F8Fitness&nutrition

17/05/2025

What an inspiration this woman was.

I’ve just finished reading Dr. Sarah Hallberg’s book, Status Quo Thinking is Harming Your Health, and it’s reignited my purpose and passion for living — and sharing — a low-carb, high-fat lifestyle.

If you’re living with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, or struggling with insulin resistance, please know this: there is hope. This way of eating isn’t just a diet — it’s a lifeline. It can reverse disease, restore energy, and quite literally add years to your life.

The low-fat era? It belongs in the bin — right where outdated, unscientific advice should go.

Dr. Hallberg may no longer be with us but I’m so grateful for her legacy. And I’m more determined than ever to keep going!

20/04/2025

Hope you all have a great Easter and a very happy Easter to all my lovely clients who keep me busy every week and put a smile on my face every time they cross my door..I am truly blessed and grateful ❤️ ❤️

14/01/2025

Channel 4 tonight at 8pm..well worth watching if you’re concerned about your health or weight.

The glucose goddess hacks were brilliant and helped me on the way to losing 3 stone!

You don’t need to be a type 2 diabetic to start using them and they’ll help in the prevention of the onset of diabetes!

15/12/2024

An amazing breakthrough ❤️. In 1922, a group of scientists went to the Toronto General Hospital where diabetic children were kept in wards, often 50 or more at a time. Most of them were comatose and dying from diabetic ketoacidosis. Others were being treated by being placed on an extremely strict diet, which inevitably led to starvation.
This is known as one of medicine’s most incredible moments. Imagine a room full of parents sitting at the bedside waiting for the inevitable death of their child.
The scientists went from bed to bed and injected the children with a new purified extract: it was called insulin.
As they began to inject the last comatose child, the first child injected began to awaken. Then one by one, all the children awoke from their diabetic comas. A room of death and gloom became a place of joy and hope.
In the early 1920s Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin under the directorship of John Macleod at the University of Toronto. With the help of James Collip insulin was purified, making it available for the successful treatment of diabetes.
In the same year, Banting, Collip, and Best decided to sell the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for $1.
Banting and Macleod earned a Nobel Prize for their work in 1923.
Photo Credits: Library and Archives Canada

14/11/2024

Today is world diabetes day.

Why am I so passionate to learn so much about this dreadful illness? It’s partly due to my own journey but that’s only a small part of it.
Let me tell you a story…

My dad ❤️….
Dad loved a wee drink (or 2), he was the life & soul of the party, he loved the social craic and he was always game for a laugh. He was a kind soul too and such a great listener at times. We all loved him very much ❤️.
However, eventually dad developed type 2 diabetes.
He never really took it very serious and thought insulin was the answer to this horrible disease, he thought it was an easy fix. He continued to live life to the full, wouldn’t take the advice to slow down, thought he had control of it all. The scariest thing was, diabetes didn’t scare him at all.

As dad’s health started to deteriorate he continued to eat the food that was recommended ..porridge, Weetabix, brown bread, low fat yogurts, low low margarine, skimmed milk…all low fat and tasteless 😢.
Looking back now this all just pushed him further into ill health.
He had several strokes, suffered seizures, he developed gangrene on his toes (wasn’t able for surgery), he went blind and eventually ended up with kidney failure and had to get dialysis several times a week. His last few years were awful and just full of one sickness after another😞. His quality of life was non existent. He was convinced he was gonna get better. Unfortunately he didn’t, his body had had enough and he died at 66 years of age.

I wish I knew then what I know now, how different I’d do things! It may not have saved him but it may have given him more quality of life even if it hadn’t increased quantity 😣

Do not underestimate the power of dietary changes when it comes to type 2 diabetes (not the same as type 1).
Lowering carbs, increasing protein and including good fats are some of the things that will help to stop it in its tracks, even if these changes only help with the symptoms it’s worth a shot!
Stop it before it stops you!!

11/11/2024

⭐️Client progress⭐️
This lady is an inspiration!
She started with me last year, I won’t go into personal details but she wasn’t in a great place.
She started making small changes week after week, we hit a few hurdles along the way but she came back fighting every time.
She has gradually increased her weekly step count, made and still making changes to her diet and trains consistently.
Her health markers have all improved, energy levels have improved, joint pain has stopped and her mental health is so much better now.
Pic on the left was taken in June and pic on the right was taken start of November.
Such a well deserved outcome and much more to come ...well done to you xx

06/11/2024

I’m seeing more and more older ladies starting the gym or returning to the gym..this makes me so happy 😁.
It’s never too late to make a start, you don’t need to sweat buckets. All movement counts!

As we get older we can choose one of 2 roads.

Road 1.
We can accept that our bodies will get weaker, we’ll get frail and we will lose muscle mass, our bones more brittle. We may become type 2 diabetic and we’ll become sicker!
We will slowly fade away! 😔

Road 2.
We can kick old age up the backside, we can face it head on and challenge it! 😎
We can lift weights, eat real food, walk in nature, jump on the trampoline, dance in the hall and laugh til we drop (or p*e a wee bit 🤪)…the choice is yours for the taking..I know what my choice will be ☺️

04/11/2024

I’ve never seen as much debating online as there is at the minute about what to eat!
Whether it’s vegan, carnivore, keto or calorie counting..there’s one common denominator here..most have started to eat REAL food and have therefore started to feel so much better!
What works for one may not work for another.
I followed a mostly vegetarian diet for years but now I’m very low carb, so more keto/carnivore..it’s what works for me, I feel great on it and to avoid type 2 diabetes I will continue on it!
Our bodies change as we enter menopause and so we may need to make changes to our way of eating to maintain a good level of health! What worked for us in our 20’s or early 30’s will most likely not work anymore!
Pics are some of the foods I eat, I’ll post separate recipes soon ❤️

10/09/2024

So after a late lunch/early dinner I decided to make something light to eat this evening. This was so nice and so simple to make!

Whipped cottage cheese delight 😎

2 heaped tbsps cottage cheese
1 heaped tbsp Greek yogurt
Half a scoop of protein powder
Juice of half a lime

Blend these until creamy and mixed

I heated the blueberries in a pan with a tsp of water.
When heated pour over the cottage cheese mix and drizzle with almond butter ( or any butter) . I sprinkled bee pollen over the top but crushed nuts or freeze dried raspberries would be lovely too ❤️

02/09/2024

These are sooo nice and they had very little impact on my blood sugars.

Nutty bars

200g mixed nuts
200g dates
1/2 scoop of protein powder
1 Heaped tbsp of peanut butter or tahini
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 large bar of dark chocolate
1 tsp chocolate coconut oil

I blended the mixed nuts but not too much, I like to keep them chunky.
Blend the dates until chopped into smaller chunks or chop with a knife.
Add into a bowl along with the nut butter, protein powder and the melted tbsp of coconut oil.
Add a pinch of salt and mix well.
Press down into a loaf tin and refrigerate.

Melt the chocolate and tsp of coconut oil. Pour over the nutty loaf and add more nuts on top if wanted. Return to the fridge until chocolate has set.
Cut into slices and enjoy 😍

26/08/2024

Why oh why put people on a miserable diet when a few simple changes can make a huge difference 🤦🏻‍♀️
I couldn’t agree more with the suggestions made here by Vital Nutrition..they make much more sense and are much more sustainable!

You may have seen the recent headlines, telling us that type 2 diabetes can be reversed using a diet. This had me jumping for joy, and then I listened more carefully.

Participants were asked to cut to just 900 kcals a day and consume soups, shakes and meal replacement bars for a few months before they were allowed solid food.

Let’s get real. Processed shakes, ultra processed bars and meal replacements are not going to educate us to eat better.

Type 2 diabetes is a preventable condition that is caused by our diet and lifestyle.

Making changes to your lifestyle to eat better, move more and lose weight can help reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by about half.

👉Here are some things you can do:

🍰Keep an eye on sugars. When we overload our diet with sugar for too long, we are putting ourself at high risk. Start by looking at food labels and notice how much sugar is in your food, You might be surprised!

🥚Pack in some protein. Ensuring you have some protein with every meal or snack. Eat more fibre-rich foods will, help to maintain a better balance of insulin and blood sugar.

🍞Limit carbohydrate intake and avoid refined carbs. To reverse pre-diabetes, or type 2 diabetes, we need to limit and manage blood glucose levels. One of the ways to do this is by following a low carbohydrate diet. This means cutting back on breads, rice, potatoes, pasta and cereals.

🍽Snack less. More protein and fibre on your plate will help you to feel fuller for longer, so you won’t feel so hungry between meals, The less we snack, the better. Aim to eat 3 decent meals a day and cut back on snack attacks. Every time we snack, there’s an increase in blood glucose (even if it is a healthy snack) and a corresponding need for your pancreas to release insulin.

🏃‍♀️Move more. A sedentary lifestyle increases risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Regular exercise helps to tune up the insulin response.

🍺Cut alcohol and fizzy drinks. These are just sugar by any other name.

🫶Keep stress in check. Long term, chronic stress can affect blood glucose levels and insulin response, so stress management is an important part of the prevention plan for type 2 diabetes.

12/08/2024

⭐️Oaty pancakes ⭐️

Perfect post gym or anytime.

I didn’t blend the oats so these aren’t what I’d describe as fluffy & light, more solid & filling..but I love them 😍.
I do follow a low insulin diet and these had little impact on my blood sugars ❤️

1 cup of jumbo oats
2 eggs
1 scoop of protein powder
Mix all together gently and add to a buttery pan. I topped mine with full fat Greek yogurt, berries, pistachios, bee pollen and a small drizzle of honey 😘