How does it happen?
At the start of their sessions, members head into our wellbeing room to perform their scan which takes only 45secs in a private space. Scan data is uploaded into in InBody Scan app so members can track progress.

Why is Scan Week Important?
Scan week serves as a powerful tool for:

• Monitoring Progress: Track changes in body composition to assess the effectiveness of workouts and nutrition habits.
• Accountability and Motivation: Serve as a motivator to stay consistent, offering a tangible way to measure progress and celebrate achievements.

What Happens After Scan Week?
Once scan week is complete, it's time to review member's results and chart your path forward. We celebrate wins and work with members to offer guidance on the changes they can focus on.

Implementation Week: Members are encouraged to take action following scan week, as we enter implementation week members take their insights and new action points and focus on implementing the necessary changes to their fitness routines, nutrition or lifestyle habits. 

Scan week is more than just a routine check-in—it's a vital part of our members journey toward sustainable wellness and an active lifestyle. 

Want to get the support and get started on your very own journey?  Get in touch TODAY

Let's talk about something many of us struggle with: stress eating. Unsurprisingly, 60 per cent of people admit to facing this challenge. So if this sounds like you, you are not alone! 

Whether stressed, anxious, sad, bored, or grieving, turning to food for comfort feels natural. Food provides temporary relief, giving us a momentary escape from our emotional troubles. 

But here's the thing: stress eating is like using food to solve a problem that food can't actually solve.

Unfortunately, most people who eat emotionally feel trapped and guilty afterwards, keeping this behaviour in a never-ending cycle. 
So, now is the perfect time to start practicing self-compassion and break free from this destructive cycle.
Self-compassion means treating yourself with generosity, honesty, and kindness. 
Those struggling with stress eating often engage in negative self-talk before, during, and after these stress-eating episodes. 

Surprisingly, this negative self-talk triggers dopamine release in the brain, which is involved in forming habits and addiction. This means that negative self-talk can perpetuate the cycle of stress eating and feeling guilty about it. 
But self-compassion is a powerful tool that can interrupt this destructive loop and help you work on your stress-eating habits with kindness.
Now, let's be clear: self-compassion doesn't mean giving yourself a free pass to eat whatever you want without restraint. Instead, it involves three key elements:

1. Mindfulness: Take a moment to be aware of your actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences without judgment. By practicing mindfulness, you can objectively observe and understand your stress-eating habits better.
2. Common humanity: we shouldn't see our struggles and failures as personal failings; instead, we should view our limitations as aspects that make us human.
3. Self-kindness: Treat yourself with generosity and decency. Offer yourself the same compassion and understanding you would give to a close friend or loved one.

When you feel the urge to stress eat, try interrupting the cycle with self-compassion and kindness. 

It's important to realise that self-compassion isn't an excuse for stress eating. 
Instead, it aims to alleviate the guilt and shame often associated with these behaviours. 
By practicing self-compassion, you can break free from the guilt-overeating cycle and find healthier ways to cope with your emotions.

Remember, self-compassion is a powerful tool for personal growth and well-being. Embrace mindfulness, acknowledge that others share your struggles, and be kind to yourself in moments of vulnerability. 

By cultivating self-compassion, you can opt out of the stress-eating cycle, develop healthier coping mechanisms, and foster a more positive relationship with food and yourself. You've got this!

Understanding Coffee's Impact on Weight:
Coffee is a widely consumed beverage that offers more than just a morning pick-me-up. It contains caffeine, a stimulant that can boost metabolism and enhance fat burning. By incorporating coffee strategically into your daily routine and counting it as part of your food intake, you can harness its potential to support your weight management goals.

However, this all depends on how you are having your coffee.

Counting Coffee as Food:
When counting coffee as food, it's essential to consider the ingredients and additions you include in your cup. If you opt for black coffee without sugar or cream, it contains minimal calories and can be considered a zero-calorie beverage. However, the calorie count can rise substantially once you add sugar, milk, flavored syrups, or whipped cream.

If you are having coffees with a high amount of milk and sugar, I recommend you move towards healthier options for coffee or include the coffee as part of your intake.
For example, you could swap out your morning snack of yogurt and instead have the coffee with a piece of fruit or reduce the amount of milk in your cereal if you are pairing it with breakfast.
Milky coffees need to be counted as food and cannot be layered on top of meals or in between meals as a snack. Failing to count these calories as part of your daily intake may be affecting your ability to shift body fat.  

If you enjoy 2-3 lattes per day, you may be surprised by the impact of reducing or choosing healthier options for your coffee on your waistline.

Consider switching to plant-based milk options, such as almond or oat milk, and reducing the amount of sugar or sweeteners you use. Also you can reduce the size of your lattes, reduce how many you are having each day, include them as part of your meals or simply enjoy the healthy benefits of a pure black coffee!

Need some help getting into healthier habits? Check out our upcoming 21 Day Kickstart!

Why Snacking in the Afternoon Matters:
Snacking in the afternoon is more important than you might think! Firstly, it's easy to overconsume calories from high-fat and high-sugar snacks like chocolate, chips, or cheese and biscuits when hunger strikes. By incorporating a healthy and balanced afternoon snack, you can avoid this pitfall and stay on track with your health goals.
Secondly, adding a nourishing snack in the afternoon can take the edge off your hunger at dinner, which means consuming less overall. 
A balanced afternoon snack is a great strategy for maintaining a healthy weight.
Now, let's explore tips to make your snacks healthier:

1. Plan: Prepare your snacks the night before or the morning so you're armed and ready when those mid-day hunger pangs strike.
2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate: Quench your thirst before you snack! Keep your energy levels up by hydrating, to help with the afternoon energy slump. Adding a glass of water or herbal tea (my go-to is green tea), can curb cravings, bring mindfulness to your snacking and help you to feel satisfied with less.
3. Incorporate Protein: Add protein as part of your afternoon snacks, like Greek yogurt, hummus, a handful of nuts or seeds, or boiled eggs. Adding protein will keep you fuller and give you the nutrients your body needs.
4. Keep It Fiber-Rich: The secret weapon against overeating! Boosting your snacks with fibre, means snacks take longer to digest and leave you feeling fuller for longer. High-fibre options like berries, apples, bananas, raw veggies, and chia seeds. 

Incorporating a balanced afternoon snack can make a world of difference to your food choices, daily caloric intake, and overall weight management. Embrace these simple yet impactful changes and observe as your body changes.


PS: Exciting news! Our next 21 Day Kickstart program is just around the corner, starting Monday 11th July. Click here for all the details: ​https://sentiencept.com.au/21day.html

It seemed like every time I tried to make progress towards creating this membership platform, something else got in the way and forced me to put it off yet again.
But here I am today – 15 years later – and there's no more delaying now!

Being fit and healthy has helped me get through all these tough times, so now I want nothing more than to share my knowledge and experience with others who need it too.
So, I plan on launching a membership site that does exactly that.

I'll launch it on 10th October, 2023 and I cannot wait to get started!

I can't stop thinking about where a community dedicated to confidence in leading active and healthy lives, could lead us in one year, three years or five years from now.

So, if you're frustrated with not achieving a healthy weight and lifestyle and want to be shown exactly what you need to do, I'd like to invite you to join me on this journey and become a founding member.
Currently, this idea is very rough around the edges. But the vision is there.

And that's why I'm extending an early invitation to you, especially if you're willing to help me shape this idea.

I'm opening up a limited number of founding member spots into my membership today until Wednesday for just $15 per month, which means I will lock in that founder member rate for as long as you remain a member. Send an email to [email protected] with 'yes, I'd like to be a founder member'.
When this program is complete and extended to the general public, I anticipate the starting price will be around $27 per month.

This will be an online resource, so you will not need to access my personal training studio.
As I said, all the details for this still need to be figured out, nothing has officially been created. But the goal is to formally launch this on 10th October.

I'm only offering the founder member rates for four days until Wednesday, and I'll never offer the member foundation rate for this membership again.

Between now and the program's launch on 10th October, I will communicate with you fortnightly, asking for your input and offering updates and behind-the-scenes looks into the implementation. And you will immediately join a community of people working to improve their health; that alone will get you tidying up your habits and starting to make progress.

So, if you'd like to join me in this or have questions, send an email to [email protected] with 'Yes, I'd like to be a founding member' by Wednesday 10th, May at 5pm, and I'll send you details on how to make your payment.
I am thankful for your support, and I can't wait to have you as a founding member in this journey with me!

If you’re like most people, sugar cravings can be hard to ignore. Whether it’s the sweet taste of a cookie after dinner or a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, sometimes our bodies just crave sugar! But if you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake, it can feel impossible to satisfy those cravings. In this blog post, we’ll explore why it can be so hard to kick the sugar habit and provide some tips on how you can beat your sugar cravings for good. 

Why We Crave Sugar 
The first step in overcoming your sugar cravings is understanding why they exist in the first place. Research has shown that high quantities of sugar cause brain changes similar to nicotine addiction. This means that when we consume too much sugar, our brains become wired to crave more and more of it!
Additionally, after a couple of days of reduced sugar intake, many people find that they experience physical withdrawal symptoms such as headaches or irritability. These are familiar to anyone who has tried decreasing their sugar intake for any length of time. Finally, science shows us that bad gut bacteria build up inside us when we consume too much sugar—and these bacteria can also trigger cravings. 

How To Beat Your Cravings 
So now that you understand why fighting your cravings can be so hard, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how you can beat them for good!
The key is in making small but consistent changes over time; research has shown that if you stick with these changes for 8-10 days, you’ll likely find yourself without a desire for sugary foods and drinks anymore!
Here are some tips on how to start reducing your sugar consumption: 
• Start by substituting sugary snacks with healthier ones like fruit or nuts; 
• Avoid processed foods as much as possible since they often contain hidden sugars; 
• Eat meals at regular intervals throughout the day; skipping meals increases hunger and makes it easier to reach for unhealthy snacks; and 
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day; this will help prevent dehydration which can lead to increased hunger.  
• Add probiotics and probiotic containing foods to your day: including kimchi, kefir, yoghurt, sauerkraut and probiotic supplements

Reducing your sugar intake may seem daunting at first but with these simple steps and a bit of dedication, you’ll soon find yourself free from those pesky cravings!

Remember, stick with it for 8-10 days and stay focused on healthy alternatives like fruits and nuts instead—your body will thank you later!

​With these tips in mind, conquering your own sweet tooth will soon be within reach!

Let's dive in:
​1) Structured meal times: set your meal times; a guide is to eat every 3-4 hours and make sure you do not have anything in between outside of water or herbal teas. 
So your schedule may look like this:

• 8am Breakfast
• 12.30pm: Lunch
• 4pm: Snack
• 7pm: Dinner

No food after dinner or in between meals.

2) Keep muscles strong: to reduce stiffness and pain in your body and keep your metabolism up, you need to keep working your muscles. Keeping muscles strong is not going for a walk; I mean resistance training; getting your muscles to contract against a weight or force.

3) Move more: This is about increasing the incidental activity throughout your day and simply moving more. For example, aim to go for a walk 30-60min each day. Walk around your house while talking on the phone and move your body after 45mins of sitting and working. 

4) Hydrate: the feedback we get is that people are drinking less water in lockdown. Drinking water makes you feel better, increases your ability to cope, and helps to regulate your metabolism and quantities consumed in a day, which impacts your weight.

Here is a good breakdown of a healthy day of water: 2 cups hot water on waking before breakfast + 1 cup of water at morning tea + 1 cup 15mins before lunch + 1 cup tea with pm snack + 1 cup 15min before dinner + 1 cup tea 30mins before bed + 1 cup after a walk/ workout
​

As a summary:
Unexpected weight gain, if you feel that your diet has been pretty good, may be due to the following three factors

• Drop in muscle mass because of not doing strength work with heavier enough weights or not at all.  Muscles need a lot of energy to survive and therefore a reduction in muscles mass reduces your metabolic rate.
• Reduction in incidental activity due to working from home and reduced activities: when you move less, you burn less.
• Slight increase in alcohol consumption, snacks, more elaborate home cooked meals, etc

So you have a situation where you are burning less calories, so even if you did not change your food intake at all, you would still be in excess and gain body fat.

The strategies are:
Get started back with your resistance training workouts (and gradually) push heavier
Be mindful and increase your incidental activity- start moving more! Even if you still have a work from home arrangement, it is time to say enough it enough and find ways to be active throughout your day.
Tidy up on bad habits that have crept in and stick to set meals, reduce alcohol and no snacking in between meals or after dinner.

Above all, there are many factors that contributed to weight gain if you have experienced it and don't be too hard on yourself!  We are definitely all in this together and you are definitely not alone!  Snez xx