible with minimal noise and no electronic

interruptions.

5

The hours before midnight are some of the MOST crucial hormonally, as our

bodies are ruled by circadian rhythms that are affected by light and dark. 10pm

should be the latest time for getting to SLEEP. If you take a while to fall asleep,

then go to bed well before 10pm.

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Use a sleep tracker to see how you are actually sleeping and shifting in and out

of the various stages of sleep.

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In our 4 Week Body Transformation Game we cover sleep and how to change the

patterns and habits around it, in a lot more depth. We help participants to become

aware of their sleep habits and how those habits are affecting them, how to shift

unhelpful patterns and lots of handy tips and tricks to play with and implement.

Now, I hope you are not reading this past 7pm in the evening!!!!

Night, night.

Breathe Sleep…

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Move

“Bad physiology reinforces negative feelings. Motion creates emotion.

Changing your physiology means changing your mental state and

breaking your negative patterns. Great physiology therefore leads to

great emotions, and that is one of the keys to getting unstuck.”

Tony Robbins

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The mere mention of the word fitness can induce a tension in the body that paralyses

and causes a magnetic attraction to the sofa. Fitness has come to be equated with

punishment for eating ‘BAD’ food, as a method for measuring up to society’s aesthetic

standards, or as way to prove physical adequacy.

If you have become so used to doing exercise because you were told you SHOULD –

please STOP!!!!

Every activity you engage in creates movement in your body, and with motion comes

emotion whether you are fully aware of it or not. So, if you have come to believe that

unless you are ‘exercising’ in the official sense of the word you are unfit, or becoming

lazy, or not physically able for other things then - dare I say it - you have been

brainwashed by a culture that idolises youthful athletes and physical prowess.

Every ‘body’ is amazing and has the potential to perform a squazillion different

movements every day. We just forget to appreciate that and overlook just how much

movement we actually engage in.

If we could begin by appreciating what our bodies can and actually do, then we would

have an honest starting place for improving and increasing our movement in ways

that are truly beneficial, rather than inflicting exercise upon ourselves.

MOVEMENT is so much more than exercise.

Exercise, as sold, has been limited to things that make us

breathless or ache. All movement is a form of exercise and

to say that only things that get you breathless or sweaty are

exercise is like saying only emotions that create smiling are

valid emotions.

Move in a way that makes you come alive.

Exercise has become something it was never meant to be. In all the years I have

worked in fitness I have very seldom come across someone that actually LOVES

exercise. Many people enjoy sports, many people love dancing, many people love

going for long walks but very few actually love exercise in and of itself.

They love the feeling it gives them afterwards, both mentally and physically. They love

the results they see from certain types of exercise, but those all take willpower to get

you to endure the bit you don’t really like for the feeling that comes afterwards.

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Willpower is a finite resource, like a dry day during the British Summer. It’s great

when it happens, and you think you can count on it to keep you inspired. But without

warning the clouds roll in and suddenly the day doesn’t look so bright anymore and

the feeling of warmth and summer freedom vanishes in a downpour of soggy fatigue.

So why do we invest in the MYTH of exercise for health?

Proving prowess and power – showing ourselves and others that we are physically

capable, and therefore in evolutionary terms, still of physical value to the reproductive

pool or the tribe’s continuity.

A means to an end – the calories in, calories out theory / methodology enforces the

belief that if you put it in your mouth you have to ‘BURN’ it off on the treadmill.

Please realize that you cannot scientifically BURN fat from your body. It is a term that

was coined because the way they identify how many calories are in a certain food is to

burn it in a laboratory and the rate at which it burns determines the amount of

‘scientific’ energy stored in the food. So we equate using that calorific fuel in our

bodies as being BURNT off. In fact, once food goes into our body a complex chemical

reaction occurs to distribute, utilize, store and expel the fuel we have just taken on

board.

Fat cells are NOT burnt. They can be coaxed to release their energy bounty via many

various methods, but NOT BY BEING BURNT.

We also tend to believe that we can shape our bodies through regular exercise. Ever

seen someone lose an average amount of weight and all they have done is become a

smaller version of their previous shape? That is because actual body re-shaping

requires muscular overload, enforced repetition of certain movement patterns and

rigorous hormonal manipulation. It can be done but it is intense, and all consuming.

If you believe you cannot live another year in your body the way that it is (shape wise)

then yes YOU CAN CHANGE IT, but be prepared to give up any free time you have, to

put training above family commitments, to dedicate mental and emotional energy to

food prep, training plans and training sessions AND to sleep a lot! Rest and recovery

is one of the key factors of intensive muscle and physique training.

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Everyone else is doing it – We have all had that friend or acquaintance that did some

diet or exercise program that they swear by – even if it was 15 years ago – and

because they got a result, whether they held onto it or not, we tend to believe that it

will work for us too.

Marketing in the media also has a lot to answer for in this regard. The images we are

bombarded with for an exercise program or tool are always the ideal body doing what

they are trying to sell. Unfortunately, what that picture doesn’t tell us is who that

person is and what their life actually looks like.

It’s just an advertisement, meant to hit you at your point of pain or insecurity,

designed to make you fell less than adequate so that you feel you need their product

to achieve the ideal.

I am guessing that if you are reading this you have may have a story of something that

has not worked in the past or that has been sold to you as effective for all, but it has

not stuck or even worked.

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Guilt and Fear

We eat something we think is bad, we feel guilty and figure we have to burn it off.

Or we are scared that if we don’t continue to exercise we will suddenly revert to a

gelatinous lump that we fear being.

Or we are scare-mongered by disease, obesity, and social stigma into pushing

ourselves through exercise just in case.

All these things have their basis in fear and guilt. Why, on a day when we are feeling

low already - because life just takes its toll on our energy sometimes - would we push

ourselves to do something that is our way of telling ourselves we are not good

enough?

This will send us into our stress response of FIGHT, FLIGHT or FREEZE.

So, what is the alternative to exercise as a punishment?

Movement.

Movement is essential for every single cell of our body. It is not just used to improve

cardiovascular fitness or to shape muscles.

Movement, or lack thereof, is constantly creating consequences and feedback in our

bodies. Our arteries and veins (the shape of them) are affected by our lack of

movement, our skin, externally, is affected by how we move. Our sight is affected by

how and where we move. Every part of our body either comes alive by how we choose

to move or begins to atrophy (decrease) and die.

I am not going to go all scientific on this one – rather I am going to give you some

little-thought-of tips on how to move more and engage more parts of your body.

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Shoes off

At least once a day, get your shoes off and walk around for a minimum of 15 minutes.

If you have very sensitive feet then begin indoors. If you already go barefoot indoors

then go outside with your naked appendages and feel the earth under your feet. The

feedback for your posture, nervous system and global muscles will be body changing.

It also allows you to do something called grounding…feeling your connection to the

world around you. Your eyes, hands and feet are the key parts of your body that help

with spatial awareness.

Imagine if you wore cotton gloves or mittens on your hands all day – you would

become desensitized to the tasks you do with your hands and much less dexterous.

Imagine if you wore swimming goggles all the time. How restricted would your vision

be, keeping you from seeing your surroundings clearly and responding to the

environment that is all around us.

Now think about how much time your feet spend locked up in socks and shoes. It is

depriving your feet from giving you an infinite amount of information about the world

you are passing through and how you relate to it.

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Get outside

Your home, office, school, workplace is your shelter so that you can live your life

without the threat of harm or depletion from the environment. Those places can also

become your prison, though, keeping you from the challenge and freedom of being

outdoors, which encourages adaptation of your body. Not to mention fresher air!

Getting outdoors changes the flow of air and energy around you, encouraging your

senses in different ways. It also tends to change your posture – because you have to

use your body in a variety of ways in an uncertain environment (comparative to the

safety of the shelter you have been in).

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Use your eyes

The eyes are a major player in your spatial awareness. They need training, variety and

rest.

The eyes innovate and initiate movement of the cervical spine (neck). A limitation in

vision will also begin to limit your movement. The eyes also help us to know what is

around us, coming at us, or off in the distance that we can head towards. When you

sleep you give your neck muscles the chance to be off duty, posture wise…another

reason to make sure your sleep is long enough and of great quality.

Top tips for ‘exercising’ your eyes:

Sit by a window or go outside every 30-60 minutes and look around.

Look at things on the ground, from a standing position.

Look at things in the sky from standing or lying down.

Look as far into the distance as you can, lifting the head and eyes as you do.

Then scan your eyes slowly back until they come back to the place where you

are.

Then stare into space and examine what you can see or sense in your

peripheral vision.

All this should only take you 2-3 minutes.

(Smokers take 5-10 min smoke breaks regularly - so don’t feel guilty taking this time

out from your tasks. Call it a health break if you like.)

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Listen

Noise pollution is probably one of the most detrimental things to our health. Because

we don’t live outdoors we don’t think we need heightened hearing ability to keep us

danger free.

However, the workings of the ears are again very connected to all that goes on with

our perception of the world around us. The more dulled to this sense we become the

more likely our balance and awareness is to dissipate.

Top tips for ‘exercising’ your ears:

Go outside and find a bench or safe spot to sit.

Close your eyes.

Listen first to yourself – breathing, heartbeat, body aches and messages,

thoughts. Just be aware of them.

Then listen to what you can hear immediately around you – try to separate this

out from any further away sounds like traffic.

Take your hearing a little further – perhaps the house / office next door, voices

walking by.

Unlock your jaw

How tight is your jaw? Do you find yourself clenching your teeth without realizing? Do

you get tension headaches?

Try this little trick wherever you are right now.

Begin by becoming aware of how your body feels but not

changing anything yet.

Push your lips out slightly in a relaxed pout – if you get to

selfie face you’ve gone too far. It should just feel slightly

pouty.

Let your bottom teeth drop away from your top teeth

Gently push your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth.

Then slightly pull your head back like you are pulling away from a bad smell.

Now take note of how your jaw, face and neck feel and then become aware of

how the rest of your body responds.

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Change your chair / desk / workspace

Regularly change how and where you work. Change your chair from day to day, your

desk height, the way you sit on your chair, which desk you sit at – they are all options

for changing workspace.

Get creative.

Go outside.

Lie on the floor.

Take a sofa or bean-bag into work.

If you have a wheelie chair sit on it to get

around the office.

Use your work space creatively to add more movement.

Have a movement snack

When you are working or watching a film or reading and suddenly your mouth gets

the munchies bad enough for you to contemplate getting up and going to get

something to eat or drink – you do it automatically with the intention of having the

snack. You know it’s not a full-blown meal that will take ages to prep, just a quick pop

in your mouth morsel.

Well movement can become the same.

When you learn to listen to your body as keenly as your taste buds, you will

instinctively know when it is time for a movement snack. You probably do a version of

this already – such as stretching, turning your head to mobilize your neck, shrugging

your shoulders, leaning back in your chair, shifting your leg position.

Think of those options as being offered a small pack of Maltesers and only being

allowed to take one, or being given half a cup of tea!?!??!

A movement snack is the awareness that your body has become static and then the

action of using your whole body in some motion for 30-60 seconds.

It can be a squat – if you can only do this when going to the loo, then sit up and down

on the loo 10 times rather than once. Or crawl under your desk or table like you

dropped something (actually get down on your hands and knees). Or at home go and

make the beds or do chore that requires bending over and reaching…

These are simple ways to add movement snacks to your day.

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Arrange with a friend to do something you are scared of doing

Think of an activity, class, sport, dance, or movement event you would like to go to but

have been too self-conscious to try. Arrange with a friend to go and try it out with

you.

It is more likely to keep you committed to the decision of trying something new, and

also help you feel less unsure of yourself because you have someone with you to have

a laugh about it with!

If you think your friend wouldn’t be up for what you want to try, find another friend.

OR

Find out what they want to try and do a deal that you will go to their thing with them if

they come to yours.

Breathe Sleep Move…

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Eat

”The food you choose to eat or not eat, does not make you good or bad.”

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Many diets and nutrition plans get you to keep track of WHAT you are putting in your

mouth, which allows you to monitor intake. This does not give you the whole picture,

and usually once the active monitoring is gone you slip back into eating a poorer

quality selection of food, because big brother is not watching.

However, if you were asked to look at WHY you were eating everything you were

eating then you would begin to have an insight into your motivation and intention and

so would become aware of what triggered you to put certain things in your mouth. If

you had to constantly note WHY you ate food and how you ate it, these insights would

give you the capacity to change WHAT you were eating.

Sounds simple right?

Not so simple though, because the reasons why we eat are ingrained in us from an

early age. Unwrapping the limiting belief around why we are eating can be shame-

inducing. It can be more difficult to be honestly open with ourselves about that, than

admitting we ate a whole packet of biscuits.

I invite you to do the WHY PLAN. Ok, so it is another awareness exercise really. Every

time you eat something, whether before, during or after, ask yourself why you are

eating it.

Notice what answer you give yourself but also the way you answer yourself. Whether

it is a gentle, ‘you know you need this comforting biscuit right now’ or a ‘shut up, I’ll eat

the whole damn pack of biscuits if I want to!!!!!’. Doing the WHY plan is a key to

forever shifting any stuck habits around eating habits.

In the 4 Week Body Transformation Game we go into much more detail on all of the

aspects around eating that keep people stuck. We offer a whole month of support,

Q&As and coaching to truly delve into what may be keeping you stuck when it comes

to eating and nutrition.

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Why do we hold and store fat on our bodies?

The storage of fat is an evolutionary safety mechanism to ensure we survive. In times

when food was in much shorter supply and not as readily available, people ate as

much as they could when they could because it wasn’t always certain when they

would eat again. Back then the fatter you were, the richer you were perceived as

being because it meant you could afford to access food more often.

Fat storage is actually a super genius method by which the body protects us.

When you eat, carbohydrates get converted to glucose which the body and brain use

for energy. Glucose also gets stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen, which then

can be accessed for energy when we place metabolic load on the body through extra

exertion. Any excess glucose not needed in the liver, muscles or brain is then stored

in the fat cells for energy. So fat cells are nifty little storage pockets for glucose.

When you eat things that the body has to break down and alter chemically – refined

sugar, alcohol, additives, medications, and certain fats - the liver gets to work. The

liver also works in conjunction with the immune system to process viruses and

bacteria, and in the processing of hormones. If our liver is overloaded because of

what we eat and drink, then it cannot deal with any foreign invaders. The body has a

great trick of engulfing those invaders and putting them away in a safe little fatty

capsule, so that they are not left to roam freely around the body.

So the body has an investment in keeping those fat cells well-formed so that those

nasty little invaders stay locked up.

Various hormones are also stored and released from fat cells. Depending on the

hormone, fat cells are intent on staying well formed to either encourage the

production of hormones to maintain balance in the body, or to try and produce more

of the hormones that are lacking and out of balance.

The fitness industry mantra of putting fewer calories in than the calories you burn

does not solve all excess fat issues. In fact it only solves a very small percentage –

otherwise the diet industry would be out of business.

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If you have been in a cycle of trying various diets and exercising manically only

to fail and feel like you are losing the fight against your own body…then it may

be time to stop that fight and have a really good listen, look and feel as to what

you may be protecting yourself from.

Is your body flagging up illness symptoms on a regular basis?

Are you regularly taking medications for aches, pains, niggles, symptoms, colds etc?

Do you get a cold every winter and possibly at every change of season?

Then perhaps your immune system is struggling.

Do you have signs and indicators or hormone imbalances?

The key awareness here is to start giving your body some credit for knowing how to

keep you safe and in balance.

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How you eat is more important than what you eat.

Princess Process: do everything for yourself like you are a princess; you are not

second best or the scullery maid.

A poor relationship with food most often stems from unawareness or disconnect

from how we actually feel about food and what it gives us.

Overeating, poor eating habits, compulsive eating and strictly controlled eating can all

stem from not understanding what our true needs are.

Now it may be that we don’t understand our nutritional needs and have never really

allowed ourselves to feel hunger, to know what it feels like to meet that need of

genuine hunger.

But in this day and age of endless information about best nutrition for health, weight

loss and performance it is not likely that we are uninformed about nutritional needs

from a scientific perspective.

From a personal perspective, though, only we can correctly answer the question of

what we need.

Yet we are bullied into believing that someone else knows best what our nutritional

needs are, by clever marketing and pretty colours. We stop knowing our own needs.

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I want to plant the following questions in your brain so they can grow and

inform your future choices:

“What do you get from what you are eating?”

“What need is being met by that very specific thing you are about to put in your

mouth?”

These questions go beyond nutritional value and touch on the heart of what you feel

is unmet for you in any or many areas.

Please consider this beyond just your need for food nourishment and apply it to your

soul and nourishment at an emotional level.

If our needs are unmet, we tend to feed that gaping hole by trying to appease our

wants. There is nothing wrong with having wants. But when we substitute our needs

being met by focusing on our wants, we end up disgruntled, possibly addicted and

disconnected from ourselves.

A need when met sustains us.

A want when met entertains us.

Substituting wants for needs drains us.

An inability to understand our own needs can be at the core of erratic behavior and

an inability to feel we are friends with the food we eat.

Understanding our needs helps us to find ways to get them met and to understand

how the importance of them being met impacts so many areas of our lives.

Here is one question asked 3 ways to help you understand needs vs wants. Spend

time and give attention to YOUR deeper thoughts and feelings when answering.

Notice when an answer is something you think you should say rather than something

that feel in alignment with you.

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Do I really NEED this?

Is this essential to me being able to live the life I want to live,

do the tasks I am doing – could I wait an hour, a day, a week,

a month to have this thing, or is it an impulse?

Do I REALLY need this?

This is about the degree of need. Do I need this enough to

make it a priority? To give up something else to have this –

whether it is time, feeling good about myself, or a better

option later.

Do I really need THIS?

Is it this particular thing that is the need or is it masking

something else, like sleep, deeper feelings, or a better

option.

I am not talking about negating your wants and only having your needs met. It

is important to know and meet your needs first otherwise no amount of

fulfilling wants will satisfy the unmet need, and the spiral of feeling unfulfilled,

drained and frustrated will continue.

In the 4 Week Body Transformation Game we go into much more detail on all of the

aspects around eating that keep people stuck and also offer a month of support,

Q&A’s and coaching to truly delve into what may be keeping you stuck when it comes

to eating and nutrition.

Breathe Sleep Move Eat…

3

1

2

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Appreciate

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put

it into words is all that is necessary”

Margaret Cousins

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Appreciation is simply a way for you to stop, notice and voice what you like, love or get

most benefit from each day.

* Each day take a minute to appreciate something about yourself and one thing

about someone else.*

As much as you can, appreciate something about yourself or another person that

makes you smile or is amazing. It is very common in the gratitude space to think

about things that have been done for you or by you that you are grateful for. It is

important to be thankful for what we have and do and achieve, however this

appreciation exercise is not about noticing the things done for you or your own

capabilities. It is about noticing the traits, attitudes and essences of yourself and

others that get you to see the good.

For example, if you are appreciating yourself and come up with, “I did a good job

getting through my to do list yesterday”, turn that into an appreciation of your

tenacity and determination.

If you are finding it difficult to appreciate something about someone else, the same

applies. If they bought you a coffee and you want to appreciate them for this, then

appreciate the generosity you see in them rather than the act the generosity enabled

them to do for you.

EACH DAY WRITE ONE APPRECIATION FOR YOURSELF.

EACH DAY VERBALLY OR VIA MESSAGE, APPRECIATE SOMEONE ELSE.

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It becomes easier and easier to appreciate others and cultivate an attitude of

gratitude for the world around us – BUT to appreciate one’s own good qualities can

feel like it goes against our instinct for modesty, self-criticism and general self-

loathing.

The reason to do self-appreciation is to begin to acknowledge the amazing-ness you

have bottled up inside you.

It can be quite easy to acknowledge our good points from the perspective of how

others may view us or how we think we are showing up in the world, or in terms of

how much value we feel we have added to other people’s lives.

However, you know yourself better, deeper, truer than anyone else does. You know

the bits you hide, the whole story you have lived, your secret thoughts, longings and

dreams, your fears, your beliefs, your body, mind and soul. You have access to every

part of it. Others only know what you let them know.

So, you are best positioned to appreciate yourself. You can look at what others may

overlook, or think insignificant and know how those things are actually an intrinsic

part of you and all you do. You can appreciate the power and beauty of those things

no one else sees.

However, if you are basing your appreciation on performance, then you will only be

able to appreciate what you think is of benefit to the world beyond you.

That is why when doing appreciations of others and yourself base it on traits you see

and feel rather than actions and performance.

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I will give you an example of something I appreciate

about myself.

I appreciate my self-doubt. My self-doubt is the voice in

me that makes me pause, consider whether I am good

enough in certain situations and then respond or retreat.

Now I don’t always like the action I take when my self-

doubt has had its say – but I do appreciate the pause I

take when it comes up. That pause gives me opportunity

to look again, to listen further, to feel more before I leap

forward or run away. So I appreciate that aspect of

myself that may seem weak if I tried to explain it to

someone else, but I have a deep knowing of the benefit of

that trait in me.

Do the appreciation so you have an inner anchor to hold you when you come up

against circumstances not going to plan, and external results saying you have failed or

cannot achieve what you thought you would.

Getting to know and acknowledge yourself in this way will become a clear spirit level

(like that used in building a house or putting up a shelf) that shows you when things

are off kilter and which way to adjust it…especially when it comes to beliefs you may

hold about your body.

Self-criticism is the serial killer of inspiration and self-belief.

To tell yourself that you have no traits worth mentioning, that you are not good

enough to appreciate, or will simply not acknowledge the gifts you have within, takes

a huge amount of energy and an expectation to keep performing. You will always feel

that you have to do better to prove you are worthy.

To have the voice of the critic continuously harping on at you to do better, be

different, or feel less, saps you of the energy that you could actually be focusing on

heading your life toward your dreams. Each of us can only take so much criticism

before we give up and feel that we are worthless.

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If you are finding it hard to appreciate yourself, then at the end of each day sit down

and write down two or three of the criticisms or admonitions you gave yourself over

the day. YES you did – we are culturally conditioned to feel we have to be better than

we are.

Write them down and then say them out loud.

Now can you imagine someone else saying these things to your child, best friend or

partner?

How would it make you feel to hear someone hurling that at him or her?

Be aware of how the response to hearing those words aimed at someone you love

would feel in your body. That is what you are doing to your body each time the self-

criticism happens, but you don’t notice it because you use a whole bunch of physical

and emotional energy to gloss over it and continue on. So when you then need some

energy to be creative, nurturing, focused on yourself, there is only a limited amount of

energy left. And the energy you do have usually gets redirected towards others

because you have become quite good at shutting down and glossing over and

ignoring the feelings your body is giving you.

Yes, this may all sound a little harsh. However, it takes 11 appreciations to undo 1

criticism.

How much APPRECIATION DEBT do you have?

In the 4 Week Body Transformation Game we lavish appreciation on you and

encourage and inspire you to do the same for yourself and others too. The whole

program embeds a sense of deep appreciation for all that you are right now, so

enabling you to move forward with a positive energy.

Breathe Sleep Move Eat Appreciate…

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Reflect, Review, Regroup

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When embarking on any transformation journey, habit change, or behavior alteration

there is inevitably the ‘fall off the wagon’ moment or moments, when the plan goes

out the window and the old default settings kick in along with a sense of failure.

The real deal-clincher when it comes to being successful with any change plan is to

have a process for when you think you have fallen off the proverbial wagon. A

process that acts as a pick up, brush the knees off, hug and encouragement for

yourself. A process that allows the ‘failure’ to become feedback to inform how you

move forward, rather than curling up in a hole of disappointment.

The reflect, review and regroup process reframes the old concepts of willpower,

punishment and blind repetition of actions into tenacity, resilience and curiosity.

Included at the end of this e-book is the Reflect, Review and Regroup

sheet that you can print off and fill in.

The reflect, review and regroup process encourages you to:

• STOP

• TAKE STOCK

• RE-ASSESS

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STOP

TAKE TIME to focus on you. If you are too busy to look after yourself, to pay attention

to your needs or become aware of the effect your choices are having on your body,

consider again the need or pain that first started you on the transformation journey

you chose.

I don’t say this to heap guilt on you, but to gently remind you to TAKE TIME FOR YOU.

Taking time for yourself is not self-indulgent it is essential to your longevity in your

work, your connection in your relationships, and your long-term health.

TAKE STOCK

This is much like a stock-take in the way a shop does when it is checking inventory, but

for your physical, mental and emotional health instead.

Have a look at what you actually have left on the shelf, where you are at or how you

are really doing in any given situation and whether it will suffice to get you toward the

goal you have planned. This is not only good business sense but also a great life

habit.

If you are looking at what is left, and having to scrimp and save and cut corners, then

you are surviving and not thriving. In a business sense – you look like you are going

out of business, and can’t afford to stay afloat. It is the same with your health.

If you are scrimping and saving on looking after yourself and have not taken the time

to check in with what is left of your physical energy, your emotional energy and your

spiritual energy, then when you get your next big order in (life requires you to step up

to a bigger circumstance or offers you a treasure) you will not have the resources to

meet it.

Take stock and put a plan in place to replace, replenish and re-fuel, to avoid hitting

empty at the point when you really need to be firing on all cylinders.

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Reflection – Things to ask yourself

How have you felt through the process?

What clarity, learnings, and shifts have you had?

What would you do more of?

What would you do less of?

Which bits did you struggle with or not do?

RE-ASSESS

Once you have taken stock/reflected, have a look back at what your desire is…

Consider your desire or goal for the plan you are following, for this week, for this

month, for your job, your family, your life and see if what you have available to you

right now can meet the requirement for sustaining and energizing you toward that.

If you realize that you do not have enough resources to get you there, either re-assess

the goal to see if it is still in alignment with your deeper values and desires, or re-

assess what you are doing to move you towards it.

Re-assess – ask yourself these questions

What did you choose to measure at the start of your journey of change?

What were the resulting changes in those measurements?

Do you now think you would have liked to or would like to use a different measure of

body shift?

What is important to you – moving on from here?

What would you like to do, be and feel in the next 6 months - 12 months?

How are you going to move towards that?

Who are you going to need to have around you to get there?

Who do you NOT need around you while you are on that journey?

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If in the RE-ASSESS process you find you are in alignment, you are re-stocking, and

have been making progress then CELEBRATE THIS!

I don’t mean reward yourself because you have worked hard, as this reinforces the

mentality that you have to work hard to be worthy. I mean congratulate and celebrate

your progress, success, and learning.

Celebrations are usually marked by a gathering of friends, gifts, fun, and an

acknowledgement of the event, but don’t always have to be.

Get creative and think of ways to celebrate what you are doing, who you are

becoming.

Celebrate - acknowledgement of progress

Here are some questions to help you decide what will feel like a celebration for you.

Have you celebrated any of your successes? List all your success, even the

small ones.

What comes to mind when you think of a celebration? Be sure that what

you think of as celebration actually feels like celebrating to you!

What do you enjoy doing on your own? Just in case no one else is available

to celebrate with you!

Can you think of one person with whom you have ease of connection to

share your acknowledgment with? Celebrating is best done with people

who get it, not those who need to be convinced of the merits of the

celebration.

Breathe Sleep Move Eat Appreciate…

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Ta Dah….

That is our simple way to get you Beyond the Diet and Fitness Myths.

Does it seem too simple?

Have you bought into the belief that you should suffer for not living up to the image of

other people’s ideals?

Well we have presented you with five steps to free yourself from those myths and

step into the light and the knowledge that your body is amazing, beautiful and

infinitely wise. It is really that simple and that laid back. The theories, stories and

ideals that have been culturally propagated have left women everywhere chained to

activities and eating habits that are so far removed from the shiny, fulfilled and joyous

life that they have the potential to live.

We truly, deeply, madly believe and know this. That is why you may have noticed the

headings on the pages of each section encouraging you to discover more about

yourself by shifting your perspectives and trying out new ways to be, feel and do

things.

You can do this

You can feel this

You can have this

You can know this

You can be this

You can keep this going

If any part of this e-book has been useful or has helped you shift from a place of

burden to a place of freedom, please tell your friends about it and let them be, feel

and do new things just like you have.

Remember this is just the beginning of a whole new relationship with your body. One

that is free of the comparison with how your body ‘used to be’, free of judgment, free

from objectification and able to grab a hold of the wealth of experiences that life has

to offer.

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Nurture this new friendship with your body, find out all that you can about how it

really feels. Keep ridding yourself of assumptions that are detrimental to truly

knowing yourself, and allow yourself to time to get to know your body as it really is.

This is not always easy. The world is throwing information at you to get you to buy the

next product that promises to take away the pain of not being perfect, when it’s the

very information they’re giving you that’s making you feel you need to be perfect. OH

the vicious cycle.

Surround yourself with people, information and aspirations that continually remind

you how awesome you already are, and that inspire you to be MORE you than you

have ever been.

Please, please, please continue to love yourself in new ways every day and allow

yourself to enjoy this experience called life in the body that you are in.

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Reflect, Review, Regroup

Think about the week (last 7 days) you have just had. Then answer the following.

1. What did you feel in your body?

2. What did you achieve this week?

3. How will you congratulate yourself or celebrate your successes?

4. What were your learnings?

5. What were your obstacles?

6. What was your internal dialogue?

7. What were your distracting behaviours?

8. What is your desire for next week?

9. What MORE?

10. Who was helpful and why?

11. Who was a hindrance and why?

12. Who and what was missing from this week?