This is a non profit community challenge ideal for those who are serious about losing weight and achieving long term health. Joining fees of 39 pounds (for the whole 12 weeks) are used for the cash prizes that are given to the 3 biggest losers!

Here what some of our last participants thought of Arriba weight loss challenge:

Have you found the challenge useful? If so, what changes have you met to your diet / lifestyle?

“Yes, before I only thought about fat, calories. Now I know about the importance of proteins, fibres, …the chain of Life!” H. MDL

“Yes. I changed my portion sizes, I am drinking more water and I am eating less carbs”. C. Y

“I have found it really useful and feel more much happier. I eat more protein and drink more water”. S. C

“Yes, I re-enforced what I learnt in the first challenge”. S. Co

Is there anything that you feel could be done better by the weight loss challenge coach?

“No, Linda is an intelligent, beautiful, clever lady who teaches us something new every week.” H. MDL

“Tell the group how man calories in beer, cider and sweets”. C. Y

“No, I am very happy with all her help and I learnt lot of new stuff”. S. C

“No, Linda was very helpful in every way. I got bored with eating the same thing and she gave me other options”. B. F

What did you enjoy most about the challenge?

“Loosing weight the healthy way, keeping it off, increasing my fitness levels, my water intake, my muscle mass and reducing my body fat”. H. MDL

“The coach and the group”. C. Y

“Learning things I didn’t know about food, and getting help and support”. S. C

“Fitting into clothes that I couldn’t fit into after my pregnancy”. B. F

“Linda smiley happy face:-)”.  S. Co.

Any other comments?

“This is the best weight loss programme I have followed”. H. MDL

“Thanks Linda, this challenge helped me a lot”. B. F

Click Here to find out how well the previous class did!

Feedback from our participants:

“First time appreciated fully what I eat has such an effect on my health! Body illustrations were a great help in understanding body functions. Linda’s enthusiasm and ongoing support has been inspirational! Thank you very much Linda (or Merci!)” – Peter and Barbara Quinn.

“I have learnt to eat more sensibly, I drink more water, I feel better, I feel slimmer and I exercise more. The best thing about the class: Linda’s enthusiasm.” – Chris Young.

“Linda, you have been such a joy as our teacher and have made the classes each week very enjoyable. It has been very useful to learn about nutrition and how every small changes that we can make to what we eat can make a difference. We wish you well for your future classes and hope to see you again soon. Thank You!” – Jane and Louise Sloper.

“I have found this weight loss challenge very good. Linda made each weekly class very interesting, informative, helpful and entertaining, which has lead to a successful weight loss” – Sharon Lippiatt

“This has been a successful journey for me. Not only I have lost 1 stone, I have also learnt how to lead a healthy life for the rest of my life, to do with diet and exercise, which made me a happier person” – Becky Hanks.

Do you want to enjoy a long, active life full of energy and vitality? You’ll have to put your heart into it. Maintaining a strong, healthy cardiovascular system is essential to your overall health and quality of life. So why wait? Start making life choices today that will give you the heart of a champion – and the life of a winner. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. STEP UP YOUR GAME

Get your body moving. Studies show that moderate physical activity can strengthen the heart. Regular exercise – jogging, weight lifting, playing sports – is key to a healthy heart and a rich and fulfilling life. Not interested in playing sports or joining a gym? Try walking. Taking 6,000 to 10,000 steps every day is terrific for your heart. A pedometer, available at most sports shops, can help you keep track of your steps throughout the day. Try different types of exercise, find the ones you really enjoy, and make them a regular part of your life.

2. EAT LIKE A WINNER

Forget the fast food. Junk the junk food. Create a heart-healthy diet. That means healthy protein, healthy fatty acids like Omega-3s, lots of water and plenty of fruits and vegetables. The way you eat is important, too. So don’t skip meals. Schedule regular times for meals and snacks. And try not to eat anything within a few hours of going to bed.

3. REST, RECHARGE AND REJUVINATE

And speaking of going to bed… it’s time to get some shut-eye. Sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of heart problems. We’re busy people, and it can be tempting to shave off an hour or two of sleep to “be more productive.” Resist that temptation. Think of it this way: For eight hours of every day of your life, the most productive activity you can engage in for your health is sleeping. So, have a good night – and you’ll have a great life.

What to do next?

Join your nearest Arriba! Wellness Club and participate to our weekly nutrition classes with rest of your community: you will learn how to implement the important changes that are necessary to a healthy lifestyle.

Contact us for more information or to book a space in our next class.

The revolutionary ‘Community Weight Loss Challenge’ is a 12 week course designed to give you the necessary knowledge and support you need to achieve safe and long term weight loss. Because we are a nutrition organisation (and not only a slimming club!), you will get a 1-2-1 with your personal coach as part of this challenge: this is the opportunity to discuss your own objectives and meal plan with your personal coach.

Unlike traditional ‘Slimming Clubs’ at Arriba! we provide much more than a ‘pay-weigh-and go’ weight loss class. Over the 12 weeks we will educate you on key topics including:

• Importance Of Protein
• Understanding You Body Composition
• Healthy Snacking
• Rev Up your Metabolism
• Fats – Good & Bad
• Portion Control
• Carbohydrates
• Understanding Food Labels
• Eating Out Healthily
• Digestive Health
• Importance Of Fibre
• Understanding Sugars
• Exercise

Arriba! Wellness Clubs Provide:

• Full & On-Going Body Composition Analysis
• Weekly Weigh & Measure
• Nutrition Education For Safe & Long Term Weight Loss
• Personal Coaching & Support
• Fun Environment
• Opportunity To Meet People & Make New Friends

The Challenge:

• Everyone in the challenge starts and finishes at the same time
• Everyone pays a participation fee of £39.
• At the end of the 12 weeks the 3 participants who have lost the greatest % of body weight win:
  • 1st Prize = £300*
  • 2nd Prize = £200*
  • 3rd Prize = £100 *

For more information on Arriba! Wellness Clubs and Community Weight Loss Challenges running in Bristol and surrounding areas please use the” contact us” facility at the top of the page.

Good Luck!

* Prizes based on 30 participants. Prizes are relative to the number of participants, please speak with your Arriba! leader for exact details.

We look forward to working with you to achieve your wellness goals.

Your personal coach

I met Arriba! through Herbalife, a Health & Nutrition company:  I was off work for months, recovering for 2 consecutive illnesses, piling pounds after pounds. So to summarise: I was bored and getting fatter!

I contacted Arriba! Wellness Clubs because I was interested in their business opportunity; I always wanted to have something fun, different from engineering, during my part-time. What I liked straightway with Arriba! Wellness Clubs was that they were not just a slimming company, they were well-known as a nutrition company and their programmes and products were all backed up by cutting-edge science. Arriba! clubs also owe their success to the quality of service and education they provide. I have lost more than 2 stones with the help of Arriba! Wellness Clubs, and I didn’t pile an ounce since. Anyway, that’s how I became an Arriba! Weight Loss Coach.

I will never be able to describe the satisfaction that I experience each day by helping others to improve their lives. And I will always be grateful to Arriba! Wellness Clubs who provided me the necessary support and training, but also to my friends (especially Lyn!) who have been helping with the weigh in, setting up. A special thank you to all the Arriba! Weight Loss Challenges participants who where brave enough to trust me and do a part of the journey with me.

If you want to find out more about me, please have a look at the editorial published in the Bristol Evening Post: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Arriba-Linda-hosts-Bristol-weight-loss-class/article-1771045-detail/article.html

As you are probably aware from the number of articles in the press daily there is serious concern over illnesses and conditions like heart disease and diabetes. These are all on the increase and are higher than ever before. You may not realise but an astonishing 7/10 people are at the doctors due to poor nutrition, the other 3 are there for things like pregnancy, minor injuries, tests etc.

Obesity



Obesity doubles your risk of premature death. 50% of adults in UK are overweight. 26% are Obese

Diabetes

2.3 million people in the UK are diagnosed with diabetes. More than half a million are unaware they have the condition.

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)

Someone has a heart attack every 2 minutes. That’s 275,000 people each year

The Main Culprit

Statistics say that an obese 20-year-old man has a life expectancy 13 years shorter than contemporaries of normal weight (The fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil & Terrry Grossman).

Being 20% overweight triples your risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, doubles your risk of elevated cholesterol and increases your risk of heart diseases by 60%.

The real sad side of the story is that , although losing weight is becoming our main preoccupation, 95% of diets fail and lead to this well known viscous circle called the “yo-yo diets”, which have even worse consequence on your health.

To lose weight safely we need to change our mindset and attitude: we need to start a permanent diet that will help us to gain our health back. We need to commit to a long-term healthy pattern of eating.

For this to happen we need to understand what healthy nutrition is, and the long-term benefits of healthy eating. We then must teach others how to do the same so we can stop this obesity epidemic.

Join the Wellness Revolution

The good news is that this increase is preventable: this is the mission of all industries, communities, charities who are joining the Wellness Revolution.

In the 20th century our lives were revolutionized by things like the automobile, airline travel, the personal computer. In those cases, initial discoveries led to the birth of empires and to unprecedented individual wealth for those entrepreneurs and investors who got in first. The next big thing of the 21st century has begun, and it promises to similarly revolutionize our lives and offer opportunities for tremendous health and wealth building over the next 10 years. The next big thing is the Wellness revolution (The new Wellness Revolution by Paul Zane Pilzer).

If you want to implement long-term healthy choices so you can live longer, feel better, join the wellness revolution. If you want to help others to live longer, feel better, join the wellness revolution.

Are you ready to go now? The video below will introduce you to the most incredible opportunity.

Are you ready to go now?

Why Breakfast is so important?

Breakfast is the first meal of the day. I know, it sounds obvious but you might not know that each morning your body needs more than 100 nutrients to generate and repair its cells. And what do we feed it with? Sugar or nothing! Let’s start from the beginning…..When you choose something to eat, what is the objective that you are trying to achieve?  Let me answer for you: you want something that satisfies your hunger, something that will fill your stomach, or something that will stop your cravings. Do you ever think of the effect that this food has on your body’s cells? If you did you would never pick the packet of crisps in your cupboard, or the cake, or bottle of fizzy drink!

Carbs-Based Breakfast

In the morning simple carbohydrates (sugary refine cereals, white breads, toasts, etc) cause an immediate surge of blood sugar level which results in a substantial emission of insulin. The insulin removes sugar from blood turning its excess into fat. The result is a decreased level of blood sugar, and thirst for more carbs. This cycle repeats itself 2-3 more times during the day. This vicious circle constitutes one of the major reasons for diabetes, high blood pressure and extra weight.

Skipping Breakfast

When you skip breakfast, blood sugar drops below the normal level, you experience cravings and a drop of energy. You again revert of simple carbohydrates to achieve a quick surge of blood sugar and to overcome hunger and drop of energy. Simple carbohydrates will cause an immediate surge of blood sugar and a substantial insulin emission. The insulin removes sugar from blood turning its excess into fat. Then this cycle repeats itself 2-3 more times during the day. This vicious circle constitutes one of the major reasons for diabetes, high blood pressure and extra weight.

Balanced protein-based breakfast

Such a breakfast supplies our body with all vital nutrients and energy without increasing blood sugar and insulin levels. It helps t avoid dependence on carbs during the day. In this way, appetite stays under control, cravings for carbs (snacks, chocolate, pastry, junk, soft drinks, etc) diminish and the body uses its own stored fats to get more energy.

Choose the right knock-on effect!

Why anyone would like to deal with cravings, headaches, low levels of energy all day and be out of control of their body? Whether you want to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or feel energised all day, you must make the right choice for breakfast. This will also affect the rest of the day but in the good way. You will be no longer a “cravings” slave, you will have control over your body and will feed your cells rather than just “satisfying your stomach”. Yes, this should be your objective when you eat: feeding your cells. Your stomach should be used as a tool to feed your billions of cells.

We are not talking about a temporary choice. Once you have a good breakfast, there is no need to go back to the old one. Breakfast is for ever, so make the right choice now!

The well-known consquences of an Unhealthy Breakfast

A carbohydrates-based breakfast or skipping breakfast inevitably leads to weight-gain and obesity-related illnesses such as type 2 diabete, high blood pressure, cardio-vascular diseases…The immediate effects of a poor breakfast are headache, mood swings, low level of energy and continuous cravings. The majority of people never link the way they feel to their breakfast…or their lack of breakfast! But now that you have some information about the consequences of a poor breakfast, think about it. Is that true about you?

Did you know that we eat 50% more that we used to 20 years ago? Did you know that this excess essentially comes from carbohydrates? You will find wellness and vitality through intelligent nutrition….so, what breakfast will you have tomorrow?

To learn more about nutrition and healthy living please join our Arriba! Weight Loss Challenge classes. Whether you need to lose weight or not these classes are for you because good nutritions is a necessity for everyone!

People often associate dieting with the act of restricting their food intake. You often hear the term “I am on diet” , and more and more drinks are labelled with the term “diet” to indicate that they are suitable for people who are watching their weight. Actually, when it comes to nutrition, Diet is a sum of foods consumed by a person. Dietary habits can vary between individuals and cultures. So technically we are all on diet because we eat, right? So let’s stop associating this term to some negative concept that suggests “dieting is for fat people”.

This is the first thing that I am trying to convey when I run my Arriba! Weight Loss classes. By default the human diet should be healthy, e.g. provides to the body the right amount and combination of nutrients so it can maintain, repair, and recover itself. And when I mention nutrients I am suggesting good proteins, good fats, good carbohydrates and the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

Obesity in Great Britain tripled over the last 20 years, still rising.

The reason why the level of obesity is rising in Britain is because we lost the concept and knowledge of dieting. We are now on a high sugar, high fat (the bad ones!) diet, and this is now the only diet we know. But our body didn’t have a chance to evolve quick enough to adapt to this new diet, so it stores the food it has in excess and it expands! Unfortunately, obesity is not an aesthetic problem associated with shape and figures; obesity is directly linked to health issues such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure,osteoarthritis..the list is long. So we should all take our diet very seriously, regardless if we are trying to lose weight or not!

It seems that we are giving up on ourselves because the concept of “Healthy Diet” sounds daunting, complex and expensive. Healthy calories can be more expensive and less accessible than unhealthy calories but the first step into a healthy diet is: Knowledge and Education, this is as simple as that. You heard me well: we all need to go to a “Healthy Diet School” that teaches us the basic of good nutrition. And this is not about counting calories, or maintaining diet sheets, or even relying on food combination. This is about educating your body so it gets used to healthy nutrition and this is also about educating yourself so you understand why your body does what it does.

An Healthy Diet School for all

The ideal “Healthy Diet School” may not exist yet because of the economy pressure to eat refined food, but we have access to a wide range of information on the internet and we also have organisations such as the Arriba! Weight Loss clubs. In a way overweight people who attend our classes are lucky because they give to themselves the opportunity to lose weight but they are also empowered so they can become healthy and teach others how to do the same. And this is why I am so proud to be part of it.

So please, respect yourself, respect your body. Don’t think that health issues will never happen to you: prevention is better than cure! Being a victim is not your fault, but staying one is! So if you know that you are living an unhealthy life, do the right thing today, ignorance is no excuse!

Please share your views, we all are interested in your opinion on this subject!

What’s really in your food?