Melissa Ambrosini - self-love guru

Melissa Ambrosini is a glowing (literally) example of health, in every sense of the word. I am so honoured to be able to share this interview with you all. I hope she inspires you (as she has me) to show yourself a little more lovin'. 

1.    Please tell us a little about who you are, what you do and how you got here.

I help people become the best version of themselves. I am a writer, a speaker, a blogger, a coach, and a self-love teacher. I empower women to take control of their health and life, and to live the life of their dreams.

I had adrenal fatigue, thyroid problems, high levels of mercury, serious PMT, depression, loads of mineral deficiencies, an eating disorder, adult acne, eczema and a serious case of cold sores all over my face, mouth and even down my throat. What the hell!

Hit the rewind button and I was travelling the world, living the ‘dream’. In between dancing at the Moulin Rouge and working on TV shows such as Packed to the Rafters and Home and Away, I was partying my pants off in places like London, Paris, and New York. I thought I had ‘made it’. People would say to me. ‘You’re so lucky. You have everything!’ At the time, I really thought I did. My happiness was measured by the next gig, the size of my bank account, model boyfriends, and designer handbags. But, the truth was: I felt completely lost, scared, and empty.

I was running on adrenalin at a million miles an hour, working way too much, burning myself out, and living in a constant state of stress. Not surprisingly, I was suffering anxiety and severe panic attacks. To make matters worse, I was practically living off champagne, appetizers, and four hours of sleep a night.

It probably seems inevitable that my body would crash and burn! The thing is: I ignored not just one but several bright, BIG, red, warning signs. There was the time I fell down the stairs, almost breaking my back and snapping my ankle. I’d been in and out of hospital half a dozen times that year. My doctor was on speed-dial and the constant cycle of antibiotics and other medications was literally what was keeping me going. It was NOT fun. But, still, I didn’t pay attention.

It wasn’t until I was lying in a hospital
 bed that I hit rock bottom and found
 my light bulb moment. I realised something BIG had to shift. I
 remember saying to myself, 

“I created
 this. I am the one who got me here. So, I am the ONLY person who can get me 
out!” 

There, in the hospital, surrounded
 by all the medications that had been keeping me going, I decided enough was enough. I took a vow. I vowed to stop looking outside of myself for happiness and well-being and start creating it from within.

This journey has been a truly fulfilling experience. Yes, there were some tough moments. But, now, I feel more connected, grounded, content, and loving than I could ever have imagined. My definition of success, like happiness, is no longer defined by my external world. These days, it all comes from within me and that has given me unimaginable freedom and joy in my life.

2.    How do you practice self-love each day?

Everything I do in my life comes from a place of love. I no longer do anything that is driven by fear. For example: in the past I would eat processed junk food to fill emotional voids. 

Now, I eat to nourish my body and soul because I love myself.

When you choose to live a life from love, every decision comes from love. This includes: the work you do, the people you choose to surround yourself with, how you move and treat your body. These are all a reflection of either love or fear.

I talk a lot about how to flex your self-love muscle in my eBook 12 Steps to Wellness. When I work one-on-one with women, we really exercise this muscle so that is becomes ingrained. 

3.    I read that you battled body issues in the past. If you could go back and speak to your younger self, what would your advice be?

Don't compare yourself, gorgeous.

4.    What is your nutrition philosophy?

To me, wellness and health aren’t just about what you put into your mouth. It's a mind, body, and spirit alignment and connection. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t be eating organic food without dealing with your emotions. It all comes hand-in-hand. I believe it’s a complete holistic approach. 

It doesn't matter how much broccoli you eat. If you’re not dealing with what’s really going on emotionally for you, you will create your external world to reflect that back to you.

There’s a big difference between people who have “healthy habits” and people who embody a healthy lifestyle. The person with the healthy habits goes to the gym, eats relatively well, still parties, deprives her body, calorie counts, and doesn’t make self-care a priority. The person who embodies a healthy lifestyle lives, eats and breathes wellness. Self-care is at the top of her “to do” list. Local markets on the weekend are a joy. Exercise is done for fun not to lose weight, and their happiness is a reflection of their inner peace. I teach people how to dive into the latter. I am not into quick fixes, diets, or detoxes. I am about helping you embark on your own path to wellness journey.

My food philosophy:

I believe we should all be eating how our ancestors ate. 

1. Chemical and pesticide-free, so all-organic and local fruit and veg (in season) where possible. Every time I eat, I give thanks to my food and where it has come from. Do you know where your food first started and how it got to your plate? I invite you to think about that.
2. All organic, grass-fed and grass-finished animal products are a non-negotiable for me. I will not put any meat in my mouth if I don't know where it has come from.
3. Wild or line caught seafood only.
4. Loads of clean, filtered water, herbal teas, fresh juices and smoothies, coconuts, and Kombucha.
5. No processed foods, sugar, refined carbs, dairy, soy, gluten, Trans fats, MSG and alcohol. I believe our bodies don't cope well with breaking these down.
6. Conscious eating. I practice and teach conscious eating. Being present whilst you eat is extremely powerful. Try it!
7. I see food as medicine and not something to fill emotional voids or to do out of habit or boredom. If there is something emotionally going on, I sit with it and dive into the feeling. I don't go and suppress it with food.
8. I choose foods that I know have been made with love and care, not something that has a longer shelf life than I do.
9. I subscribe to the Melissa Ambrosini diet. What do you subscribe to? Everyone is different. What works for me may not be right for you. So I invite you to tune in with your body and feel what it’s craving.

5.    If you could choose just one food, for health and taste, what would it be and why?

Can I say a drink? I love green smoothies. I could live off them! ;) 

(Go HERE for one of Melissa's green smoothie recipes)

6.    Please tell us about your Babes not Bears event.

My Babes not Bears event was all about self-love and giving people the tools to combat their inner mean girl (aka ego). I shared a lot of my own personal stories and struggles and gave them tangible ways to bring out the best version of themselves and to live the life of their dreams.

It was LOADS of fun.

Thanks so much Melissa! You are an amazing inspiration to us all. 

You can this gorgeous girl at: 

Her Website

Facebook

Twitter

So friends - how are YOU going to incorporate more self-love into your day?

Breakfast fritters in Broome!

So here I am, up in sunny Broome doing my clinical dietetics placement. Where is this “Broome” place, you say? Well it’s right over on the north west of Australia, in the Kimberley region. A little outback town of around 15,000 people, with red dirt, pristine beaches and the odd crocodile I hear. It’s pretty amazing. Let me show you a mini pictorial journey of my activities so far.

This is where I prop myself most weekends.
And some mornings. And some afternoons.

Sunset at Gantheume Point.
And a little shadow-photography. 

Sunset on Cable Beach.
Most amazing sunsets I have ever seen!

That’s about it. Other than working at the hospital, I go to the beach and watch amazing sunsets. Jealous yet?

Sorry. Very mean of me. But you really should come to this part of the world if you get the chance.

So anyway, the point of this post was actually to provide you with something useful, rather than just make you bitter with jealously. Hopefully you’re still reading, because, for the first time in a long time, I’m going to give you a RECIPE! Oh yeah!! My last few posts have been very female-health and self-love oriented (HERE, HERE and HERE), it seems I have been shirking my recipe-providing duties. Sorry ‘bout that. I’ve also been pretty busy over at Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar being all nutrition-experty. Have you checked it out yet?

This recipe came about last Friday morning when I was running low on stocks to make my usual brekkie, however I had a few eggs, some coconut oil (of course), and a bunch of random veggies that I bought at the local markets. So I threw it all together and hoped for the best. What eventuated was so much better than I could have imagined. So good that I made some more (with a slight twist) straight after brekkie to take for lunch!

I love these patties not only because they are delicious, but also because they are incredibly nutritious (could you cram any more veg in?), simple to make (um. 1 bowl. Stir. Fry.), filling and you can really throw anything in and get a pretty good result AND you are using your food scraps in a tasty way, rather than adding to the mounds of food we carelessly throw away each year. Go fritters!!

Vegetable fritters with avocado (makes 3 large patties/1 serve)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated sweet potato (approx ½ medium sweet potato)
• ½ medium zucchini, grated
• ¼ red capsicum, chopped finely
• 1T shallots, chopped
• 4 leaves basil, chopped
• ½ cup of dark leafy greens (silverbeet/spinach/kale), chopped
• 2 eggs
• ½ small avocado, to serve
• 1T coconut oil

OPTION: For some extra protein and pizazz, you could throw in a small can of salmon. If you’re a vego, then leave it out. If you’re a vegan, I doubt you’re on my page. If you are, you’re probably considering deserting veganism, right?)

Method:

• Mix all ingredients, except oil and avocado, in a large bowl
• Heat oil in pan over medium heat
• Mould mixture into patties around 1-2cm thick (around ½-1 cup of mix for each pattie)
• Place patties in pan and allow to cook until browned on 1 side (approximately 5 minutes). Using a spatula, flip patties and cook for approx 5 minutes on the other side
• Serve with sliced avocado 

If you want to save time in the morning, you could mix everything together the night before then simply fry up in the morning.

Try them out, friends. Let me know how they go. Winners, right?

Next week I am going to post an interview with someone super exciting, beautiful and inspirational. Stay tuned! 

How's your self-perception?

Hey folks. This is going to be a really quick post as I feel that the video I'm going to share says it all. 

We often have a bit of a warped view of what we actually look like. The reality is we are so much more beautiful than what we perceive ourselves to be. And the more we believe we are beautiful, the more this radiates outwards, and the more beautiful we become to others. This is called "mirroring"”, where your experiences with the world are a direct reflection of your internal state. I first heard about mirroring from Gabrielle Berstein. Smart chick that one. Check her out at http://gabbyb.tv

Anywho, here's the video. Watch it through to the end. I found it to be incredibly poignant and eye-opening. 

If the video doesn't show up on your page, you can click through to it HERE

What are your thoughts? Quite concerning, right? Can you relate? Maybe time to work on a little self-love? 

Check out the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty HERE

That's all for today. Shortest post EVER!! (patting self on back). 

x

5 ways to energise your day

Alarm goes off. Mind starts racing with the day’s to-do list (how will I get everything done?!). Launch out of bed. Get glance of self in mirror and subsequent huge fright, setting adrenalin into overdrive. Make coffee. Strip off onesie (What? You don’t wear a onesie? Get with the times!). Jump into shower. Brush teeth and clean self whilst in shower. Get out. Get dressed. Do hair. Grab coffee in travel mug. Run out door.

Sound familiar? If this is how you start your morning, then chances are your body has been kicked into fight or flight mode before you have even left the house. You have effectively set your body to up to be in a heightened state of stress for the rest of the day.

Running around stressed is far from something to boast about. You know what I mean – when someone says “how are you?”, you respond with “oh I’m so stressed!” like it’s some badge of honour to show how much you can juggle. I know this because this use to be me. Until it all came crashing down.

Stress is no good for anyone. Check out this impressive list of "did you know's":

• Did you know chronic stress increases your risk of a heart attack?
• Did you know that stress causes the hormone cortisol to increase, which increases inflammation in the body? 
• Too much cortisol is also responsible for that belly fat you can’t seem to budge, no matter how well you eat or drink.
• Did you know that chronic high stress and cortisol wreak havoc on your hormones, contributing to problems such as low testosterone in males and amenorrhea and fertility problems in females.
• Did you know that chronic stress can disrupt your gut flora and, in turn, your overall health and wellbeing?
• Did you know that too much stress and cortisol can lead to adrenal fatigue and low energy?                
• Did you know stressing all the time can reduce your stomach acid and therefore your ability to properly breakdown and digest your food?                   

Now who's boasting? 

If you are a stress-addict and/or poor sleeper, no matter how hard you try with squeaky-clean eating and smart training, you’re probably not going to get the results you want.

So, what can you do about it? Well, I believe the morning is a pretty good place to start. Try out these 5 ways to get your morning off to a great start, reducing your stress, and energising your day:

1. Take 10 deep breaths. Before you get out of bed. This will only take 2 minutes, so no excuses please. Hold your hands over your belly and feel the rise and fall as you take deep breaths in and out through your nose

2. Have a healthy breakfast. If you don’t have time to make anything, prepare something the night before, such as my Berries Extraordinaire. If you do have time, fry up some eggs and veggies and serve with avocado.

3. Chew your food well, chew it slowly and do nothing else. A little while ago I found myself sitting down to my breakfast with my phone, checking my emails, then Facebook, then Instagram, then Twitter, then wondering where my breakfast went. No good for digestion. No good for stress levels. Concentrate on just one thing – your meal – to allow adequate digestion and to optimize the nutrition you obtain from your meal.

4. On that note – don’t touch your phone until you walk out the door. Trust me, you’re not going to miss anything of importance that the inter-webs has to say in that short amount of time.

5. Let this be your new mantra:                                                                                         

“There is plenty of time in the day to get everything done”                                              

I heard Tim Ferris say he did this to keep him focused and prevent him from becoming overwhelmed and stressed with everything he had to do in the day. He said it made him more productive. More calm. I tried it. Completely agree! You don’t need to say it out loud – just repeat it over in your head a few times, especially when you feel a little frazzled by your to-do list.

6. Yes, I know I said 5, but when do I ever stick to what I say I’m going to do. This was meant to be a short post. Clearly incapable. Right, number 6 (which I think is the most do-able and most rewarding):

Smile at 2 people that you walk past. Complete strangers. Hopefully they’ll smile back (if not, chase them down and ask what their problem is. Kidding! Don't do that). Maybe even say good morning. It’ll give you (and them) a little warm fuzzy feeling to kick-start your day, and theirs.

What’s your best way to start the morning? Let me know if you try any of these and if you notice a difference. I would say number 5 and 6 have made the biggest difference to my day.

Hypothalamic amenorrhea - huge thanks and an update

First of all I have to say how blown away by how much support I received from you all following my last blog post (which you can read HERE if you haven’t done so already). It was honestly so overwhelming – I can’t even express in words the gratitude I felt/feel.

I also received a lot of comments/emails/messages from women/girls who are in the same situation. No period for quite some time. Realise they need to put on weight as they are jeopardising their health and fertility. Scared to do so. 

What bothers me is the amount of conversations I have had that go like this:

Me: “I haven’t had my period in 2 years”

Them: “Oh that happened to me too”

Me: “Really? How’d you fix it”

Them: “Oh I just ate more and stopped being obsessive with exercise”

And what really concerns me is how blasé everyone is about all of this. Like losing your period in the pre-menopausal years is normal. I’ve got news for you – IT’S NOT! If your health is suboptimal, your reproductive system will be the first to stop working. You don’t need it to survive. And the first sign of your reproductive system going into shutdown mode is a lack of menstruation. Let’s not dull down how significant this actually is peeps!

OK, so I thought I should give you an update on my progress. No period yet. I have put on 6-7kg. Note – this has been over the past 4-5 months, not the past 5 weeks. That would not be healthy. Just as a healthy weight loss is around ½ kg per week, a healthy weight gain is about the same. I have reached the weight that gives me a BMI of 22 (I was 19.6 before). This is where my doctor and naturopath felt would be ideal for me in terms of baby-making.

How have I done it? I eat more. And I eat more carbs. I snack – mostly on smoothies. Yes, I have become one of those annoying people who drinks green smoothies, but not in a mason jar. My friend Caitlin won’t allow that kind of crap. She already tells me that giving thumbs up isn’t cool anymore. 

Just for you, Caitlin. xx

Aaahh where would I be without my young uni friends to keep me in line?! But I still eat in a paleo/primal/Weston A Price manner. Just because I have needed to gain weight doesn’t mean I should throw away all of my basic nutritional beliefs and principles. Especially in the pre-baby-making phase of my life. You can read my post on that here.

How do I feel about it? I’m not going to lie. I still have the occasional “I’m fat” moments. And then I just give myself a mental slap in the face, tell myself I’m beautiful (yes, I have also become one of those hippy-dippy self-love people. Laugh all you want. It helps), then get back to focusing on things that actually matter in life. You see, what I have realised is this – nobody cares if your thighs touch except you. And you only care because you think everyone else cares. Which they don’t. So stop caring! And please….go and un-like anything related to the “box-gap”. That shit is just going too far!

Because I like lists so much, I have decided to create a little pros and cons of gaining weight:

Cons

• My jeans don’t fit me anymore – actually it’s only one pair that doesn’t fit. The rest are pretty good with their stretch-ability (yes, that is a word!).
• I probably won’t be called up by Victoria to replace Miranda as her new Angel.

Pros

• I have boobs (see below) – this may seem insignificant to all you life-long well-endowed ladies out there, but coming from someone who has always struggled to fill an A cup (don’t laugh!), it’s pretty exciting! My husband also agrees. Although he says he likes my old boobs just as much. Smart man. Very smart man. Learn from this, gents!
• My skin and eyes are clearer than they have ever been (see below). And I don’t use any fancy shmancy skin products. I use olive oil and soap. Maybe a bit of rosehip oil in the winter. That’s it!

No filters - I felt it only right to show my skin as it is. And boobs.
Thanks to Bloch for the new top! 

• I feel stronger. I can lift heavier weights in the gym! Despite doing less exercise overall. Maybe there’s a lesson there….?
• I have more energy. Eating more = more nutrients getting in!
• Most of the time, I actually feel more comfortable in my body. Seriously. For the first time in about 15 years, I feel good. Really good.
• My husband still finds me sexy and my friends still want to hang out with me. Some of you may laugh at this one and say “of course they do!”, but this is actually a legitimate concern for some people (including me) as stupid as it may sound (and yes, we know it sounds stupid too, but the mind works in funny ways).
• Did I mention I have boobs?!

So it would seem that this whole business ain’t so bad after all!? And yes, as I said, there are days when I feel a little frumpy and want to go back to my svelte ways. But slowly, the good days are crowding out the bad. These things take time. And they can be scary. If you’re in the same position as me, please don’t feel that you have to do it alone. Telling friends and family (or, in my case, the entire inter-webs) about what’s going on can be so powerful. The feedback and support you receive might surprise you. I can tell you – writing that blog was the best thing I have ever done for my health. But if you don’t want to tell people close to you, feel free to tell me – either in the comments below or email me kate@theholisticnutritionist@gmail.com. This is an issue that needs more attention! So let’s get talking!

Thanks again everyone! Much love to you all! I'm off to have a bath and admire my new boobs! (kidding! Or am I?) xx