Let’s meet up and help support this wonderful cause for women

FANCY having coffee with me on Wednesday morning? It will obviously be a virtual coffee, rather than face to face and it’s in aid of a wonderful cause – the Prince’s Trust campaign Women Supporting Women.

Personal empowerment is hugely important to me because it’s what the Slimpod programme is all about – empowering you take control over food, sugar empowering you to live and love your life !

This week the Trust is encouraging women to support women by holding  virtual get-togethers called Brilliant Breakfast. But I’m renaming mine Brilliant Brunch because I know so many people don’t actually have breakfast (which is no big deal).

The aim is to raise money for young women in the UK who need our support, helping them to wake up to a more positive future.

Young people are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Prince’s Trust research says over half of young women say their anxiety has increased because of the crisis and say finding a job feels impossible – this is why it’s more important than ever to support young women.

According to The Times, 80 per cent of those who have lost their jobs since the crisis began are women and two-thirds are aged 18-34. Women are a third more likely than men to work in a sector that is now shut down.

How you can help

One of the patrons of Women Supporting Women is Holly Tucker (pictured below), the founder of Not On The High Street. Holly’s one of the most inspiring women I’m fortunate enough to know and I’m delighted to be giving my support.

She has set up a JustGiving page and I’m going to be adding to that page with my donation.

There’s absolutely no pressure but I’d love Slimpodders to donate to this wonderful cause as well. Even a £5 donation will help give hope to a young woman somewhere.

Holly’s told me she’ll try to pop in to our Brilliant Brunch to say hello so fingers crossed!

Here’s her fund-raising page:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Holly-Tucker1

How you can join me

So I’d love you to join me on Wednesday (October 14) any time between 10 and 11. It’s really easy – just hit this link www.GoldGatherings.com on Wednesday and use the password Slimpod.

Important: Don’t search for GoldGatherings – it won’t work. The only way to join me is by clicking on the link in this email.

Put the kettle on, prepare yourself a nice healthy brunch and we’ll have a lovely chat.

If you don’t want brunch, just have a drink with us. Tea, coffee, water, whatever you fancy.

And you don’t have to stay for the whole hour – just pop in for a few minutes if you’ve got a busy morning ahead.

Would just be nice to see your face and meet you.

Here’s some extra special news

One of the things I’ll be sharing at the Brilliant Brunch is details of the launch of a new online support service for Slimpodders – whether you’re in Slimpod Club or not.

If you can’t make it tomorrow, I’ll be revealing all in a blog next week.

Please let me know in a comment below if you’ll be joining my Brilliant Brunch on Wednesday.

The post Let’s meet up and help support this wonderful cause for women appeared first on Slimpod.

Stop eating sugar right now and feel the amazing benefits

SUGAR:  Do you cut down or go cold turkey? The benefits of either are amazing!  Slimpodder Ava Brodie used her sugar pod, which comes as part of the Slimpod Gold programme, then decided she needed to take more drastic action.

I hope her video story will inspire you to realise that sugar doesn’t have to be the enemy that destroys your weight loss ambitions.

Like it did with Ava, your Slimpod will rewire your brain for peace and serenity around food.

Ava, who is 62 and lives in Lancashire, was a size 18 before she started listening to Slimpod in February 2020. She lost weight and felt good about herself – but she knew she could do better.

So she did hours of research into the harmful effects of sugar and what she found out was the trigger that made her decide three months ago to ban it from her life for ever.

Today, Ava is a size 8 and has lost three and a half inches from her waistline since stopping sugar in the summer.

“My BMI has dropped from 29.5 to 23.5 – which means that I’m no longer overweight, let alone being on the verge of obesity,” she says.

“The sugar pod just hit a nerve and made me realise I CAN stop eating sugar.”

Click on the image below to watch her video on The Slimpod Channel:

Ava’s advice on how to stop eating sugar

Ava admits: “Since I was a girl I can’t remember a day going by without eating sugar! I used to call myself a sugarholic…until now!

“I’ve gone just over three months without eating any form of sugar or sweeteners in food and drinks and here’s what happened!

“For the first 10 days or so I had these side effects: headaches, spots and rashes on my face, sleep disruptions, fatigue, irritability and cravings for carbohydrates – sugar!

“Then after that I started to feel so much better. I had more energy, better quality of sleep, a clearer complexion, a feeling of contentment – and no more sweet cravings!

“What helped me was drinking two litres water a day, eating protein with each meal, eating  more berries and citrus fruit and replacing coffee with hot water and a slice of lemon, or green tea.

Ava: I’m so happy and thrilled

“I still have one coffee daily with unsweetened almond milk and make it frothy in my blender – it’s lovely.

“I also found it important to distract myself when I got cravings.

“I can’t begin to tell you how happy and thrilled I am to have done this! I’d lost quite a bit of weight and a lot of inches with my Slimpod but then I got stuck and nothing was moving.

“After one week of going sugar free my weight started to come off again and I’ve lost 36lbs in total since starting Slimpod in February of this year.

“At 62 I feel more energised and happier than I have in a long time. To be finally free from sugar is such a relief.

“If anyone is thinking about it…just do it. Don’t be afraid to listen to your sugar pod.

“For me, going cold turkey was the option I took and I feel that was the only way that I could really and truly give up the sugar!”

Why you should stop eating sugar

The NHS recommends that adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, (roughly equivalent to 7 sugar cubes).

Free sugars are those which are added to food or drinks, and sugars found naturally in honey, syrups, unsweetened fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies and purees.

They should not make up more than 5% of the energy (calories) you get from food and drink each day.

Free sugars are found in sweets, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and some fizzy drinks and juice drinks. For example, a can of cola can have as much as 9 cubes of sugar – more than the recommended daily limit for an adult.

Most people go way over their daily limit because processed food, takeaways and convenient ready meals are jam-packed with sugar.

Stop eating sugar and lose weight

When you pour excess sugar into your body it plays havoc with hormones like insulin and leptin.

Insulin converts sugar into energy but large doses of sugar hamper its work and wreak havoc with your body. This is called insulin resistance.

Leptin is a hormone which controls your appetite. When you become insulin resistant, leptin gets overwhelmed and you constantly crave food – especially sweet things.

Cakes, biscuits and fizzy drinks pile on the pounds around your middle and you become a fat storage machine.

This is because high blood sugar levels release a flood of insulin through your body and over time make fat build up around your belly.

This is especially dangerous because these abdominal fat cells release hormones that bring on the kind of inflammation that can cause heart disease and cancer.

Read more in this blog post:

Stop eating sugar and feel better, look younger

Watch my Lives so you can stop eating sugar

All this week I’ll be doing deep dives on how to stop eating sugar. Please join me tomorrow (Tuesday October 6) on the Slimpod public Facebook page at 7.30pm UK time, in our private Slimpod Club on Wednesday at 8pm and on our Instagram page on Thursday at 7pm.

Do leave a comment below!

Please let me know what sugar’s doing to your life! I read every comment and although I can’t promise to answer every one, they give me invaluable help in creating new content for you.

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