Holidays should be a time for relaxation. Escaping the rigmarole of daily life and treating yourself to a much-needed break. For so many of us though, we can end up spending the whole time worrying about what we look like, what people will think of us, and what we should or shouldn’t eat.  What if you could go on holiday without the crash dieting beforehand? What if you could enjoy being somewhere new and trying new flavours that satisfy you? What if you could be present and soak up all the wonderful experiences you’ve been so looking forward to enjoying? Today I want to help you stop wasting your hard-earned holidays worrying about things that are really not important. I talk about how it’s possible to have food freedom even on holiday. It’s not easy, and it does take time, but in this episode, I share my top tips on changes you can start implementing right away to help you shed the diet mentality and work towards healthier habits and behaviours. “You are going to miss out on so many amazing opportunities in life if you spend them worrying about your body and about food the entire time.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand how crash dieting before a holiday adds to the stress you feel during a holiday. Reassess what’s important about holidays and understand how diet culture keeps you stuck in an unhealthy cycle. Learn different tools that will empower you to develop a new healthier mindset. Discover strategies that will help you to nourish your body rather than punish it. Find out how you can honour your hunger even when on holiday. Follow my simple tips to avoid going overboard at the breakfast buffet. Resources: To help have a stress-free summer, check out my Mega Summer Bundle which includes an incredible collection of 50 fresh and fruity recipes perfect for all occasions, and a gorgeous printable planner to help stay organised: https://youarenourished.com/summer-bundle  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourished.lauren 

Today’s episode brings us to the end of my four-part series on reasons why you might be struggling to lose weight. Today I am talking about a subject that I have first-hand experience of, which is an underactive thyroid. Thyroid symptoms can affect us in so many different ways which can make it hard to get a correct diagnosis and work out the treatment you need – it certainly took a considerable amount of time for me to get the help I needed. When visiting the doctor, you may end up with a short-term solution to one of the symptoms (such as constipation, low mood, or weight gain) but that’s not dealing with the long-term root cause.  It is really complex which is why I want to share my experience of what I went through so you can get the help you may need. In this episode, I explain what to look out for, how to get a diagnosis, and the potential need for medication. I also share my diet and lifestyle tips that I find help to successfully manage my condition. “Thyroid issues can often be misdiagnosed because your thyroid hormone is responsible for so many different processes inside the body.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Learn the surprising ways thyroid issues can affect us which make it so hard to diagnose. Understand some simple science to give you the confidence to ask for investigation into the root cause of your symptoms. Learn about my own journey with getting the right diagnosis and finding a treatment that worked for me. Discover changes I made to my diet that helped me manage my underactive thyroid. Try some simple lifestyle tips that can help improve your overall health. Resources mentioned: If you’re interested in getting your thyroid tested privately, you could try https://medichecks.com/pages/thyroid-health or https://bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk/collections/thyroid-blood-tests For further information on thyroid problems, check out Dr Izabella Wentz’s website: https://thyroidpharmacist.com/ A great book for more information would be ‘The Thyroid Connection’ by Amy Myers: https://amzn.to/3aJpT55  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourished.lauren

We’re continuing our four-part series on reasons why you might be struggling to lose weight, by looking at inflammation. And this week I am joined by my first-ever podcast guest expert! Emily Niswanger, a Functional Dietitian from Anywhere Nutrition – who is an expert in all things to do with inflammation – joins me all the way from Minnesota! Now, when we think of inflammation, we tend to think of conditions where you can obviously see or feel the inflammation, like arthritis, for example, where you would experience persistent pain. Many of us don’t realise that we can also have internal inflammation that goes on inside our bodies that we just don’t see. Do you suffer from digestive issues like bloating? Do you lack energy all the time? Do you find it hard to concentrate and forget things a lot? These are all indicators of chronic inflammation! In this episode, Emily helps us delve into what inflammation is, why it can make weight loss difficult, and shares lots of ideas on changes you can make to your diet and lifestyle to reduce inflammation. “If you are struggling with inflammation in the body, no amount of dieting or exercise is going to help unless we deal with this root cause first.”  - Lauren Gayfer  In This Episode: Learn about different types of inflammation and how inflammation can prevent you from losing weight. Discover the role nutrition plays in exacerbating inflammation and how to look out for hidden ingredients in shop-bought products. Understand the importance of finding a healthy and sustainable balance with what you eat and how letting go of perfectionism will help reduce both stress and inflammation. Learn how different lifestyle factors can increase inflammation including some surprising things you think would have the opposite effect. Get top tips on healthier habits you can try to help reduce inflammation.  Resources mentioned: Connect with Emily on social media using @anywherenutrition or go to her website: www.anywherenutrition.com  Find out more about the history of low-fat diets in podcast episode, ‘How to stop fearing full-fat foods’, here: https://youarenourished.com/episode20. Listen to the first episode in this series, ‘3 Underlying Reasons You Might Be Struggling to Lose Weight’, here: https://youarenourished.com/episode21. Listen to the second episode in this series, ‘Underlying “non-food” reasons for weight gain – Stress’, here: https://youarenourished.com/episode22. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourished.lauren 

Stress is our body's way of reacting to feeling under pressure. We enter the fight or flight response where our bodies go into life-saving mode to make us stay and fight or run away to escape danger. Originally this would have been vital to help us survive being attacked, whereas these days, we’re in much less life-threatening situations! Unfortunately, our bodies can’t tell the difference between cheating death in the claws of a predator to dealing with a stressful email! If we’re not actually in physical danger, the processes going on inside our body to make us fight or flight can actually lead to weight gain and difficulties in losing weight. Today is the second in a four-part series talking about what might be going on in your body to cause you to struggle to lose weight. In this episode, I explain how our stressful modern lifestyles are damaging our health, and I share my top 5 tips to help you lead a more stress-free life. “So many health conditions can be traced back to stress.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Learn the impact stress has on the body. Understand that the body cannot differentiate between different types of stress. Discover what the stress hormone cortisol does to blood sugar levels and how this causes cravings. Understand the importance of dealing with the underlying issue of stress. Learn about my own struggle with stress and weight loss after having my first child. Find out my top 5 tips for reducing cortisol and managing stress better. Resources mentioned: Get instant access to my 7 Meals in an Hour workshop where you can learn how meal prep can take away stress at mealtimes: https://www.laurengayfer.com/7-meals Download my free recipe eBook with loads of lovely snack ideas that help keep your cravings under control: https://www.laurengayfer.com/healthy-snacks Discover loads of recipe inspiration with my bumper bundle of meal plans and recipes that will ensure you always have nourishing meals to hand: https://www.laurengayfer.com/recipe-bundle  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

We can eat healthily and exercise regularly, yet still find that we can’t lose weight. What’s important to realise is that weight loss is not as simple as calories in versus calories out. Our bodies carry out countless functions every day that are intricately linked, so it should be no surprise that there may be other things going on in the body that might prevent weight loss. Having the sole focus on weight loss can leave us feeling frustrated and demoralised as well as making conditions worse. If we take a more holistic view around improving our health, we can get to the root of any issues and treat the underlying condition. Today is the first in a four-part series talking about what might be going on in your body to cause you to struggle to lose weight. In this episode, I explain three of the most common health conditions that can make it hard to shift weight and why concentrating on weight loss can make these conditions worse. “When you are making changes to your diet and to your habits and behaviours, it's really important to start with health first.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Discover why there is no one size fits all when it comes to losing weight. Learn three of the most common underlying reasons for having difficulty in shifting weight. Find out how these three conditions are impacting your body. Realise that diets are a stress on the body making health conditions worse. Understand the importance of taking a holistic approach to health. Discover that focusing on changing habits and behaviours for health rather than weight loss will lead to more success. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren

Fat is a really complex subject, yet we have been told all fats are the same and they are all bad. So we’ve ended up fearing whole, natural, healthy fats found in avocados, nuts and seeds, while happily eating highly processed, low-fat foods. However, these processed foods contain saturated and trans fats that increase our risk of certain illnesses and are usually full of sugar too! Not all fats are the same, and by excluding healthy fats, we are robbing our bodies of essential nutrients that we can’t get elsewhere. Today I want to talk about the different types of fats out there and the different effects they have on the body. In this episode, I share some simple ways you can introduce more healthy fats into your meals as part of a healthy diet. “Fats actually help to reduce cravings because they're satisfying.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Discover the history of why the low-fat movement began and why it was flawed. Learn how fats in low-fat foods have been replaced with sugar, leading to an obesity epidemic. Learn about the different types of fats and what they do in the body. Understand that removing all fat from our diets can lead to deficiencies. Appreciate that full-fat foods fill us up and help us avoid cravings. Find out some simple ways to include more full-fat foods in your diet. Resources mentioned:  To get more tips on including healthy fats in your meals, check out my previous podcast episode ‘How to construct a healthy plate of food’: https://youarenourished.com/episode6  To help satisfy you at snack time, grab my free healthy snacks eBook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/healthy-snacks  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

We have been brought up to associate food with comfort. Whether you were soothed with ice cream after falling off your bike or given a piece of cake to cheer you up after falling out with a friend… food was used to make us feel better. Typically, emotions weren’t something we were taught to deal with and instead, food was used to distract us from the root cause. So, it’s no wonder that as adults, we rely on the same tools to help us cope with bad days at work or having an argument with a family member. Today I am delving into what emotional eating is and why we do it. I want to dig a little deeper into understanding why so many of us are stuck in this cycle of self-blame. In this episode, I’ll share some actionable tips to help you find better ways to deal with your emotions. “If we do not have an outlet for our emotions, then we are going to seek that out from food.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Find out what emotional eating is. Understand why we emotionally eat. Realise that emotional eating is common, and blaming yourself doesn’t help. Discover my 3 top tips to help you deal with emotional eating. Start uncovering your own reasons for emotional eating. Discover tools you can use to express and deal with emotions in a healthier way. Resources mentioned:  Delve deeper into how to break the cycle of emotional eating in my Emotional Eating Masterclass: https://youarenourished.thrivecart.com/emotional-eating/  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

As much as diet culture would like us to believe there are good and bad foods, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a snack. I couldn’t get through the afternoon without a cuppa accompanied by an energy ball or granola bar! The issue comes when it’s mindless snacking. It can be so easy at the end of an evening in front of the TV to find you’ve finished off an entire packet of biscuits without even realising it. You’re left feeling awful because you’ve overeaten, and you didn’t even get any pleasure from it as it was all done on auto-pilot!  Today I will be uncovering the many different reasons so many of us struggle with mindless evening snacking and the feelings of guilt associated with this. In this episode, I’ll share some tools that can help you cut down on snacking without feeling you’re restricting yourself. “Just as you can form a healthy habit, you can break an unhealthy habit.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Discover the various reasons we get cravings at the end of the day. Understand that snacking is not bad and does not make you weak. Help you to identify why you seek solace in food. Understand how mental restriction perpetuates feelings of guilt. Learn how you can be more mindful around food. Discover healthier habits that can replace late-night snacking. Resources mentioned:  Get your copy of my Divine Desserts ebook: https://youarenourished.thrivecart.com/divine-desserts/ Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

Fear can keep us confined to our comfort zone, which stops us from experiencing life at its fullest and being the best we can be. Think about our fears around weight loss. Maybe we fear failure… that we won’t be able to stick to our diet, that we’ll give in to temptation and eat a biscuit, leading us to munch our way through the entire packet. But have you ever thought that we might also fear success? What if we actually reach our goal weight? Suddenly we’d be expected to have to do all the exciting things we so easily put off because we tell ourselves we don’t look good enough. Today I am talking about self-sabotage. On the face of it, it makes no sense. If we decide we want to achieve something, why would we stop ourselves from accomplishing it? In this episode, I uncover the reasons we self-sabotage and share some simple strategies to help stop the cycle when it comes to your food and health goals. “So much self-sabotage is rooted in a fear of failure, but a lot of self-sabotage is rooted in a fear of success.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand what self-sabotage is. Discover what is at the root of self-sabotage and why we do it. Learn how setting behaviour-led goals can make you feel like a success rather than setting goals that leave you feeling you’ve failed. Get help to start re-thinking and re-framing what health and wellbeing look like to you. Understand that reaching your health and wellbeing goals is not a simple, linear process. Discover my tips on how to stop self-sabotaging your food and health goals. Resources mentioned:  My membership, Nourished 365, opens its doors on 13th May for a short time only. Head to www.laurengayfer.com/club to find out how you can get my support to successfully reach your goals! Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

We have been brought up to believe that being smaller or skinnier means you are healthier. Diet culture has drilled into us that food is the enemy, and we must restrict our consumption of calories to avoid gaining weight. Our health is judged by the number on a scale, which tells us nothing about our health. How could it when no two bodies are the same? If two people followed exactly the same diet, they would still not get exactly the same results. We’re all individuals, and trying to put us all in one box just doesn’t make sense and is actually really detrimental to how we feel about ourselves. Today I am talking about weight loss. I know losing weight can turn into a lifelong obsession for so many of us, and the idea of no longer dieting can lead us to panic that we’ll feel out of control. In this episode, I explain how dieting is actually making you gain weight and talk about how no longer fixating on a target weight can help you get to the right weight for you and help you learn to love your body. “What I try and do is help people to trust themselves around food which in turn enables your body to trust you around food.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: I explain what keeps you stuck on the dieting merry-go-round. Discover how my professional journey around weight loss has evolved over the years. Understand why you cannot judge and compare health based on size or a number on the scale. I talk about the history of BMI and explain why it is not a measure of health. Learn how I promote introducing healthy behaviours and moving the focus away from reaching a goal weight. I challenge common misconceptions that being smaller automatically means being healthier. Resources mentioned:  Join me on my brand new Food Freedom Bootcamp where I cover topics like this and so much more. We start on 9th May, so make sure you sign up here: www.youarenourished.com/bootcamp Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren

As women, we must cope with monthly menstrual cycles. Not only can periods cause us to feel self-conscious and uncomfortable, but they can also cause us to reach for the sweet stuff. Instead of beating ourselves up every month for being weak and giving into temptation, what if we looked at the science of what’s actually happening? Maybe then we can understand what our bodies are trying to tell us and if we actually listen (rather than fighting these signals), we can feel more in control of what’s going on. Today I want to delve into the science a little bit so you can get a better understanding of why sugar cravings are worse around your period and how you can manage this. In this episode, I share simple, actionable tips that you can start trying straight away to help reduce these cravings. “Diet culture has told you not to listen to your body and diet culture has told you that you are bad for wanting to eat sweet things.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand the hormonal changes that are going on during your cycle. Discover why diet culture has caused us to blame ourselves for our cravings. Learn what causes cravings at certain times of the month. Understand the power of patience and consistency when looking after your wellbeing. Find out simple nutritional swaps that can help reduce sugar cravings. Listen to my lifestyle tips that you can start implementing today. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren  Resources mentioned:  You are Nourished Podcast episode 12 – Are You Scared of Carbs?: https://youarenourished.com/episode12  Save your spot on my brand new Food Freedom Bootcamp starting on 9th May: www.youarenourished.com/bootcamp

Does food consume your daily thoughts? Do you spend all day thinking what your next meal will be and go to bed dreaming of what you’ll be having for breakfast? Perhaps seeing a chocolate bar at the checkout sets off an exhausting dialogue of ‘want it, not allowed it, must resist it, oh screw it’? It’s so tiring isn’t it? This obsession over food can lead us to feeling totally out of control… but the good news is that you have the power to change this. Today I want to talk about mindset and how you can start to change how you think and feel around food. In this episode, I share some actionable steps that can help you to rewrite the narrative that keeps you stuck in the relentless cycle of obsessing about food. “The major cause of food obsession is dieting and restriction.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand the difference between disordered eating and eating disorders. Find out how the Minnesota starvation experiment uncovered the many ways restricting food affects us. Discover the survival mechanisms your body employs when you restrict calories. Try out my solutions to start rejecting diet culture so that you can stop being stuck in an exhausting cycle of obsession and guilt. Learn how to tune into your thoughts to change the narrative in your head. Discover how to empower yourself to have more control over food instead of food controlling you. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren  Resources mentioned:  You are Nourished Podcast episode 1 – 3 Tips to Help You Reject Diet Culture and Start Your Diet-Free Life: https://youarenourished.com/episode1  You are Nourished Podcast episode 2 – Why Can't I Stick to My Diet?: https://youarenourished.com/episode2 You are Nourished Podcast episode 3 – The Proven Method to Stop Dieting For Good: https://youarenourished.com/episode3 Get your name on the waitlist to join Nourished 365 where you can get my support to start your journey towards food freedom: www.laurengayfer.com/club 

Life is busy. If you’re a working mum like me, you can often find yourself being pulled in all directions and it can feel a constant battle to keep on top of it all. When we’re under lots of pressure, good intentions can go out the window and we end up reaching for convenience foods full of processed nasties that aren’t actually going to help us feel better. But I do understand that sometimes we just don’t have the capacity to be spending hours in the kitchen. That’s why I’ve put together some top time-saving tips that can help. Today I want to talk about simple steps you can put into practice to stop life getting on top of you. In this episode, I share lots of practical tips that are going to help you keep nourishing yourself and your family even when you’re really busy. “When we are really, really stressed, that is when we need to take care of ourselves the most.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand why cravings are worsened when under stress. I’ll remind you that everything doesn’t always have to be perfect and how to cut yourself some slack. Realise the importance of prioritising yourself as you can’t help others if you’re not looking after yourself. Discover my practical tips to use when life gets really busy. Learn how to put some really simple, quick and tasty meals together. Try out some of my favourite meal prep hacks. Find out about my 7 Meals in an Hour workshop that will set you up with meals and snacks for the week ahead. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren  Resources mentioned:  Check out my 7 Meals in an Hour Meal Prep Workshop: www.laurengayfer.com/7-meals

In a previous podcast I’ve talked about the importance of including a good balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in our meals and snacks in order to balance our blood sugar and reduce cravings. The dieting industry, however, likes nothing better than to demonise food groups, and currently carbohydrates seem to be the group we are told we must stay away from. But if we avoid them at all costs, this actually only makes them more tempting which can lead to feeling out of control when we do allow ourselves a taste. Today I want to talk about the different types of carbohydrates that are out there, and help you understand the vital role carbohydrates play in our bodies. In this episode, I dispel common myths you may have been led to believe and share my top tips on how to stop feeling frightened of carbs. “The more we try and restrict these foods, the more we are going to crave them.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Learn about the diets that have made us fearful of eating carbohydrates. Understand the different types of carbohydrates that are out there. Appreciate the science of what carbohydrates do in the body. Common myths around carbohydrates are debunked. Discover my top tips on how to stop feeling frightened of carbohydrates. Learn how to feel in control around carbohydrates. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

It’s been just over two years since the pandemic began and also two years since I was first struck down with the virus. As a nutritionist, I am a healthy person who looks after myself, but it goes to show this can affect anyone... and it can really wipe you out. I sadly had to pause my podcast and postpone my Food Freedom Bootcamp event, as I realised trying to carry on as though nothing was happening was making me even more ill. Having now recovered from Covid for the second time, today I wanted to talk about my experiences of having the virus and what I did that helped me recover. In this episode, I share my top tips on how to alleviate Covid symptoms and provide general advice on how to support your immune system. “If you are still trying to do things while you are struggling with Covid, just stop and give yourself that permission to 100% fully rest, because the longer you leave it, the longer it's going to take you to recover.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Learn how I was affected by Covid, not once but twice! Discover my top tips for how to alleviate the symptoms of Covid. Find out how you can support your immune system. Understand food and drinks that can help speed up recovery. Learn the importance of listening to your body and giving yourself the time to rest and recover. Find out about my competition to win Unbeelievable Health – Bee Prepared Max Strength supplements! Enter the competition: We have several packs of Unbeelievable Health supplements to give away to some of our lucky listeners. All you have to do is FOLLOW, RATE and REVIEW the podcast on Apple Podcasts (if you’re listening on another platform, you might not be able to review us, but you can still follow us). Take a screenshot of your review or your podcast app showing that you’ve followed, and send this to us on hello@laurengayfer.com where we will enter you into our prize draw. Entries close on 5th April and we will email the winners if you have won. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren 

Cravings can cause us so much stress… Constantly battling the urge to consume chocolate, cake and biscuits, no matter what the time of day. You are not alone in this fight – it’s one of the most common concerns I hear from the women I work with. Cravings can totally consume us, leaving us obsessing about food every moment of the day. Feeling it’s your fault, that you are weak and lack willpower… but it’s not your fault! There are so many different causes for your cravings, but today I want to talk about the food side of things, and provide you with some simple, food-based changes you can make that will have an instant impact on how you feel. In this episode I share my top 3 tips to help you overcome your cravings and feel more in control of your eating. “Diet culture is about cutting foods out and minimizing what you eat. And I'm all about adding foods in and maximizing what you eat to enable you to feel full and satisfied.”  - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Discover my top 3 tips to help you understand and manage your cravings. Find out my favourite breakfast recipes that help me feel full until lunch. Get my advice on how to create a balanced meal or snack that’s not going to spike your blood sugar. Understand why low-calorie and low-fat foods are exacerbating your cravings. Discover the benefits that can be achieved by making simple changes to what you eat. Find out how I’ll be digging deeper into why cravings control us in my Food Freedom Bootcamp starting on Monday 7th March! Save your spot on the bootcamp: Find out all about my new Food Freedom Bootcamp here: https://www.youarenourished.com/bootcamp  Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren  Resources mentioned:  If you would like to get your hands on some recipes for healthy snacks, download my free eBook at: https://www.laurengayfer.com/healthy-snacks To get help constructing a healthy breakfast, listen to episode 6 of my podcast: How to Construct a Healthy Plate of Food.

Many of you will be familiar with my incredibly popular 5-day Shift the Sugar challenge. This challenge has helped thousands of women ditch their cravings without feeling deprived. But as my own relationship with food changed over the years, it no longer felt in alignment with what I’m passionate about. Today I want to talk about why I created Shift the Sugar, the incredible results it provided and how I’m replacing it with something even more exciting that will still help you achieve amazing transformations. In this episode I explain how the changes in my own relationship with food have led me to shift the focus of what I teach, and how I always want to be clear and honest about what you can expect from me. I can’t wait for you to join me on my new exciting adventure! “Ultimately I want to make sure that people who sign up to work with me know exactly what they’re getting.”  - Lauren Gayfer  In This Episode: Learn how Shift the Sugar came about. Discover how my own relationship with food has informed what I teach. Find out how Shift the Sugar evolved over the last 5 years since it began. Understand the misalignment I felt between the sugar-free and anti-diet messaging. Discover what led me to make the difficult decision to no longer run Shift the Sugar challenges. Learn about the exciting new Food Freedom Bootcamp that will help you understand what is driving your cravings and give you the tools to find food freedom. Connect with Lauren:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en  Facebook: https://www.laurengayfer.com/nourished.lauren  Find out all about my new Food Freedom Bootcamp here: https://www.youarenourished.com/bootcamp 

Food freedom is a term that is used more and more, but what does it actually mean? There are lots of companies out there who profess to promise food freedom, but they are still setting rules and restriction around food, and that is not food freedom. Today I want to help you understand what food freedom really means, how obsessing about food is leaving you miserable, and discuss whether it is possible to achieve a healthy relationship with food after a lifetime of dieting. So in this episode I’m sharing 3 small steps to help you start moving towards food freedom. If you’re fed up with feeling out of control around food and repeating the miserable cycle of starting diet after diet, this episode will help show you there is another way!  “One meal does not make you healthy or unhealthy. It's the habits that we participate in every single day.” - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: Understand what food freedom means and what it looks like. Hear real life examples of how someone with food freedom thinks, feels, behaves and acts. Recognise the fears, stress, and anxiety that someone stuck in the prison of dieting experiences. Appreciate how following strict rules and regulations around food makes you miserable and stops you from enjoying special occasions that should be fun. Discover how to stop the damaging dieting behaviours that exacerbate feeling out of control around food. Learn the small, achievable steps you can take towards a healthier relationship with food. Connect with Lauren: Website: https://www.laurengayfer.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourished.lauren/?hl=en Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/nourished.lauren If you would like to learn more about how to ditch dieting, download my free guide “Break Up With Your Diet” Click here to save your spot on my new 5-day Food Freedom Bootcamp to kick-start your journey towards a healthier relationship with food. Resources mentioned: To learn more about my own dieting journey, listen to episode 5 of my podcast: All the Diets I've Ever Been On: My Personal Journey with Food. 

The diet culture taught us that the purpose of exercise is to burn calories and get thin. So you just work off what you ate. Just eat less and move more. Track your food and stay on a calorie deficit. All that talk about what we should eat and how our bodies ought to look. As if it's that simple. It is not! In this episode, I'm going to talk about how diet and exercise are so closely linked to one another. I will also share with you the reason most fitness plans fail and what we should be doing instead. If you want a healthier body minus the stress of a restrictive diet and rigorous exercise, this episode will show you how! “It's really important that we find ways to move our bodies in ways that bring us joy.” - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: - Ever wonder why you can't stick to a new fitness plan? Here's why… - Discover how our childhood experiences shape our beliefs and define our identity. - Learn some simple ways to find joy for movements. This could be the key to a healthier body.  - There's a big difference between exercise for weight loss and movement for joy. Let me break it down… - We all know that exercise has huge benefits. Here's more reason to move our bodies… - Should you run or do yoga? Know the type of movements that are suitable according to age group.  - Explore your own relationship with exercise and try out something that brings you joy. Connect with Lauren: - Website - Instagram - Facebook - Break Up with your Diet. Download the free guide here. - If you would like to get your hands on some recipes for healthy snacks, download my free eBook at: https://www.laurengayfer.com/healthy-snacks

Every diet you’ve ever been on claims that theirs holds the secret magic formula, and all you need to do is follow it, and your life will be all sunshine and roses. But the truth is there is no secret magic formula, so this week, we’re chucking all that out the window and taking it back to basics. Today we’re talking all about food, which, as a nutritionist, is one of my favorite things to talk about. Eating well doesn’t need to be as complicated as everyone makes it out to be; it is actually very simple. So in this episode, I’m sharing my top 3 criteria when it comes to choosing what food to eat, and sharing how I decide what to eat on any given day. If you feel confused about nutrition and how to construct a healthy plate of food that does you good and fills you up, this episode will explain all! “Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins all have a specific role to play in our body and we need them all for our body to function well.” - Lauren Gayfer In This Episode: - Some diets out there are still claiming to be lifestyles rather than diets. Here’s why they’re still diets… - Find out what macronutrients are and why we need all of them to function well.  - Eating a low-carb diet can make you feel low and depressed. Here’s why…  - I’m sharing the formula for putting together a meal that leaves you feeling satisfied. - There’s a reason you are craving biscuits, crisps, and cakes when you are trying to diet. Here’s what it is… - Discover why we need fats, proteins, and carbohydrates and why it’s so important for us to include all of them in our meals. - One of the questions I get asked the most when I’m running one of my challenges Connect with Lauren: - Website - Instagram - Facebook - If you would like to get your hands on some recipes for healthy snacks, download my free eBook at: https://www.laurengayfer.com/healthy-snacks