Sep 16

Sep 16 Strength training, muscle mass and ageing

Declining muscle mass is part of ageing, but you can do something about it!
Age-related muscle loss, also called sarcopenia, is a totally natural part of ageing. From the age of 30, you begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% per decade. Less muscle means greater weakness, less mobility, more daily struggles and aches and less balance / stability therefore leading to an increased risk of falls and fractures.

For women over 40, with the added risk of loss of bone density through hormonal changes associated with peri menopause and menopause, this paints a pretty bleak picture for those not engaging in some form of strength training exercises.

Feb 24

Feb 24 How and why exercise for the menopause

Val Simpson

Blog, Nutrition, Health

Women's health around the peri menopause stage of their life is a topic close to our heart, and we speak from experience as well as qualified professionals. Exercise has been shown to help control a number of physical and psychological problems and changes associated with menopause and midlife, including depression, weight gain, loss of muscle mass and bone density.

Feb 9

Feb 9 5 tips to help teens find their groove with exercise

Val Simpson

Blog

My number one rule will always be to only cultivate a mindset of positive association with exercise and avoid any negative connection to physical activity being a way to “burn calories” or “compensate” for that weekend pizza and ice cream!

Teens and exercise is a very wide subject, but for now , as I write during our third period of lockdown in the UK, I thought I’d give you a few tips particularly applicable to support your teens right now.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙃𝙔 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨:

Jan 7

Jan 7 Top tips for breaking bad eating habits

Kat Bright

Blog

I often find that it’s the habits we have formed along the way that derail us in our health journey. Whether it’s a snack mid afternoon as a pick me up – that’s eaten out of habit not hunger. Or the glass of wine poured while cooking that’s not necessarily wanted, but has become habitual. This month I am going to take the most common habits that I find with clients in clinic and come up with some simple suggestions that you can use to break these habits.

Nov 6

Nov 6 6 real everyday superfoods

Kat Bright

Blog

As the health industry continues to boom, there are more and more products claiming to make you healthier and it’s easy to be seduced into thinking that taking a daily ‘superfood’ will help to make you healthier. However if you are sedentary and consume a typical Western diet that is high in saturated fat and low in fibre and phytonutrients then a glass of wheatgrass a day will not protect you from cancer or cardiovascular problems.

Oct 29

Oct 29 Are you riding the blood sugar rollercoaster?

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

We all know that sugar is bad for us and does us no favours in our quest to being healthy. However it’s not just sugar in tea and coffee or fizzy drinks that is affecting our blood sugar levels. White bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits and fruit juice all convert to sugar within a few minutes of being eaten. Now you might think this is not a problem and you exercise loads so you’ll burn it off right? Unfortunately it’s not as easy as this. If you suffer from mood swings or find yourself becoming ‘hangry’, have low energy or weight that gathers around your belly then you might feel much better by cutting back on the sugar and white refined carbohydrates.

Oct 22

Oct 22 Boosting your immunity

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

As the seasons change and the nights draw in it’s the return of the coughs and colds. I always find it’s when the children go back to school after the summer holidays that colds start to make a reappearance. It always amazes me just how quickly someone in the class gets a cold and passes the germs around.

Aug 23

Aug 23 fat soluble vitamins

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

If you follow us on Instagram you will know that we recently posted a series called Nutrient Spotlight, where we took each vitamin and mineral in turn and spoke of how it is used in our body, why we need it and any symptoms of deficiency - also most importantly how you can find these nutrients in your food. The series was so popular that we have added them to our blog so you'll be able to access them easily. This week we spotlight the fat soluble vitamins – Vitamins A, D, E and K. It's very important to remember that these vitamins are stored in our body (in the liver) and so it's very easy to reach high and potentially toxic levels.

Aug 1

Aug 1 Let's talk about fat

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

For those of us growing up in the 70s, 80s and 90s we were told that eating a low fat diet was healthy and we switched from high fat butter to margarine, full fat milk to skimmed milk and we stopped drizzling oil and butter on our salads and vegetables. Thankfully those days are now behind us and finally the message that eating low fat is healthy is starting to be replaced by the message that eating healthy fats is good for you. However, I still find there are many people that cling onto eating a low fat diet and have a fear of eating any fat. The idea that eating fat makes us fat was first touted in the 1950s and since this low fat message we have seen a rise in obesity, a rise in dementia-related illnesses and a rise in heart conditions.

Jun 26

Jun 26 making sure your holiday is healthy

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

With holidays looming now is the time to start preparing your body for its annual holiday. We all need some sunlight on our body to help provide our bodies with vitamin D. This important mineral helps to maintain calcium levels in the body and ensure we have healthy bones and teeth. However it doesn’t take too much time to increase our levels and sunscreen is essential to avoid sunburn. When our skin cells are exposed to too much sunlight, UVA and UVB wavelengths, our skin cells experience stress and shut down. This stress can overload our antioxidant nutrient supplies and so it’s important to make sure these are topped up before we head off on our summer holidays.

Jun 18

Jun 18 is gluten free healthier?

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

The gluten free aisle in the supermarket is huge, and is growing larger every month. In 2016 the global gluten free market was worth $14.95 billion and is expected to grow at an annual rate of just over 9% every year. This rise in the gluten free market has also seen a rise in people claiming they are eating gluten free without being diagnosed as coeliac or intolerant to gluten. So is eating gluten free healthier for you?

Apr 23

Apr 23 It's exam season - help!

Kat Bright

Blog, Nutrition, Health

All over the country, teenagers and adults are preparing for a summer of exams, whether it’s finals, A levels, GCSEs or end of year exams. Make sure your brain is in tip top condition by following our simple tips below to boost your brain and give yourself the best chance for success.