Dopamine was originally thought of as critical in the "pleasure" system of the brain.   Research began to show that dopamine is also critical in causing seeking behaviour.  Dopamine causes you to want, to desire, to seek out, and search. It is released when your brain is expecting a reward. So essentially, it is the 'desire' transmitter - responsible for creating the DESIRE  before the reward. In today's episode we look at how to turn this around in your favour, and why living a life...

So many things in life feel like they are out of our control. And when we feel out of control, we can often 'cope' by overeating, or by experiencing anger, or by feeling frustration. But what if I was to tell you that there is so much more within your control? Probably more than you realise. What if I was to share with you that sorting through and decluttering your brain, just like you would your pantry, is going to be one of the greatest gifts you can do for yourself? In today's...

What we focus on expands. What we water, grows. What we pay attention to, becomes larger. And when it feels like things are against you, it is easy to become focused on the negative. But if you shift your thinking to gratitude, and that things are happening FOR us, it brings so many new opportunities. From THIS space, we need to embrace a willingness to do new things, and not let the fact that we've 'never done it before', stop us. Don't let that be the determining factor for you...

We are told from our grandparents, our doctors, the latest blog or from 'influencers' that we should eat ONLY raw foods, ONLY organic, ONLY unprocessed, and that detoxing is absolutely necessary. But this way of thinking is very black and white, and not necessarily the absolute truth. Today we walk through 5 Nutrition Myths that may actually surprise you.

"Pretty sure I'm in starvation mode". I'd be filthy rich if I was paid a dollar for every time I heard a client tell me this. As women we have it pretty tough when it comes to dropping unwanted fat and keeping if off. But what is really happening when the weight loss just stops? Are you really in starvation mode? Are your hormones the culprit for your stagnation in progress? Check out this episode for all the answers.

How can we go from healthy, lean, athletic, sporty women in our younger years, to the opposite end of the scale - being overweight, tired, un-confident, and unmotivated? It is a question I've asked myself because I experienced this polarity, and tried desperately to get back to that earlier space through dysfunctional yo-yo dieting. The biggest thing we tend to do is blindly follow nutrition plans or exercise regimes, but never really look at the things that are going on between our...

Over the course of 15 years, I yo-yo dieted. Sometimes it was a big yo-yo, like 25kg (55 pounds) of weight loss, 25+kg weight regain, other times smaller increments. But I just somehow couldn't stop myself from this weight loss - weight regain cycle, no matter how big or small. In this episode, we look at why we keep doing this craziness over and over again. We dive into the reasons why we sabotage our results, or why we don't even get started in the first place. Then we walk...

We all have beliefs. And we believe what we believe because we know it to be true. A lot of our beliefs are shared by others, but some beliefs we differ greatly on. But have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe (about any given situation)? We don't usually explore what we already know, because we already know it, right? Today we challenge all of that. We look deeper into what beliefs are, why we justify our behaviour, and what things might be disguising...

After attending the funeral of a dear friend, I spent some time reflecting over my own life. 45 years on the planet, in the scheme of things, is not a long time. Yet to date, I have learned SO much. Today I share my thoughts, (some quite personal), about life, and the lessons I have learned so far.

Sometimes its nice to hear some words of encouragement. It is never too late. You are not too old. It doesn't matter what other people say - you've got this.

What happens when you step on the scales and instead of losing weight, you've gained weight? You've worked SO hard, it literally doesn't seem fair. What happens when you have a bad day. From the get-go you felt out of control with your eating and a sneaky snack of oreos turns into an all-day binge fest. We have 2 brains inside our head, both with different roles to play. Our adult brain, and our toddler brain. Letting your toddler brain be in charge of making decisions is like...

Are you training at the gym, or even at home, but not seeing changes in your body? Are you trying to build strength, muscle, tone but feeling frustrated that no definition is showing? You're simply not seeing results? There is good reason why. In fact, there are 5 main reasons why you're not seeing the results you've been wanting. If you're a woman over 40, (and even if you're younger), these principles all apply.

Losing that last bit of stubborn fat is hard! And it's usually the last 5kg that is the most difficult to shed. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it going to take commitment and precision to achieve? It most certainly will. In this episode we look at the important factors required to drop the last five, how your menstrual cycle affects your hunger, and my unique approach to overcome it.

More people gain weight back after their diet than people do who successful keep it off long term. This, to me, is a significant problem. Why do we 'fall off the wagon' time and time again? Well, in my own personal experience, it was simply because I was hungry. Today's episode looks firstly at the 5 fundamentals of fat loss, but then we look deeper into 5 principles around long term weight management. And I share with you one super simple yet effective strategy to help keep you from...

Want to lose weight? Simple. Join a gym. Train hard. Track your calories. Track the energy burned during your session. Not seeing results? Train harder. Well, not so fast. While it is SO easy to fall into the "I just have to train harder to see the results I want" mentality, there is one thing stopping you from making progress. We talk about it in today's episode.

Sometimes, some really practical tips are all we need to help us stop overeating. If you're a practical girl like me, you love practical things that you can start doing today. So in this 'minisode' - I give you 9. They work. But you have to actually implement them.

Many of us use the term hope as a positive emotion; I feel hopeful for the future. It sounds positive, right?. But hope doesn't inspire action. Rather, hope is a passive emotion that abdicates responsibility. It causes us to wait for things to happen, hoping.... What's the alternative to hope? Take a listen to the episode. It's truly powerful.

At Christmas time, we overeat, potentially over drink, and it seems to be a normal thing for us. We don't question it. We eat cake when it's our birthday. We eat cereal for breakfast. We grab a Zaraffas coffee mid afternoon. These are all 'normal' eating things that we 'do', and we don't necessarily question. But what about when you choose NOT to have dessert? Then your girlfriend is like, "what? You're not having dessert? Why?" And it feels like when we go 'against the...

A program is only as good as your ability to stick with it consistently. And often the hardest part is not the planning, but in the doing.  For many of us women, there’s a gap between what we know and what we consistently do. Today's episode helps to bridge that gap with 4 steps.

Keeping things simple is the best approach to changing your body composition. And part of that simplicity means planning your food ahead of time. Often we think that planning locks us in and makes things restrictive. But the opposite is in fact true. Taking 10 minutes each day to plan out your meals for the following days brings freedom and it is a powerful strategy to implement when you have a goal to change your body composition. So today we take that concept and talk about...

Setting a goal to run a hundred km race seems unreachable (unless you're an ultra marathon runner). And yet we set these same goals for our own weight loss - big overwhelming targets. No wonder our weight loss goals feel unachievable. But we push through, relying on self control - which feels even more impossible leading into Christmas. Well girlfriend, it's time you took a break. Sometimes you need to take a rest before going again, and today I'll explain why.

We live fast paced lives. We’re all 'busy'. We wear many hats every day: Mum, work / career, tutor, managing the home, chef, counselor, accountant, cleaner, confidant, lover. And somewhere in amongst wearing all these hats we have our own self care. Life just feels ‘busy’. Then as we get older, we notice our body starting to change - it’s more difficult to lose the weight, or it starts creeping on, especially around the middle, and we set a goal to lose the belly fat, or we really...

We go on a diet.  We track our macros.  We eat according to our nutrition plan.  We are so 'good' at sticking with it. But then it happens.  And it comes out of nowhere.  We are hit smack bang in the face with an urge.  It is so strong, we give in, because it feels so overwhelming. This is the number one thing that would make me fall of the wagon time and time again during my yo-yo dieting years:  an urge to binge on chocolate would come, and I couldn't resist.  I thought I was simply...

Over my years of coaching women, I have heard so many times about the complete lack of support, negative opinions or out right judgement they receive from other people in their world while they are losing weight, or going to the gym each week. And it becomes a difficult thing to manage if you constantly feel like your health journey is being critisized. I personally experienced this on my own weight loss and strength journey, and learned the importance of setting healthy boundaries for...

So many of us women feel that by putting ourselves first, we are being selfish. We think that by giving to others before we give to ourselves we are acting selflessly. The problem comes, however, when we give without replenishment. Our giving comes at our own expense leaving us emotional and depleted. This then becomes a selfish space because we are no longer strong enough to carry our own load. We rely on others to fulfil our lack. Which one is more selfish? Giving to the point...