My own relationship with food and dieting has been pretty chequered over the years.

I suffered the usual teen insecurities of not feeling good enough, not feeling slim (according to photos this was rubbish) enough and dieted my way through my early twenties in search of the perfect body which I thought would then give me worldly confidence!  WRONG! Dieting led me to binge eating and on to bulimia.  I felt totally out of control with my eating patterns and lived the life of a controlled eater, looking at food as my enemy!  During my 3rd year of university – when I was 25 – I was introduced to running and discovered that instead of making myself sick, I could run off the calories that I would over consume.  Eventually I got tired of having to go for runs just to stop myself getting fat and as soon as I finished my degree, got a job and was earning money I travelled to America to educate myself on all things food, dieting and weight management with the then International leaders in those fields.  I learnt about nutrition and what to eat, when to eat and how to eat;  I learnt that weight training would increase my metabolism more than aerobic exercise and thereby I would burn more calories i.e. more fat; food became my friend which fuelled my life, my activities, my sports and exercise became my joy – not just to keep my weight down but also to make me feel good.

Food, nutrition, exercise and lifestyle behaviours and requirements are unique to everyone.  Although we need to learn through experience what is right for each of us, it is important to start with what the research says – what the experts say.

In this talk on how to maintain a healthy body fat, I want to share with you the facts – the research and what the experts say, ways that you can learn the unique requirements of your body and how to navigate the myriad of articles, books, podcasts, etc available today – most of which are produced to steal your money, your time and your precious health!