It is a time when health and wellbeing become a focus, followed closely by the summer warmth which is synonymous with the flourishing growth of all of nature.

It is a perfect time to shed our layered clothing, get our feet on the earth or sand, and enjoy refreshing dips in our waterways.

These warmer seasons inspire us to move our bodies and to eat more natural cleansing fresh foods.

In order to feel our best and leave behind the dull skin, tummy complaints, and ‘padding’ usually associated with the cooler seasons, a good detoxifying cleanse can be a powerful tool.

While it’s true that our organs are made to filter themselves all the time, it’s important to recognise that we live in an era where we are constantly bombarded with toxins and other nasties that our bodies are just not used to dealing with.

Things like processed foods, unnatural body care products, and all the pollution we encounter is new to us as a species.

Our bodies are just not designed to filter these types of toxins, so they accumulate. Which is bad news for us, our hormones, and our health! This build-up doesn’t allow us to excrete excess hormones and so they build up and…

So we need to cleanse.

I personally recommend a deep cleanse with every season, but my preferred times to cleanse are spring and summer.

That’s because as the weather warms up we naturally crave more raw and cooling foods, cleansing foods, which have a cooling effect on the body.

The lightness and high water, fibre, and vitamin content work together to act as our internal air conditioning during these warm months and serve to detoxify our bodies.

At this time of year, we also need less dense, high-energy food because we get so much energy from being outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

There is no better season than spring and summer to have fun experimenting with the wide variety of colourful and tasty vegetables in season.

So how do you cleanse properly and effectively?

Well, it’s twofold really.

1) Increase cleansing foods

It’s no secret that most of us fall very short of getting our daily dose of vegetables, with only 1 in 20 Aussies consuming the recommended 2.5 -5.5 serves per day.

Not only do vegetables jumpstart our day with a boost of nutrients, but the phytochemical-rich foods with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds start pumping through our bodies right from the beginning of the day, warding off illness and promoting good health, and promoting deep cleansing.

Here’s a post with twelve ways to include more vegetables with breakfast.

2) Reduce ‘trigger’ foods

That is foods that are known to be highly reactive, meaning they are likely to have negative effects on your digestive health. In their place, we introduce cleansing options instead. Some of the main trigger foods include…

• gluten from wheat
• gliadin from oats
• eggs
• dairy
• sugar
• high starch foods
• industrialised oil
• caffeine
• alcohol

These foods can cause an immune reaction.

Symptoms include bloating, wind, bloating, migraines, runny nose, cough, stomach ache, irritable bowel, or constipation.

Over the long term, if you are reactive to one of these (especially gluten), they may also contribute to stubborn weight.

Cleansing helps to reset hormones including leptin and blood sugar levels and trains your body to learn to access its energy from balanced meals rather than carbohydrate snacks throughout the day.

The Main Benefits of Cleansing

• • Eliminate excess waste from the body
  • Aid weight loss
  • Reduce inflammation
  • Reduce cravings
  • Improve sleep
  • Strengthen your immune system
  • Kickstart you on the road to healthy changes
  • Clarify thinking and improve overall sense of well-being.
  • Alleviate mood
  • Reset hormone imbalances
  • Glowing skin…and so much more!

After you cleanse you are going to feel lighter, brighter, happier, and healthier.

Want to understand the importance of cleansing and enjoy delicious recipes which take the guesswork out of cleansing?

Our special ‘Cleanse for Life’ Cyber week bundle offer ends Monday 29th November at midnight. So if you’re ready to balance your hormones, reduce inflammation, detox from built-up toxins, and feel fantastic in a body you love, then you’ll want to check it out!

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

I personally love smoothies. I recommend them to my clients and on my women’s health Break Through! Signature Cleanse.

Not only are they quick, easy, and delicious, they help increase our quota of vegetables for the day as well as give our overloaded digestive systems a break.

What’s more, it’s easy to add in ingredients which also aid the digestion process.

Here are 20 reasons I love smoothies so much:

1. Quick and easy to make
2. Depending on the ingredients can be made in bulk and kept up to three days in the fridge or even frozen
3. Incredibly nutritious
4. Convenient as they are portable and you can take them with you as you fly out the door
5. Delicious
6. Helps to get your daily allowance of vegetables
7. The blender does all the liquefying so it gives the digestive system a break
8. Provides the body with essential nutrients without taxing the digestive system
9. Anti-inflammatory foods can be included which may not be readily consumed like berries, ginger and chia seeds
10. Ingredients which help with digestion, like cucumber and lemon, can be readily used
11. Lots of detoxifying ingredients like kale and herbs can be added
12. It’s jam packed full of other healthy ingredients like nuts, seeds, avocado, fruit, milk, spices, superfoods – the options are endless!
13. They are full of fibre which can help digestion
14. Helps get more healthy stuff into the kids
15. Nice and filling and can see your through to lunch time so you don’t overeat
16. Help fight hunger and cravings
17. Lots of the good green stuff can be added in
18. Can be custom made and any combination goes
19. Great for weight management
20. Energising

Here are some of my favourite combinations…

Ginger, Mint and Green Apple Smoothie by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle

Choc-Banana Nut Butter Smoothie by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle

Anti- Oxidant Smoothie

Carrot and Tumeric Smoothie by Guide to Organics

The Best Beetroot Smoothie by The Holistic Ingredient

Iron Boosting Smoothie by Naturopath Naomi Judge

Clear Skin Smoothie: Nettle, Blueberry and Macqui by Ascension Kitchen

For the kids …

Sweet Green Smoothie by 123 Nourish Me

Super Smoothie by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle

Dreamy Creamy Breaky Boosting Buddha Smoothie by 123 Nourish Me

It’s worth noting that if you have digestive issues like IBS, constipation, diarrhoea or acid reflux you should consult your health professional because certain fruits and vegetables may further irritate the digestive system.

Find out more about our Break Through! Signature Cleanse, aimed to reset the body by balancing hormones, reducing inflammation, detoxing organs from built up toxins, boosting metabolism, improving digestion, reducing bloating, increasing energy, optimising weight, and feeling fantastic in a body you love!

Of course there are more than just smoothies on the cleanse!

All the recipes on our cleanse have been designed with balanced ratios of macronutrients to harmonise our hormones and help us feel satisfied for a few hours, to detox the build up of toxins in our organs, to reduce inflammation in the body, heal the gut and so promote positive, thriving health!

What’s more, past members have reported that the whole family love the whole food recipes too!

Bren x

It surprised me how many people hadn’t heard of it.

Burst training is basically a type of exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime and which saves you a bucket load of $$ on gym memberships or special equipment

You might know it as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

Basically, it’s working your heart rate almost to the maximum for about 30-60 seconds, immediately followed by low intensity, or in my case, resting, for a minute or two. And repeat.

My favourite form of burst training is sprints.

I power walk down to either the local oval or beach stairs, and sprint, rest, sprint, rest about 8 times.

Burst training can be done in many different ways.

For example – running on the spot, on a stationary bike, using a skipping rope, swimming ..the options are endless!

Why do I do Burst Training?

• As a busy working mum, I particularly love how time efficient it is. I’m usually done and dusted in half an hour (including the walk to and from the location). You’ve got to love maximum benefit with limited time!
• It burns fat incredibly efficiently
• It boosts my metabolism
• It reduces inflammation in the body
• It’s great for toning muscles
• It makes me feel energised
• It doesn’t put stress on my body like other forms of cardio exercise
• It balances my hormones
• It doesn’t flare up my dodgy neck and back issues
• Gets me out into nature, getting Vitamin D and helping to set my circadian rhythms
• Keeps ageing at bay

I usually aim for 2 x sessions per week, interspersed with 1 x session of weight training and power walking the rest of the days and once home, I usually follow up with a ginger, mint and green apple smoothie or this anti-oxidant smoothie.

Naturopath Naomi Judge and I talk in depth about the right type of exercise for balancing hormones and shedding stubborn weight in our Break Through! Signature Cleanse. Find out more about the cleanse here. 

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

There are many potential reasons why weight plateaus or health suffers and Naturopath Naomi Judge and I totally understand the frustration. We’ve been there. And in our private work we see many women just like you who have “done everything right” but are not getting the results they are after. Don’t give up! Keep going! We’re here to help you.

In this video we share some insights which have helped hundreds of women break through their barriers to a body they love.

Bren x

Anyhow, my persistence seems to have paid off, because he’s agreed to do my Break Through! Signature Cleanse to address a few health niggles.

Knowing how many husbands have gone along for the Break Through! ride with their wives (and received tremendous benefit from it) probably helped! And I’ll be shepherding the poor darling through it, you know, just in case he starts coming apart at the seams given his appetite.

So join my husband (Adrian) as he journals his experience of the cleanse. Here we go……

Written by Adrian Janschek

In an effort to get on top of a few health problems, I decided – well, was ordered (also known as gently and lovingly suggested) to take on one my wife’s Break Through Program. Given I’m more partial to a ‘cleanser’ than a cleanse, as well as a self-confessed chocolate degenerate, this was always going to be an interesting endeavour.

So, to mark the end of my hedonistic lifestyle for 3 weeks and step into the chocolate-less unknown, I guzzled a couple of glasses of red and nibbled a couple if choccy drops from the baking cupboard, before later washing it down with a glass of milk.

Oh yes, I am a bad man.

Rock. And. Roll.

After a coffee and a jam donut on my first morning, I was ready to give this cleansy thingee a good old crack for the remainder of the day! I am nothing if not stoic and iron-willed …

I’m kidding!!!

The reality was that I was facing a chia pudding and a cup of Rooibos tea, a slightly different approach than normal, and yet strangely tasty! Who knew? And waiting in the fridge was my grass-fed sausage and vegetable salad. Given the fact that finding a decent meal in my part of the city is about as likely as me winning an argument at home, this was actually an upgrade … And continues to be.

The reason I’ve decided on this type of cleanse is to address some lingering issues such as persistent headaches, lack of energy generally, moodiness and feeling bloated after meals, to name a bunch. I’m a real catch, no doubt about it. I felt the cleanse was a good way to remove potential trigger foods and those foods that are known to cause problems for those with intolerances, then observe the results before reintroducing foods such as eggs, dairy, Tim Tams and James Boag etc etc in piecemeal form once it’s over. Hopefully I’ll get a good handle on whether I do have any food intolerances which we can then single out and treat. Or just avoid.

For those interested, I’ll update the results of my first week and what I’ve learned in coming days. If you don’t hear from me, I could be curled up in a corner amongst a mountain of Toblerone wrappers and remnants of assorted grains and dairy. If so, call the President. But I’m confident we won’t reach that point.

Til later …

Stay tuned for the next instalment to find out how he went on the cleanse….

Once I posted a photo of my healthy breakfast on Facebook, and very promptly received this message from a follower:

“I’m trying extremely hard to lose the baby weight after my fourth bubba. Right now I am 10 days in, eating clean, but I find I’m fighting it everyday. I am feeling better in my body but I always feel starving and that it will only be a matter of time before my mental strength fails me. I was drooling over your eggs and bacon this morning and I basically would love to know how you eat that everyday and look amazing.  Do you eat like a sparrow the rest of the day to counteract this? I’m curious and starving.”

I know exactly where this mum is at. What’s more, I receive similar messages like this regularly. As a health coach, I offered her a complimentary half hour chat to find out more. During that conversation, I learned that what she really wanted was to be able to lose weight, but not to starve herself in doing so. The thing is, most people think that deprivation is the only way to make this happen (possibly because that’s how diets are designed) and because they have set up goals based on an archaic goal-setting method, and not in a way that gives them purpose and joy (but that’s a story for another time).

But how long can this be sustained for? Sure, you will most likely lose weight on any diet you try, but only over a specific period (usually very short!). It’s unnatural, and hardly sustainable. The research shows that you will end up putting the weight back on , and then some.

During dieting we are often depriving the body of wholesome and nutritious food (your body’s fuel), which it then craves, causing binging post-diet. It’s madness, and it’s unhealthy. Placing stress on the body is the route to immune-system dysfunction and susceptibility to disease. Although in jest , this mum said herself, the hunger was making her feel a little aggressive.

What she needed was permission to let go of her clean-eating superfood diet and feed her hunger by enjoying the type of breakfast our ancestors would have eaten. Yes, the very same type of breakfast she was droolng over on my Facebook page. A delicious breakfast full of wonderful fats and protein sourced from healthy animals and farms, with carbohydrates in the form of lots of vegetables.

The point is that our diets need to be natural, nutritious and sustainable for our health to respond similarly.

The next morning after we spoke she messaged me,  and sent me these photographs:

And after less than an hour of coaching this is how she is feeling today…

“Happy, content, satisfied, calm, nourished, relaxed and peace. These are all the feelings I have this week, which are total opposites to last week. I had to share with you what life changing tools you have given me. I’m a very satisfied Mumma. I haven’t weighed myself all week and part of me is still a little scared too. But I haven’t had any cravings for 2 days and can’t believe how amazing I already feel. So thank you”

If you are struggling to lose weight, or reverse your  health issues, or simply want to know how to feed yourself in the most nutritious manner, then please take a look at my 28 day cleanse program, Break Through! To Feeling Fantastic in a Body You Love and learn which foods enrich and which foods to ditch, understand how your thinking plays a big role in your success, learn how to forgive yourself when you don’t make the best choice, stay motivated to keep on track, set yourself up for success, love yourself and your body, enjoy eating delicious, healthy foods and find all the support in the world with with this new amazing lifestyle.

Please share this blog post with anyone who you know who may be struggling with dieting and is ready to move to achieving their weight and health goals through a natural diet or are interested in moving their family to a nutritious and delicious real food way of life.

Bren x