Holistic Foundations Presents - Sunday Dinner - Converstaion & Nourishing Food

Hey everyone,

Last week was a MASSIVE success. (thanks to all of you!)

Over 15 people turned up and pretty much everyone prepared something for us to share that was organic, raw, fresh and locally sourced.

Keeping the energy flowing, myself, Pete and Steve have decided that we would like to hold this event this coming Sunday. Then every fortnight thereafter, because of it's success at creating healthy communities.

If this is the first you have heard about it, then I have left the event description that I wrote up last week for you to read over at the bottom.

If this will be your 2nd week attending, then we look forward to seeing what you come up with this week. You all did so awesome last week. Hopefully, you are now a wear of a lot of the benefits of locally sourced organic food. Not only on our health, but on our planet as well and will use more of it this week.

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The idea and concept is to get everyone involved in cooking with locally sourced, fresh, organic ingredients to help us nourish our bodies and become healthy. While connecting as a community and bonding over food and conversation!

Don't worry if you can not get organic, fresh or local food. Just bring along a dish this week and the following week try to replace an ingredient each time we meet. Ultimately we all will be able to hit the requirements of a wholesome nourishing meal!

You can make an entrée, a main meal or a dessert. Just so long as you bring enough to share.

If you are not confident in the kitchen just yet. Still come along and ask questions and learn about how other people were able to make the food that they made. Then have a go yourself the following week.

Bring the kids and the family. This will be a fortnightly event for all of Spring and Summer.

Let me know if you're coming and what you might be making.



Recap:

Fresh
Local
Organic
Slow cooked, fermented, sprouted or raw.
Enough to share
Cooked with love (haha)

See you Sunday! :)

Nourishing Food - A Few Simple Recipies!

You want to eat something, but you’re not sure what?

You have goals that you want to achieve, but making the right choice is sometimes hard.

Instead of racing for that sugar hit and feeling guilty, think of eating something that will last you a little longer, give you a feeling of satiety, balance and best of all – is good for you.

Well you’re in luck. Below I have put together some fail safe recipes. Always have at least ONE of these in the fridge or on its way in the oven and you’ll never be without a nutritious meal.

If we leave it till it’s too late to do something about our hunger pangs then our choices extraordinarily decrease. Why leave it to chance? With the help of these recipes you will have food on hand to help you through the tough times. You’ll also notice there are minimal carbs in these recipes. This follows on from my previous blogs that we need to source our energy from fat and protein, not so much from carbohydrates. All part of healthy living.

Snacks:



1. Organic cheese. Made from good culture! You can buy some or make it yourself from separated milk (REAL milk).

• Weigh up around 50g – 100g for a little snack on the run.


2. Raw Eggs. These amazing things, in my opinion, could be the best, most valuable thing in my fridge. You will never enter my kitchen and ask, “Do you have any eggs?” Eggs are an amazing source of Vitamins A, D, E and K!


• 2 eggs
• 50g Blueberries

Pop your eggs into a blender with 50g of blueberries and whiz them up. Short sharp pulse just enough to wiz up the berries. Enjoy!



Nourishing food:



Raw Beef Tartare*

Carbohydrates Calories
1 kg Raw Beef Chuck Finely Minced 1800 Calories
1 Medium Spanish Onion finely diced 4.6 30 Calories
2 Medium Lemons, juiced 4.5 68 Calories
2 Birds eye Chili's
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
5 Tablespoons Olive oil 603 Calories
10 Cos lettuce leaves
1 bunch of fresh basil, coriander and/or mint

1. Put all the ingredients except for Olive Oil in a Pyrex tray and kneed until mixed thoroughly.

2. Seal with olive oil.

3. Leave to marinate in refrigerator for min. 2 hours.

4. Scoop 3 big tablespoons into lettuce leaves and put chopped herbs on top and serve.

Total 1200g contains 9g Carbs and 2051 Calories
200g serve contains 1.5g Carbs and 416 Calories



Raw Beef Carpaccio*

1 Kg Beef Sirloin (Get the sirloin in one piece) 2250 Calories
2 Medium Lemons, Juiced 2.5 68 Calories
5 Tablespoons Olive oil 603 Calories
Fresh Parsley, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Place Sirloin in freezer for 1 hr. This makes it easier to cut.

2. Cut the Sirloin as thinly as possible. 2-3mm is best

3. Cover beef with Lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and garnish with parsley

4. Ready to serve immediately

1100g Serve contains 2.5g Carbs and 2921 Calories
220g Serve contains 0.5g Carbs and 584 Calories

Slow Roast Chicken*

1 Pasture Raised Chicken 1900cal ave for 1kg meat
1 Medium Lemon 1.25 34 Calories
1 Tablespoons Dried Organic Thyme
1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Pepper

1. Stuff Chicken with the lemon, a pinch of thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper

2. Coat the chicken with remaining herbs, salt and pepper

3. Place Chicken in a cast iron pot with the lid on at 90° for 4 hrs.

4. Baste the chicken with its juices

5. Take the lid off and cook for another 20-30 mins

Total 1100g contains 1.25g Carbs and 1934 Calories
200g serve contains 0.2 Carbs and 352 Calories



Slow Roast Lamb Leg or Shoulder*

1.2 Kg Lamb Shoulder or Leg, on the bone, untrimmed
2556 Cal shoulder 2244 Cal leg
2 Cloves Fresh Garlic, peeled, cut into fine spears 0.7g carb 17.5 Calories
Fresh Rosemary
Salt and Pepper to taste
200g Butter 1.4g Carb Calories

1. Pierce Lamb and insert spears of garlic

2. Mash herbs, salt and pepper and butter together using your hands and coat the lamb.

3. Place it into your cast iron pot and cook at 80° for 4-6 hrs with the lid on.

4. Remove the lid for the last 30mins to brown the finish or you can cook the whole way with the lid off. Leaving the lid on allows for moisture to be retained

5. Leave to rest for 10 minutes and then serve
Total 1415g contains 2.1g Carbs and 4013 (Shoulder) or 3701 (leg) Calories
200g serve contains 0.6g Carbs and 573.2 Calories (Shoulder) or 528.7 (Leg)

Avocado Salad*

10 Cos lettuce leaves, washed, dried and cut into 2 cm strips 130g 2.3 24.7
1 Medium Ripe avocado, peel and seed removed, cut into strips 190g 1.14 387
1 Small Cucumber, Sliced finely 120g 1.5 14.4
1 Medium Ripe Tomato, Diced 100g 2.4 18
1 Small Lemon juiced 100g 1.8 27
3 Tablespoons of Olive oil 362
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Mix lettuce, avocado, cucumber and tomato in a salad bowl.

2. In a small jar mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and shake.

3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss

Total 615g contains 9g Carbs and 833 Calories
115g serve has 1.5g Carbs and 138 Calories


Chocolate Coconut Smoothie*

1 Virgin coconut 14.4 117.4
2 Eggs 0.3 162
10g Raw Cacao 6.3 49
10g Coconut oil 88
Stevia 1/8 teaspoon


1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds

*Always put the coconut oil in just before you blend so it doesn't turn solid in the cold milk. During the winter months you may have to melt it on a gentle heat before you put it in.

*On carb days you can use honey instead of stevia and add fresh &/or frozen banana

1x 400ml serve has 21 Carbs and 416.4 Calories

To bring carbs down & make caffeine free substitute the Cacao for 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. This way the smoothie can be used in the afternoon & during the seasonal cleanse.

Blue Berry Yoghurt Smoothie*

250ml Kefir or Paris Creek Yoghurt 12 210
2 eggs 0.3 162
50g Blueberries 5.65 26
1 Tablespoon Coconut oil 88
1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Cinnamon
Stevia 1/8 teaspoon

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds

2. Serve in cup with a sprinkle of fresh Cinnamon on top

*Always put the coconut oil in just before you blend so it doesn't turn solid in the cold milk. During the winter months you may have to melt it on a gentle heat before you put it in.

*On Carb days use more berries
1x 400ml serve has 17.95 Carbs and 486 Calories
To reduce carbs, cut berries. Still makes a delicious cinnamon yoghurt smoothie
Calorie & Carb% Referenced from Food Standards Australia New Zealand


OOE*

The Cost Of Healthy Eating. Cheaper Than Chips!!

It should be everyone’s right to eat whole, organic foods and buy the best quality food you can buy but a lot of people are put off because they think organic or grass fed means $$$. Unfortunately, this is perpetuated by the big chains who operate on very small margins (Woolies run a 3% profit margin. Fact) and make it seem – by advertising their low low prices – that healthy food is out of reach of the average person. Not necessarily so.

I decided to break down my own shopping budget for the week so that you can see that eating healthy is not a break-the-budget matter.

Here’s what I consume weekly (cooking for my girlfriend and myself):

$50 - Eggs (If you know me, you know I consume a lot of eggs)
$90 - Meat (Buy roasts, they last a lot longer than single serves)
$21 - Milk (6 litres a week)
$16.90 - Cheese (A great healthy snack to enjoy between meals or after training)
$15 - Blueberries (can’t live without them in my yummy shakes!)
$8 - Coconuts (Food of LIFE. Do you have the food of life in your house?)
$15 - Fruit and Veg (added flavour and texture to some meals)

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$215.90 - Total (107.95 Each)

Now, the above list is pretty much starting from scratch. Once you have these things, it’s a simple matter of topping them up each week as you consume. I put that list up to show you what it would cost to go and buy everything you'd need to set yourself up with good food in the house so that you can make something that is fresh and healthy every meal!

My bills thereafter would almost be between 1/4 to 1/2 less, every other week.

Broken down, it looks like this:

I spend $108 per week divided by 7 days in the week = 15.42 per day.
I eat close to 6 meals almost everyday so daily price (15.42) divided by each meal = $2.57 per meal!

$2.57 a meal on average - So realistically, even if you double the $108 to $216pw it would still be CHEAPER than chips, pardon the pun ($5.17 per meal).





These costs are based on the foods I'm buying being organically raised or grown. For example the meats are grass fed and finished, hens are 100% free range, and fruit and vegies are from organic sources. The benefits include:


• Supporting myself with good nourishing food.
• Supporting the environment.
• Supporting humanity and rewarding farmers for doing things right by the soil.


There’s another benefit but I have to get on my soapbox for this one. When you buy from big corporations and big chain supermarkets you help to secure their dominance on our food industry and support poor quality food and the destruction of our environment. [You may even notice that lately the big guys are putting ‘Grass fed, grass finished’ on some of their labels in an effort to corner the rising tide of people looking for better quality.

Sure, you might pay a couple of dollars less than me but look at my shopping list. It’s not that much to eat high quality food is it? The expression ‘you are what you eat’ is spot on so knowing you’re eating 100% organic food from a reliable source gives you piece of mind that you’re as healthy as you possibly can be. Can you put your hand on your heart and say unequivocally that you know where the big guys’ meat and veg is sourced?

We need to understand that by paying for goods we are voting to have MORE of whatever it is we're buying in our lives. I'm comfortable knowing that my income goes to people who are doing the right thing and creating healthy wholesome foods.

Bon Appétit and use the big guys to buy nappies, soap and tissues. (Also be mindful that you can get sustainable options for these products to)


Health & Chi

Shane Richards

(Thanks to Alex Smith for his editorial skills!)

The Weight Loss & Gain Pin Code! Unlock Your Bodys Secret Passcode!

I had a very interesting question today!

How many calories should I consume daily to either lose weight or gain weight?

Awesome Question!! Something that I’m sure all of us has asked ourselves.
Hopefully, I can shed some light on this topic.

As I’m sure you are very aware, all calories were NOT created equal. Calories from fat, protein and carbohydrates - when being broken down by our bodies - behave VERY differently inside of us.

As a broad guide, use these numbers as a reference point:
Carbs = 4 cals per Gram
Protein = 4 cals per gram
Fat = 9 cals per gram
Alcohol = 7 cals per gram

As you know, I’m by no means a Nutritionist and I encourage all of you to source a GOOD naturopath or nutritionist to help you find what works for you and your body.


With that being said, I will give you a look inside what I try to do daily to hopefully give you a better understanding!

Let's get started:

First we must assess what our total ACTIVE TISSUE (AT) is. We don’t want whole weight; we want to subtract our body fat from our total weight to establish active tissue weight. It's easy to find out.

We can do one of two things.

1. Get a Dual Energy X_Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) body scan. This is the best way to find out as it won’t leave you guessing. This is a relatively inexpensive procedure and can cost as little as $60. Check out http://www.bodycomposition.com.au/index.php?pageid=2 . As an added bonus, the DEXA scan also supplies you with your Bone Mineral Content (BMC). The BMC is useful to know as it can be an early warning sign of osteoporosis if you come back with a low BMC. The mineral content of your bones is extremely important as this is your body’s BANK account so to speak which we will draw from as we get older.

2. Body fat percentage test. If you have some Tanita scales you can use them to find your overall body fat percentage. Most of these scales require you avoid eating for 4 hours before hand and limit water intake 30mins before you stand on the scales. This will help to get a more accurate result.

Once we have our active tissue mass we need to work out our Resting Metabolic Rate. Using the Cunningham formula below, I worked out my RMR as follows:

64kg (my AT, NOT my overall weight) x 22 + 500 = 1908cal

This is the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment. In other words, this is what my body needs EVERYDAY just to function all of my organs, muscles and glands, my breathing, my heart beat, my core temp... everything!


This is what my body needs if I DON'T MOVE, everyday!!!!! If I was to lay on a bed without doing anything, I would burn 1908cal per day until I waste away.

Take a moment to think about that for a second...... ready to move on? If you know your AT, go ahead and work out your RMR.

Now that we know what we burn doing nothing, we can find out how much we burn in our active, daily lives. Because our lifestyles predominantly dictate our activity levels, we will all have a different coefficient (activity factor). Check out the table below for where you sit. We can then use this table to work out our activity levels and multiply our RMR by the activity factor that matches our activity levels.

Activity | | Factor Category | | Category description |

1.25 | Sedentary | | Little or minimal exercise |

1.50 | Moderate |Training 2 -3 times per week |

1.75 |High | |4 hard workouts plus some activity on rest days |



Getting the hang of it?? :)

So check out my numbers below using the formula and the coefficient:

64kg (AT) x 22 + 500= 1908 cal (RMR) x 1.75 (coefficient) = 3339 cals.

That might seem a lot to take in but when you simplify it like that, pretty easy hey? Even for a Personal Trainer.


If we eat LESS then this, our body will USE our muscle (AT) to get an insulin spike when it has no energy or it’s running low, in turn, decreasing our metabolic rate and making it harder to burn body fat because muscle is more metabolically active then fat tissue. So, in other words it just needs more energy than body fat everyday to stay on our bodies.

Moving on.......

Now that we know “our numbers” we need to work out what to do with them. For maintenance purposes, our caloric intake will remain fairly close to If you wanted to lose some kg’s, these must be done incrementally otherwise you will lose muscle, not fat, and inevitably put it back on shortly thereafter. I’ve done the math for you. Check the numbers below:


To lose:
250g per week = 321cals LESS per day. 3339 calories - 321 = 3018
500g per week = 642cals less per week. 3339 calories - 642 = 2697


So what I’m saying is this:


• We can see if we're feeding our bodies enough to keep it healthy and to maintain our ACTIVE tissue and bone mineral content.

• We can see if we are meeting our daily requirements to support movement, active tissue (muscle) growth.

• We can work out how many calories less we need to consume to get a reduction of 250, 500g of fat per week. This is key because when a lot of people lose weight they lose water and muscle which they will put back on at some point.

• We can work out how many calories more we need to consume to get an increase of 250, 500g of weight per week. This is key because when a lot of people put on weight they add a lot of fat mass which is not ideal. In turn people go through a cycle of bulking and starvation which by what you can see, is also not ideal.


I hope this helps and you become slimmer, fitter, more educated and more energetic!


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Additional Reading: Rules of engagement found in the blogs below this one.

This will give you the ‘rules’ of which to go by to make this journey a successful one. Knowing the numbers is only HALF the equation. You need the numbers + Source and Process of food to = Success.

Keep smiling!

Health & Chi
Shane Richards

Add your equations, success stories, a friendly hello or experiences to comments below! I look forward to reading them! :)

Slow Roasted Apples and Strawberries

Slow Roasted Apples and Strawberries

Want a great dessert that won't leave you feeling guilty?

Then this is a great recipe for you!




Here's what you'll need:

Green Apples (Cut out the core)
Strawberries
Cinnamon
Freshly grated coconut
Fresh butter from pasture raised cows

Here's how you do it:

1. Cut apples in any shape you want. I just do halves.
2. Cut strawberries and place them on top of your apples.
3. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples and strawberries.
4. Cut a few squares of butter, place on top of apples and strawberries so that the butter melts into the fruit. I use about 50g, but you can use more or less.
5. Place in the oven under 90 degrees and bake for 3 hours
6. Add some fresh cream and grate coconut over apples to serve.

There you go!

Enjoy. 10 minute dessert for friends and family!

Post to comments how yours turned out. :)

Health & Chi,

Shane

Rules Of Engagement

What are the rules of Engagement?

Basically, they are rules in which I choose to live my life by.
This blog entry is a little insight in to what I have decided is right for me, for my body and for my mind.

I have decided to write this because I get a lot of questions about my lifestyle and why and what it is that I do. Hopefully, this will be a way for people who are curious, to get an inside view of what I do each day.

Enjoy reading and remember, own your own health decisions! I can't stress this enough. This is so very important, mostly because we have got ourselves into a lots of trouble by taking the words of people who have financial interest in us buying their products.

I'll put them into categories over the next few days to make it easy to follow first up;

Nutrition:

Eat WHOLE natural foods:

This is easy enough. If it's natural, and whole. Eat it. Pretty easy huh?! It would seem a lot of people try to do this. Where they seem to fail is the packet sauces and toppings, dressings and what not on top of their whole meats and veg. If you haven't made it from scratch, or it cannot be made fairly easily in your kitchen, then why are you eating it?

Buy food from local farmers and support them for doing good things:

With out these farmers we can not get access to clean, healthy food that can help us build vitality and health. If we don't support these farmers, we will be left to eat the crap being dished out at large supermarket chains all over the world. Not cool!

Eat Grass fed and finished beef and all other free range, organic meats:

Let me ask you this? If you are trying to become healthy, but you decide to save some money here and there on your food. So, you choose to buy lower grade meat and lower grade fruit and vegetables. You know very well that these foods are cheaper for a reason but yet you decide to buy them anyway. All in the name of saving a few bucks a week (You really do only save $3-$4 per kilo, in most cases) It all evens out.

Do you think that you can ever achieve optimal health? I'm no expert, but it makes perfect sense to me, that if you eat low grade meat and veg, then you expect that your animal/crop was raised/grown on low grade food/soil.

In particular, for cows, foods like grain and hay. Clearly this is not a food designed for COWS. You have a lot of people who are, trying to make their bodies and minds as healthy as they can. Yet, they are consuming an animal that was on a diet it was not raised to eat!

Let me ask you you. Do you think that this animal was as healthy as it could have been before it was killed? Of course not. How do you expect to become healthy, while eating animals that were not healthy them selves. There are a myriad of health benefits, but this is a whole other article.


Eat 1g of Carbohydrate for each gram of lean body mass:

As it turns out. There is no essential carbohydrate. Interesting huh? People avoid fats because they are scared, they fear it may make them fat, yet there are essential fatty acids. You do not make these, you need to EAT these essential fats to have a healthy body.

The human body can run more effectively on protein and fat.
Protein can be converted to glucose (gluconeogenisis)and every triglyceride is 3 fatty acids connected by a glycerol molecule (carbohydrate) this is more than adequate for replenishing glycogen & cognitive function.**

Eat every 3 - 4 hours:

Eating regularly will help keep your blood sugar levels even throughout the day. This will prevent a blood sugar crash. Which is normally followed by a binge of quick unhealthy snacks! To avoid this, remember that eating every 3 hours will help you from feeling this way. It gives you more energy and helps you to feel balanced.

Skipping meals and not eating at regular intervals puts your body on HIGH alert, survival mode. It does not know that you just have been busy finishing a deadline for work, getting the kids off to school and rushing home in traffic. It Assumes that you may be entering a time of famine. It will break down muscle tissue to get a blood sugar spike. In turn leaving you with less and less lean body mass each time it does this and making it harder to shift that extra body fat you may be carrying.

Eat raw and fermented foods:

Raw and fermented foods are a great way to get much needed enzymes, fatty acids and amino acids in it's more readily available state. Your body can actually use what you're consuming!

Obviously, unless you're getting your food from a clean healthy source free of any herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and chemical fertilisers then it is not advisable to consume them raw. The same goes for meats, unless you have traced the source back to the farmer and know that your animals are free range and fed a natural diet they were supposed to digest then once again, it would not be advisable to consume in any matter. Know where your food comes from, this is the key to health. That being said by law I can not advise anyone to eat raw food especially milk and meat.** You make a decision for you while you're in your kitchen and I'll do the same.

Just think about this also, when we domesticate animals and give them our cooked denatured food they end up with the same diseases as us. Interesting huh!

Seasonal Cleanse:

A great chance to give your body a break. Help it rid itself of all the impurities picked up through the season. It gives you a sense of vitality and health that you welcome at the start of a new season. Embrace the cleanse!


So there you have it. Some of the things that I do daily in my life to help me obtain health. I feel these lifestyle modifications are correct for me and that if you see anything in this article you agree with, you should research it for yourself and own that decision. You are in control of everything in your life from the thoughts you have to the food you eat. Start taking that and start cultivating health with every hour that passes, not once in a blue moon!

Post any thoughts to comments! I would love to hear from the people reading! (if that's anyone haha)

Health and Chi

Shane














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Foundations Of Health

The Foundations of Health


Foundations of Health. If you’re thinking; what are they? What do they mean? Why do we need them? And how do I obtain them? Then you need not think anymore. We will now embark on a journey to help you to get a head start on understanding how you can balance your life and health one step at a time.


Thoughts: These wonderful things control our bodies. Without thoughts, our bodies would have no purpose. Our bodies would never need to do anything. We would be a shell without a reason to exist. Thoughts are at the top of the food chain so to speak, when thinking of the human body. Thoughts are about freeing your mind. Thoughts help us set effective goals; shape our life’s direction, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It’s important to master these. Training a quiet mind is an extremely hard task. Give it ago. See how long you can just think of nothing. 3…2…1… GO… so.. How long did you last? If more then a couple of minutes then you have done very well. This is just as important as physical training. We must train the mind to be more right brain active which puts us in a greater parasympathetic state. This will require you doing tasks without an outcome, such as drawing. A great way to get your thoughts on to paper and a way to express your most inner desires and spot a direction you may wish to travel. Give it a go.
It’s important to have a positive outlook. After all, your thoughts are VERY powerful and I feel that they can create your reality to an extent. I mean after all you can’t just think you’ll be rich and expect to find wealth by sitting on your butt at home? But it can go a long way into focusing your mental energy into a direction that could help you obtain your goals. This correlates to training in that, focusing your mental state to relax and be focused on your training goals will give you the best possible chance to achieve these goals.

Breathing: I know what you’re all thinking! You’re thinking, “I know what breathing is. I do it everyday, it’s easy”. Then, you might be surprised to hear that it’s not as easy as you may first have thought. Have you ever stopped to think, why do we breathe? What is its purpose? Apart from the blatantly obvious, survival response of course, you breathe for a variety of reasons. For example; elimination of waste, stress release, emotional response, physical demands on the body, massaging of internal organs, balance, postural correction and mediation. All of these reasons can lead to a muddled up idea of the right type of breathing for the right situation.
A lot of people tend to have ‘inverted breathing’ basically, this means that we are breathing the wrong way to which we should. So, what’s the correct way to breathe?
Diaphragmatically! What is this you ask? Well, just think, big belly in, little belly out! ¾ of your breath should be in through your nose with the last ¼ through your chest. It should feel natural, like a wave of energy, in and out. Place your tongue behind your top row of teeth (where it will naturally go when you swallow) this will help you to breathe properly.


Hydration: 1.2 Billion people in this world don't have access to clean drinking water. Can you believe this? I am completely blown away by this figure every time I say it out loud or read it. Something so simple for all of us to be able to do is get access to clean drinking water here in Australia, yet I constantly have clients who do not drink even 1 litre of water daily. Then they present a myriad of common health related problems such as thirst, dry skin, loss of appetite, mental and physical fatigue, weakness, headaches, constipation, muscle cramps, tingling in limbs, weight gain, water retention, confusion, get thirst and hunger mixed up completely and over eat, just to name a few. All of these can be prevented by simply drinking your required amount of water daily, not to mention, helping out your poor liver to detoxify your body of all the stress that you may be putting it through by not drinking enough.

An easy way to find out your water needs is to take your weight in kg and multiply it by 0.033 (75 x 0.033 = 2.4 litres). The simplest way to get good quality water is to drink filtered water over tap water from a re-usable stainless steel water bottle (Klean Kanteen) and re-mineralise your water with a pinch or organic sea salt. By adding a pinch of sea salt to your water you can expect it to help with pulling excess acidity from inside the cells, especially the brain cells, generate energy in cells and help nerve cells communicate, help the absorption of nutrients from the food you eat and help with hydrochloric acid production. Just make sure it’s a clean source of salt, not your typical everyday table salt as this salt will not contribute to a healthy functioning system.

Nutrition: This section is all about the importance of eating nourishing foods to help us utilise our full potential in life. Without nourishing foods we can not focus our energies in to the right areas. We can not heal, we can not grow and we can not awaken to our full potential and experience our birth right of optimal health!
There is, and always will be great debate on healthy eating. There is a simple solution to the mass confusion while shopping for food. You could ask yourself a few simple questions.

1. Is it good for me/us? (Is it good right now based on an impulsive need or will it serve me in the long term, will it help me obtain great health?)

2. Is it good for humanity? (Were people paid good wages to supply me with nourishing food? Such as Fair trade etc. Ask yourself questions like am I supporting big business and companies, or am I helping to support community and farmers?)

3. Is it good for the environment? (What repercussion was had on the environment to supply me with the food I’m about to purchase? Was it transported hundreds or thousands of miles, which would have obvious and considerable impacts on the environment?)

By asking yourself these simple questions you can narrow down the abundance of selection out there on good “healthy” foods. You can own your own health decisions. You can own your own responsibilities. You can obtain optimal health. You can grow and heal your body. You can take charge of your life and not follow one person and put all your faith in them, which may be the wrong choice for you. By choosing to do this you own your own health and your decisions about you and your body.
After these questions have helped you to decide on the food choice you then could ask yourself questions such as:

1. Source. Where did the food come from? Was it sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and grown in chemical fertilizers? If an animal, was it treated humanely and killed with respect. Did it travel many miles to get from the soil to your plate? Has it come from a source such as a feed lot where the animal was fed food it was not designed to eat? Or did it come from a source where it was allowed to graze in its natural environment and be happy and stress free?

2. Process. Asking yourself this question is good to help you understand. What process has gone on to get the food to look, taste or feel a certain way? How did it get to my plate? Did it look like this when it was alive? What will I need to do to the food to be able to eat it?



Movement: There seems to be an un-spoken understanding that we all need movement in our lives. We all know that with movement, we feel better, healthier and fitter. So, why is it that a lot of the population these days decided that they have no time? They don’t have enough energy? They don’t know how? They can’t afford to move? Well, let me try to help and address each of these points.
No time: This is something I hear day in and day out, people constantly telling me that they don’t have any time to exercise. Everyday we are each given 24 hours. With this 24hrs we have the choice to either use it effectively or waste it away.
I ask my clients. “What will you do with the 24 hours you have been given today?” This put’s it into perspective and sometimes this question alone is enough to make people sit up and think, maybe they don’t have there priorities in check. Maybe they do in fact have the time, but have chosen to waste it. I also can tell you that not all movement will take up any more extra time then going to the toilet for example. I suggest to people who say they “honestly do not have time” to evaluate their days; we can always manage to scrape together a few extra minutes a day. This will also tell me how important their goals are. The more dedicated, the more time you may find to allow yourself to achieve these goals.
You can maximise your time in so many ways. A few simple ways to do so are: While watching your favourite TV show, listening to music, reading, emailing, texting, face-booking or anything pretty much a part from driving you can use this time to squat, lunge, push, pull or twist. Use the “down-time” of these activities. Be creative with it. While waiting for a page to load on the internet use that time to get extra movement. If using facebook, play a game such as every time someone comments on your profile you will stop what you’re doing and do a set of squats, lunges or push-ups. This makes it fun and a great way to maximise your time. These are just a few ways. Use your imagination!
They don’t have enough energy?: This I hear a lot also. To me it’s a cycle of bad habits. Normally people who ignore the foundations of health find they have very low amounts of energy, in turn they drop movement out of their life. Who can blame them, I mean let’s look at it for a second. They have bad thoughts, poor nutrition, possibly de-hydrated and as most of the population inverted breathing of course you don’t have energy to move. So, the take home message here is to focus on getting better at the foundations of health and this will bring you closer to ending a lot of your ailments.
Can’t afford it and don’t know how: Movement is FREE this is the best part. You have been given access to so many wonderful locations on this planet for you to use, free of charge. You don’t need to pay a gym membership to get a good movement session in. Your local park will have a NATURAL gym built into every one of them. Do what comes natural when thinking of what you can do in a park to get good movement. Run, jump, roll, walk, jog, swim have FUN!!
For the how? We all have access to a wonderful thing called the internet. With thousands of great minds out there and loads of Web Pages for you to look through. You have no real excuse to not learn. One of my favourites is www.originofenergy.com check out what these guys are doing. Live by example. Also check out http://www.ovvioorganics.com.au/ for some awesome herbal teas and fantastic natural products!


Rhythm: Rhythm is simple, or so it would seem at first. However, it still amazes me that people will sacrifice their sleep for a TV program, an email, a deadline for a job they hate, a late night movie. What we have to understand is that if we can not calm our thoughts and get a good nights rest then how can we possibly fully ever recover so that we are able to tackle the next day head on?
As I have said before, you get a gift everyday of 24 hours to use up. You need to split this in to so many sections but one section that you can never really give the short straw too is Rhythm/sleep. This section I feel, in my opinion this is one of the most important areas to focus our time and energy on.
Some simple rules to live by to maximise our recovery is.

1. In bed and optimally asleep before 10:30pm every night.
2. Rise with the sun naturally and peacefully.
3. Don’t over sleep. If you are getting to bed at 10:30pm you could rise at around 6:30am. A solid 8 hours sleep.
4. Complete darkness. This will help you fall into a deeper sleep.
5. Try to limit the electro magnetic stress in your room. Keep your room for sleeping. This means NO computers, phones or televisions that are on standby or on at the power point. Ideally, turn your power off at the mains to not only get rid of the electro magnetic stress that surrounds you but to also save on energy and help our planet.

Following these simple rules will help you with all your health related goals. How can it not? After all you’re now giving your body the best chance to do what you want it to do, which is trust you and work with you. Rather then it feeling like it can not trust you and has to do things to sustain its own life!




Even after all this information, make sure you keep loving life and keep smiling!

This is a lifestyle and not a quick fix, so it’s important to realise that this can take a while to master. Step by step, day by day, hour by hour you will get there. There is always a way and we can all do it. 


Health & Chi,


Shane Richards
Fitness First – Personal Trainer
0405 477 843