Griffen Fitness - Newsletter

January newsletter

Greetings healthy people,

Happy New Year!

I hope you have had a happy and healthy festive season and are now well rested and raring to go in 2009. This month’s newsletter has a cerebral focus as it is as important to train your brain as well as your body to take up new healthy habits.

There is an added bonus article at the end of this newsletter, written by Eilidh Macdonald-Harte, the life coach whom I am co-organising WeightShed Boot Camp with…

STOP PRESS – Yesterday Leith FM presenter Rocca and myself were locked out the radio station in the afternoon (don’t ask!), so ‘Healthy Living in Leith’ will be going to air next Monday 12th January at 3pm. Tune to 98.8FM or listen online.

What’s in Season for January

It's good to eat seasonal fruit and vegetables, so here's a list of what's in season locally:
Vegetables: beetroots, all cabbages: red, white and green, celeriac, chicory, kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks, onions, potatoes, spinach and chard.
Fruit: The last of the apples and pears

Easy Recipe: Butter Bean Bake
serves 2

1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 small jar of good quality pasta sauce
1 – 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 small onion, chopped finely
Handful of sundried tomatoes, soaked if required
1 tsp olive oil
Handful of fresh basil, ripped

Serve with:
Brown rice, cooked as per recipe in August 2008 newsletter
Sprinkle of rocket leaves
And a wedge of lemon as garnish

-    Sauté the onion and garlic in a pan with the olive oil until golden.
-    Add the beans and the pasta sauce and stir through, heat through
-    Take off the heat and stir through the sundried tomatoes and most of the basil.
-    Transfer mixture to a casserole dish and cook in a pre heated oven at 200C for 20 – 30 minutes or until bubbling
-    Serve over brown rice and garnish with a sprinkling of rocket and sprig of basil.

Resisting Temptation Hint of the Month: The Power of Positivity

leaping for joy New Year’s is a symbolic time to kick start new healthy habits. The trick to ‘resisting temptation’ is for there not to be a temptation in the first place. In other words, how you look at a ‘temptation’ is crucial to whether you overcome it. For example, you wish to lose weight and cut out eating junk food, so it makes no sense if you ‘hold onto’ previous junk food beliefs. Which do you think is more motivating?

“Chocolate biscuits no longer have a part in my diet, as I would prefer to eat food that is nutritious and good for me”

r “chocolate biscuits make me happy, but I am not allowed to have them”?

Pretty obvious, eh?

So whilst you’re setting out on your new healthy version of yourself, think about the frame of reference you give to ‘temptations’. It could make all the difference!

Read Eilidh’s article at the bottom of this newsletter for more information on how you can use positive imagery to help you on the road to fabulousness.

Try Something Different: Read a Book!

Shopped book cover There are loads and loads of interesting books on healthy living and well being out there. Have a look in the reference section at your local library for inspiration (and lots of cook books!). I especially enjoy reading about where our food comes from, so here are three of my favourites:

- “Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets” Joanna Blythman – An exposé on supermarkets and how they treat their suppliers. Have you ever wondered about the proliferation of ready meals, or why supermarket fruit and veg have no taste? An interesting and insightful exploration on all things supermarkets by a highly regarded journalist.
- “Fast Food Nation” Eric Schlosser – a fascinating insight in to the American fast food industry. Scary.
- “Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate” Felicity Lawrence – I’m currently halfway through this book, but so far I’ve read about how chicken is produced and the scary truth of bagged salads. It’s a bit like ‘Shopped’, but I figure an informed consumer saves dosh and helps their health…

Article of the Month: Just What is Personal Training, exactly?

occasionally get asked what a Personal Trainer does. So here’s justification of my trade. To explain how fitness training has evolved throughout the years, I am going to take you on a bit of personal journey.

My passion for fitness training started at the tender age of 12, when I accompanied my Mum to the local gym in the Adelaide Hills to take part in an aerobics class. Think Jane Fonda and legwarmers - I thought it was brilliant! Back in those days, it was men in the weights room and women in the aerobics studio. It was actually aerobics that got women into gyms in the first place (previously it had been a male domain) but now with the added attraction of women coming to gyms, more men started going and it became a social thing.

Throughout my high school years I was encouraged at athletics by very enthusiastic (and knowledgeable) PE teachers who taught me a variety of training techniques. I was 13 when I first tried interval training, a technique that forms an important part of how I now coach running. I was hooked on running and cycling as a teenager, however I never thought of exercise as a serious vocation. Over the years at University and in consequent office jobs, I had a habit of nipping to the gym at lunch to lively up myself and keep in shape. Not many people I knew back then went to a gym, however I noticed over the 90’s gym membership exploded, both in Australia and here in Edinburgh. Whilst I was engaged in office work in Edinburgh, much of my free time was spent keeping in shape.

I noticed that Personal Trainers were being used not just by professional athletes and the likes of Madonna (her first child was by her Personal Trainer, Carlos Leon, which back then tarred the industry with a sleazy brush), but also ‘mere mortals’. The scope of a Personal Trainer had expanded and I wanted in. And as Western civilization becomes more sedentary, the role of keeping in shape has become even more important. The more I studied exercise, the more I realised that keeping in shape did not necessarily require going to a gym. And if you’re familiar with my training techniques, you know that learning about the human body is key to any good exercise programme.

Below is an explanation of different professions in the fitness industry.

A fitness (or gym) instructor is qualified to deliver an exercise programme from the gym. They may choose to use mainly machines, or free weights (dumbbells, barbells etc). Some fitness instructors chose to move onto further study to become a PT.

Personal Trainers are qualified in nutrition, anatomy and various approaches to exercise (cardio, strength, flexibility). Once a trainer qualifies, it’s in their interest to keep studying, keep learning and keep up to date with the latest technology and approaches.

Aerobics instructors sit an exam called Exercise to Music and then go on to specialise in one or more types of group exercise. (i.e. Step, Aqua, any of the BTS series, spinning). Freestyle aerobics used to be popular (where the instructor makes up the moves), however has been overtaken by BTS / Les Mills, which is a licensed and pre-choreographed class, the instructor now merely delivers someone else’s moves. And has to pay the licensing fee for it. Bah!

Sports coaches specifically coach athletes, and they may call upon the expertise of a PT to focus on a particular aspect of fitness for the team / individual athlete (i.e. power training by improving an athlete’s muscular strength).

BONUS ARTICLE

And Finally… Make 2009 Your Best Year Yet by Eilidh MacDonald Harte
You Can Learn How to Think Differently and Take Action to Achieve Success

jigsaw of life We all know what it takes to get in shape – “eat less and exercise more”. So if it is that easy why do so many of us lose sight of our fitness goals by the end of January? As creatures of habit, we can get distracted by everyday life and be pulled back to how we always do things.
So if this is what happens to you year in year out – your old habits pull you back, then how do you create a new force of habit. It can be easy when you know how, here are some examples to help you.

1.    A goal to be fitter, healthier and slimmer is a dream unless you take action to make it happen.
2.    It takes three weeks of 100% focus on your goal to train your brain begin to like the new healthier habits you are creating.
3.    If you don’t like going to the gym, find an alternative way to exercise, your brain is programmed to seek out pleasure, if you don’t like the gym, your mind power will win and you will soon stop going. Find a form of exercise you like – if you don’t know of one yet, Tracy is an expert in finding the right exercise alternatives for you.
4.    You can learn how to influence your brain power to deliver the results you want. Start with noticing any limiting thoughts “I can’t do this, I am too old, haven’t exercised in years, I never lose weight” Then you can choose to change them. It is easy to create a negative thought and just as easy to create a positive one. Sabotage limiting thoughts like these by creating more empowering counter trains of thought, like “I can do this.” Even if you don’t believe it yet, what have you got to lose? The more you practice this, the more you will notice that you are regaining control of some unconscious habits.

You can try this simple exercise anytime you feel de-motivated or despondent, because let’s face it we all have our moments, how we respond to them is key:

1. Day dream: Play a movie in your mind of you having achieved your goal, make the movie bigger, bolder and brighter, focus on what you love most about it, how you look, how you feel or how delighted you sound and amplify it, and again. Bring the movie closer to you until you step into the movie and really enjoy it.
2 Give your movie an empowering title “I am 2 stone lighter”, “I Kept My Eyes on the Prize and Won” anything that connects you to your goal. Do this every day.
3 Take action: ask yourself “What can I do today to bring me closer to my goal?”
4 Eliminate disempowering words such as I am trying to get fit and slim; trying gives you permission to fail. You are getting fitter and trimmer day by day. Find your own example that propels you towards your goal
5 Combine these techniques and persistently apply them until you notice they have formed your new mental habit to health and fitness.

Above all persist until you succeed.

Enjoy being focused in 2009 and you can learn more about how to train your brain at www.weightshed-bootcamp.com or www.hartelifecoaching.com.

* * * * * * *
Have a happy and healthy January,

:)
Tracy

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January newsletter