Weight Loss
Do You Want to
- Lose weight but don’t know how to get the motivation and willpower to get started?
- Lose weight naturally?
- Increase your energy?
- Gain control of food allergies, celiac disease or food intolerance?
- Tame your cravings and binges?
- Learn to choose and prepare healthy food?
- Alleviate digestive disorders, allergies or asthma?
- Improve chronic health conditions?
- Eliminate PMS or menopause symptoms?
- Want to know The Secret to Lasting Healthy Weight Loss?
- Kick start your way to a new you on the inside and out?
Tailored Naturopathic and Nutrition Eating Plans for Weight loss and Wellness.
Clinically proven to
- Reduce hunger and cravings
- Improve energy and mood
- Burn body fat
- Maintain muscle
- Improve health and wellbeing
- Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease type 2 diabetes and other diseases
- Improve athletic performance and endurance
- Balance hormones
Hormones are stronger than diet
What this means is if there is a hormonal imbalance it is extremely difficult to lose weight with diet and exercise alone.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, and is central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin stops the use of fat as an energy source. What you may have thought were “ordinary” amounts of flour, sugar and alcohol can cause a large amount of insulin to be released, and over time, the body’s cells will stop responding properly to that insulin (insulin resistance).
Almost 40% of people on a standard Western diet develop insulin resistance. In Insulin resistance the body uses insulin less effectively than normal. Insulin is needed to help control the amount of sugar in the body. As a result, blood sugar and fat levels rise. Carbohydrates will not be used for energy, but instead will be stored as fat. Some scientists believe that pollution and environmental toxins may be a contributing cause of insulin resistance.
Untreated, insulin resistance leads to adult onset diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, fatty liver, Alzheimer’s Disease, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, breast cancer, under-active thyroid, and premature ageing. Some symptoms/risk factors include a High carb/sugar diet(modern western diet), Bread cravings, apple-shaped obesity, stomach fat, high fasting cholesterol, glucose and insulin on blood test.
Eating a lot of refined foods, caffeine, skipping meals, everyday life pressures and stress affect two main hormones in your body, cortisol and insulin. If someone has a history of these habits over time it leads to resistance and adrenal fatigue. Until this is corrected it can be very difficult to get significant weight loss results with mainstream diets and exercise alone.
Stress and high cortisol causes the body to store fat, especially around the abdomen and waist. It also causes the liver to release sugar into the blood causing imbalances in blood sugar affecting energy mood, cravings and hunger and contributes to Insulin surges and can lead to Insulin resistance. Emotional eating may account for up to 75% of overeating. Emotional eating is the use of food to control emotions. This leads to increased consumption. Stress hormone (cortisol) also contributes directly to weight gain by destabilising blood sugar.
Another two hormone that play a part in weight gain are our female hormones oestrogen and progesterone. Imbalances in theses hormones make it difficult to lose weight and cause PMS and other problems such as endometriosis, fibroids and PCOS.
Thyroid hormones govern our metabolism, if our thyroid is clinically (shown on blood testing) or sub clinically ( not picked up on blood test) under active then weight loss attempts will be unsuccessful until the condition is corrected.
Under active thyroid problems are very common in the modern world. Like many other hormone imbalances, under-active thyroid is due, in part, to our modern lifestyle. The causes of Hypothyroidism can be quite varied, and need to be identified and addressed.
Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat that is supposed to stop hunger. Under normal conditions, it tells the brain that you are not hungry, and it tells the body to burn fat. When leptin resistance develops, the result is a gnawing, constant hunger that cannot be satisfied. Chronically elevated leptin levels are associated with obesity, overeating, and inflammation-related diseases including hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. Leptin is associated with body fat mass, the size of individual fat cells, and the act of overeating. An insulin increase causes a rise in leptin, an effect caused by high cortisol(stress hormone) levels.
Overweight and obese individuals generally have an unusually high circulating concentration of leptin. And develop a resistance to the effects of leptin. The high sustained concentrations of leptin from the fat stores result in leptin desensitisation. Then the body does not adequately receive the satiety feeling subsequent to eating.
The liver is the main powerhouse and fat burning organ in the body. It produces enzymes, balances sugar levels and converts fat into energy. Overburdened by household chemicals and pollution, and deprived of nutrition, the liver can simply not keep up with the all of the body’s jobs, and metabolism slows down. During weight loss the liver is under more strain to metabolize and process the body fat that is lost. Sometimes weight loss can slow down or people think they reach a plateau, but often it is their liver overburdened from processing the body fat and herbal/nutrient liver supplement support may be needed.
A tailored eating plan for hormonal balancing that looks at the way we eat and when and what we eat will have significant benefits on our hormones, nutritional and herbal support and lifestyle modification may also be needed.
Shelley’s Experience
Shelley has over 15 years’ experience in the healthcare industry as a qualified Nurse and Naturopath. She specialises in weight loss by focusing on wellness coaching. Knowing what foods to eat and when to eat are important but without looking at the emotional, psychological, behavioural and motivational aspects of a person, weight loss attempts are often unsuccessful.
Shelley will put together a personalised, tailored and structured eating plan for you and provide ongoing support so you can achieve your weight loss and wellness goals. Shelley will analyse and address clinical and medical problems affecting your weight loss such as thyroid, female and male reproductive hormones, stress hormones, blood sugar imbalances, liver and GUT health, food sensitivities, acute and chronic inflammation, medications, lifestyle, sleep patterns, age, body composition, hereditary disposition, mental, emotional and psychological factors.
Wellness
Not only will you see weight loss but wellness will come with it. People report increased energy levels, less aches and pains, balanced mood, better sleep, improvements in medical diagnosed disease, reduced need or no need for medications, better skin, hair and nails, looking and feeling younger and better digestion.
Mind Changes
But apart from the physical changes, people feel more empowered, more confident and “healthier” in the mind. Changes that happen on a mind level are lasting. If you think simply losing weight is going to make you happier, more complete, and more confident, attract the partner of your dreams or make you successful, you are wrong. Those things come from working with your thought patterns and cultivating unconditional love for yourself. I work from the inside out, once you sort out the head stuff the weight loss becomes a side effect!
Not another gimmick weight loss program
Appointments are personalised to address individual issues and causes of weight gain and the cause is addressed and treated. I focus on what can be added to your diet and lifestyle to truly nourish you from the inside out.
A true balanced holistic approach to life incorporates things that nourish you other than food, including relationships, a spiritual practice, a career that inspires you and physical activity that feeds your hunger for living. I work with you to help find balance in all of these areas.
Conditions Treated
Shelley’s Naturopathic services give you the tools and knowledge to take control of your own health, rather than giving you a quick fix. While she can simply relieve problematic symptoms, the cause will also be addressed.
More information about some of our available treatments:
Appointments
Making an appointment is easy.
Simply call 0450 273 119 or email to organise your appointment.