Model Esther Cronin's Fitness and Food Overhaul, 24 July 2014

	You may remember my client Esther from this story I did of our transformation journey 'Making a Top Model Super' from 2013. Since then she's been on various modelling assignments with a recent stint in Spain where she had to get quite skinny for the local agency.	Esther and Lisa
I was shocked to find how little food she survived on. Sure she lost the weight but I think she could have done damage to her metabolism in the long term, similar to what happens to athletes who've competed in bodybuilding shows.

So after a month back from Spain, she's come back to me for an overhaul because she's finding she's weighing alot higher than normal and finding it hard to get lean like she normally can. After some discussion, I think the best plan is to get some blood tests done to see if her hormones, thyroid, iron are all in range. From there we can see if/what natural herbs and supplements she can take to help get back into balance.

In the meantime I've given her simple tasks she can do to get back on metabolism track:

- Water!!! this can make such a difference to how you look. Lack of water can make you hold water and look puffy, so a goal for Esther is a good 3 litres a day.

- Sleep. Lack of sleep can play havoc on your hormones and your ability to lose weight. Esther says she works 10 hour days, consecutively sometimes with late nights so getting sleep has been an issue. Hopefully work will ease a little bit so we can concentrate on getting her stress hormones down.

- Eat nutritious and variety of food, and often. Esther admits she's terrible at eating regularly so this is another one of my missions for her to write in a diary exactly what shes eating and when. Sure I could write a plan for her but if she doesn't follow it and be accountable, then its not going to work. She is very much into organic wholesome food and is quite a foodie so I'm looking to forward to seeing some super creative meals.

- Eat Carbs! So many people take carbs totally out or have it in super low amounts that it can attribute to slowing down of your metabolism. We'll be trickling carbs in slowly with Esther as she hasn't been having them that much in her diet. So she'll have a selection of pumpkin, kumera, chickpeas, yams and ofcourse the super tasty rice wafer to look forward to.

- Supplements. I recommend most women who train should take Magnesium and Calcium tablets as athletes, and we are athletes, train alot and sometimes don't get enough basic minerals in our diet especially if we're not eating enough and variety of food. I've also found added zinc helps too. Adding supergreens powder smoothies will also ensure you get a variety of nutrients the body needs to perform its functions.

- Relax. Getting Esther to workout is not a problem. She loves to run, hike, weight train and do Bikram Yoga. Probably does too much! But I think finding that quiet time to just have a leisurely stroll or lie down in the sun and do nothing is just as important as going hard out to just relax and enjoy the moment to get the cortisol levels down.

- Exercise. As mentioned above Esther loves to move. The key is to plan what she's doing so she's not too exhausted and make sure that she eats enough to supply her the energy she needs to workout, and enough protein to help recover and build.

Esther has potentially a big assignment she has to look amazing for in 8 weeks. I'm looking forward to the challenge of getting her right and setting out eating and training plan to get there! We'll keep you posted on her progress.

In the meantime check out today's workout:


20 lunges on treadmill + 1min walk repeat for 20mins	4 sets 12-15 reps. 90sec between sets - Warm up on treadmill - Barbell Power clean - Frog Squats + Split lunges superset - Rotating pushups - Chin ups - Rear lunges with front dumbell raise + Pop Squats - Swissball knee tucks and push up superset - Tricep dips + 20min lunges and walking on treadmill

	Capped out with lunch and a black coffee. A perfect thursday morning! If you need an overhaul, email me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get started.

Model Esther Cronin's Fitness and Food Overhaul, 24 July 2014

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