You're Not so Cranky any more Mum!!

I was at a health conference not so long ago and a very young looking 60 year old woman was on stage and she said something quite profound. "If you believe in practising wellness, when you hit 60, you'll look 40 and feel 20. If you don't, you'll hit 60, feel 70 and look 90" The whole room seemed to nod in agreement, rolled a few eyes and I saw a few ribs being elbowed by the person next to them.



Many years ago when I was in my 20's I thought nothing of wellness and I look at many 20 somethings today who party hard, binge drink, eat whatever is fast and convenient and think how are they going to age? Will it be too late for them when they start waking up to the fact that they need to do something about their health? The good thing is, it's never too late and our body is designed to win no matter what we manage to put it through.



I've worked with so many women to help them look better, dress better, learn the colours that work for them and to know their body shape so that they shop better, all in the vain hope that they'll look younger. Belive me, it certainly works - to a degree. But the real message is in how much effort they want to put into making their bodies look and feel younger BEFORE the colour, style and wardrobe overhaul.



Any doctor, naturopath or fitness expert will tell us we need to do 4 things to achieve a youthful, strong, flexible, lean, healthy body. That's simply:

1. Eat Better


2. Get Some Exercise


3. Reduce Your Stress


4. Take Supplements

OK, let's look at that and see how easy it is. Sure, eating better sounds easy - anyone can do it, can't they? We all 'know' what we need to eat to be healthy but do we want to? Do we have the time, considering work schedules, stress levels, family commitments, deadlines, travel commitments, new shopping habits, food preparation habits and then knowledge about what goes with what, how do we cook it, what will it taste like etc. Eating right makes a lot of sense but isn't necessarily the easiest routine to put in place. A Personal Trainer said to me only recently 'oh surely, it's easy for people to just grab an apple and a yoghurt rather than a fattening sugary bar'. I can tell you it's not that easy or that natural for someone who runs a crazy lifestyle, who is overweight to simply break habits and fall smoothly into a new eating regime. If it was, we wouldn't find losing weight so tough and we'd all be healthy and look great.

Number 2 - Get some exercise. Again, we know what we have to do. We know we should be jogging, going to the gym, swimming in summer, running the dog. But for the same reasons above, do we do it? Is it such an easy thing for us to fit into our schedule and create a new habit around. We will if we need to badly enough. We always will if our doctor threatens us to. We try and many of us do a great job, but sometimes we wonder why we're not dropping the weight or feeling any better.

Number 3 - Reduce Stress. Oh sure! Who has time to meditate and when the boss yells at us to get the report in like yesterday, we can physically feel the blood pressure rise. When our spouse is cranky and the kids are playing up and we have deadlines to meet, dinner to cook, elderly parents to care for - it can become too much. We can do our best to stay as calm as possible but our subconcious has other ideas.

Number 4 - Take a Supplement. Let me tell you, I used to pop a supplement with the hope that everything I was going through above, with not eating right or exercising and knowing my stress levels were through the roof. They did nothing for me. My health was spiralling downwards and I was at a total loss as to what to do.

Until I found a broad spectrum, pharmaceutical grade, optimally balanced antioxidant and multimineral that changed my life. Not straight away. It took me a while to notice. I remember my son at the age of about 13 saying to me after I'd been on them for about 6 months 'mum you're not so cranky any more'.

I realised then I'd been on a downward rollercoaster. I was exploding into rages at home, at work, waking up nauseous, eating rubbish and when I tried to exercise my heart nearly exploded out of my chest. I was losing my ability to focus, to reason with people and there was always a knot in my stomach.

But since being on the world's number 1 vitamins I've noticed my skin has improved by taking pure filtered fish oils, grapeseed extract and COQ10. My energy, concentration, weight, strength have all gone through a noticeable improvement. I can feel it. I'll never be off them. I can't begin to tell you what improvements I've seen in people around me who have noticed all sorts of fabulous improvements in their cholesterol levels, their blood pressure, their diabetes and general sense of wellness.

Degenerative Disease will age us fast. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer and so many others can be prevented with good quality nutrition and that comes from a powerful vitamin and antioxidant program. One of the worlds recognised leaders in degenerative disease, a man who has recently won the Albert Einstein Award said 'there is only one proven, effective way to prevent degenerative disease. That's Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition! Eat well and supplement well, and you'll live a long, youthful life'! Those words have stuck with me and I tell everyone about our nutritional program.

So when I say it's tough to eat, exercise, reduce stress etc - I mean it - it's tough. But it's not tough to find the RIGHT supplement. That's easy to take and while you're taking it and seeing and feeling improvement, you can slowly work on your eating habits, your exercise and how you deal with stress.

Check out www.annemike.usana.com for more info. And stay tuned to this blog as I'll keep updating with more articles and true stories.

Wellness & Self Image - it's all connected

For years while I worked as Secretary, Administrator, PA, Office Clerk, Switchboard Operator and Waitress I wondered why I was never chosen for promotion or why I didn't move ahead at the rate that others around me did. I blamed the lack of a University degree for years.

It soon dawned on me academic qualifications have nothing to do with how far you move in life and career. It wasn't until I'd been working for over 25 years and while closely observing those who moved ahead, those who were moved sideways and those who were noticed by decision makers in the organisation that their self image had everything to do with whether they got the job, the promotion or for that matter the relationship.

My own self esteem for a long time was pretty shattered, but I soon woke up to myself and realised I'd better do something about it if I want to be noticed by these decision makers or for that matter attract the right people and circumstances into my life. You see, we human beings make quick snap judgements of others. The way the world perceives us can be decided upon within the first 30 seconds of meeting us.

Think about it - when you lay eyes on someone for the first few seconds all sorts of thoughts can run through your mind. Before he or she even starts to speak we're making subconcious judgements about their age, their colour, their trustworthiness, their confidence etc. In effect, we decide whether we like them or not and ultimately whether we want to deal with them. That's why there's so many stylists and image specialists who make a career out of creating that perfect first impression.

But a great first impression comes from not only packaging ourselves for our audience. It's key, for sure. But a great first impression for a potential employer or for making ourselves feel a whole heap better about the person in the mirror comes from a deep sense of wellbeing. That means Resetting your Health and Weight, Reshaping your Mind and Restyling your Look.

Colour knowledge, knowing what works specifically for your personal colouring and knowing how to recognise your body shape and dress it can save thousands of dollars over the years. Knowing how to package your outer self appropriately for your audience makes the world of difference to how far that audience will allow you to go.

Once I knew that, when I saw first hand the results of what a perfectly honed inner and outer self image can do in the workplace and for business owners is when I decided to move into teaching people how they can get the body they want, the health they deserve and the look they dream of.

So, this brand new blog will be posting articles about how to achieve that ideal self image through wellness, health, exercise, colour, style and body shape knowledge and developing your attitude and mindset to get what you want.

Please leave comments to let me know the kinds of things you'd like to see.