Simply VIP Blogs - Life Choices

How choosing the right snacks can help boost your energy

2010-07-30T00:00:00.0000000+00:00

I love food. Simple as that. My friends often joke about the fact that I’m constantly munching. Whilst this isn’t entirely true, I am a big fan of grazing; eating small frequent meals and snacks throughout the day. I find that this way my body never runs out of fuel, which makes me feel lethargic and irritated. I also avoid grabbing whatever is in sight (i.e. beautifully wrapped counter snacks packed with sugar) out of sheer blood sugar low panic.

Being the nutritionist at Graze, I have the opportunity to inspire others to become healthier and more energised by making better snack choices. I also believe that, like the Simple skincare range, food is best when using only the ingredients that your body needs - and (almost) nothing that it doesn’t. Eating should be fun, simple...and healthy (well, most of the time).

The three o’clock energy slump
We’ve all been there; three o’clock comes around and you start thinking about the perfect remedy to get you through the last few hours of your working day. Something sweet. That contains caffeine. This is a typical blood sugar low. And don’t you just love that euphoric feeling when the rush of sugar kicks in? Clarity.
Well, you’ve just reached the top of that infamous blood sugar roller coaster.

Unfortunately, the sense of high doesn’t last for very long and is promptly followed by yet another energy dip, as too much insulin is released to combat the blood sugar surge. Fact is, in the long run, this may endanger your beautiful body. The pancreas eventually becomes exhausted and the insulin mechanism may stop functioning properly. But don’t panic. There is a way out of this vicious circle.

Fuel for your body
Your body works a bit like a car: If there’s not enough fuel it won’t function, and if you use the wrong kind of petrol it will eventually break down. The fuel that your body uses is called glucose. And the kind of petrol it needs is full of vitamins and minerals.

Everything you eat and drink is broken down into glucose (sugar). However, foods are digested at different speed depending on their makeup. Protein, fat and complex carbohydrates take longer for your body to break down, whilst sugar and refined carbohydrates are digested very quickly.

The trick is, in order to keep your energy and mood steady, and for your body not to break down, blood glucose (sugar) needs to be kept at a constant level throughout the day. Not too high, not too low. This is where the willpower to choose the right snacks comes in.

Snacks for energy
Think brown instead of white. Don’t be afraid of including healthy unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds, avocado and hummus. Have some protein with each snack. And, perhaps the most difficult one, try to avoid drinks that contain stimulants including coffee and tea or are high in sugar such as fizzy drinks and concentrated fruit juices. They will only propel you into a rollercoaster high. Also, stay well hydrated by sipping water throughout the day.

When it comes to snacking, I have to admit I have a bit of a nut and seed fetish. They contain plenty of B-vitamins to boost your energy levels, provide omega fatty acids for your brain, are high in protein chromium and manganese which help balance blood sugar levels, and also contribute to your daily iron intake, which help carrying oxygen around your body.

Fresh and dried fruit are also packed with a combination of nutrients. However, dried fruit is high in natural sugar (fructose) and can therefore raise your blood sugar too quickly. By adding some protein such as plain yoghurt or nuts, you get a more steady energy release.

Top tips
Plan ahead. This is key to success, especially at the start of you new snacking life. Don’t wait until you’re ravishingly hungry. Instead, schedule in a healthy snack about three hours after each meal. By never letting your blood sugar levels fall too low, you are less likely to over indulge on refined carbohydrates and sugary snacks.
I always carry a piece of fruit or some of my own nuts mix with me. However if you don’t have time to prepare snacks every day, or just fancy a treat, why not try a Graze box of your choice? My favourite combos at the moment are the ‘fantasy forest’ (dried mango, macadamia and Brazil nuts), the ‘ancient forest nuts’ (almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts) and the ‘beach bum’ (banana coins, coconut cubes and mango). Yum.

Promotion:
Excitingly the team at Graze.com are offering our Simple VIPs the chance to receive one free box and the second half price, just use the code SIMPLE at the checkout. Simple will donate 50p to MacMillan every time this code is used. Thanks Graze.com. www.graze.com/signup

Discover the natural goodness....

2010-06-30T00:00:00.0000000+00:00

At Simple we pride ourselves on using only the ingredients that your skin needs – and nothing that it doesn’t, so you can trust the natural goodness in all our products. Simple isn’t just about how you look on the outside, it’s about looking after the inside too, which is why the experts at Simple have developed the Simple SkinTrition™ experience. http://www.simple.co.uk/SkinTrition/

We wanted to remind you that over at our SkinTrition pages you can visit the following areas:

Skin Loving Recipes of the month providing you with lots of great recipes to keep your skin looking great from the inside http://www.simple.co.uk/SkinTrition/Recipes/
Skin Loving Nutrients and Vital Vitamins – giving more information about the goodness in all of our products http://www.simple.co.uk/SkinTrition/Nutrients/
An Interactive game to help you find out the impact that diet has on your skin http://www.simple.co.uk/SkinTrition/NourishYourSkin/
Nutrient / Vitamin of the week – focusing on the hero goodness ingredients in our products http://www.simple.co.uk/SkinTrition/Nutrients/Nutrient-Of-The-Week.aspx

We also invited you to send in your skin loving recipes of the month. Thanks for those who have submitted recipes for us all to enjoy, please keep them coming.

Recently we have been talking to Graze (www.graze.com) who provide a selection of personalised snacks to your tastes, nutritionally balanced snack boxes that can be
delivered straight to your desk. We invited Graze to share with our Simple VIPS a few insights into finding the right balance of snacks during the day..
Over the next couple of months Graze.com will be sharing with us two blog posts. next month they will be talking about “How choosing the right snacks can help boost your energy” and “How nuts and seeds are great for your skin”.

Excitingly the team at Graze.com are offering our Simple VIPs the chance to receive one free box and the second half price, just use the code SIMPLE at the checkout. Simple will donate 50p to MacMillan every time this code is used. Thanks Graze.com. www.graze.com/signup
Please let Graze know what you think about their guest blog post, which is arriving on August 1st and send in any comments, queries you may have on nutritionally balanced snacks. Don’t worry – we’ll remind you about the post in next month’s Simple VIP newsletter.

How to simplify your life – starting with your house

2010-04-06T00:00:00.0000000+00:00

If you’re a fan of the Simple range, you’ll already know the value finding a product that’s uncluttered with unnecessary ingredients and is simple and effective. Well, I’m someone who discovered the value of doing that with my home too. I used have an incredibly cluttered and messy house, until I realised that I longed for a simpler and more peaceful and nurturing space.

It took me a long time to work out how ‘naturally’ tidy people achieve that in a seemingly effortlessly way, but when I did, I started sharing my system with my friends and wrote a book called ‘Banish Clutter Forever – How the toothbrush principle will change your life’ (Vermilion). You see, I noticed that even the worst clutterholics never lose their toothbrushes, or ever have to ‘tidy them away’. And I realised that all of us do actually have the secret of being well organised within that tiny system, but we just don’t know it. The book outlines the whole concept, and in the space of a few weeks can have you living your simpler, less cluttered and well organised life effortlessly.

Getting your house to help you to simplify your routine
One of the key ways in which you can make your house work more smoothly, saving you time and stress, is to create mini ‘workstations’ around all your common tasks.. Most of us do this automatically when we’re travelling, but we don’t apply the principle as much at home. For instance, Simple makes your skincare routine easy when you’re travelling with the ‘Travel Companion’. It has everything you need to keep your skin happy whilst you’re away, from wipes to moisturiser, and is great to keep in your hotel bathroom to remind you to take care of your skin. It’s a good idea from Simple to group these things, and one you can use just as effectively when you get back.

You can save lots of time and effort if your house is filled with similar sorts of ‘workstations’ around all your routine tasks. So for instance, next time you make your packed lunch, take a few minutes to place everything you need for the task in one spot. Maybe move the bread bin near to the fridge, and place your sandwich bags, drink cartons and biscuit bars in the cupboard above that countertop? That way, everything you need to assemble your lunch will be within reach, making the job much quicker and easier. It sounds like a lot of effort which might only shave a couple of minutes off the task, but if making a packed lunch is something you do everyday, that adds up to a lot of time over the course of a week or a month. Once you create workstations around every task in your morning routine, you’ll really start to feel the benefits.

Tailor things to your own lifestyle
Mini workstations work best when they’re tailored to your own idiosyncrasies, rather than being standard suggestions. So become your own detective for a few days, and watch how you actually use your space and note where your problems occur. If your post gathers on the kitchen counter, for instance, analyse your habits. Do you like opening the post in the morning over your breakfast? If so, provide yourself with a document tray, so that you can sort it properly, put the unwanted paper straight into the recycling, and have the tray ready to go, when you want to take it to your desk to deal with your bills etc.

If you list the tasks you do every day, and streamline them all like this, then you’ll find that you save lots of time as a matter of course. But you’ll also find your home much easier to use, because it’s tailored to you personally. It’ll start to feel as though your possessions empower you to live the life you want to live, rather than feeling that you’re a slave to keeping them tidy. You’ll find you’re more likely to put things away automatically, just as you do with your toothbrush, and that you enjoy keeping things that way.

Simplify your possessions
Mini workstations also get you to assess what you’re really using everyday, and make the decision to ditch the things you don’t, feel far less painful, because it’s easier to see what you really need, and easier to see what’s getting in your way. You already know that ‘simple’ doesn’t have to mean ‘spartan’. Organising your home like this can make it second nature to maintain a peaceful, uncluttered space.

I blog about home organising at www.banishclutterforever.co.uk so do come and visit to get more tips and advice, download a free excerpt of my book, or take the clutter quiz, to diagnose your own clutter personality.

‘Banish Clutter Forever - How the toothbrush principle will change your life’ by Sheila Chandra is available from www.amazon.co.uk and Waterstones online, or via her website.

Never, ever give up! By Life Coach prize winner Louise

2009-08-27T00:00:00.0000000+00:00

A few months ago Louise applied to win 6 life coaching sessions from our resident lifecoach Emma Wimhurst. Read below how she believes these sessions have helped to change her life for the better...

Back in November 2008 things were pretty bleak – I’d been unable to work for four years due to health problems and my attempts at retraining for a more manageable career had been thwarted. I lacked confidence and direction. My husband had just been made redundant and, with very little hope of him finding another job soon, we feared losing everything, including our home. Depression and despair were winding their tentacles tighter and tighter, when I came across the Simple ‘Live Question and Answer’ session – and the chance to win six sessions with life-coach Emma (www.ewcoaching.co.uk). I figured it was worth a go – let’s face it, I needed all the help I could get!! I couldn’t believe it when I won – it was the first good news I’d had for AGES……

Things started to change from the very first time I spoke to Em – she’s a motivational whirlwind of positivity and practicality. By the start of the New Year I’d had two sessions and, even though my circumstances hadn’t changed, I was beginning to feel positive and optimistic. Em and I worked together on setting out achievable steps which would enable me to clarify, and then reach, my life-goals. My new positivity, confidence and ‘action-plan’ also meant that I could support my husband with the emotional and practical issues arising from his redundancy, rather than us both being overwhelmed by the worry and stress. I even plucked up the courage to go back to my GP about a new drug for Fibromyalgia which I wanted to try. When I’d asked him about it last year he’d been dismissive, but this time I went armed with information and prepared my argument in advance. This time he agreed that I could try it, and the improvement in my symptoms was amazing.

Then……..and this is the biggy…….on January 13th I had my first interview for six years and got offered the job – not just any old job, but a GREAT job – one that I thought I’d really enjoy doing and the money wasn’t half bad either!! The good news doesn’t stop there though – my husband also found a new job, so not only will we keep our home, we’re actually going to be better off than we were before – an incredible achievement in the current financial climate. The coaching sessions continued, and we came up with coping strategies to help me deal with such a huge life-change (I was so scared and full of self doubt – what if I wasn’t good enough, or just couldn’t manage it?!). Em hasn’t just helped me through an immediate crisis though – I now have plots and plans in place to make my long-term dreams come true.

Well, I started work on the 16th February so am now nearly six months in and it’s brilliant – of course I moan (about the long days, how tired I am, and the fact that I never have time to do anything else!), but wow, when you think about how things might have been…….it’s hard to keep the smile off my face! And as for Emma, well she’s ‘Simple-y’ the best! So please, never, ever give up….

Louise wins six Life Coaching sessions!!!!!!!

2009-01-08T14:28:02.5970000+00:00

When I submitted my question to Emma via Simple’s live Q & A session, it was with a sense of desperation and frustration, rather than with any hope of winning the six Life Coaching sessions – like everyone else, I NEVER win anything! I have been unable to work for four years due to health problems and my attempts at retraining for a more manageable career had been thwarted. I lacked confidence and direction. My husband had just been made redundant and, with very little hope of him finding another job soon, we feared losing our home. Things weren’t looking good……

But guess what? I won – talk about perfect timing! I was so excited, but a bit nervous and scared too – what me, talk about myself to a ‘stranger’ for a whole hour? Gulp! Would Emma be able to help? Would we get on? Well, I needn’t have worried; talking to Emma was like catching up with a long lost friend. She combines professionalism with compassion, humour and positivity in a way that makes you feel that you’re completely in safe hands and can be honest about your life, hopes, and dreams. At the end of the session Emma asked if I wanted homework. Did I ever! I couldn’t sleep that night because my head was buzzing with plots, plans and possibilities…..

I’ve only had two sessions so far but find Emma’s coaching an inspirational, motivational, journey of self-discovery. My circumstances haven’t yet changed, but now I feel positive and optimistic. I have achievable steps in front of me to enable me to clarify, and then reach my life-goals. Yes, these are worrying times for so many of us at the moment, but good things can still happen, be open to them, and GO FOR IT! Thank you Simple, and thank you Emma for choosing me, watch this space…..!