 So another episode of the Savvy Chick Show on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm your host, Chantel Seville. We've had some fantastic episodes of Dreams to Reality with people who are living their absolute dreams. Now today is someone who's also living her dreams, but she has something that's really going to help you live your body goals too. So Nick Toth, the lean body coach, is going to teach us about getting rid of stress and excess weight, which I don't know if you know, but there is a huge link. So if you're pushing yourself way too hard and wondering why you're not seeing results, Nick is here to tell us why. So welcome all the way from Sydney, Australia, Bondi Beach, Nick Toth, the lean body coach. Hi Nick. Hi Chantel. Thanks so much for being on the show. I mean, I've always been really inspired by you, the fact that you're not only nutritionist but also a personal trainer. So you know, you have both bases covered and that gives you the ability to give such great information and expert knowledge. Now with, I mean, you've always done the stress thing, but that's something that I don't think society knows enough of. So firstly, what got you into personal training and nutrition? Well, my own health challenge is actually, I used to struggle with three severe digestive issues and I kept putting on weight and I was fatigued the entire world of time. And I just couldn't figure out why and the doctors never had answers from me. So I just went on to search to find answers and started learning about nutrition and naturopathy and basically cured myself for help, you know, through nutrition and living and changing lifestyle. I completely changed my life. And then I was so inspired by the changes that I've noticed that I wanted to help people achieve the same results. And I love that. I mean, I know I've seen you being quoted to say you want to help every woman feel confident in their, their selves and their bikini body because it's such a thing in society about bikini body and you have to be skinny and this and that. And, you know, it's really about just feeling good and actually looking after yourself. So let's get straight into the stress part because I think that's something that probably a lot of people don't know about. And I mean, it is the title of the show. So what can you give us more insight about the stress and mind, body nutrition connection? Yeah, no way connection. And I guess I go back just one step with you asking about the dream body and the beach body because I think that starts with the enormous pressure that society puts on us that we have to look a certain way. And a beach body might be different for everyone and you don't have to look like a cover girl to be confident in your beach body. And I think that's a number one problem with what women are facing these days is that if they don't look like that, they're immediately stressed and they go on a quest to lose weight and start all these fat diets and diet pills and try all these things. And I think that's where it all begins. And then because you go on dieting, your body goes into sort of an unsafe mode and starts to actually go into fat storage. So what does that mean when it goes into fat storage and how does that happen? So what we do is we live in a society where we live a very stressful life. Especially women, they have to balance career, running a whole family, a household, maybe even studying or doing a lot of things and put the pressure on top of it by having to look great as well because that's what we see, right? So we're going to stress ourselves out and our life is stressing us out. And we start to produce excess amount of stress hormones and predominantly the two hormones that we actually, our bodies produce when we're stressed are adrenaline and cortisol. So let's put it this way, if someone frightens you and you have to run away or take action immediately, your body starts to produce adrenaline, right? Your pupils dilate, your blood vessels are, I mean your blood is rushing to your muscles so you can really run away. And the same thing that we experienced is actually when we're having coffee. So I generally... Oh, I love my coffee. That's the same thing happens if we actually, it's the same reaction. So whether it's an actual threat like someone is chasing you with a gun or you actually having your morning cup of coffee and open your inbox and you have 200 emails in there, the same type of stress that your body is actually experiencing. Now over time when your body is kind of tired and wears out of producing adrenaline you switch on to another mechanism and start to produce more cortisol which is like a chronic, raw, long-term low-level stress hormone. And then this hormone actually helps us store weight and when body fats... It's so kind that it helps us store weight. It's so kind to help us. It's literally your body's protective mechanism and it wants to keep us alive because historically when we look back on time the only time that we experience this chronic elevation of stress hormones was when we were without food or it was wars and then we had to really preserve all the new chance. But today that's not the case. So then how do we go about sort of combating this issue or I mean in society everyone's like run, run, exercise. I need to lose weight. I've got to cut what I'm eating and diet and run a million stairs and get up at five in the morning to do my training. So how do you work with that? Yeah, so great question. Now everyone's, you know, number one thing is like, yeah, I gotta go on a diet and I gotta eat less. So they go on these ventures of drinking shakes and taking diet pills and drastically lowering their calories. But that's exactly what your body is already thinking. Your body is already thinking there's not enough food in the world so I have to preserve all the new chance that you're eating. Now you go on a diet and you're just reassuring me exactly what I was thinking. So we're doing the opposite of what we should be doing. What is taking up restorative forms of exercise. So instead of doing high intensity training, which is also elevating cortisol levels, doing low intensity training like yoga or even just weight training that doesn't really get up at heart rate to that level but still helps us increase lean body mass, which is what helps us increase metabolic rate and burn more calories on time. So it's a lot to do then with what you eat and then relaxing more than it is pushing yourself. Absolutely. So first of all, take away all the stressors that you put in on your life. So you can take away all the stressors that come from life itself. So it's just a matter of how you deal with them. But things like lack of sleep is a massive stress on the body. Also inflammation and processed food, which create inflammation, a huge stress on the body. Can you talk about inflammation? Because it's something that I understand but to articulate it and from an expert like yourself would be amazing if you can explain what inflammation actually is and what it does and how you can sort of prevent it. So the easiest way to explain it, I guess, the simplest way is that inflammation is something, it's your body's response to something that's not going well. Now, if your body is inflamed, then your body is going to be constantly finding inflammation and put a hold on other things such as weight loss or increasing your metabolism because it's a process that's going in the body that is not healthy long-term. So your body needs to produce anti-inflammatory substances to reduce that inflammation. So processed foods and unhealthy fats, too much meat, they actually all cause inflammation or can cause inflammation in the body. So we want to include lots of vegetables, lots of foods that are healthy and go back to things that come from the earth. So it's just a very simple way of thinking, going back to what I want, food what I want, things that grow in the ground, foods, vegetables, whole foods, healthy whole foods, grains. So I've been taught once that the shop on the outside of the supermarket, we're all the sort of vegetables and things are. Can you give us an idea, and I know your website has awesome information on this, I was looking at it actually again yesterday and you can just literally go on there and click what recipe you want, lunch, breakfast, dinner, whatever you like, and it's a combination of a day of eating a healthy, balanced diet from your point of view, or not diet, a healthy lifestyle, wellness. Yeah, of course, of course. Well, yeah, again, so it has to be a balanced amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, which are the macaroni chance that we need in large quantities. So we should not be cutting out any food groups, so don't cut out carbohydrates, don't cut out fats, don't cut out protein because somewhere else you're gonna have to make up for it, it's not healthy, we have to have a balance in that. So for example, I always recommend just for general weight loss, general health and weight loss as well, that we start the day with a healthy high-fat, high protein diet or high-fat, high-protein meal. Because if we start the day with a sugary snack or sugary sweet breakfast, then it's not the best way to set ourselves up for high metabolism and fat burning for the rest of the day. So for example, a good example would be an omelet with some avocado, maybe some salmon and some vegetables in that omelet would be a really great breakfast. And so an omelet, I mean, I'm just, this was me at one point. When someone said make an omelet, I was like, how do you make an omelet? And I mean, people can Google how to make an omelet, but really for those of you watching, it's as simple as a bit of, I mean, a bit of salmon oil or what kind of oil, a tiny bit of oil in the pan, stir up a few eggs, throw in some vegetables, that avocado and just let it fry up for a little while. So it's not hard, is it? But I remember going, how do I do this? I mean, an omelet for breakfast, that's going to take me hours. Nah, that's how many, it takes about, you know, five minutes, it's so quick. But I just even scrambled that, just chuck in some vegetables, throw them on there and use a little bit of oil and just fry that, yeah. So for a snack or something, do you have a mid-morning snack or what's your next sort of snack today? Yeah, look, for a mid-morning snack, a snack is literally just a handful of food that we'll get you through until the next meal, which a handful of nuts will be really great because, for example, walnuts, they're quite anti-inflammatory because they contain omega-3 fatty acids, which is the same fat that's found in fish and fish oil tablets, for example. So it's really good anti-inflammatory food. And really easy to just put it in a bag, put in a little Ziploc bag, and you're ready to go, you can always have it on hand. And then with eating like this, we'll get to lunch and dinner in a second, but is this also helping your stress by eating really healthy, clean foods, like your mindset and your stress? Yes, well, it reduces it extra stress and burden on the body. So when you're fueling your body with whole foods, you're getting nutrients. So, for example, if you eat a packet of chips, there's not going to be a whole lot of nutrients in there, right? No vitamins, no minerals, nothing that your body can actually recognize as food. But if you eat a bowl of, or, I don't know, just say sweet potato chips, or eat an omelette, or eat a salad, there are no chance of vitamins and minerals that your body can take away from that and use it to fuel your nervous system, to fuel your liver, to fuel your metabolism, your body, your muscles, all kinds of things. So it has to be food with nutrients. And package and process food don't have nutrients. Not many, at least. Not many, definitely not. And I think the younger that people can start to realize this and be educated and eat like it is so important. But we're going to take a short break and come back after the break with some more information on how to reduce stress and weight, as well as learn all about Nick's upcoming retreats to Bali. So stay tuned for the Savvy Chick Show. We'll be with you in a moment. Hello, my name is Crystal. Let me tell you my talk show. I'm all about health. It's healthy to talk about sex. It's healthy to talk about things that people don't talk about. It's healthy to discuss things that you think are unhealthy because you need to talk about it. So I welcome you to watch Quok Talk and engage in some provocative discussions on things that do relate to healthy issues and have a well-balanced attitude in life. Join me. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm at the Center Stage, which is on Wednesdays at 2 o'clock here on Think Tech. On Center Stage, I talk with artists about not only what they do and how they do it, but the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it. Why we go through this. A lot of us are not making our livings doing this. And a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had that choice. And that's what I love to talk to people about. I hope you enjoy watching it and I hope you get inspired because there's an artist inside G2. On Center Stage at 2 o'clock on Wednesdays. Bye. Aloha and welcome back to The Savvy Chick Show on Think Tech, Hawaii. Thanks for tuning in today. Really excited to have a fantastic guest, Nick Toth, who is the lean body coach. And she is an expert. She's a qualified nutritionist, personal trainer and wellness coach. So who better to get your knowledge from than a great source itself? Because when it comes to health and wellness, I don't know about you, but I look forward to hearing more. Thank you. Hi, so before the break, we're talking about breakfast and some snacks. So can you just give us a quick indication of what you might have for lunch or dinner? I know if people watching this, just go to your website. We're putting it on the screen there throughout the show because it has lots of information recipes. But just while you're tuning in, what are some things to have for lunch or supper, dinner, whatever you want to call it, wherever you are in the world? Yeah, so lunch I generally recommend something that's pretty easy to throw together. And you can do it the night before or even just use some leftovers or if you can grab a packet of salad, maybe add some feta cheese with another really light cheese and it gives that nice extra salty flavor to it. Also adding some chicken and just lots of vegetables. Anything, I always use the analogy, the rainbow colors. So the more vegetables and what colors you can have in a salad, the more nutrient you're going to be getting out of it. And I personally always like an extra crunch. So I throw some sunflower seeds in there, pumpkin seeds in there that are really nice and crunchy and give it that good salad texture and just just sit with lemon juice, olive oil and a little bit of garlic. So how I make my dressing, for example, is just juice half a lemon, add a little bit of olive oil, a couple tablespoons and just press a little bit of garlic, salt, pepper, shake it up in a shaker like in a little jar. Just pour it on the salad when you're ready to go. Perfect. And I mean, when you make it at home it costs a lot less than when you're buying them at the store but that's a great recipe. So I'll have to watch this episode again to get that recipe. Okay, so when it comes to exercise, I mean, when you said with the stress management sometimes about slowing down, what do you recommend or is it depending on who you are or what type of fitness level you're at or what do you recommend? Well, first of all, whatever you enjoy. Because if you don't enjoy it, if you hate it, if you drag it, go on to the gym you're not going to do it. So especially if you're someone who's struggling to get their exercise done firstly choose something that they may be wanting to be trying for a long time and they haven't got a chance of doing it. Whether you're playing tennis or going for a swim or going to a zumba class or going to yoga class whatever really makes you happy and leaves you or leaves you fulfilled and happy and relaxed after that session and feeling like you also did a good workout. But I always recommend especially for anti-aging and longevity that you do some form of great weight or resistance training. Because cardio alone doesn't help you build muscle and weight training does. That's it. Everyone wants to have that definition they won't look like they're good at the gym so you're not going to achieve that by doing cardio. You need to do weight training and that will help you slow down the aging process as well to keep you young. Because I know a lot of people that will be like I exercise and I go to all the classes and I run all the time and this is what I always found interesting about you and learning more through our conversations is that you do know the nutrition aspect and the personal training and it does have a lot more to do with what you eat than the training you're doing. What balance or ratio do you think that is? They say 80-20 or what is it in your mind? Something along those lines. You can up train a bad diet. No matter how much you exercise twice a day if you go home and you're going to eat bad foods it's not only any favors. So it's probably about 80% nutrition and then 20% of what you train. So if you're really focused, oh sorry go ahead go ahead. I work with clients who are unable to exercise with injuries or they simply just really don't have the time to exercise every single day and if they change their nutrition what they eat and how much they eat they still get the same results as the clients who are exercising and training and boxing every day but they have those little bad days sneaking and they're not committed to the nutrition part. That's huge. Anyone who watches the replay of this rewind that because that's huge and very true. You've had so many success stories exactly as you're going into. Can you share one or two of clients who have experience because you created a clean body method to really help people create amazing healthy and well lifestyles. Can you share some examples of where people started and where you got them to? Yeah and I wish I had some pictures ready for you but I've worked with a lot of women in their 40s and 50s and say you know Nick I'm not really expecting miracles here. If I can just do a couple kilos I'd be happy and they end up losing 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 kilos by the end of 10 weeks and they end up going to the gym twice a day or doing any type of craziness and they think the metabolism slows down to 40 and 50 and you can actually change that. You can change that very very quickly and these women are tired they have hormonal imbalance they're fatigued all the time because they're not getting the right nutrition and when you're fatigued and tired you're not going to be motivated to work out you're not going to be motivated to eat well you're not going to start addressing getting your body what it needs giving it right nutrition and right fuel and then you're going to start feeling good and energized and motivated to also work at the gym. And I know myself when I eat really well I feel so much more confident and then you want to train more and you have more energy so it's just like this domino effect and it starts with either either if you're more conscious about your training and then you eat well or you eat well and then you're more conscious about your training and what's really exciting how did that come about can you tell us about the retreat and what you'll be doing on it? Yes I went to retreat last year and it changed my life and I said oh my god I have to show this to the world I have to show this to my clients and I have to bring them along because when you go away from home you're really able to put everything behind and just focus on yourself and that's really important when you want to change and you want long term results to really set your goals figure out what your goals are because what I find is that the goals that people set up are very disconnected to what they're actually doing at the moment to get there and when we go to this retreat we're going to be doing daily yoga we're going to learn how to meditate we're going to learn how to visualize and set these goals that we can actually achieve and how to achieve them and also going to connect on a level it doesn't happen in society anymore because we're not really always on our phones we're always distracted by so many things but when we're actually in a beautiful place like Bali we can relax we can put those distractions away and we can focus on ourselves eat beautiful healthy food juices every day and cleanse our body and cleanse our mind as well And so once people come on the retreat so basically how week long or how long is it? week long, five nights and we're going to be doing I'll give you a bit of itinerary sneak peak we're going to wake up first day in the morning and we have a morning Alexia which is a fresh made juice with lots of turmeric that helps set up antioxidants for the day and give us energy and then we do a high intensity training session for 30 minutes, we'll do a yoga session and it doesn't matter what level you'll go even if you've never done yoga before you're going to be able to do it and then we do a short meditation and a beautiful healthy breakfast and then we do a group training group coaching session so we all get together, we talk about our goals and how we actually go on to achieve them and then during the day you get lots of time to chill out by the pool get some sun and enjoy the beautiful local you know, Balinese food or culture and then in the evening we're doing a group coaching session again and an evening activity which is highly secretive because it's very important moving your body as well as connecting with other people on the retreat Highly secretive, I like it. You only have one spot left so if there's one person watching this you'll get to find out what the highly secretive activity is Is there still one spot left? Yes, there's one spot left and the rest of them are full but we're really excited to have someone else join this amazing group of women because it's going to be really, really special and if you've been looking for a kickstart or something to really push that reset button this is really going to be transformational Actually, there's a lot of Australians I mean, I know there's, I'm sure Americans and Canadians, but I definitely know there's always Australians in Bali, they might be able to So does it, it starts this Friday or? No, you know, so it starts on the 23rd of October, so there's still coming to apply It's always by application only because we want to make sure that we have an amazing group and yeah, that's why the program is application only so I get on the phone with everyone who applies and answer all of their questions and make sure that they're also in the right fit I would like to come, but I think I might accidentally have a baby on your retreat, so I best stay here in Hawaii You come on the next one So will there be other retreats coming up that people don't get on this one they can get onto? Yeah, so I partnered up with MyT journey and together we're going to be hosting retreats around the world and we're thinking about Hawaii as one of the destinations because some clients in the U.S. body may be too far for them but you know, Hawaii is kind of in between Hawaii is perfect for a retreat it's amazing here, I mean I absolutely love living here on the island so we're going to have to stay tuned so people can watch your website and see when the next retreats are coming up and then they can also go to your website and work with you Do you still do 101s or is it just your lean program? Yeah, so what I'm actually doing now is starting only November, I'm starting a 28 day challenge, it's going to be a lean body accelerator challenge, so can you learn how to reset your digestion, how to detox your body and actually lose those two pants sizes or dress sizes by the time someone comes here in Australia or winter for you guys at the bar It's a lot easier when you keep yourself fit for the winter than having to get ready to work for it I think it's just part of a lifestyle I mean, you should always just work to be and be healthy and be yourself not, oh it's winter, the winter coat or it's summer and beach body, it should be ready all year round in my point of view just be ready and healthy and feeling good about yourself. I'm going to ask you a question that I hadn't exactly planned to ask you but it is something that we have a lot of young girls watching the show and so what would be your advice to any young woman or girl who wants to pursue a career in your industry, do you have some insider advice for them? Yes absolutely, go for it if you have an interest in it it will always serve you even if you don't end up working with clients, you will learn so much about your body. We have this one body right, we're given this one body and we many people spend 30, 40, 50 years not even knowing how it actually works so many of us don't know how our bodies work and what our bodies need is fuel so that should be the number one thing taught in schools to how to fuel our bodies with nutrition so if that's something you can go ahead and learn and go and study further, absolutely do it because you're going to be able to pass it on to your family, your friends and people will benefit around you whether you end up working with clients or you just help yourself and your family. Great answer, thanks I think that's perfect because I mean you can only better yourself really and as you said if you don't go in that direction it's still going to make you better for it so I mean you can't go wrong with health and fitness and before we wrap up, last question is what's your last reminder or piece of advice for those watching the show today that want to reduce that stress and excess weight and start today? Great question if I had to think of one thing be kind to yourself and don't be too hard on yourself because if you are, all that triggers is more guilt and when you're feeling guilty you tend to eat worse foods and what you put in your body is really a reflection on how kind you are to yourself Perfect, thank you so much Nick thanks for your time because I know how busy you are at the moment so it's been absolutely great having you on the Savichick show next time we'll have to put a shout out to more people to call into the show because we just had too much information to share today so we'll have to have you on again sometime Nick and until next time, aloha good luck with your retreats and if you want to connect with Nicole you can find her on our website below aloha