Live wholesome Q&A:
Q: I need to be in my bikini and I don’t feel quite ready yet. What meal replacements and fat burners can I use to get a jump start?

A:Ooooweee, let me get my can opener! We are about to open a ‘can o’ worms’ hehehe

Let me just say right out the gates that I am NOT A FAN of anything synthetic. No enemy of a specific brand in particular but in firm opposition to THEM ALL!
In my early years in the industry I was introduced to the use of supplements and fat burners, it never sat well with me but I was too young to know better, it was what was done in our industry! At the age of 22 I nearly had a heart attack due to over the counter fat burners that were recommended to me by a professional. Here is where my journey with any synthetic supplement stopped! Here are my other reasons why:

1) Anything that can live in a bottle on a shelf for months on end can not be classified as food or a replacement for real food!
2) You cannot live on liquid! You gut is designed to process whole foods and break them down into the essential nutrients for digestion. Liquid diets make the gut lazy. When you put real food back, the gut has no idea how to adapt!
3) The cost of these products is horrendous! Most people can’t maintain it long term.
4) You entire family cannot live off these. Which means you still have to prepare meals for them, so why not just prepare healthy meals for yourself!
5) AS for fat burners, they actually block the signal from your brain to your stomach. Long term this signal is so hampered that you won’t know whether you are hungry, thirsty or tired!
6) If you have time to mix a shake, you have time to make a wholefood smoothie or veggie smoothie.
7) If you are trying to get your bikini bod in a short space of time, its a quick fix which will only lead to a more long term problem. i.e. a slower, more damaged metabolism! Unfortunately summer bodies are made in the winter, annoying but true! Trying to punish your body now with a quick fix is not on. The backlash is horrendous and the time it takes to fix it is far longer than putting in the work long before summer season!

You hate me now, I get it. Here is what you can do now to make yourself feel better in a bikini:

1) Drink more water! Water retention and bloating makes for discomfort in a cozi!
2) Its all in the posture! Do me a favour, stand up quickly. Now breathe out and pull your belly button to your spine (you will feel your midsection contract and get smaller). Now pull your shoulders back and ‘lift’ yourself out of your pelvis (that sounds completely creepy haahh but basically stand up straight), chin up and shoulders down. BOOM~! Hello bikini bod. POSTURE makes the hugest difference and can knock up to 4cms off your midsection. Now stay like that for the rest of the day. hahah, no serisouly, stay like that.
3) EAT cleaner. You are what you eat, as they say. So if you are packing in the chips, chocs and fizzy drinks then you will feel like a mushed up piece of roadkill. If you are eating clean foods, raw veg and fruit, healthy proteins, slow release carbs and good fats you will feel better from the inside out and this makes for one attractive bikini clad vixen!
4) CUt back on salt. It’s everywhere and in everything! It causes water retention. 6g is max for a day! TAke note on ingredients list, you will be shocked!
5) Drink greentea. Helps with digestion and as a natural diuretic.
6) Engage your core. (belly button to spine). flatter tummy!
7) Stay active all day. Opportunity to exercise is everywhere! Just be mindful of it. bat and ball on the beach, volleyball, running back and forth through the waves (cue baywatch themesong).
8) ENHANCE your best assest!
Choose the correct swimsuit for your body type! Get someone to go with you. If you are short like I am, choose a bikini bottom with open sides that tie or clasp. This gives the illusion of a longer leg! If you have a bit of a tummy but a glorious set of pins (legs) then don a tankini and show off those beauts! Rub some coconut oil on them to make em shiny and noticeable. If your rump is what makes you feel sexy then look for a bikini bottom that makes that heiny more noticeable!
9)IT is a known fact that if you feel good you will look good. If you eat well and move, you will exude confidence from the inside out. OWN IT!

Quick fixes are not the way to go I’m afraid. Many will disagree with me, that is okay. We are all entitled to our own opinion. For me, anything that can live on a shelf and be classified as food sends warning bells off in my mind! Likewise, anything that messes with my body’s natural mechanisms is off the table. Completely!
I know its not easy to hear, and there is more work involved in doing it the natural way but in the end you need to do what you feel comfortable with! Hope I have at least given you ‘food’ (real food) for thought. 😉