• Avoid sugar, caffeine and alcohol as these alter the pH of the digestive system making it more acidic. This aggravates the intestinal lining and leads to inflammation.

• Reduce or avoid gluten, a protein found in grains such as wheat, rye, oats and barley. Gluten intolerance is common and leads to bloating, diarrhoea and constipation.

  
  

• Check to see if you have a dairy intolerance by avoiding all dairy for two weeks and then re-introduce it and observe if your digestive symptoms flare.

  
  

• Eat in pleasant surroundings, sitting down and enjoying your food. If you are rushed, walking or distracted, you are more likely to eat quickly without chewing properly and will not be able to respond when your body sends its signal to stop because you are full.

  
  

• Chew your food! Chewing helps to break down your food, easing the burden on your lower digestive system.

  
  

• Take a good quality probiotic supplement, such as Probiotica P3, daily to aid digestion and help support the immune system. Wagner’s Probiotica P3 requires no refrigeration and is formulated with specially-cultured acid resistant strains of good bacteria designed to improve your intestinal flora balance and control the levels of harmful bacteria in the gut. It also contains only natural ingredients and is free from dairy, making it a great option for those who are lactose intolerant.

  
  

• Try not to drink large volumes of fluid at least half an hour before a meal. This dilutes the enzymes in your stomach and makes them less able to break down foods and absorb nutrients.

  
  

• Take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice in a small amount of water before a meal to improve your digestion.

  
  

• Practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, even if you only manage two minutes each day. When we are stressed, our brain shuts down our digestive system and we no longer produce enough enzymes. This results in reduced absorption of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

  
  

• Eat fresh organic food as it contains more nutritional value and no pesticides, additives or preservatives. 

Before you tackle weight loss in a child, take your child for a check at the doctor, check blood pressure, weight, and BMI – just as a point of reference.  Tell the doctor what you are doing and just rule out any other health issues.

The key is getting the metabolism going, and slowly allowing the body to change.  Weight loss for kids needs to be slow or the body gets a shock and thinks it is going to be starved and then holds onto everything as body fat. To make the changes for the long term, bad habits have to be changed to good ones and this takes time.

A great start is to invest in an inexpensive pedometer. In the first week get your child to do their normal level of exercise, keeping track of it on a chart.  Then depending on the number of steps achieved, up the daily steps target to 8000 or 12000. Then begin the process of normalising eating, remembering not to change everything at once.

The aim is to begin to build muscle and burn off some of the excess body fat until the child grows. The aim is to reduce and slow down or stop weight gain until a growth spurt.

Change these things first

-          Get enough sleep

-          Increase water intake

-          Eat a good breakfast – oats, wheat biscuits, boiled egg wholegrain toast

-          A third of your diet should be raw, have cut up vegetables with low fat dips and wholegrain bread, fruits for morning tea and afternoon tea. Make homemade dips

-          Get into the habit of doing 1 hour of vigorous activity per day – brisk walk to and from school, scootering, jumping on trampoline. Vigorous means breath getting puffy and maintaining that for around 20 minutes to start off with.

-          Low fat unflavoured yoghurt, cook up some fruit and add a little for flavouring

-          Low fat milk and cheese

-          Watch portion sizes - lean protein should fit in the palm of your child’s hand, a child’s fist of pasta, rice or cereal, a thumb of cheese, half a child’s plate (17 cm diameter) should be salad

Things to stop immediately

-          Fizzy drinks

-          Finger buns, donuts or high refined sugar food

-          Lollies

-          Do not feed a sweet craving with something sweet, have a wholesome sandwich or snack or a cycle of craving develops.

-          Processed foods or snacks

-          Eating whilst watching television.

-          Cut down on screen time and encourage active outdoor activities

Things to be careful of:

-          Watch your intake of fruit juice and fruit, especially Apples, bananas, pears, melons, raisins the ones that have a very sweet taste, rather eat kiwi’s blueberries, orange, strawberries – limit fruit to a maximum of 2 serves in a day.  Despite the fact that it is natural sugar, it is still sugar.

-          Eat slowly, put knife and fork down between mouthfuls and be conscious of eating, it takes about 20 mins for food to hit the stomach, fast eating usually means you will over eat.

About The Author:

Sue Cutbill is owner of Kids Exercise (www.kidzexercise.com .au) and mother to 3 young boys.  Being active and eating healthy is a passion and helping kids overweight improve their quality of life is a privilege. Moving from the UK 8years ago with 2 sickly young boys was where this passion began.  Due to the congenital kidney defects of her two older sons, Sue had always made sure the boys only ate and drank healthily. It was the access to the great outdoors that turned the boys’ health around.  Although they will always have regular hospital checks the quality of life for the whole family has sky rocketed. As well as programs for overweight kids, Kids Exercise runs holiday programs, gross motor programs for preschool kids and sports parties.

Are you tired, been working hard and all you want to do is go home and relax...

For some of us it isn’t always possible to go home from work and put our feet up and chill out!

Aromatherapy and the use of essential oils has the ability to promote, motivation, energy, strength, endurance and much more.

 There are simple and effective ways in which to use Aromatherapy for many and varied conditions. You can use inhalations, room spritzers, bathing and your aromatherapy burner or diffuser.

When you get home take a mini break, this need only be 10-15 mins. Choose some essential oils for  inhaling or diffusing. Sit in a comfy place and take some slow deep breaths... breath in the essential oil aroma ...take note of how your body starts to let go...feel the tension from the day slip away and out of your body... breathing in and out stay with this for as long as you need. By doing this exercise you will bring balance, and re-energise yourself.

If you are unable to sit for any length of time get your room spritzers out and spray, spray, spray...

Use your favourite Essential oils, as soon as we smell aroma’s that we love, you are immediately transported to a place that no one can take away from you... be in the moment take in the scent and see it flowing through every cell in your body...feel it wash away any stress or tension from the day...

You now feel uplifted, energised and enthusiastic!

I would highly recommend you choose essential oils that resonate with you personally as this will give you the desired results faster. Below I have made a few suggestions from my own personal experience. Remember you can choose one essential oil or make a blend from three... it is up to you, your nose knows best and your body will tell you.

Bathing

I adore neroli, rose and jasmine either on their own or combine the three of them... 3 drops of each.

Frankincense, rose, champa...3 drops of each

Vetiver2 drops, 3 drops rosewood...this is absolutely one of my favourite bath blends!

Room spray

I tend to use a lot of citrus essential oils in room sprays they are uplifting to the emotions, energising  and evoke a strong sense of happiness!

Mandarin, bergamot, grapefruit 10 drops each, with 2-3 drops of geranium

Sweet orange, lemon, 10 drops each, with 5 drops sandalwood and 2 drops peru balsam.

Inhalations

Once again I personally love to use citrus essential oils, lime, grapefruit and cardamom

or lemon myrtle, sweet orange and bergamot...

The combinations are endless, have fun with it, play and be creative, I promise you will fall in love with it!

About The Author:

Julie Nelson http://www.aromatiqueessentials

With this being the first week of summer, Australian residents, particularly the younger generations, are being warned to be more vigilant with their daily sun protection and improve their overall sun safety habits.

SunSense, which boast the highest level of UV protection in Australia¹, completed its UV Photobus road show yesterday after touring to 19 metro, coastal and regional locations throughout NSW, QLD and VIC.  The free, roving skin check program aimed to uncover Australia’s hidden UV damage one UV skin analysis at a time, as well as measuring the nation’s ‘SunSensibility’.  Some interesting findings from the community health project include:

• With years more sun exposure and less education of the harmful effects of the sun, it is surprising to see that the Silent Generation (age 61+) and Baby Boomers have less sun damaged skin than younger generations.  This is a worrying finding considering the intense sun-safety education efforts over the past 30 years; it shows we’ve still got a long way to go. (Gen Y = 48%; Gen X = 47%; Baby Boomers = 54%; Silent Generation = 61%)

• Australia’s average SunSensibility score was 51%. Coastal regions fared better than their country town counterparts in the SunSensibility stakes, scoring 53% compared to an average score of 46% in regional areas.

• Unexpectedly, the region with the highest SunSensibility rating was Bondi Beach with a score of 61%.  Dubbo didn’t fare so well with the lowest average score of 41% and therefore the worst UV skin damage recorded.

• In the regions race, metro dwellers boasted the highest average SunSensibility score (54%), with coastal residents coming in at 52% and country folk falling below average with a score of 46%.

Three-time Olympic gold medallist, Matt Welsh and TV favourite, Catriona Rowntree visited the SunSense UV Photobus to have their skin checked and show their support for the important community initiative that is set to hit the roads again in late 2012.

“Being a former Olympic swimmer, I can’t even begin to calculate the hours I’ve spent training outdoors.  Being sun-safe was, and still is, a huge part of my life and now something Lauren [Newton] and I instil as parents of a young family (Sam, 4 and Eva, 2). Aussies love the sun but it’s too easy to forget or become blasé about sun protection because we spend so much time outdoors. 

The SunSense UV Photobus provides an important service to all Australians for free so there are no excuses; I’ve had my hidden UV damage checked and come out at a mediocre 54%. The consultation provides the opportunity to look at the damage we may be doing and change our behaviour to protect ourselves from the sun’s harmful rays before it is too late.” says Olympian Matt Welsh.

1,422 UV photographs were taken over a six week SunSense UV Photobus tour, with each photograph highlighting an individual’s UV damage, invisible to the naked eye, yet still concerning.  The UV camera penetrates the skin determining the skin’s existing damage which is then assessed to produce a percentile score or SunSensibility score. 

“Sunburn can happen in as little as 10 minutes and the damage is cumulative, so don’t think a little redness here and there is OK. The national SunSensibility score is only 51%, showing that there’s plenty of room for improvement.  It’s imperative we try to improve our nation’s SunSensibility and each learn to protect ourselves better from becoming another skin cancer statistic.” says Catriona Rowntree.

With a national average of 51 out of a possible 100 points, Dr. Kerryn Greive PhD, Ego Pharmaceuticals says while most of us are doing a good job in the sun protection stakes, there’s always room for improvement.

“It’s imperative we take care of our skin all year round, and one of the best ways to do this is to ensure applying and wearing sunscreen is a part of your daily routine.  The Australian sun is among the harshest in the world and as a result over 430,000 Australians are treated for skin cancer each year – that's over 1,000 people every day².  Be sure to reapply regularly, and you’re on your way to healthier skin.” explains Greive.