Body Shape Change
Strength Training
Plant Based Nutrition
Hormone & Life Cycles
Female Empowerment
Lisa Barwise
In Plant Based Nutrition

Bloating? Should I be worried?

There’s nothing worse than spending your days feeling bloated, heavy and sluggish. No one wants to walk around all day feeling like someone’s blown up a party balloon in their digestive tract. Bloating can be stubborn, painful and seemingly impossible to get rid of. What’s worse is that many people accept bloating as a normal digestive symptom. The truth is, you shouldn’t be bloated after every meal you eat, or become more bloated as the day goes on. Being bloated regularly is your body’s way of telling you something is “off” in your digestive tract, and it needs your attention. Abdominal bloating is often categorized as a symptom of irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. The problem with IBS though is that it’s a very general, vague term for digestive disorders that are believed to have no known cause. From a holistic perspective, there’s always a logical reason for digestive symptoms to occur. In fact, the most common causes of bloating are linked to specific factors in a person’s diet or lifestyle.   1. Common food sensitivities   I cover this in depth in my recent articles and really can be the main culprit to the bloating issue: Gluten free : health fad...
Read More
Lisa Barwise

Too little or Too Much Movement

    Use it or lose it, right?   Modern society has been engineered for sitting. As a result, humans spend more time off their feet than ever before.   However, recent studies show that all this sitting is doing much more harm than anyone thought.   People Are Sitting More Than Ever Before   The idea that sitting can be harmful seems ridiculous at first thought.   Sitting is a default human body posture, and when people work, socialize, study or travel, they often do so in a seated position. It’s second nature.   However, that doesn’t mean sitting is harmless. It’s like eating — necessary, yet incredibly harmful if you do too much of it.   Unfortunately, sedentary behavior, or sitting too much, is now at an all-time high. Over half of the average person’s day is spent sitting, doing things like driving, working at a desk or watching television.   In fact, the typical office worker may spend up to a whopping 15 hours per day sitting. Agricultural workers, on the other hand, only sit about 3 hours a day.   It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if we don’t move enough, we won’t…

Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Plant Based Nutrition

This is what I tell my clients who struggle with belly fat

What would you say if I could tell you three things that will automatically shrink your belly for you? Would you do it? I mean, what wouldn't you do, right? Before I delve into the detail, let me first tell you about my battle with the belly bulge. I have lean shapely legs but always carry weight around my belly.  In fact, I was trying to remember a time that I had a flat belly and the only time I can remember is when I was 19. Now, I still wore a bikini on the beach and even the occasional crop top (very occasional) but never did it confidently (not since I was 19). I have always had a wobbly belly. Not really overweight (though I did balloon to a size 12 when I lived in France) so I understand your frustrations. Then I had a baby and now that area has excess skin too. But I have a the flattest and most toned stomach I have had in years now at the age of 39 then I did even 5 years ago when training for a marathon. So, now you are ready to hear the big secret, those three...
Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Carb Cycling, Plant Based Nutrition

Gluten free: health fad or life saving diet?

Wheat, the staff of life, has been used by nearly every major civilization since the dawn of time, or at least the last 9000 years. This isn’t necessarily a good indicator that something is good for you.   Have you ever been told to avoid eating gluten or wheat products? An estimated 1 in 100 people in the UK and in Europe has celiac disease. However, only about 24% of people with the condition are clinically diagnosed It is estimated that 83% of Americans who have celiac disease are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by a reaction to gluten, it is not a food allergy or an intolerance. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Some people with coeliac disease are also sensitive to oats. Damage to the gut lining occurs on eating gluten. The average length of time taken for someone to be diagnosed with the disease from the onset of symptoms is a staggering 13 years. There is no cure for the condition; the only treatment is lifelong adherence to a strict gluten-free diet. If a gluten-free diet is not followed, the disease can ultimately lead to…

Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Plant Based Nutrition

What to eat in relation to exercising

donut-workout

In terms of eating in relation to exercising…   As a general rule of thumb, your biggest meal of the day should come right after you work out (except on your Low-Carb Days- learn more about Carb Cycling here:). [Related Article: What is Carb Cycling and What does it mean for fatloss in your 40s?] That’s when your muscles are hungriest and most receptive to nutrients. After you’ve put them through their paces, you also need to replenish the carbohydrates they store. Aside from that, meal timing has very little impact on your ability to burn fat. Here’s a confession: Most mornings, I don’t even eat breakfast. Eek! Sure, I know it’s considered by many to be the most important meal of the day, but that simply doesn’t work for me. I’ll regularly go for several hours on hot water and lemon or even a green juice, and come mid morning I make my big smoothie and then maybe a salad, or leftovers from the previous day sometime in the afternoon. Evenings are generally when I load up with a big dinner after my classes or workout in the afternoon. That’s what works for me. It may not work for…

Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Mindset

Get Unstoppable Motivation

It's not motivation you are lacking, but persistence and here is how to build it to become an unstoppable warrior goddess.   I can generally tell when someone fills out my goals questionnaire or within a 20 minute conversation whether they are going to follow through on a weight loss or lifestyle change plan.   So what is it that I see in them that determines their success? Any permanent change requires two elements: a plan that works and a willingness to pursue it.  But there are strategies to achieve it more quickly or more efficiently but it has to start with a decision.   And here lies the issue. Not all of us are truly decisive.   You know the ‘in with both feet’ decision.  Or we are just not able yet to follow through on that decision. We don’t understand the key skills of commitment, persistence and self discipline.  The 3 scary words we tend to avoid.   So, let’s stop avoiding them and take a better look…   Motivation is such an incredibly fascinating and complex subject. There are so many factors involved in the ebb and flow of a woman’s motivation. When I think of motivation...
Read More
Lisa Barwise

How to boost your metabolism to overcome hormonal, thyroid and adrenal fatigue issues to become a fat burning machine

Stress totally messes with our hormones, can have a serious impact on our health and to top it all off is a major contributor to us getting fat. So not cool. And I’m not talking about the ‘I don’t know what outfit to wear’ kinda stress. That deep seeded worry we have often about our futures, finances, health, relationships and family members.  And more recently our reputations, our businesses and being successful (the rise of success flu AKA burnout). Plus our primal mechanisms that trigger our fight or flight and set off our adrenals. Often triggered by the honking horn of a car rather than stampeding rhinos but our body doesn’t make the distinction and is flooded with adrenalin that is never properly utilized and leads to adrenal fatigue. More on this later. It really has a lot to answer for in our bodies in relation to our health but it also is one of the main contributors to stubborn fat in those areas we struggle with the most: belly, hips and thighs.   Why Stress Imbalances Hormones If there’s one lifestyle factor that can ruffle up your hormones, it’s stress. And as you well know, today’s hectic lifestyle forces...
Read More
Lisa Barwise

The Tribe of Sisterhood and The Power of The Circle of Women

Girl Friend Power, not Will power is the key to success with your health goals.   For many women, social support and accountability are essential to successful weight loss and management.   Let me give you the science according to a new study by the University of Illinois. For the study, 23 women participated in a weight loss program that reduced their food consumption by 500 calories per day. Eating more vegetables, planning ahead, and portion control were emphasized. About a year and a half after they’d finished, they participated in focus groups to determine which factors helped or hindered their weight loss. “All of the women lost a significant amount of weight on the program, but many were unsuccessful at maintaining it after the program ended,” said researcher Catherine J. Metzgar, R.D., L.D.N. Those who did keep the weight off reported that a high level of social support from many sectors was critical in their success. This is true of the women in our programmes,  they didn’t find that accountability to themselves was so important, but having support from others was — just having that social support from someone who was going through the same experience. What this study…

Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Beginner-Kettlebell-Training

The Worst exercise for over 35s women and what you should be doing instead

So, I decided to become a personal trainer at the ripe age of 39.  I had been active and ‘fit’ for most of my life though never skinny and just the right side of slim. But I was never strong and as I hit 35 I started to notice fat in places I never knew I had places. So I continued my health geek studies and began reading and practicing in the pursuit of what makes us lose stubborn fat, by getting more healthy, living longer so we can get lean and strong and look and feel good along the way! Sound good? And through studying a lot on metabolism, hormones and your thyroid, was I able to understand this and can now share this with you. What I am going to say here might fly in the face of what you know or believe or it might sound like too much effort and heck I just want to be skinny. But this is the end game, I can get you a lean and toned body but you can get so MUCH more than just that. What about a life’s vehicle that will take you into your 60s and 70s...
Read More
Lisa Barwise
In Plant Based Nutrition

Transitioning to a Plant Based Lifestyle: Why, How and What to Eat?

When I tell people that I eat a plant based lifestyle they ask me does that look like a rabbit eating grass?   I mean, really….   So, before we can begin to explain the benefits of a Plant Based Lifestyle we need to define it. What does it mean to be plant based? ‘Based’ meant something that provides the foundation for… in this case your diet. Save Save Save Save Save Save   And plants need to be a very hearty base of your diet.   As The China Study – the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted- reveals (amongst thousands more, easily accessible studies, let alone common sense) without a shadow of a doubt… we need to be eating a predominantly plant- based, nutrient rich diet, upwards of 90% or more if we are going to be healthy. The reason is, plants are where all the nutrients come from, including protein. Yes, protein! A plant based nutrient rich diet means you are getting all the nutrients (healthy promoting protein, real food carbohydrate, essential fat, water, fiber, vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals, enzymes etc) that you need to function and perform well, from ALL the nutrient categories and you don’t...
Read More