Last week I wrote an article entitled 'Weightloss is not a mystery. There are no magic tricks.' In this article I wrote about the fact that, generally, if kilojoules in is greater than kilojoules out, then there will be weight gain. I received some feedback from people about this and so I thought I'd better clarify my views on diet!

I'm not a dietician, but I think I am a fairly healthy person. I rarely get sick and have not had any major health issues in my 30 years of living. I put a lot of this down to a pretty decent diet.

The other day, one of my friends bought a set of CDs and books about one of the new fandangle diets. I had a look at the book and it espouses a magical mathematical formula that will cause you to lose weight. Now mathematics isn't my strong point, but even I can recognise that there is something quite useless about saying "60% food + 30% exercise + 10% extra = weight loss" (or something like that). The book failed to give me any knowledge about what this is supposed to mean or any confidence in it being anything but another grand scam.

I'm not a expert in this field but as far as I'm concerned, there is no magic trick. It is simple.

There are many things we can all do consistently well like getting enough sleep, eating according to our needs, minimizing alcohol consumption and exercising to have us keep well each day but sometimes the change of seasons brings with it extra challenges and our immune system can be tested.

So here are a few naturopathic tips I have found useful to do before the germs hit town:

Everyone’s heard the saying: “I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself!” But nothing rings closer to the truth than when you’re heavily pregnant. As I write this article, I myself am 38 weeks pregnant, and have had a few ‘close calls’ when I’ve decided this really is no laughing matter

The truth of the matter is, that urinary incontinence (or leakage) is very common during pregnancy, and that one in three women continue to suffer these symptoms for months or even years after the birth of their baby. So it is a VERY common problem, and we really need to talk about it!

 Merendi Leverett from Merendi Health & Wellness provides us with a common sense and free way to avoid injury while working out.

I remember the story many years ago of the great Australian champion athlete, Raylene Boyle, complaining of excruciating pre-period pains each and every month and her entire athletics programme was designed to accommodate the days when she felt she couldn’t run her best. It so happened she had very severe endometriosis, a now common and very debilitating condition suffered by many women around the world.

As a practising Naturopath, one of the most common questions I am asked is "What can I do/eat/take to have more energy?"

That is the million dollar question! Without opening a vast discussion into sleep/diet/stress levels here, I want to apply the KISS principle and Keep It Simple!

One of the major reasons we are so tired, so exhausted and so drained is due to the fact that our mind is constantly switched ON 24/7! It's often flicking through channels/downloading memory and data from thousands of files in our brain. Some of these files will contain all the information to perform well in your job, study for your exams, remember your unanswered e-mails and not forget the kids after school activities.