Show #35: Living a Zesty Lifestyle with Rachel McGuinness

POWER to Live More with Jo Dodds

Named by her clients as “the zest”, Rachel McGuinness is known to bring back the zest in the lives of the people who turn to her for help so they can feel better, look better, and be better. Her business, Zest Lifestyle, is focused on helping busy people regain their energy, achieve and maintain their weight-loss goals, and feel incredible. She works with individuals, small groups, and organizations either face-to-face or in a remote setting.

On today’s episode, Rachel shares her routine, the tools that help her make the most of her day, and the habits she has formed to live a full life. She also shares several effective ways to eat smart, move more, sleep well, and relax, which are the key concepts that play a significant part in the plans and programs she creates for her customers.

“You can have everything you want, but it’s all about moderation.” - Rachel McGuinness

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This Week on the POWER to Live More Podcast:

• What led Rachel to want to help others feel good and look good
• The Magic Mirror moment that changed her view of herself
• Her daily routine to have a productive day
• Why she turns off her electronic devices 60 to 90 minutes before she sleeps
• Tools and applications that help her be productive
• Understanding how important habits are
• How she determines the dietary plans and programs for her clients
• Learning and improving yourself
• How she deals with a bad day and how she describes a good day

Mentioned Resources:

• Detox Yourself book by Jane Scrivner
• Headspace
• Moleskine notebook
• Trello
• Canva
• Daily Greatness Business Planner
• Passion Planner
• Ultimate Diary Planner by Sophie Jewry
• The Miracle Morning book by Hal Elrod

Connect with Rachel McGuinness:

• Zest Lifestyle Website
• Zestember
• Zest Lifestyle on Facebook
• Zest Lifestyle on Twitter
• Rachel McGuinness on Instagram

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Thank you for joining me for this week’s episode of the POWER ito Live More Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and would likne to help support the show, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher, subscribe to the show and leave your honest review! You can also help me reach even more amazing home-based business owners by sharing your favourite episodes on your social media channels.

Don’t forget to check out my website, join my Facebook Group, follow me on Twitter and connect up with me on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram to interact with me and my amazing audience!

Show notes provided (brilliantly, my words not theirs!) by Lidwell Writing Services, LLC

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Jo Dodds: Today I'm interviewing Rachel McGuinness of Zest Lifestyle. Welcome Rachel thanks for joining me.
Rachel McGuinness: Hello.
Jo Dodds: Really good to have you here. So tell me a bit more about you, what you do, and where you do it.
Rachel McGuinness: Okay. Well I'm otherwise known as the Zest. Okay I put the zest back into people’s lives, so it's all about helping busy people get healthy really. What I mean by that is giving them loads more energy, helping them achieve consistent weight loss, and help them look incredible and feel amazing. I do that by helping them eat smart, move more, sleep well, and chill out. I work with people either face to face, so more than likely in London, or remotely so I can do it by Zoom, Facetime, or Skype. I'll work with individuals or small groups or organisations.
Jo Dodds: Lovely and-
Rachel McGuinness: A variety of different ways of working with people.
Jo Dodds: Do you have a home office?
Rachel McGuinness: I do yes.
Jo Dodds: Oh is it a nice special place for you or do you just sort of work in different places around the house depending?
Rachel McGuinness: No I have my special designated space. So I'm in the attic and I'm in a modern house that doesn't actually have proper attic space so the attic is actually a room. I overlook the Oxfordshire countryside. There's like, no buildings in between me and the [Chilton 00:01:35], so it's great. And right by the town as well.
Jo Dodds: Yeah it sounds really good. So just tell us a bit more about your journey, 'cause I know from checking you out on your website and so on that this wasn't always you, this zesty lifestyle person. So how did you get into doing what you do.
Rachel McGuinness: No. I used to be very un-zesty actually. So I used to be four dress sizes bigger than I am now, so I was about a size 18, which is about 3 1/4 stone. I was very unfit; I smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, and ate like a PAC-MAN. So yeah I was very very unhealthy. And it really ... and all this I blame my upbringing really because my mom was brought up during the war so she always made me eat everything on my plate. I think we're sort of a generation of kids in the 60s that's like eat everything on your plate, you know, there's a war on. But there wasn't one. So I had that drilled into me.
And then I was bullied as a teenager about being overweight, but I don't think I was I think I was just shapely and it was just me developing. I just sort of got into this cycle of dieting, of yo-yo dieting for 22 years. I actually worked out the other day that's 41% of my life.
Jo Dodds: Wow.
Rachel McGuinness: I was on a diet that didn't work, yeah. So ... I was at the age of 37, I was in Barcelona on business, got up one morning in my hotel room on my way to the bathroom, caught my reflection in the mirror and had what I called my "omg moment" where I thought, you know what? I'm three years away from 40, it's time you sorted yourself out. So I did. Got back home to the UK, stopped dieting and started eating healthily, joined a gym, stopped smoking, cut down on my drinking. And just began to see results within about six weeks of, you know, looking better, feeling a lot more energised, more focused and productive, and I was actually working less hours because I was taking time out for me and actually looking after me. So three years later I decided to make a business out of what I know. So here I am 12 and a half years later.
Jo Dodds: So can you pinpoint what that shift was? 'Cause you know I've looked in the mirror quite a few times and thought, "enough's enough," but it hasn't necessarily moved me into a six-week programme of dealing with it. Do you know what it was that had that happen that day?
Rachel McGuinness: I don't know. It's funny I call it this magic mirror. I do not know what it was about that particular mirror, but it was just something that shifted. I think maybe the night before I'd been out on client entertainment so smoking and drinking too much and eating far too much and I just looked dreadful. I just suppose maybe I just got to that point where I just hit rock bottom that I just knew the only way was up. That if I didn't start to sort myself out then I was gonna head for some serious health problems. My mother had had a heart attack at the age of 65 and then she'd been diagnosed with leukaemia. My dad has always had problems with high blood pressure and his father had had a fatal heart attack in his mid-50s. My brother was on statins so I kind of thought, "I really don't want to end up like them," so I thought, you know, I've just got to get myself healthy.
I think actually the other thing was I'd had a book I bought from a book club, which I don't ... do you remember book clubs in like, the 1990s and 1980s.
Jo Dodds: Yes, it explains the pile of books I had in my house for years that I finally managed to get rid of.
Rachel McGuinness: That's right. That we never ever read because we had to buy x amount of books every week and then it moved on to CDs and discs. Well I had this book, and I've still got it actually. It's one of the only book I've got from my book club. It was called "Detox Yourself" from Jane Scrivner. It says "feel the benefits after only seven days," and "banish cellulite." I've just picked it up actually. "Increase your energy levels, boost your immune system, lose weight, and improve your complexion." So I thought, "you know what I think it's about time I read that book." So that's really what I did, I spent 30 days doing this detox programme and kind of never looked back really.
Jo Dodds: Yeah yeah. I think you took it to a bit to the extreme, starting a business out of it and everything.
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah exactly. Well I can't go on about when I'm sort of teaching people about the seven steps to being healthy, and so the last step is all about inspiring others. I think, yeah I did take that a bit too far. And I think what happened was that people kept asking me about my transformation 'cause most of them had seen me overweight for most of my life and then they so me looking rather swell. They kept asking me how I did it, you know? And all the time I was giving out this advice and information and I was having a chat with a friend one day and she said, "well why don't you get paid for all this information you're giving out?" I thought, "you know what? She's absolutely right!" It just felt like the right thing to do. So within a couple of weeks I just found all the courses that I needed to do over a period of 18 months and that was it. I had no fear about it. It was just like, this is it, woman on a mission. And considering I trained as a personal trainer and I hated any kind of fitness before, until I got fit, it was just weird. I thought it was lovely so ...
Jo Dodds: Yeah. Wow.
Rachel McGuinness: Stress management. And then I've done some of the head stuff, so I've done NLP and hypnotherapy.
Jo Dodds: So tell us what a day looks like for you. Are you one of these people who gets up at some ridiculous hour in the morning like my last podcast guest who gets up at four?
Rachel McGuinness: I don't get up, well I don't get up at four at the moment. But actually in the summer I was and it seemed that I needed less sleep and I was just waking up because it was light and I had loads of energy. But since the autumns come then I'm getting up a bit later. So at the moment I get up at six. I am an early bird and I get all my energy in the morning. So that's really my prime-time if you like because I'm not so good working in the evenings.
Jo Dodds: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So do you have a specific routine or is it different depending on what you're up to that day?
Rachel McGuinness: Well it depends whether or not, what I call my London days and I've got to be out early and up into town, or I've got like a networking thing. But most of the time, what I do is I wake up and I stick my headphones on my iPhone and I meditate for 10 minutes. I use an app called Headspace. I've found that is absolutely great. So you're supposed to actually sit in a chair and do it but I don't, I just do it lying down. I can't be bothered to get up for that time.
Then I use a gratitude journal and I'll write my affirmations and the things that I feel grateful for and just do a little bit of day planning as well. Then I'll get up and maybe work for an hour. Then I'll do some exercise, so I'll probably do a 15 minute HIIT workout, and that's high intensity interval training. So I'll just grab one off the internet. So I'll just Google them or I'll do like a, I'm doing a 30 day challenge at the moment, which you get a HIIT workout in your inbox every day. So that just keeps me going.
On Saturday or Sunday I might go out for a run, so I'm getting up to about 10k now so I'll go out for a run. Otherwise, I don't tend to run during the week after it make me tired during the day. Then I'll probably do all my creative stuff in the mornings and sort of do all my sales stuff in the mornings, and then in the afternoons I'll probably do all my client calls.
Jo Dodds: Yep. So what about at the end of the day? Do you have a particular way of winding it down as well?
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah I try to turn off my tech about an hour to 90 minutes before bedtime because there's this whole thing about the blue light from tablets and phones and computer screens can wake you up because you start to secrete the hormone serotonin, which is your waking up hormone. Which disturbs the sleeping hormone melatonin which is supposed to make you sleepy and then go to sleep. So I try to avoid that to make sure that I get an undisturbed nights sleep.
Sometimes I may be working up to 8:00 in the evening if I've got a client call, so there's about two or three times I week that I allow clients to book in that 7:00 slot if they're, you know working in the court for a while and they're not home until, you know that time. But I don't enjoy working in the evening. So I'd probably say about 7:00 is my limit.
Jo Dodds: Yep. Do you sort of shut the office door symbolically or do you just find it easy to stop?
Rachel McGuinness: I suppose-
Jo Dodds: I'm only 'cause I want to info and tips 'cause I'm rubbish at it.
Rachel McGuinness: I suppose I try to avoid going back into ... upstairs to the office. I suppose 'cause it's on a different floor then, you know, I try to sort of shut off that part of my day. But I do find myself sometimes sort of scrolling stuff on my phone or just making a few odd notes. But yeah it is quite difficult to switch off depending on what type of business you've got as well. I mean I think if you're very passionate about what you do, yeah.
Jo Dodds: Yes.
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah that's a tough one. So I think my top tip is to have a tech embargo 90 to 60 minutes before bedtime. 90 minutes before bedtime.
Jo Dodds: Yeah. Yeah yeah. Okay. Lovely. So what about getting things done during the day. How do you actually manage what you do? Do you use any particular tools or apps or pen and paper? That's what everyone seems to say. I'm the tech one, everyone else goes pen and paper.
Rachel McGuinness: I suppose, yeah, my go to notebook is I always have to have a moleskine notebook, or however you pronounce it. It always has to be plain pages. I'm very fussy about my notebook. I do prefer a soft cover as well. So that's my thing-
Jo Dodds: You're not fussy or anything.
Rachel McGuinness: It's what works for me. Kind of to-do lists, I'll go between my moleskine and I'll also use Trello. I love Trello. It's like a project planner but you can use it for all sorts of different things. I can use it for giving clients information, I can use it for my to-do list, I've got my vision board on it. It's just got numerous things that you can do with it. And what's great about it is you can have it on your phone, your tablet, or you just look at it online. So Trello is my thing. I love Canva, I don't know what I did without Canvas.
Jo Dodds: No neither do I, no exactly.
Rachel McGuinness: I mean, I used to still struggle along in Photoshop elements and it was still so clunky and difficult to use and took ages to load up. But Canvas I think has just revolutionised everybody's work. You know, it like an online desktop publisher, isn't it?
Jo Dodds: Yeah.
Rachel McGuinness: So Canva is another one. And then with regards to, sort of business planners, I was using the Dailygreatness business planner but I kind of fell a bit out of love with it sort of halfway through the year. I'm now onto a Passion Planner, which is something ... it sounds a bit rude doesn't it. My passion, planning my passion. So you can get Passion Planners from the States and you can get them in A5 size or, sort of, I suppose it's kind of A4 size. Yes this is about A4 size. That's quite good for Americans. So you can plan your week and you can be quite creative with the way you sort of add the stuff it. It is basically a diary with a few extra bits in it. You know you have a thing at the end of the month about how your month was, how it's been and how it fits in with your plans for the year and stuff like that.
So I've given this a bit of a road test because I can get it for $10. I quite like so I'm going to get one for 2017.
Jo Dodds: The other one to have a think about is I don't know if you've listened to any of the other podcasts, but Sophie Jewry, and I don't know what number she was on. J E W R Y. She has the ultimate diary planner that she actually puts together herself every year and has a very thriving Facebook group where she gets feedback and ideas and thoughts from people. So she adapts every year based on what people are looking for.
She's just done a kickstarter, which is really interesting on something called the M notebook, the Minerva notebook. Which she actually, she got funded and it was really exciting watching 'cause like, right up to the last 24 hours she was only about to 60 or 70% funding up to the £10,000 that she needed. I thought, "there's no way she's gonna do it." And I just thought good on her that she's carried on, she's going for it and she's, you know she's doing everything that she planned to do and more to get it. But I thought, "there's no way it's gonna happen." And I knew if it had been me I would have stopped, 'cause I'd have been embarrassed. But she actually pushed it through and she got through and ended up with 600 and odd pounds more than she needed, and she was done something like three hours before the deadline. Amazing to see. But she's definitely worth checking out.
Rachel McGuinness: Oh I'll check that one out. Yeah 'cause it's a bit of a pain having to import stuff from the States, plus I have to pay duty on it as well. The Passion Planner was actually funded by a kickstarter, or crowd funding. So that's really interesting.
Another app that I'm using, I've just been trying to get back into using a CRM again and finding one that works for me. I was just road testing a few over the past, I think the Sunday before last I will talk about and I spent Sunday afternoon just going through different CRMs and seeing which one works for me. Yeah. Think joy. I've actually discovered that Capsule might be the one that works for me and does what I want it to do. I didn't want anything too complicated, but I wanted something where I could change the field and add different things that were relevant to my business so it was, kind of just this general thing.
Jo Dodds: Yeah I was waiting with bated breath 'cause I too have had one of those days where I've tried so many. I must be registered on so many CRM systems websites where I've gone in to try them I've used Capsule on and off for years and I keep coming back to it. I haven't found anything that's better and if you start to customise it with some of the, I think they call them tracks don't they, and something else. I used to do it where if I had a speaking gig I'd put in a speaking track and it would automatically create a load of tasks for me to do to plan for the speaking. And then they would automatically get put into my to-do list, which is what I use for my to-do list through, I think I use Zapier or it could be IFTTT. Which all sounds very impressive despite the fact that I never do any of it until the last minute, as usual. So I've stopped using that. I feel naughty now-
Rachel McGuinness: I know.
Jo Dodds: All these tasks that I didn't actually do pretending I was being organised.
Rachel McGuinness: 'Cause I'm trying to keep track of leaves and everything like that, but I tried using it on Trello and it didn't kind of work for me. A lot of people recommended HubSpot. When it came to actually sitting down and trying to work it out, I just couldn't get my head around HubSpot. I suppose it just depends really how your brain works and ... but the only thing with HubSpot which I still can't get out of my mind every time I send an e-mail, is that it's got this plug-in that works on Outlook and as soon as you have a new contact it says, "do you want to add this to HubSpot?" It's just a cool idea so I wish Capsule would do that.
Jo Dodds: Yes that would make it easier wouldn't it?
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah you need a CRM that does everything you want it to do.
Jo Dodds: Exactly. I'm sure there is one out there, or that's what all the sales people say anyway.
It's interesting that thing about finding what suits you, I mean that's a message that I sort of use quite a lot and I think it's so true. I've also got an account with Trello because a lot of people have recommended it and I've read about it a lot over the years. But I knew I probably wasn't gonna like it very much and I didn't particularly and I know why. It's because I'm a very linear person, so I've never really got my head around mind-maps although I can do them and I know why they're really useful for lots of people. I actually remember lists rather than, you know, the visual picture sort of stuff. Which is weird, 'cause that's not supposed to be how it is. So I just knew that Trello, being quite visual and boards wasn't necessarily gonna work. So I use Asana, which for me is, you know, very linear which is exactly what suits me. So it's interesting isn't it? About finding the stuff that really fits with your personality and the stuff that you know works for you.
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah. It's quite funny 'cause I tried using Trello I think it was last year, just couldn't get on with it at all. And then I think I was on some webinar training thing and somebody kept talking about Trello and I thought, "well I'll give it another go." Trello and I have not looked back. I just use it for everything, including planning my holidays. Yeah. It's just everything. My whole world is Trello.
Jo Dodds: Yeah yeah. Lovely. Lovely. So is that all your tools and apps done? Should we move on?
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah, the two. Yeah.
Jo Dodds: Lovely. So let's go to your neck of the woods, let's talk about health. You talked at the beginning about I think four areas which fitted entirely again with the sorts of things I talk about when I talk about health. I don't talk in lots of detail about it but I think you were talking about nutrition, exercise, sleep, and ... no you said movement didn't you. So nutrition, movement, sleep, and what I call mindfulness, but you were talking about something similar that made me think about that. So it's interesting, those four things. What, how did you describe it?
Rachel McGuinness: Yes so it's eat smart, move more, sleep well, and chill out.
Jo Dodds: That's it, chill out. Yeah exactly. So yes, so tell us more about what you do to make sure all those things are happening for you.
Rachel McGuinness: Okay, oh well I suppose I have to walk my talk.
Jo Dodds: I was thinking that. No pressure.
Rachel McGuinness: No it's actually what keeps me slim now. No I'll over eat, but ... I mean my whole approach to health is the 80 20 rule. So if you're fit and healthy then you can maintain and you can indulge. So I'm not a person that's like, you've got to eat clean 24/7 365 days a year. I don't want to deprive people and I don't want to deprive myself either. So I believe in treating myself and respecting food. But I do find that if I do eat unhealthily for a prolonged amount of time I do feel it. And I think it's understanding what food does to your body. So I ... Probably Monday to Friday ... what's going on in the week, so it may go a bit haywire one day. And then on the weekend I tend to relax the rules and just enjoy myself. I do drink alcohol, but obviously I don't still drink huge amounts. It's just keeping everything in balance really, and you can have anything you want but it's all about moderation. So that's really my eating side of things.
I tend to base my meals around protein rather than carbohydrates. I do eat a low-carb diet, but I do eat meat, so I do eat animal fat. So I eat cheese, fish, pulses, eggs, not so keen on tofu, so you know I have a wide variety of proteins. Then lots of vegetables and then fruit I probably have no more than probably three pieces of fruit a day because of the sugar. That really suits my body and I follow a programme called Metabolic Balance which is what I actually do as a programme for my clients.
Then moving more, I mentioned earlier the 15 minute workouts. I'm a huge fan of HIIT workouts, high intensity interval training or tabata because you can just get so much, you can achieve so much in 7, 10, or 15 minutes. I found since I've been doing HIIT workouts I've actually become leaner and stronger as a result. So instead of spending hours in the gym doing weights and three sets of twenty repetitions of bicep curls or whatever, just doing short bursts of exercise in 20 seconds with a 10 second rest is really what works for me. They're usually in four minute cycles. As I mentioned before, I'll download those off the internet. Like on YouTube.
Jo Dodds: So you get that variety.
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah and there's like loads of them out there. And actually what I do for my client's is I put them all onto a Trello board which is called my "move more" board. So again, I'm just sharing what I do with my clients.
With regard to sleep, I have an alarm on my phone which goes off at 9:00 every evening to remind me to start to get ready to ... to start to go to bed. Once you've tidied up the kitchen, fed the cats, done your [blush 00:23:49] and spending, you're in bed by about sort of like quarter to nine, 10:00. Then I may read until half 10 or it may sometimes be 11:00 just depending on how awake I am. And then wake up at six and try and just chill out and not read anything too simulating before bed time. That's what's gonna ... don't read a Scandi thriller. It's usually some light fiction or some chick lit or, you know, something like that.
Jo Dodds: So something not one of those business books that suddenly gets your brain into overdrive overnight.
Rachel McGuinness: Oh no. I used to read business books and then I decided it wasn't really such a good idea. I need to just switch off.
Jo Dodds: I just read the boring one that will send me to sleep.
Rachel McGuinness: Or if you're reading the same page over and over again.
With regards to chilling out, I love getting outside because, you know, I live in a really beautiful area of the countryside in South Oxfordshire so I'll sort of walk to the Thames. I suppose has actually been great this year that I got into my running for various reasons and I've just been watching spring evolve and develop, you know. I've been up close and personal with spring. I've been studying the hedgerows and as soon as there was something new that had sort of come out then I'd take a photograph of it. If anybody who's listening is a friend of mine of Facebook you will have seen lots of pictures of flowers and also slugs and snails because they're like the easiest animals to photograph. I'm quite fascinated by slugs actually. On an iPhone 6 you can get quite good photographs of them. Yeah so I have a collection of slug photographs and snails. Yeah I know that weird, it's a weird hobby.
Jo Dodds: The slug bit yeah. I do take lots of photos when I'm out but not slugs. I will see what I can find.
Rachel McGuinness: Yes so there's lots of slugs in Oxfordshire. What else do I do? I like to listen to music, sort of chill out. And I like eating, so that's my whole thing that I do is my indulging and my treat as well. So I do actually really respect food so when do I go out and eat I enjoy it. I don't feel guilty around food. I mean I used to. So we've got some really great restaurants around this area and we've got some great farm shops as well. So it's lovely to just go out and explore all these places and sort of find some like, new different foods or a different supplier of food so we've got some great delis as well around here.
Another thing I like to do to sort of chill out is cooking and then colouring. This whole thing, the adult colouring books. So I'm quite happy with mine. I did start off, this is going to sound like really weird. I did start off with crayons, pencil crayons and didn't get on with those. I've Staedtler felt tips.
Jo Dodds: I love the way you say I'm going to sound really weird. You've just told us you take pictures of slugs, I don't think it gets any weirder than that.
Rachel McGuinness: I know.
Jo Dodds: Oh I'm still on pencils. I'm not old enough for felt tips yet.
Rachel McGuinness: You might advance into that class. I found it a bit frustrating with pencils and had to keep sharpening them. There's nothing like a Staedtler felt tip.
Jo Dodds: Yeah.
Rachel McGuinness: So I suppose that's it. I read. Obviously I read business books and I listen Audible on business books as well, or business books on Audible. Then yeah, just different types of fiction that I'll just read. It depends when I'm reading it, you know, what time of day and what kind of really takes my fancy really. Yeah.
Jo Dodds: So how do you fit all that in? 'Cause it sounds like a very busy life. I can hear some people listening to this thinking, "yeah right. How am I ever gonna do any of that."
Rachel McGuinness: Well I suppose really the whole thing with my morning ritual, and that actually comes from a book called The Miracle Morning. What is really weird, somebody said to me, "oh you should read this book called The Miracle Morning," and I went to buy it and Amazon came out and said you've already purchased this book. I didn't realise that I already had it on my Kindle. And it's about this guy who has this ritual every morning and it's based on an acronym called SAVERS. S A V E R S. And S is for silence, so meditation, but I'll only do 10 minutes of meditation, that's it. No more. Then by the time I've done my journal and stuff that's probably about 10, 15 minutes. Done exercise, that's only anything between 7 to 15 minutes. So really that kind of, the first part of my sort of ritual done. Then all the other stuff I sort of fit in as and when. I suppose I can colour in when I'm half watching tele, you know if it's a programme my husband's watching that I'm not particularly interested in that I can switch off and go into felt tip mode and I'm quite happy. I suppose it sounds a lot, but it isn't really. I do have time to work and fit clients in and work on business development.
Jo Dodds: I think it's also just that focus isn't it? Understanding how important it is to do those things and making sure it happens. That's certainly where I come from with it, which is that yes, sometimes it's hard to fit everything in but at least having the intention with some of those things and doing some things some time during the week, you know, is good, isn't it?
So you reminded me, when you talked about metabolic balance, when we were talking about before we came on as to how I'd come across you. I remember now that one of our previous guests, Lucy Whittington had talked about you about the metabolic balance. And I kept thinking, I must check out what that means. So what does it mean? Just give us the short version.
Rachel McGuinness: Okay. It's something I do under licence and it's actually Germany's number one weight management programme. So what they call weight management is to either maintain weight, lose weight, or you can use it to put on weight. So it's a really clever nutritional programme. And it will also help with health issues as well. So things like endocrine, so hormonal problems, digestive issues, people who have maybe been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
What it does, or what we have to do is we have to take people's blood. That makes me sound like a vampire now. I don't personally take the blood. People go for a blood test. So it's not eat right for your blood type, it's far more sophisticated than that. Then we get a full blood profile based on people's haematology, that's all to do with their red and white cells, platelets, everything to do with their blood. And then the biochemistry, so that's all the chemicals in your blood anything from cholesterol, uric acid, potassium, phosphates, did I say cholesterol, your information markers, all sorts of things like that. Then we also look at endocrine, which will be your thyroid so we'll do your free stimulating hormone and your TSH, which is your thyroid stimulating hormone. So from all this information it will build up a picture of what the client's body is like, and then also we do a medical questionnaire as well. So we asked people if they have any health issues.
All that information I put into a programme for metabolic balance, and then all that information goes through 740 different algorithms to create a personalised nutrition plan for the client. Every plan is slightly different. It's really interesting. They'll get a list of healthy proteins, so you know some of the ones in the categories I've talked about before: meat, fish, eggs, poultry, seafood, pulses, maybe tofu, cheeses, non-dairy and dairy, vegetables and fruit, and a little bit of carbohydrates. People basically follow that programme and depending on what their goal is, whether or not they want to lose weight, they will lose weight. And it's like the healthiest way to lose weight. Or they'll put weight on, or maybe it will eliminate some of their health issues.
So I had a lady who had migraines or bad headaches for years. Within four days of being on the programme they'd gone.
Jo Dodds: Wow.
Rachel McGuinness: Unbelievable, yeah. But mostly people see me for weight loss. And it's one of those things that it becomes a part of your lifestyle so it's not a diet that you just do. 'Cause most people will work with me for 90 days. You don't just do it and then come off it. So it's a lifestyle change. Yeah Olivia's great, she's really embraced it so has her husband.
Jo Dodds: Yep yep. Lovely. Well yes that's to say I'm sure you had a mention on that podcast so now we've got the detail as well, so that's great.
Rachel McGuinness: Straight from the horse's mouth.
Jo Dodds: Exactly, exactly. Lovely. So what about learning and improving yourself? You've talked about listening to books, reading books and so on and so I'm sure you've got some examples of things. And clearly you've studied a lot since you started your business, so in common with most of my, well probably all of my guests, you clearly are looking to improve yourself on an ongoing basis. So what sort of things are you doing for that?
Rachel McGuinness: Yeah so I've just done a course on the psychology of eating so that was very interesting. So dealing more with the head stuff around the psychology of, you know, what makes people binge eat. That was really interesting. I do love a good TED or TEDx talk. I'm always looking for new ones to watch and listen to. And then it's just really picking up all the latest stuff on Audible. Yeah, I mean I'm doing refresher courses with metabolic balance. I just sort of keep up to date with ... I suppose I've got two nutrition programmes. So I've got metabolic balance which is something you have to kind of stick to 100% and then I've got my own programme called Eat Smart which is all ... a looser version of metabolic balance where you don't get blood tests or stuff like that. But I'm always interested in nutrition so I'm always following all the sort of top gurus if you like. More than often they're in the States. So Dr. Mark Hymen, Josh Ack, a woman whose name I've forgotten. Somebody called Daria Pinot Rose. I'm always looking at what those people are doing and the latest information on what they're coming up with with regard to the latest research in health.
Jo Dodds: Yeah yeah yeah. Lovely. Okay so I do usually ask about any books, films, or music that you recommend. You have sort of touched on the fact that you do quite a lot of reading, is there anything you particularly want to put out there?
Rachel McGuinness: Gosh there's just so much stuff out there.
Jo Dodds: It's not compulsory.
Rachel McGuinness: I know, I think it's, are there any favourites? I don't know really. But I suppose I've always enjoyed Tony Robbins. Love him or hate him and I have done his "Unleash the Power Within" three times. I've walked across the hot coals. So do quite like his stuff.
And then music wise I do like chill out music. So I kind of like the [Abetus 00:35:35] chill stuff. I think that stuff never dates and it's just really nice calming type music also meditation type music.
And then in terms of films, I do have a favourite. There's something called "The Legend of Bagger Vance" and it was about a golfer and I think it's one of those inspirational stories. A guy went off to World War I and used to be a top golfer and then he had suffered from shell shock. And then he was asked to play in this golf tournament and he had to sort of coached by this guy to sort of get him back up on form again. So it's kind of one of those nice stories. I just remember the music from the film was really good as well.
There's another movie I've just seen recently and this applies to my passion on food and wine. It's a film called "Bottle Shock." It had Alan Rickman in it and it's about something called the judgement of Paris where this British wine merchant who was working in Paris wanted to sort of shake up the French wine industry and do a blind tasting of really good Californian wines and see whether or not people could tell the difference. He invited all these journalists and restaurateurs and top wine buffs and they did this wine tasting, or blind tasting of the Californian and French wines and they actually preferred the Californian ones, which is really funny. I'm not a huge lover of French wine, I much prefer Californian or South African or Australian or New Zealand. So that was a really good film because it was just one of those things that kind of just, it was proving a point. So yeah that was sort of a recent film. But yeah, a lot of dance music. I'm sorry?
Jo Dodds: And it had Alan Rickman in it. What more could you want?
Rachel McGuinness: Yes, God bless his soul. Yes exactly. Of course, I love The Sound of Music as well. It's inspirational but it's just fun. I sing along to it.
Jo Dodds: I'll keep thinking I must show that to little Dotty, I don't think she's seen that yet. I keep thinking we should go to one of those sing-along versions but ...
Rachel McGuinness: I've always fancied going to one of those dressed up as a nun. No actually I think, I've got a dirndl, I'll wear my dirndl.
Jo Dodds: Yeah. With those like, twirly ear things, you know the plaits that I don't have any hair for. That sort of thing. Yeah, exactly. Twirly ear things, I think that is what they're called, those plaits. Twirly ear things. Princess Leia had twirly ear things as well.
Rachel McGuinness: Yes but they were different.
Jo Dodds: So you are the connoisseur of twirly ear things; you know the difference.
So turning the tone down a bit now, what about on days when things don't go right, when you've had a really bad day, what do you do? How do you deal with it?
Rachel McGuinness: Turn left. I can't remember who told me that. When things don't go right, turn left. I think one of the things I've learned is breathe and walk away and just shift, shift your energy and just kind of work out whether or not it's worth wasting energy on, you know, trying to solve that problem. Or do you just walk away from it? Or do I just wait a bit and then work out how to go around the problem. So I think that's really what I do.
Jo Dodds: That reminds me of going on a bear hunt. Can't go around it, got to go through it. Or whatever, one of those anyway. Okay what about on a day when you end the day knowing that you've had that chance to live more? I always talk about that being the day where you've done the stuff that you really want to do, not the stuff that you feel like you should do or you had to have done. What does that look like? What will you have done?
Rachel McGuinness: I'll do two versions. I'll do a potential version and a professional version. So on a day where you kind of just being with people you love being with, or what I call my tribe, so and you've done some great experience together and you've had a lot of fun. It may have involved food and wine, but it's like a real community feel that, it's a day that you never ever want to have end.
And then I suppose on a professional day then it would be that, you know, I've been totally and utterly in the zone. I've probably achieved everything that I wanted to achieve and probably picked up a few clients as well. So that always makes me happy. So it's one of those days where everything just goes right, just clicks.
Jo Dodds: Lovely. So that's the end of the interview. How can people find more about you and connect with you? Oh and I'll tell you what you should do is tell them, although this will all be way past September or the other one, so you ought to tell them about that too for next time.
Rachel McGuinness: Okay, yes. If you're listening next year, yeah I started something called Zestember in September and it's a health awareness challenge. It's all about inspiring people to invest a little bit of time in their health every day. This year it was based on 28 tips, so what I did was I had like a launch day and then I had a celebration day at the end. So it was like the start of September launch day, end of September would be celebration day. Then that left me out with 28 days to play with. So I zoned each week into a sleep well week, a move more week, a eat smart ... Each week had seven tips for people to follow. And they can still go to the website to download the 28 tips. Because I maintain your health is for life and not for Zestember.
Jo Dodds: Good point, good point.
Rachel McGuinness: See where I stole that from. But yeah so it's 28 sort of useful tips. It's free of charge for people to download and I'll probably be keeping the site up for a little bit. So that's zestember.org.uk so that's the free 30 day health challenge. But my real business website is zestlifstyle.com. That's Z E S T and then lifestyle.com. And you can download a free guide there called "The 9 things that you think are healthy but pile on the pounds." So you can get your hands on that. Otherwise you can follow Zest Lifestyle on Facebook and on Twitter at Zest Lifestyle. And then on Instagram I'm Zesty Lady. And LinkedIn I'm Rachel McGuinness. Then if you want to friend me on Facebook it's just Rachel McGuinness.
Jo Dodds: Excellent so I defy anyone to not be able to connect with you now.
Rachel McGuinness: Exactly. I'm everywhere.
Jo Dodds: Lovely. Well thank you so much. Really enjoyed speaking to you and talking particularly about your specialism as well. We don't always get the health experts on here. And thanks for sharing all the tips and the tools and the apps that you shared with us.
Rachel McGuinness: Thank you so much. Been a pleasure.

The post Show #35: Living a Zesty Lifestyle with Rachel McGuinness appeared first on Use your POWER to Live More.

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