{Guest Blogger} Food Nutritionist

The guest post that I have lined up for today is one that is not only relevant to brides but also to anybody wanting to look super HOT. And let's FACE IT, who doesn't want to look super hot?

Meet UK based Nutritionist, Anna Marsh. Anna runs Anna Marsh Nutrition and offers bespoke plans for weight loss, IBS and detox. She has worked with a wide variety of people from office-workers, stay-at-home moms and competitive and recreational athletes to actors such as Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall Green - in order to achieve tailored body conditioning results.

See those sexy faces?

Anna didn't give them those - 

but she did help their sexy bodies.

Anna has a Degree in Human Kinetics and Ergonomics as well as a Degree in Nutritional Therapy - (First Class with Honours). She is also registered with the British Association of Nutritional Therapy and the Complementary and Natural Health Care Council.



When Anna first contacted me - I was really excited for her to share some of her nutritional expertise with us. The Warr and I have been on "the wedding health kick" and the "honeymoon abs campaign". For me, personally, it is not about losing weight - I definitely do not want to be a skeletal-lollipop-head-bride. (You know what I'm talking about). But I do want to tone up and increase body definition. I asked Anna for her best pre-wedding nutritional tips (direct words may have been "get-rid-of-flabby-arms-in-minimum-time-to-look-good-in-wedding dress tips”). Although, good nutritional tips shouldn't only be reserved for "pre-wedding"....



I will be totally honest - some of Anna's tips were really surprising and interesting to me! (You can see my surprise remarks in red below)

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I love indieBerries. It makes many a dull journey to or from work a little bit more fun and I love Che’s sense of humour and style. I don’t have the awesome creativity, humour or blogtastic skills of Che Kershaw (soon to be Dyer) but I do know a few things about food. 

So I’ve put myself forward (and under the scrutiny of indieBerries readers) to write a little something about nutrition. With a month to go until the wedding, some nutrition tips to look awesome in one’s wedding dress, might be fitting (excuse the pun).

I had a special request for “get-rid-of-flabby-arms-in-minimum-time-to-look-good-in-wedding dress tips!”. With 30 days to go my initial idea was to write my “30-top-tips-for-looking-fab-on-your wedding-day”. As I started to write them out I started to think that they weren’t really “top-tips” but rather just some sensible advice for healthy eating.

I recently met with a recent bride to be who ate calorie controlled packaged food for 3 months prior to her wedding day. Yes it worked, but what happens after that? (no, wait, don't tell me...). The presence of our extra wobbly-bits (aka muffin-top and bingo-wings) is a sign that we aren’t as healthy as we could be. We store fat when things aren’t working so well in our body. This may be because of diet, maybe because of stress (ER, HELLO WEDDING!) or maybe because of some hormonal or nutrient imbalance. 

Without getting too serious I guess the take home message is that, in general, if you eat for health, you may naturally ditch that spare tyre and your skin will glow and your hair will shine and THAT is how you look fab on your wedding day!

So here we go....

30 Top Tips for Looking Fab on Your Wedding Day

1. Carbs are the enemy. (damn! i KNEW it). Sorry, but it’s true (almost, see below). When we eat carbs we increase blood sugar, when we increase blood sugar we increase insulin, when we increase insulin we tell our fat cells to store fat. Bread, pasta, rice, cereal, chocolates, cake and crisps. OUT!
2. Not all carbs were made equal. Vegetables, soft fruits like berries and melons, a little bit of quinoa or sweet potato are okay. In moderation. See points 9 and 10 for timings.
3. Fruit juice is a carb.
4. Honey is a carb.
5. Alcohol is a carb.
6. Dairy, such as yoghurt and milk contains more carbohydrate than protein, especially if it is low fat or semi-skimmed (see point 9).
7. We don’t need to eat fruit, we can get the nutrients we need from sugar, so if you are trying to drop body fat, cut out fruit. (I have actually seen many articles about the "hidden carbs" in fruit...mmm...)
8. Fat doesn’t make you fat, carbs do. Fat keeps us full and gives us healthy skin, hair and nails.
9. Eat a little good fat like oily fish, olive oil, olives, avocados, nuts and seeds, butter and coconut butter, with EVERY meal.
   
   {i do love me some good avocado}
10. Low fat products make you fat. (whaaaat?!) They contain more sugar, tell your body to make more insulin and therefore you store more fat. 
11. Avoid diet drinks and sweeteners. They have no nutritional value and can still raise insulin.
12. Protein is important. Eat 1g protein for every kilogram body weight if you don’t exercise.
13. Eat 2g protein for every kilogram body weight if you do lots of exercise.
14. If you weigh 60kg and exercise that means you need to eat about 400g of chicken, fish, steak or other lean meats per day!
15. Your body naturally burns more fat in the morning so eat a high fat/high protein breakfast.

16. Eating carbohydrates in the morning will blunt fat burning for the rest of the day. Out with the cereals, toast and porridge oats. In with scrambled egg and smoked salmon! (It was actually very difficult to try and find a {nice} picture of scrambled egg that wasn't nestled on a carb. Naughty breakfast eaters! You have NOT been listening to Anna!)
17. Black coffee can suppress appetite and upregulate fat burning. Exercise first thing in the morning after drinking a cup of black coffee to stimulate fat burning.

18. Avoid processed food. This includes cereal, cereal/diet bars, breads, pasta, sauces that aren’t made from, scratch, ready meals, pre-packaged salads and sandwiches, soups that aren’t made from scratch, confectionary. (Giving up cereal breaks my heart a little...). The list of processed foods goes on and on so it may be better to look at what you CAN eat...
19. Eat real food in its natural and unprocessed state. This includes meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds and their oils, a bit of yoghurt, butter and cream if you tolerate dairy.
20. The above foods contain the most nutrients. We need nutrients to burn fat. If we are low in nutrients we feel more hungry and tend to overeat.
21. Never shop hungry.
22. If you can, avoid grains altogether – they irritate the digestive tract which can raise levels of stress hormones, causing weight gain.
23. Cook with olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, butter, ghee or coconut oil. Seed oils, such as sunflower or rapeseed oil damage under heat and can be bad for health.
24. A little bit of dark chocolate (70%+) every now and again makes for nice treat. (I like that Anna is realistic about this whole "healthy lifestyle" thing!)
25. Get enough sleep.
26. It is my very personal opinion that we all react to gluten in some way or another, the most severe being celiac disease. Don’t believe me? Give up grains for 2 weeks and tell me you don’t feel awesome. (I will be honest, if I eat too much oats or cereal, I sometimes get that slight heartburn feeling... and it's not because I'm missing Warren.)
27. Take a probiotic and look after your gut.

28. Brassica vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale and brussel sprouts) can be good foods for women. They help us clear excess oestrogen from the body. Excess oestrogen can be responsible for storing fat on our thighs and backs of our arms.
29. Stress can make us store fat on our tummy’s. Food intolerances can be a huge source of stress on the body. This is why I often suggest giving up grains and dairy for those wanting to drop body fat.
30. Enjoy your food. Enjoy your life.
    
    
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Anna's Facebook page - Anna Marsh Nutrition is filled with awesome and (slightly obscure) healthy recipes - such as Gluten-free Sweet Potato Brownies (?!?) and she often posts recipes of things she is eating or recipes she recommends - which really helps to keep you motivated. She also shares some interesting articles on healthy living, her thoughts on supplements, gluten & weight free diets and detoxing.

You can visit her Facebook page and keep up to date with cool recipes and healthy tips  - like it HERE

and check out  her website and different services HERE
If you are living in the UK and feeling a bit "body-sluggish" it may be worth giving Anna a call :)