What I like about this site is that it breaks down the nutrient value of each food further than I’ve seen on any other site. It also determines the estimated Glycemic Load (eGL) as well as the Inflammation Factor (IF) of each food. The eGL tool is great for those living with diabetes and the inflammation factor is awesome for those with heart disease, arthritis and other inflammation related health issues. Inflammation is where all disease stems from but that’s another blog entry.

Something I found this morning was the daily needs calculator. This handy little tool determines what your caloric and nutrition needs are based on your gender, age, weight and lifestyle. It then gives you the option with the simple click of a button to take that information and update your individual daily needs profile saving you the time to manually enter this information like on so many other websites. Keep in mind that the recommendations made are generalized and that they still may require some tweaking on your part but still, a very cool tool.

If you’re working with a nutritionist or personal trainer this site allows you to email a copy of your daily report to them or to download a copy of the report to your computer.

On the downside, this site does not (at least from what I’ve seen so far) track information for more than a day at a time. So if you’re on a weight loss plan, for example, you’ll still need to use another calorie tracker for your food and exercise journals in order to track weekly progress.

Overall I think this is site awesome and I haven’t even been through the whole thing yet. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Yours in health,

Tammy

There was a day spent where she took comfort in food and binged for a day. It didn’t make her feel any better but it’s her natural coping mechanism, learned from years of being ‘taught’ that food makes anything better. After a day of binge eating, Louise picked herself up knowing that eating the way she was isn’t going to do her any good. She went to the gym, she walked and she started watching what she was eating again. When she weighed in over the weekend she found that she hadn’t lost any weight, but didn’t gain either.

Two weeks ago, Louise met with the personal trainer at her local gym who has created a workout plan specifically for her. This plan focuses mainly on cardio and a little resistance training for the first few months. After that, a new workout plan will be developed for Louise that will consist of more resistance training and a little less cardio.

Louise has noticed that since beginning to walk on a regular basis, her average walking pace has quickened. She joked with me saying that her husband makes comments by calling her ‘Speedy’ and asking “what’s the rush”. It’s a feeling that brings a smile to her face as she remembers how less than a year ago she couldn’t walk more than a few minutes before having to stop for a rest.

Louise was also telling me about how she was at the park playing with her niece and the difference she noticed from even just a couple months ago. She was telling me about how she had a bit of a difficult time keeping up with her niece as she played the last time they went to the park together. I could hear the smile on Louise’s face as she told me how she was able to completely keep up with her this time.

I think it’s absolutely fantastic that Louise has tangible things in her life that allow her to reflect on how she used to feel compared to how she feels now.

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Create a meal plan for the week, to be written tonight
-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day, plus water during workouts
-          Gym 5 days this week, walking 2km on the treadmill
-          Walk the dog daily
-          No fast food, even if it’s plan friendly

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.ca

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

As always, I’m available if you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

After our talk last week, Louise was ready to take charge and gain control over her cravings. She ate well by following the dietary guidelines set out for her, went swimming several times and was feeling good about herself.

Then she got the news about a close family member being hospitalized. The stress among other factors, lead her to reach for 2 packets of potato chips during the day on Saturday. She knew she shouldn’t have been eating them but felt helpless about her family member and turned to them anyways. Even today Louise was still feeling down and in a bid to make her self feel better, she turned to chocolate. She ended up feeling worse, guilty, about eating the chocolate and even when I speaking to her I could hear the shame in her voice as she admitted her indiscretion.

We talked about how she was feeling about her family member being ill, the guilt she felt about the fact she hadn’t seen them in a very long time and her reasons why. She told me about her plans to visit them in the hospital later in the week and as she talked about going to see them, I could hear that she was terrified about what she may see when she arrived. We talked a little more about this and then moved back onto what she was going to do for herself for the upcoming week.

Louise told me that she has her meeting scheduled for tomorrow with a personal trainer at the local gym she recently joined. They are going to a fitness test and create a routine that is specifically for her. I suggested that she mention to them that she’s going to be entering into a marathon in a couple months so that they can take that into account when creating her workout plan. When Louise gets her recommendation from the personal trainer she’s going to email everything to me.

Combining foods that are not in accordance to her dietary recommendations is another thing that Louise admitted that she has been doing for a few days now. It is something that she knows she needs to stop immediately. To help with this, her husband has removed everything, including all baking ingredients, from the kitchen and placed them into storage far under the staircase and behind several boxes. This means that if there is something that Louise wants, she’s really got to want it bad in order to dig it out from the cupboard under the stairs. This is in addition to her husband taking away her debit card, since Louise is now able to walk further distances she has been walking to the local bakery up the street in order to sneak a little sugar into her diet. No more!

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day
-          Gym three times this week
-          Swim three times this week
-          No fast food, even if it’s plan friendly
-          No junk food
-          Wii active daily
-          Eat fruit for breakfast only
-          Eat vegetables for snacks
-          Stick to her meal plan
-          Lose 3 lbs this week

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

Louise last week confessed that she hadn’t been following the plan laid out for her completely. That she had feelings of guilt about eating, even though she knows logically that she should be and that when she did eat she wasn’t always making the best food choices. Unfortunately, this past week was a week that was filled with food choices that were not beneficial and included a lot of French fries being consumed among other things.

After our talk last week, Louise began writing her feelings down and created her own blog where she writes daily about what’s going on inside her head and in her life. (You can check it out by clicking here.) As I read her posts, I became more aware of just how much she hadn’t been telling me. Not just with what she was eating, but how she was feeling emotionally.

When we started talking I took my time in getting into everything because I knew Louise was probably a little hesitant and unsure about how I was going to react to what she had written in her blog. We took it slow and chatting for a while about various things until I asked her ‘are you ready for what my thoughts?’. She took a breath and said ‘yes’.

We talked about what she had been eating and how she knew it contributed to her weight gain of four pounds this past week. We talked about how the foods she’s been eating are affecting the current dietary plan she is on and that in order for the plan to work she’ll need to start at the beginning of Phase 1 again. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she had anticipated that response from me and had already begun eating based on the Phase 1 recommendations a few days ago.

Then we got into the tough stuff – the reasons why she’s eating the way she is. Last week Louise and I talked about how our emotions can take over the logical part of our brain and we then make choices that are not always the best for us. Today as we went a little deeper into that by talking about how food and emotions can be like an endless vicious circle. We eat because we feel bad, we temporarily feel better because we ate, then we feel guilty for eating the cake, cookies, chocolate or chips we ate, then we feel bad again and so we eat. It’s all about the choices we make and retraining our brain to think about doing something else, other than eating food, when we’re feeling down. A few things I suggested to Louise were going for a walk, playing with her dog, spending time and talking to her husband, or working more on her crafts. Another thing I suggested was to just sit and think about how she’s feeling and why.

Louise, I believe, truly doesn’t know her worth and what it is that she brings to the people around her. Feelings of failure, being underappreciated and worthless are labels that we put on ourselves and not how people really view us. These feelings are so strong, and usually created at a young age, that we end up building up a wall of protection around us. For Louise, that wall of protection is her weight.

We talked a little about her childhood, how she feels towards her mother and how this affects her life today. Louise said that her mother used to comfort her when she was hurt or upset with providing her with food. I said to Louise that her mother did the best she could with what she knew at the time. Our parents intentionally raise us to become failures later in life, but sometimes their actions, unknowingly, create habits that are hard to break. Connecting emotions to food is probably the most popular and unhealthy link that can be created in the mind of a child. One that is always in the backs of our minds when we get a little depressed, angered or even happy and we reach for that snack.

Louise got a little emotional as we spoke and I knew then that we had hit the truth. I may have said a few things that Louise may not have liked but they’re the truth. The truth is not always what we want to hear but it is the one thing, that when we’re ready to face it, will make all the difference in the world.

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day
-          Swim twice this week
-          Take her supplements
-          No fast food, even if it’s plan friendly
-          20 min/day of Wii Sports
-          Stick to her meal plan
-          Remove all temptations from home
-          Lose 5 lbs

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

We talked last week Louise going away for a few days and she was a little concerned about being out of her regular routine and not feeling in control of the food she would have available to her while visiting family. We looked into what foods are available in the restaurant and I made suggested based on the menu posted on the hotel’s website. Then she told me that her brother-in-law is a chef at the hotel. I then suggest that she contact him and send him her food list to see if he can prepare meals for her based on her dietary needs. Louise was so happy to hear that he would be able to prepare for her anything she wanted in order for her to be able to stick to her diet plan. Louise absolutely loved being able to ask for something and having it brought out for her without worrying about putting any of the restaurant staff out of their way; it was a treat that she enjoyed very much.

Louise also admitted something to me today that honestly got me very concerned. She told me that for the past several weeks that she’s been feeling extremely guilty about eating. Many days she wouldn’t eat or only drink water while watching her husband eat his meals.

I expressed my concern about this as I didn’t want her setting herself up for a whole new eating disorder, anorexia. We talked about how food becomes attached to our emotions at a young age and how those emotions can play tricks with our minds, making us believe things that aren’t true at all. How we know logically what we need but our feelings of guilt, for example, take over and cause us to make choices that are not always in our best interest.

We talked about how important food is to ensure that our bodies function on a daily basis and that food is required in order to lose weight. Food is not just something to be enjoyed; it’s a necessity of life. It’s a bonus, in my opinion, that we can make our food taste delicious and look forward to our meals rather than eating just to sustain ourselves. It can be fun to come up with new ideas, try new recipes and to experiment with foods we’ve never tried before.

Louise realizes now that she needs to be able to get her feelings out in order to move forward. She is going to start writing her thoughts and feelings down. This is absolutely fantastic and Louise is going to notice a difference in how she feels just by doing this alone.

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Exercise bike, 4 – 1 mile sessions per day
-          Create a menu plan for herself and email it to me
-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day
-          Swim at least once this week
-          Join the local gym
-          Begin writing her thoughts and feelings down
-          EAT!

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

Also, this week Louise was wanting to go for a long walk one day with her husband. She had purchased new training shoes but is still breaking them in so she wasn’t comfortable wearing them as she knew they would hurt the backs of her ankles. Her husband suggested that she wear her old pair, so she did. Louise quickly found out why she had purchased the new trainers and was not able to continue with the walk not too far into starting it.

The events of the week, in combination, all contributed to her feels today and yesterday of feeling ‘blah’. Overall, Louise knows that being prepared for her walks, eating according to the plan designed for her and drinking water are all a part of successful weight loss and is determined to loss weight this coming week.

Louise is going to be going out of town next week for a few days to visit family and will be staying in a hotel for 2 days. She’s concerned about what she’s going to be eating as she’ll be away from home and out of her regular routine. Together we looked up the hotel’s website to review the menu available and I made some suggestions based on the menu shown on the website. She then told me that her brother-in-law is the head chef. Wow! I said she should totally take advantage of that and send him her food list and see what he can come up with for her. Louise is going to contact him later today.

Phase one for Louise is complete and she is moving onto phase two. She is very excited about getting some foods back into her diet that had been eliminated the past few weeks. Again we went over how she had reacted to the tomatoes last week so she’ll be taking it slow with them this time around.

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Exercise bike, 2 – 2 mile sessions per day
-          Walk to meet her husband after work, daily
-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day
-          Add soups back into diet (she hasn’t had any lately)

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

When we talked last week, we discussed the possibility of doing two weeks on phase one instead of the recommended three weeks since she has done this part of the program before. We were going to play it by ear and see how she felt at the end of the two weeks and make a decision based on how she felt at that time. Louise thought she was ready to progress onto the second phase and made the choice to have tomatoes (which are not a part of the phase one diet plan) a few days early. Louise experienced bloating, discomfort and felt ill in general from the tomatoes shortly after consuming them. The feelings continued into the next day. She drank plenty of water and little food for most of that day.

After sharing her experience with me, we both knew it was obvious that she was not ready to move onto phase two just yet. Louise will be doing the full three weeks on phase one and although I know Louise loves tomatoes, I suggested that she tread very lightly with them when phase two comes.

Something that was very inspiring during my conversation with Louise was when she was telling me about how she was thinking about how far she’s come since this time last year. Louise talked about how she wasn’t walking at all last year and now walks for at least an hour at a time. She was also remembering what her eating habits were like and how she felt overall. Lack of energy, lack of motivation and feelings of depression are not what she wants to experience ever again.

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Exercise bike, 2 – 2 mile sessions per day
-          Eat healthy carbs as she hasn’t been eating many lately
-          Water!! Drink 2 litres/day
-          Walk 5 km on Sunday

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

**Please contact me for personalized nutritional recommendations. This blog has been condensed and does not include many additional factors. This blog is not meant to be followed as a recommended diet or nutrition program for any one but “Louise”.

In the mid-January Louise began a cleanse in order to strengthen her digestive system and rid her body of an overgrowth of bad bacteria in her intestinal tract. Five weeks into the cleanse Louise had a little bit of a set back and she decided that she wanted to begin the cleanse again right from the beginning. After talking with her at length, we decided that beginning again was for the best.

During the first phase all dairy and wheat products, sugars and caffeine, along with a few other food items, are all removed from the daily diet. Louise has been given a list of foods she can have in order for her to focus on what she can eat, rather than what she cannot. The first phase consists of three weeks before moving onto the second phase of the program.

Louise has taken on a goal which I think is absolutely fantastic. She has entered herself into a marathon that she is going to walk this coming July. In order to get ready for this she is continuing to walk and cycle. She has decided that she is going to cycle a total of 4 miles breaking the miles up into 4 one mile sessions at a time. Woohoo!

Louise’s goals for this week:

-          Exercise bike, 4 – 1 mile sessions per day twice a week
-          Continue on with the meal plan given to her
-          Water!!
-          Stick to her daily routine and not stray from it
-          Plan her target walk distances for the upcoming marathon

If you would like a personalized nutritional recommendation, please contact me through my blog or by visiting my website listed below.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com

Beginning on Tuesday, February 2  I will restart the weekly cooking on a budget blog with exact details on how much the food bills cost, provide recipes and tips on menu planning, etc.

The blog will be based on the costs associated with being a single parent with one child. These costs can easily be transferred to a family of any size.

Please let me know, via comment, if there is anything specific you’d like to see discussed in this blog series and I’d be happy to include it.

Yours in health,

Tammy

www.freeyourthyme.weebly.com