Why in the world do you want to get fit this Spring? Why do you want to eat clean, good mood food? Why do you want to give meditation a go? Why did you choose to sign up in the first place?

At Spring, we don’t ask you for a lot.  Train as much or as little as you like.  Follow the recipes if you want to, or don’t.  OK, so we’re going to bribe you to track your mood, but for the most part it’s completely up to you how much you put into this feel-good challenge.

What we do recommend is that you stop for a few minutes right now and think about why you signed up in the first place.  If you can keep that in mind, you’re more likely to get what you’re looking for.  It’ll leave you feeling on top of the world.

So let me share with you what I’m looking for (other than a hugely successful campaign that gains national media attention, gets people talking about depression and raises a small fortune for Crisis Support Services).  I want to learn to relax on demand.  I’m perfectly capable of kicking back on holiday, even over the weekend.  But wouldn’t it be better if I could relax a little each day?  So I’m going to throw myself into the mini-meditations and commit to doing them at least once a day…. maybe even twice.  According to all the regular meditators out there, it could change my life, so I’m willing to give it a go.

Whatever your motivation is for taking on Spring, keep it in mind and use it as motivation.  No-one else can change your body, your health habits or your mind for you.  So get on with it and remember to have fun!

Guest post by Lisa Snowdon, Vibrant Nutrition

Just like anything you do in life, if you want to be successful, you have to have a game plan ready. You need to have effective strategies to help you reach your goals. The same goes for weight loss. Here are 7 healthy weight loss strategies that over time with my clients I’ve discovered need to be address to give long-term healthy weight loss.

1. Goal Setting

Goal setting is extremely important. You need to get clear on what you want to achieve and why. Be specific. How much weight do you want to lose? Why do you want to lose weight? How long would you give yourself to lose a specific amount of weight? Having clear goals help you to have something to strive towards.

2. Diet Basics

When it comes to weight loss, food is probably the most important aspect. You need to have a solid diet plan, which covers your daily vitamin needs, when and how to eat and your macronutrient ratio intake of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats. Never forget to hydrate yourself with filtered water as well.

3. Exercise

While dieting is 70-80% of the weight loss equation, exercising is the other 20-30%. Exercising helps you to burn off extra calories to help you be in a caloric deficit state and burn off fat stores. Be sure to be consistent and exercise regularly. If possible, choose exercises that you enjoy.

4. Detox From Sugar

Sugar contains empty calories, which are unhealthy and hinder you from fat loss. It also causes sugar cravings, which makes you want more and more and more. Conquer sugar cravings and balance your mood by removing sugar, wheat, and dairy from your diet for a few weeks. You’ll find the experience enlightening.

5. Eat For Energy

Be sure to eat every 3 to 4 hours to boost your metabolism and keep your body energized. The key is to eat clean food such as green leafy vegetables, lean protein, low glycemic carbohydrates, healthy fats and raw foods. Clean food gives your body gradual energy as they are digested more efficiently and slowly.

6. Eat For Improved Digestion

This means chewing properly and slowly when you eat, eat in a relaxed environment, and limit bread intake. This will help your body to be able to digest and absorb nutrients as efficiently as possible. Don’t drink with your meals; this dilutes digestive juices making digestion harder. Drink your water between meals.

7. Stress Management Techniques

Stress results in the production of the stress hormone called ‘cortisol’. Cortisol causes your body to hold onto your fat stores, and as a result, it makes it harder to lose weight. Learn some stress management techniques like yoga, visualization, meditation and relaxation breathing methods to help stabilize both mood and weight.

If you’re ready to improve your diet and lifestyle join my Whole food for a Healthy, Happy Body Program and learn how to transform your health. 20% of your investment is donated to Crisis Support Services, thanks to Spring.  Find out more….

This is a guest blog by Christiane Alber

What you FOCUS on is what you get, to the exclusion of everything else, as explained in this example.

Let’s say you want to buy a red Volkswagen Golf. It’s a German car and is not very common in Australia.  All of a sudden, as soon as you are focussing on wanting to buy this particular car, you see it everywhere.

Have you ever experienced a situation like that? Have you wondered why this thing you are thinking about is suddenly everywhere? It seems like it comes out of the blue but there is an explanation for it.  The red cars have always been there, you just didn’t notice them. They were simply not in your focus.

The part of your brain responsible for you suddenly noticing the red cars is the Reticular Activating System – or RAS. The RAS is the automatic mechanism inside your brain that brings relevant information to your attention. It’s the best search engine, even better than Google!

• It plays a vital part in your ability to achieve goals.
• Your RAS is like a filter between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind. It takes instructions from your conscious mind and passes them on to your subconscious.
• You can deliberately program the RAS by choosing the exact messages you send from your conscious mind. For example, you can set goals, use affirmations, or visualise what you want to achieve.
• Your RAS cannot distinguish between ‘real events’ and ‘synthetic’ (created) events. In other words it tends to believe whatever you tell it.

Imagine going into a dark warehouse with a torch. Everything outside the beam is excluded and you won’t see it. It can’t pick up what it isn’t focused on. Our lives and how we experience our world is just like this. We will simply not be aware of things beyond our focus.

FOCUS is a choice…choose well!  If you choose to focus on the things you don’t like in your life you get more of it. The great things in life are also part of your reality. It’s a matter of shifting the beam of light onto them so that you can see and experience them as well. It only takes a small shift in your mindset to see and experience things differently.

Feel Good Tip: Acknowledgement & Gratitude journal

Every day write down 3 things you are grateful for in your life and 5 things you can acknowledge yourself for, things that you’ve done well.  This will assist you in shifting your focus from disempowering to empowering thoughts, from scarcity to abundance and from impossibilities to opportunities. It will help you see, experience and appreciate all the beautiful things that are already part of your life.

Find out more about what Christiane Alber, The Feel Good Goddess @ inSync Coaching & Development does and how she can help you at:

• facebook.com/bodymindspiritinsync
• facebook.com/FeelGoodGoddess
• www.feelgoodgoddess.com.au (check it out and receive the free powerful video, “The 5 Steps to a Feel Good Mindset”)

Real people, real stories

The link above will take you to the personal stories of Jenny, Adam, Vanessa and Tom.  Why?  Because it is people like these four that are the driving force behind Spring.

Yes, we want you to get healthy and happy.  Yes, we want to spread the word that fitness is a great tool for tackling depression.  Yes, we want to get Australia on it’s feet.  But, ultimately, we want to raise funds for Crisis Support Services so that they can support more people who are dealing with difficult times.

Please take just 4 minutes to listen to these stories and reflect on what these people have been through.  Their lives have taken a turn for the better thanks to the counsellors at Crisis Support Services.  Now imagine if these services could be made available to more and more people, all over Australia.

Remember, helplines aren’t just for other people.  If you are struggling and don’t know where to turn or are worried about someone you care about, the counsellors at Crisis Support Services will be happy to help you.  The best place to start is the Beyond Blue info-line, 1300 224 636.  You’ll be listened to and pointed in the right direction, no matter what it is that’s keeping you up at night.

Annecy, France

Things have been a little quiet on the blog front lately.  For good reason… I’ve been running around with Le Tour de France.  Encouraging clients to ride up epic mountains, chasing the official tour riders, assisting people like you and I riding a stage of the tour and eating the odd croissant on the way…. Which means I’m now back into the sugar detox, but that’s a whole nother story.

However, Spring is fast approaching and it’s time to get you all motivated and ready for the healthiest, happiest month of the year.

For now, please keep in touch with us.  Follow us on twitter, check out our facebook page and drop us a line if you have any questions.

It’s only natural to turn to hot drinks in the cooler months.  They’ll warm you up from the inside out and are a great way to warm up frozen fingers.  But too many coffees or hot chocolates aren’t good for anyone.

There are ways to warm up without the caffeine hit or the sugar high.  Here are 5 reasons to drink more green tea:

1. Reduce depression. Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea leaves. It is this substance that is thought to provide a relaxing and tranquilizing effect.
2. Care for your skin. Green tea can also help with wrinkles and the signs of aging. This is due to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.
3. Avoid Heart Disease. Scientists think that green tea works on the lining of blood vessels, helping to keep them relaxed and better able to withstand changes in blood pressure. It may also protect against the formation of clots, which are the primary cause of heart attacks.
4. Anti-viral and Anti-bacterial qualities. Tea catechins are strong antibacterial and antiviral agents which make them effective for treating everything from influenza to cancer.
5. Lose Weight. Green tea increases the metabolism. The polyphenol found in green tea works to intensify levels of fat oxidation and the rate at which your body turns food into energy.

As most of you know, Good Mood Food is coming to Spring this year.  That’s right – you don’t just get 30 Days of Feel-good Fitness.  You’ll get meal planners, recipes and tips.

Food has a big impact on our mood.  Sugar lifts us up, then sends us crashing down.  Hunger can make us edgy, or leads to what a friend describes as being ‘hangry’ – hungry & angry.  Read on for a taste of Good Mood Food, with some simple tips for eating out.  A big thank you to Vibrant Nutrition, who have created Good Mood Food.

Mexican - Fajita’s without the tortillas are a good choice. You can usually order extra sides of guacamole and salsa and have a side salad if you’re hungry. Avoid tortilla shells, wraps, chips and rice. Beans are fine, especially for vegetarians.

Indian - Tandoori is a good option. Grilled meats or vegetables are fine. Stick to tomato or coconut milk sauces and avoid the creamy ones. Skip the breads and rice.

Italian - Grilled or baked chicken, fish or seafood are perfect choices. Even meatballs with tomato sauce are fine with steamed vegetables or salad. Avoid pasta, bread and breadcrumbed meat or cheese. Get a bowl of olives to nibble as a starter. Pizza is simply not an option when on a weight loss program – just say NO.

Thai food - It’s very hard to avoid palm sugar with Thai food as they add it to everything. They do make lovely salads though and you can ask for half a lime to dress it yourself. Fish can also be a good choice.

Dealing with depression is hard enough.  But trying to keep on top of work responsibilities and relationships can be a whole lot worse.  I’ve included the key points from a blog post by Betsy Aimee, below.  If you or someone you know is dealing with depression at the moment, I’d recommend reading the full post.

What you need to know when faced with depression at work

1. Get help: If you’re not already, make sure you seek help and stick with it
2. Find support: Once you speak to close friends, you’ll find that some of them have been through similar experiences.  Find a couple who can help you through this.
3. Set clear goals: Depression can feel like a fog.  Set clear goals each day to try and get your focus back.
4. Speak up: You may not want your employer to know that you are depressed.  Remind yourself that it’s better they know you have a medical condition than them thinking you have simply lost interest in your job.  If you don’t feel comfortable approaching your manager, go to HR first.
5. Take care of yourself: No-one can give from an empty bucket, so take the time you need to fill your bucket to the brim.

This is based on an article I discovered at Reach Out, you can read the full article here.

For those of you in a rush, here’s the short version…..
About 50% of our happiness is set through genetics.  Some is affected by circumstances, and some we can control.  The tips below are for maximising happiness in the areas that we can control.

1. Be in the present.  Don’t be distracted by the past or the future.
2. Take notice of the little things in life and in the world.  And enjoy them.
3. Build and maintain good quality relationships.
4. Train your mind.
5. Use your strengths.
6. Plan for happiness.

You don’t need to change your attitude to everything right now.  Simply be aware that you can take responsibility for your own happiness and take steps to improve it.  And wouldn’t we all love to be a little happier?

An easier way to make healthy habits stick for good

Have you ever had that burst of motivation to get incredibly healthy? Then turned your life on it’s head, trying to fit in as many new healthy habits as possible?  Did it work? Probably not.

Here’s a better idea:

Write down 11 healthy habits that you’d like to implement.  They can be little things, like go to bed earlier.  Or big things, like give up smoking. Start one new habit tomorrow.  Practise it daily.

Put a reminder in your diary to implement your 2nd habit in 3 weeks time.  Then your 3rd habit in 6 weeks time.  Keep going, until you have one habit in your diary every 3 weeks for 30 weeks.  By the time you start your 2nd habit, habit no.1 should be a normal part of daily life.  This approach takes some discipline, but it works.  And who said making change was going to be easy anyway?