30 January - Sumo Salad, give the choc muffins a miss

I love Sumo Salad for the great tasting salads they serve and for bringing such a fresh, healthy brand to the fast service food industry. Their tag-line is "Eat large. Stay thin". You can certainly do this with salad.

So why do I see chocolate muffins on the Sumo Salad counter at one Sydney store today? What has selling high-calorie muffins got to do with helping people stay in shape and the Sumo Salad brand? I guess if you eat the muffin with your salad you'll have to keep coming back for salad? I'll email the guys at Sumo Salad and get back to you...

23 January - What's the difference between a Dietitian and a Nutritionist?

I was asked this question again today, so here's my one sentence answer followed by further explanation.

Traditionally, a Dietitian tends to work in a hospital or in private practice and provides dietetic services to individual patients or clients, whereas a Nutritionist tends to work promoting good nutrition to a broader group of people.

Having said this, Dietitian's work in a wide range of roles includinhg teaching, food industry consultation, public health and corporate health.

To become a Dietitian, you need to complete a tertiary-level course to qualify for membership to the Dietitian's Association of Australia (DAA) or similar body in other countries. You then need to commit to continuing education and can become an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD). Although you may claim I'm biased, being an APD, I do believe that APD's or the equivalent Registered Dietitian (RD) in the UK is your best person to see to get accurate dietary advice.

In contrast, there is no national representative body of Nutritionists and no minimum training qualifications in Australia to call yourself a Nutritionist. There are moves to establish minimum training standards for Nutritionists and this likely to be at a tertiary level or even post-graduate level, recognising the knowledge required to claim such a title.

The terms Dietitian and Nutritionist are often interchanged by Dietitians. For example, I am a Dietitian by qualification but I still call myself a Nutritionist. On the television, I like to use “Dietitian and weight loss expert” to show my credentials and specialty area.

If you are interested in becoming qualified in nutrition and making a career of healthy eating, you can get a good taste of what you'll be getting into by attending my Nutrition for Fat Loss & Health course, as part of SmartShape's Certificate in Weight Management. Please take the opportunity to quiz me on career options at the course or call me on (02) 9620 9511.

For more information about becoming a Dietitian, please visit the Dietitian's Association of Australia . In the UK, visit the British Dietetic Association and in the US, the American Dietetic Association .

20 January - How to be a great teacher?

After 15 years of presenting nutrition, fitness and weight management seminars it's still a real treat to stand in front of a group, engage and entertain. I created my Seminar Presenter's Package so more people can do the same.

But it's also nice to be on the receiving end, as I was yesterday listening to talented presenters like Andrew May, Iven Frange and Matt Church at a business bootcamp.

Here's a list of tips for being a great teacher that I've learnt and especially noticed at the workshop. Whether you need to teach a corporate group about wellness or your friend about fitness, these tips will help you be more successful.

• Clearly outline what you are going to talk about and why. Don't assume your audience knows why they are there.
• Draw or show pictures to help make your spoken and written words make sense.
• Ask people how they will use your information to make sure they are finding what you say useful.
• Make it clear what your audience needs to do with the information to go to the next stage or be successful.
• Summarise key points and ask your audience to tell you what they were.
• It's OK to make mistakes. Just make sure you don't try to cover them up.
• Be humble, rather than give the impression you know it all.
• Demonstrate how you you are still learning and what you have learnt from other people.
• Look each of your audience in the eye and smile.
• Spend some time up close and personal with audience members just relating to them.
• Speak in funny voices.
• Tell stories.

10 January - Avoiding extremes is key to weight management

True to their annual formula, the nation's popular weekly magazines this week featured cover stories on celebrity diets. Australian New Weekly (8 Jan 2007) ran with '20 Best Slim Downs of All Time' and Australian Woman's Day (8 Jan 2007) covered with `Secrets of the diet queens'.

The magazine stories brought up some random thoughts:

Firstly, like elite athletes, actors have off seasons between movie shoots when they put on a few kilograms. Why do we think this is more normal for athletes, but not for screen heroes? The media (and perhaps media consumers) just don't seem to offer celebrities any slack, so no wonder they rebound when the cameras stop rolling. Beyonce was quoted after she lost weight for her Dreamgirls movie role as saying she's looking forward to “eating for America to get some junk on my trunk.”

Second, celebrity slimming stories show two extremes, so of course the results are dramatic. At the smaller end the celebrity is likely to be working overtime to stay below their natural best healthy weight so they appear in top shape for the cameras. At the larger end, they are often between shoots, on holidays or just in their off season. They may also be going thorough a tough time emotionally, like when Jessica Simpson “turned to food for comfort and managed to pile on 15 kg…” after the break-up with Nic (NW).

I was thinking about the take-home message from this apparent media obsession with celebrity body shape and eating habits? I guess it's aiming for the opposite of what you see and read with the legitimate weight management goal of avoiding extremes. Being happy and healthy is not having to achieve movie star, rock hard buttocks nor is it going to be about bulking up in the wrong places during a life-long off-season.

In 2007, think about how this year can be a year of great results in terms of fitness, health and happiness without spending time bouncing back and forward from the extremes. This is the real key to weight management.

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