Monday 12 June 2017

HEALTHY EATING WHILE TRAVELLING

HEALTHY EATING WHILE TRAVELLING


Are you thinking about booking your summer holiday and wondering how you can eat healthily while you are travelling? I have a few tips to share with you on how you can stay healthy and still enjoy your holiday.

When choosing a hotel, try and get one with a mini fridge so you can store your homemade or bought healthy snacks.

An apartment is a great choice because it has its own kitchen and you have more freedom to eat healthily.

If you can maintain a healthy eating habit while you are on holiday, you won’t feel as tired or bloated and you will have more energy too.

Prepare some snacks to take with you. You could make some granola bars, almond cacao powder biscuits, raw trail mix of mixed nuts and dried fruit, a few bars of at least 70% dark chocolate or some energy balls (homemade or bought). If you like crisps, you could take kale chips, cassava chips or plantain chips.



When I am travelling I like to pack my own salad. You could chop up some tomatoes, cucumber, celery, radish, spring onion, pepper and mix in some cooked quinoa or lentils and mix in a salad dressing with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, tahini and a little lemon juice. I like to add some feta cheese or goats cheese.

A tortilla wrap with filling of your choice.

You could prepare some overnight oats by mixing oats with coconut or almond milk and adding anything you like such as raw cacao powder, nuts, seeds, dried fruit.

If you have chosen to stay in an apartment, you could shop before you travel and put a few things into your suitcase if you are flying or into a cool box for your car journey.

Take your favourite tea bags with you.

Find out where your nearest supermarket is before you arrive at your destination so you can stock up on some essential items such as fruit, cut up vegetables, hummus, eggs, organic plain full fat yogurt to mix with fruit and nuts if you like. Flavoured yogurt contains hidden sugars so adding your own fruit tastes much better.

If you are staying in a hotel there should be healthy options for breakfast such as fruit, yogurts and cooked options such as eggs, bacon, roasted tomato and mushrooms. These are great options and will fill you up and keep your blood sugar stable. If you need a snack during the day, you are already prepared with the snacks that you have packed as mentioned above.

There is a great probiotic called Sacchromyces Boulardii that you can take while travelling which helps to stop diarrhoea. It helps to kill bacteria and aid in digestion. If you find yourself a bit constipated while travelling, pack some magnesium glycinate or a magnesium oil to spray onto your skin. Magnesium helps to relax you so can also help with sleep too.

Things to make a note of to stay healthy while travelling are:-

Eat a balanced breakfast which includes fruit, plain yogurt, cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, tomato and mushrooms.

For lunch you could look for lots of salads or a tortilla wrap with lots of salad and some protein such as fish, chicken or cheeses.

Load up on vegetables and skip the white starchy potatoes, pasta and white rice. Choose sweet potato, lentils, quinoa or brown rice instead. You could order salad or more vegetables as a side dish.

Always carry a snack and some fresh water around with you.

You can still enjoy the local cuisine whichever country you are travelling to by following the above tips.

Have a great holiday.



Monday 5 June 2017

WHAT SPICE CAN BURN BELLY FAT?

WHAT SPICE CAN BURN BELLY FAT?


This spice can burn belly fat by keeping blood sugar under control.

This spice is high in antioxidants.

This spice is anti bacterial.

This spice can help to stop sugar cravings.

This spice can help to keep your brain healthy.

This spice is Cinnamon

There are two types of cinnamon, cassia cinnamon and ceylon cinnamon.

You can identify the difference between the two cinnamons by their colour. Cassia cinnamon is darker brown and is easier to produce and ceylon cinnamon is lighter brown and tastes much sweeter.  It is the most expensive of the two cinnamons.  



Cinnamon contains Vitamin K and Vitamin E in the large quantities. It contains small quantities of vitamin A and C. It also contains minerals, iron, magnesium, zinc and calcium.

It is an anti inflammatory and can help to control inflammatory conditions such as arthritis or IBS.

It has the ability to reduce oxidative stress in the body and limit nitric oxide build up in the blood and fat which can lead to brain disorders, heart disease or cancer.  

Cinnamon is high in antioxidants which help to keep free radicals at bay and keep your cells healthy and slow ageing.

It can also help to control infections and viruses such as a cold.

You can cook with cinnamon, add to drinks or sprinkle into stews.  It is excellent to preserve food.  

Cinnamon is great to use to stew fruit especially apples to make apple sauce.  It adds great flavour and also helps to preserve food so it lasts longer.

Just 1/2 tsp of cinnamon is enough to help to control blood sugar levels and metabolism.  

You can learn more about spices in my Perimenopause and Menopause programme which starts on the 15th June.

Learn how to control sugar cravings, how to stop anxiety and mood swings, how to get more sleep and lots more.

Get more details here

I am looking forward to seeing you on the programme and getting to know you and helping you on your mid life journey.

Andrea Howard












Friday 2 June 2017

4 KEY AREAS THAT AFFECT HORMONE IMBALANCE - ESTROGEN

4 KEY AREAS THAT AFFECT HORMONE IMBALANCE - ESTROGEN


ESTROGEN is what is made in our ovaries during menstruation and it is also made in our adrenal glands.  When we reach menopause our adrenal glands take over from the ovaries in the production of estrogen.

Estrogen is manufactured from cholesterol by a woman’s ovaries each month, circulates in the blood and passes easily in and out of all organs and tissues.  It is eventually metabolised by enzymes in the liver. 



THERE ARE 3 ESTROGENS:-

ESTRONE (E1):  The main form of estrogen produced during menopause.  Toxins such as xenoestrogens, heavy metals, and other pollutants can directly affect hormone levels stored in your liver and fat cells.  Women with higher levels of toxicity have altered and contaminated forms of estrone.

ESTRADIOL (E2) – This is the estrogen that gives us our womanly curves and is the main estrogen present during menstruation years before menopause.  It plays a big role in energy, sleep, pleasure, sex drive, skin, hair and bone health.  It provides moisture for your lips, skin, eyes, GI tract and vagina.  This is the estrogen that is used for hormone replacement therapy.

ESTRIOL:  (E3):  This estrogen is made by the placenta during pregnancy.  It is suggested that this form of estrogen is a key regulator in determining which cells are turned on or off to estrogen.
  
Estrogen is present in the first two weeks of the menstruation cycle when your body is getting ready for ovulation.  Progesterone is high after ovulation in the second half of the month and the corpus luteum keeps progesterone high to nourish the womb ready for the egg to be fertilized. 

After the age of 35, our hormones begin to fluctuate with subtle signs at first.  The menstruation cycle begins to slow down and we can start to be more aware of some symptoms appearing when this happens.  This time in a womans life is known as perimenopause and is the years leading up to menopause.  Menopause is when you have gone a full 12 months without a period.  After the age of 35 our periods will begin to get less and less and you will begin to skip a month or two of periods which is a completely normal part of ageing leading up to menopause when our ovaries are slowing down and hormone levels fluctuate.

Hormones are chemical messengers in the body  There are receptor sites all over the body for estrogen.  Think about estrogen as being the fuel and the receptor site as being the machine or even that the estrogen receptor site is the lock and estrogen is the key.

ESTROGEN CAN INFLUENCE:-

Body fat
Muscle mass
Bone health
Heart health

During perimenopause you can have symptoms of low estrogen and estrogen dominance at the same time. 

SYMPTOMS OF HIGH ESTROGEN
HEAVY PERIODS
WEIGHT GAIN
BLOATING
PMS
MOOD SWINGS

This can put you at risk of developing fibroids, cysts, endometriosis or breast/ovarian cancer.  This can be brought on by stress, diet or the liver may not be detoxing the bad estrogens well from the body.  

SYMPTOMS OF LOW ESTROGEN
HOT FLASHES
MEMORY LOSS
WRINKLES
LOW LIBIDO
DEPRESSION
VAGINAL DRYNESS


When you are experiencing stress, it can affect your adrenal glands and this can then affect levels of serotonin which will give you symptoms of low estrogen levels as above.  It is so important to reduce your stress levels and to keep your adrenal glands nourished to stop the estrogen deficiency from happening.  This can put you at risk of osteoperosis, heart disease, cognitive decline.

I have more information about how to control your hormones and create Perimenopause Heaven in my programme.  It starts on the 15th June and I would love to have you on board to guide you on your Perimenopause journey. The price is £95 but for a limited time only the price is £60.  Click the link below to find out more about the programme.





Thursday 1 June 2017

4 KEY AREAS THAT AFFECT HORMONE IMBALANCE - CORTISOL

4 KEY AREAS THAT AFFECT HORMONE IMBALANCE - CORTISOL


CORTISOL is essential and we need it for our stress levels and to save our life when we are in danger. 

Cortisol is the stress hormone.  

It also needs to be kept under control as it can turn into a bad enemy. Also please bear in mind that cortisol can steal our precious progesterone as well so you see how important it is to keep it under control.  Progesterone is the first hormone to decline during perimenopause.  When we are in stress mode our body will choose to make stress hormones over progesterone.  



When cortisol is raised by our adrenal glands, adrenaline is released to help us to get away from danger. This puts the body in danger mode/stress mode to save your life. When cortisol is released, other body functions will shut down such as your digestion and our fat burning.  If cortisol is high for a long period of time and you don't keep your stress levels under control you will start to notice these symptoms:-

CORTISOL SYMPTOMS
WIRED
TIRED
ANXIOUS
WEIGHT GAIN
SLEEP PROBLEMS
MOOD SWINGS
DIGESTION PROBLEMS


Keep cortisol in check by learning to relax and breathe deeply. Go for a walk in nature, do some yoga, take time out from a busy day, read a book. If you have a busy home life, tell your family that you need at least 1 hour to yourself when they can't ask you any questions or interrupt you.  It is a bit easier if you have younger children and they are in bed by 8pm as this can be your time to relax. You can also listen to some soothing music.  Create a night time ritual and turn off all electronics such as laptop, computer and stop using your mobile phone an hour before you go to bed.

Download my free ebook about hormone balance HERE