Plant-based recipes #1 Cauliflower
Plant-based eating…let’s do this ONE meal at a time. This week’s superstar is cauliflower. Mash it, sauce it, or marinate it, cauliflower is your new best friend. Discover how to quickly create easy and delicious meal in minutes with these plant-based recipes that build immunity and release weight.
Do You Need to Eat Meat to Get Enough Protein?
With the release of the documentary The Game Changers, there has been a growing interest in the benefits of plant-based foods and a move away from animal protein. . However this raises the issue of getting enough protein. . We need protein to build & repair...
Watch ‘The Game Changers’ and Embrace Plant-Based Whole Foods
Has 'The Game Changers' documentary opened your eyes to the power of plant-based whole foods? Check it out here. . After years of being bombarded about the Paleo and Keto diets, I'm excited that we are being reminded about nature's nourishing foods. . Plant-based...
Easy Immune-Boosting Habits To Do From Home
Whether you've had cancer or not, boosting your immune system in our current COVID-19 season is a worthy goal. You can do a lot to increase your resistance to this nasty virus. . I realise that you may not always have access to immune-boosting foods but there are...
Don’t Let Cancer Kill Your Confidence
One day you're healthy and the next you're facing your mortality. . Cancer was a kick in the guts, as I'd believed that my diet and lifestyle was 'healthy' enough to protect me from all diseases including cancer. I'd stayed in a healthy weight range, had kept active,...
If You Get a Cancer Diagnosis: Breathe
I truly hope you are NEVER in this situation. But if you are… . Take a moment and breathe. I truly hope you are NEVER in this situation. But if you are… . Take a moment and breathe. . Explore ALL your options before you decide what is best for YOU. You usually...
It’s Okay to Insist
When you think about turning down a piece of cake to someone you're close to, or telling your family you want to eat less meat, or going on a girls night out and just ordering a mineral water… What thought or emotion comes next? . Do you cringe at the thought of...
It’s Hard for Me to Talk About This
Because it’s SO personal. Such a delicate topic. . Yet the health professional in me KNOWS that a huge percentage of women who’ve survived cancer are overlooking this incredibly vital piece in making sure they never have to face cancer again. . Can I whisper it to...
Counting the Cost of Weight Loss After Cancer – Part 3
I do get the attraction of using shakes and supplements to lose weight. . You feel like you've ticked all the health boxes when you whip up a shake or pop vege pills. It's quick and easy and the marketing helps us to feel that we've made a healthy choice AND met all...
Counting the Cost of Weight Loss After Cancer – Part 2
The way you lose weight matters… Mind you 'weight release' has become more popular, and I concur that words matter and we do try to find things we lose! . Let's release weight and NOT go and find it again. Semantics aside, working towards a healthy body weight does...
Counting the Cost of Weight Loss After Cancer – Part 1
I'm not going to lie - your weight matters and it’s a worthy goal to be a healthy weight. . Because, after smoking, any extra pounds we are carrying increase our risk of getting cancer again. So yes, I definitely encourage my clients to work towards releasing weight....
Is There a Link Between Sugar and Cancer?
Ok so sugar may be addictive, but what about its connection to cancer? . Over the past few years we've been reading statements like: Sugar molecules called O-glycans are found in large quantities in most cancers Sugar actively encourages and aids the growth of cancer...
Where do You Want to Be?
Where do you want to be in your post-cancer healthy lifestyle? . Did you have all these great ideas about how healthy you were going to get when your treatment was over? . Did you think that facing your mortality was going to be the motivation you finally needed to...
Is Sugar Your Nemesis?
Do you have a love/hate relationship with sugar that beckons EVERY day? . Whether it's that energy-kicking morning caramel latte, pick-me-up afternoon chocolate bar or evening sneaky bowl of ice-cream, you just can't seem to break the habit. . Why is it so damn hard...
Please Re-Think How Much You Drink – Whether You’ve Had Cancer or Not!
I know I bang on and on about alcohol, but for good reason. If you've had cancer, before you make any other diet and lifestyle modification - address the alcohol. . Yes it's that big a deal. . Not just because of the: Worthless calories Slowed metabolism Dissolved...
A New Years Resolution for Cancer Survivors that Doesn’t Involve Food or Exercise!
New Year's resolutions are huge this time of year. The common ones are losing weight, eating healthy and exercising more - which are probably valid for 90% of the population. . But I want to propose something less arduous that really hones in on your health and may...
A Hearty Cancer-Recovery Christmas Menu
Christmas brings an enormous amount of opportunities to EAT. Without some prior planning and preparation, we can be left with little or no healthy choices. . Even before I was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2013, I was a health nut (comes with the Dietitian...
How Do We Make Healthy Eating a Lifestyle?
Whether you've had cancer or not, achieving and maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle is an ongoing process. Many people think that because you've had cancer you're automatically motivated to eat healthily. . But that's simply not the case for most survivors - we...
Did You Do Everything “Right” & Still Got Cancer?
I was devastated when I heard those words…you've got breast cancer! I'd maintained a healthy weight, exercised and always eaten 'healthy', having been a Dietitian for over 20 years! . I had also breastfed my 4 children - another lifestyle factor that is supposed to...
The Cost of Processed Foods on Your Health
Have you ever thought about the damage that processed foods have on your health? . Study after study shows that every time a population adopts a Western diet, within a few years they start to develop Western diseases. . If we only had to eat for energy, we could...
Can You Drink Alcohol As Part of Your Cancer Recovery Lifestyle?
Alcohol is one of the biggest stumbling blocks I see so many women struggle with, not just cancer survivors. . I totally get it! You can read about my journey at the end of this blog. . We all know the obvious side effects of alcohol: • It contains calories and they...
Love Your Liver & Lower Estrogen as Part of Your Cancer-Recovery Lifestyle
As women, we can all benefit from balancing our hormones and reducing our risk of getting cancer, because high levels of estrogen are associated with an increased risk of female cancers. . The symptoms of unbalanced hormones range from: • Heavy bleeding • Painful...
Estrogen – Friend or Foe for Women Cancer Survivors?
Or should that be all women? . Estrogen is a beautiful hormone, when it's balanced. When there is hormonal harmony we can sail through our monthly cycle, breeze through menopause AND not increase our risk of female cancers! . Estrogen is also protective against...
Creative Veges 101 – Zucchini
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals every day This week is zucchini, also known as courgette, and is another vegetable...
Creative Veges 101 – Kale
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals every day This week is kale, a green leafy cruciferous vegetable which has a slightly...
Creative Veges 101 – Pumpkin
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is pumpkin, a vegetable that lends itself equally to sweet and...
Creative Veges 101 – Eggplant
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is eggplant or aubergine, another nightshade vegetable that is...
Creative Veges 101 – Beetroot
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is beetroot - another delicious root vegetable with some amazing...
Creative Veges 101 – Sweet Potato
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is sweet potato - a delicious, healthy comfort food.Sweet potato is...
Creative Veges 101 – Spinach
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is spinach, a well-known superfood.Spinach and other dark leafy...
Creative Veges 101 – Capsicum
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is capsicum, which is technically a fruit but we mostly think of it...
Creative Veges 101 – Broccoli
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is Broccoli, another vegetable from the cruciferous...
Creative Veges 101 – Cauliflower
Welcome to Creative Veges 101 where I take you on a journey of learning how to: Get creative with vegetables Experiment with delicious quick recipes Easily get them into your meals everyday This week is Cauliflower, a very underestimated vegetable. Cauliflower is one...
Lowering the risk of cancer with holistic living – an interview with Bev Roberts
Whenever I get to retell my story, I always hear myself say, 'I was the last person I thought would get cancer'. I was diagnosed at 48 and had been a Dietitian for over 20 years. I had left the food pyramid behind years before, because I knew that what I ate mattered...
How do you stay positive after a cancer diagnosis?
When you hear those words, 'You have cancer', you're immediately filled with fear. . I'll never forget that moment, when everything stopped and I had to face my mortality. I did not want to die, and worse, I did not want my children to be motherless. . A mastectomy...
Why I hate telling cancer survivors I’m a dietitian
What do you think of when I say 'dietitian'? Deprivation diets? Healthy food pyramid? Outdated, industry-driven recommendations? I asked that question in a business group this week and in less than 24 hours over 60 women had responded and none of them were positive....
Has the ‘I Quit Sugar’ movement confused you?
As cancer survivors, you may be avoiding sugar because you've read that 'sugar feeds cancer'. . Whilst some of the research is sketchy, other studies are showing that cancer isn't that fussy and will use whatever it can as a fuel source! Regardless, sugar is not a...
The balance between living in fear of getting cancer again and NOT caring at all
When you've had cancer you live with a remnant of fear that it will come back. It's like a little black cloud that hangs around, sometimes it's close and other times it's far away. . The statistics show that recurrence is most likely to happen in the first 5 years,...
You ‘think’ your post-cancer diet is pretty healthy?
Often when we compare our diets to those around us, it can seem that what we're eating is far more 'healthy' than everyone else…so we should be OK right? I know that before I got cancer I thought I was ticking all the diet and lifestyle boxes to not get cancer. . So...
Where’s the cancer-kicking fibre in your diet?
Fibre has been getting a lot of attention lately and for good reason - we don't eat enough of it and our health is suffering. . Many of my clients are NOT regular! This means daily girls! And if you need a coffee to help get things moving you're classified as...
Was it random bad luck that you got cancer?
You may have read that we all develop cancer cells, but it depends on our immune system as to whether they grow or die. All your cells have a specific life-span, except cancer. They don't have an off-button, they keep on multiplying uncontrollably and eventually form...
Did you contribute to your cancer?
At some point after our diagnosis, most of us ask ourselves a few questions. Initially it might be "Why me?', then "Did I do something to cause my cancer?" . You may especially start to ask these types of questions if you've seen some of the new research showing that...
Exercise is the icing on the nutritional cake for cancer survivors
Prior to my cancer diagnosis at 48, I had always exercised. . I had 4 children in 5 years in my early thirties, so life was busy but I found a way. For years a like-minded friend and I would meet at the pool with our gaggle of seven, and take turns doing laps a few...
Is a lack of sleep the missing link to your optimal health?
In recent times the importance of adequate sleep has come to light. . In fact your brain needs you to sleep so it can remove toxic proteins from its neurons that build up as a normal by-product of your daily activities! A lack of sleep can negatively impact your body...
Is there a link between EMFs and your health?
This week I interviewed Dianne Elson from Rest Assured North Queensland. Check out the interview here. Dianne explains: . I had read about the adverse health effects associated with exposure to EMF and wanted to educate myself on the topic as much as possible. I...
Embracing whole plant foods: The best cancer-kicking strategy for women
What immediately comes to mind when I say "Dietitian"? . Deprivation diets? Weight loss? Healthy food pyramid? . Sometimes I don't want to tell people I'm a Dietitian. Not because they quickly excuse what they are eating or hide the contents of their trolley, but...
Supporting your health after cancer if you are susceptible to addiction
When do you decide enough is enough? When that one glass of wine continually turns into two? Or is it when that weekend chocolate treat becomes a daily affair and you realise that it's time to reign it in? . The twist is that when you've had cancer, you need to take...
Why your health needs you to get back into the kitchen post-cancer
After life returns to some kind of normalcy, you will no doubt find yourself back in the kitchen. Even if your pre-cancer diet was 'healthy', or so you thought, you are now keener than ever to eat well. . You've researched a lot since your diagnosis, and you know...
Plan your diet to optimise your health after cancer
After the intensity of treatment is over, it's easy to get caught up in popular protocols that promise all sorts of cancer-fighting solutions. I know I did, all driven by fear. . When in reality, there were quite a few cancer-fighting solutions right in front of me....
More reasons to ditch sugar after a cancer diagnosis
It wasn’t that long ago that we didn’t think twice about eating sugar. After all it was just a benign calorie that could cause tooth decay. Haven’t we come a long way since then! . For those who have had a cancer diagnosis and have begun the climb back up to regain...