Listen here to how my understanding of health and the workings of the human body got started.

It can be done. People do give up smoking. They stop taking sugar in their tea. They give up coffee. Changing our habits is a very, very possible thing to do. With the information that is bombarding us from every side telling us what’s good for us most of us now have at least subconscious goals. We want to lose weight. We want to eat more fruit and vegetables. We would prefer organic food. We want to exercise more. We don’t want our children to be obese from eating junk foods. The transition is the hard part. Someone in the family has to spearhead the change.

It is usually the task of the family cook and shopper. He or she has to accept the fact that it will be an unpopular move. When the cupboard no longer contains sweet biscuits and the refrigerator is empty of sugary drinks there will be accusing eyes and wailing voices. Be strong. Make sure there are substitutes so that the cry “there’s nothing to eat” doesn’t ring in your ears. Give them chilled strips of carrot and celery always on tap. Have delicious fruit cut up and ready for the after-school onslaught. Be inventive about snacks. Cook books always have answers.

If we cut sugar down to a minimum and use whole food ingredients snacks are possible. If you are trying to be a vegetarian household do it gradually and don’t necessarily tell them the lentil hamburgers have breadcrumbs instead of mince meat. Chances are they won’t notice on a plate packed with vegetables and sauces. One woman disguised her nutritive sauces by saying in answer to a suspicious:"What’s that!” “Pink stuff,” and then changing the subject. It is hard to change eating habits particularly if the normal diet has had a lot of salt in it. It is essential to make the substitute fare delicious and worth eating. One nutritionist wrote recently that after years of pleading with his family to change their diet he tried asking them to do it just for 24 hours.

When they did they found themselves feeling much better and grudgingly agreed that he might have a point. But if we love our families we want to head off diabetes and cancer and all the other horrors that come with eating the wrong food filled with additives and salt and so we need to persevere. If it’s too hard to do it all at once then try it on alternate days until you gradually change entirely to the diet that is healthy. Afternoons and late evenings are the times when most snacking occurs and it is almost always involved with television. So try to eliminate that habit too.

Try taking children to a park in the afternoon for a game that you can enjoy too. Or take them to swim or skate but not anywhere selling ice creams or drinks. At night try a board game that will intrigue them away from the advertisements going on relentlessly on television. The payoff comes in slimness and health and a great sense of achievement and satisfaction. And lo and behold your old habits have gone!
 

I have a philosophy, and the philosophy is that if you deal with the little pains in life, then later on in life you can deal with the big pains. When I was growing up, if I had any teeth coming through, my parents would not give me painkillers, I had to deal with it myself.

I broke my collarbone at 13, I didn’t feel I needed anything, I felt that I could deal with that. I think I was 14 when I broke my foot and I broke a rib at 20. So here’s my philosophy of pain: all the little pains, like the little headaches and the little teeth coming through, they’re all little practice runs for the body to enable it to deal with pain and we have the natural chemicals in our body that help us deal with that pain, which act very much like commercially-made mild painkillers and even stronger drugs like morphine. That’s why the synthetic drugs work so well, because we have the natural receptors to make those drugs work and we make those drugs naturally in our own bodies, if only we let our body do it.

I’ve given birth three times…all without drugs. If you are interested in this topic, there are some great tips via the link at the bottom of this post.

So if you give the body the practice, the better the body gets at it. That was always my family’s philosophy on how to deal with pain. I feel I have a higher pain tolerance because I was brought up to deal with my own pains instead of being given synthetic commercial painkillers as my teeth were coming through, or when I had a headache.

My philosophy of pain is simple: if you allow your body to deal with the little pains, you can deal with the big pains.

Some people say I’m a passionate, determined and knowledgeable speaker on health issues who uses her education and experience to help others improve their quality of life so that they too can enjoy greater health and longer lives. And they’re right. I am. I do. And I love it. Together I want us to explore today’s most confronting issues like cancer, diseases, diets, drugs and medication and ask you directly to make a choice about what you are willing to consume.

My philosophy is quite simple. I think we should all eat the same kinds of foods in the same way that our grandparents did. They were healthy then and we can be healthy now if we say no to modern processed foods of all kinds. Just ask yourself, ‘is margarine really the answer’ or is it a major contributor to obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease? And let me ask you straight: is that artificial sweetener you may be using now a great low calorie alternative or a deadly neurotoxin? I want you to know how to read food labels, I want you to know why diets don’t work, and I want you to really see just how drugs can affect your total wellbeing and vitality, And yes, I ‘practice what I preach’. I have never taken an antibiotic or painkiller. Not even when I fell off a horse. Not even when I broke a limb. Not even during childbirth. And neither have any of my three daughters. To be honest, my teenage son has taken a painkiller once, and only once, when he seriously injured his chest recently.

My qualifications include a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Nutrition from Deakin University in Victoria and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. I also undertook postgraduate studies from RMIT Victoria in human anatomy, pathology, physiology and diplomas in diagnosis and management of health issues. I was thrilled to be named Sunshine Coast Business Women of the Year in 2003. But you know why? It wasn’t just because of the business side.

In every aspect of my life, I look outside conventional thinking to find new ways of balancing my time with family, business and good health to create a wonderful, balanced lifestyle. That year and every year since then my success has been equally spread between business, family and health, and that’s the way it should be, or it’s not true success. My Grandfather was a farmer in Iowa, USA. He grew all his own organic vegetables and fruits and this aspect of “healthy living foods “was passed onto my Mother. As a teenager I suffered from a weight problem that seemed to plague me through those years. To solve this problem I became more and more interested in food, the same sort of food that my grandfather produced. My quest led me to University in Colorado, USA and Melbourne Victoria, Australia. Consequently ·

I practiced as a nutritionist and lifestyle advisor in private practice for 15 years. · I have thousands of clients who have followed exactly what I’ve said and are now living healthy, energetic lives · I wrote the best seller Changing Habits Changing Lives. ·

I’ve appeared on national Television programs and cooking shows, Today Tonight, Fresh, Peak Health and Fitness, Nourish (yet to be released), guest speaker on ABC radio weekly, guest columnist in many national newspapers, Ultrafit Magazine (UK, AUST), Friday Magazine (AUST) etc. · I am the author of Changing Habits Changing Lives Cook Book - a best seller. · I am the co author of Read My LIPS, and contributed to the books ABOUT FACE and, FRESH START · I am a Public Speaker and Seminar Presenter and have presented for over 1000 companies including; BHP, Kwik Kopy, Fernwood, LÓreal, Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Health, CPA’s, Australia Post, Rural Women’s Association, John Holland Group, UK Chiropractors Association and many more. · My book has been translated into other languages ·

I have never taken an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, pain killer or any other form of medication. · I have antibodies for diseases I haven’t been vaccinated against including german measles (yet I never experienced the disease), and this I attribute to food and lifestyle. I think you will love my principles, where fresh is best but fresh and organic is even better, and because you will be able to make your cake and eat it too. I believe real butter is better for you, that salt is a healthy additive, and that chocolate has a place in a healthy diet.