Griffen Fitness - Newsletter

March newsletter

Hello healthy people,

Sometimes the one of the good things about going on holiday is coming back. Upon our return after three weeks away, I've noticed the days are longer and less bleak… Spring must be just around the corner. It's time to come out of hibernation and shed your winter layers. Almost.

Bazaar

If you pick up a copy of this month's Harper's Bazaar magazine, you will find yours truly included on page 344 as "Six of the Best: Body Trainers" – what an honour!

As an official supporter of the Great Scottish Walk, I have also been asked to create a general training programme for participants on the Walk. This should be on the www.greatscottishwalk.com website by the end of February.

Next Wednesday sees the return of DIY Fitness at Iglu studio. There is one space remaining for the 6pm timeslot, so please let me know ASAP if you are interested. See more information at www.tracygriffen.com/diy_fitness.html

This month's article is about maintaining your Range of Motion. It was interesting to note that when we visited Kowloon Park one morning in Hong Kong, there were a number of older folk wandering about swinging their arms about and doing Tai Chi. One bloke even had a sword! They were effectively working on maintaining their Range of Motion, a concept than is more familiar in the East than the West. Read on…

What's in Season for February / March

It's good to eat seasonal fruit and vegetables, so here's a list of what's in season locally:

Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac, chicory, forced rhubarb, leeks, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, parsnip, purple sprouting broccoli, shallots, squash.

Easy Recipe: Warm Roast Vegetable Salad

I missed my kitchen when I was away, and one of the first things I did upon my return was play about with this wonderful recipe that Denise in Sydney passed on.

Serves 4, or 2 for dinner and leftovers for lunch (serve at room temperature, so no need to refrigerate it when you get into the office).

1 –2 beetroots
3 potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
½ butternut squash (optional)
olive oil
sea salt

3 – 6 garlic cloves
5 shallots / small onion or 5 spring onions
1 cob corn, corn cut off or 3 Tab tinned corn
1 red pepper
1 – 2 courgettes

block of feta
handful olives
packet of rocket

This recipe is a great time saver, as there are four simple steps each of 10 minutes, so you can 'cut as you go'. Be sure to keep a check on the roasting in between steps to prevent burning…

Start by preheating your oven to 200 degrees C.
Then peel and chop the beetroot and potatoes into 1cm cubes.
Toss into a roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil and a little sprinkle of sea salt. Set your kitchen timer for 10 minutes and pop into the oven. You may wish to keep the beetroot segregated from the potato at this stage, as it will make the potato purple!
Over the next 10 minutes, peel and chop your sweet potato and butternut squash into similar sized cubes. If you don't have squash handy, you can simply add more sweet potatoes. When the kitchen timer goes, add them to the roasting tray, then set the timer for a further 10 minutes.
In the meantime, peel and cut your garlic cloves into halves, red pepper into 1cm wide strips and courgette (or two) into 5cm long batons. When the timer goes off, add them to the tray and give it a good toss. You may need to add a little extra olive oil at this point to prevent sticking.
Cook for another ten minutes, keeping an eye on it and tossing when required. In this time, cube the feta, prepare the olives and rinse the rocket.
Remove tray from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
Add feta, olives and rocket and combine. Serve and eat immediately.

Fad or Fab: Sweat suits
Otherwise known as sauna suits, these vinyl or plastic suits are meant to encourage sweating whilst you work out. Ick! The websites that sell these overpriced plastic suits promise that the thermogenic effect (i.e. temperature raising) effect will boost your metabolism. Sadly for anyone who has bought one, this is not true.

Sweat suits make you lose sweat, yes, this is true. So the weight you lose is actually water and salts (i.e. you become dehydrated). Not a state to be in when you exercise. The most common use for these is in amateur boxing where a boxer may try to make a lighter weight category or get used to being dehydrated during a fight. But even in these instances they are not recommended, as the boxer starts the fight dehydrated and therefore disadvantaged. Looks like a bin liner, belongs in a bin!

Resisting Temptation: Get fruity!

Buy yourself a nice fruit bowl and make it a centrepiece of your kitchen table. Each weekend, fill it with your favourite fruit and every morning grab a few pieces to take to work. Buy a variety of fruit, including avocados (which need usually need home ripening anyway), and make sure that the fruit bowl is your first stop in the kitchen for a snack. Seedless grapes are a fab snack if you feel like picking on something. If you find some of your fruit over ripening, use it in a smoothie. Even better, eat all the fruit before it goes mouldy.

At the moment in Australia there is a literal explosion of juice bars. You can buy your vegetable, fruit or wheat grass juices pretty much anywhere, and it's a healthy takeaway option. There's one chain called Boost who can be found in nearly every shopping arcade, airport and tourist attraction. I predict that's the next big thing here… In auld reekie we have Juiced Up! (Hanover street, Bruntsfield and Ocean Terminal) who make world-class juices. Imagine if one day we had a juice shop on every corner – fruity heaven!

Spotlight on Aloe: Bits 'n Peaches aloe bottle

Drinking aloe can have numerous health benefits. However some people are put off by it's rather distinctive 'cactus' taste. You do get used to it! However sometimes I like to alternate my straight aloe with this product, Bits' N' Peaches. As it sounds, it has a peachy flavour and is easier to drink first thing in the morning. I attribute my resistance to colds down to drinking aloe every day, so the easier to drink it is, the happier I am in the morning. Please let me know if you'd like to try drinking aloe.

Article of The Month

Your Range of Motion: Use it or lose it!

Have ever experienced the feeling of 'stiffening up' when you have been sitting still for an extended time? Range of Motion (ROM) is a measurement of how flexible each joint is (i.e. the range that the joint can move in). It's a term used by weightlifters, physios and other such folk but it plays an important part in your everyday life.

Some people believe that exercising is only for those wanting to lose weight. Not so! Taking your body through a whole range of movement everyday is crucial for keeping joint flexibility and ease of movement generally. Some of the signs of ageing, for example stooping, can be addressed with regular exercising.

In modern times we are largely sedentary. Stop and think about your day for a minute. How much time do you spend sitting down, or standing still (for those in retail!)? As humans have evolved we have got very good at doing things with the least amount of effort possible. In other words our intelligence and the evolution of technology have made it possible to exist with very little physical exertion. Gone are the days of scrubbing, washing by hand, beating rugs, walking to the grocery store and lugging heavy bags. Work nowadays tends to be more cerebral and less physical. Which is why we need to take time out to take our bodies through a range of movements. By taking a joint through all the directions possible, you ensure that the joint has the necessary length of tendons and ligaments (the bits that hold your joints together) to cope with all movements necessary.

Try this experiment, sitting on a chair, lift one leg slightly and draw a circle with the tip of your foot. Your knee and shin should stay still and the only thing moving is your toes and foot as if you were drawing a circle with your big toe. Now notice, is that 'circle' really circular? How much ROM do you have in your ankle? Practising every day will ensure that your ankles stay flexible, and able to deal with slips and trips.

By exercising regularly, not only will you feel more flexible and limber, but also less prone to injury, which is good news for every single body!

Enjoy!

:)
Tracy

Tracy

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Contents

March newsletter

What's in Season for February / March