Melbourne Boot Camp

Very funny quote from Katina K about about the exercises being performed, “Rookie mistake” Don’t say you like the exercise, otherwise Andrew will change the exercise quick smart.

The underlining point is when an exercise is perceived as being enjoyable or the person likes that particular exercise in a boot camp environment, it’s probably too easy and the level of exertion is too low. I prefer Katina’s usual gauge regarding the effectiveness of the exercise by whether the f word is expressed repeatedly:))

Ultimately there is always a little bit of discomfort when you are pushing and exerting yourself, of course this is always within your limits.

Unfortunately a lot of people sustain injuries by engaging in a particular exercise when there are signs that things are not quite right, sore knees, hips, joint pain etc that indicate maybe an expert opinion should be sourced rather than the old adage that “No Pain, No gain”.

Alternatively we have to know our limits and not burn ourselves out through excessive exercise either.

But with Katina’s funny comment, all I can say is there will be more burpees:))
P.S I have never heard a Fitmate at Boot camp say that the “like” burpees

Well with Spring now in the air, some regular riders are returning after their winter hibernation. Actually if was yesterday morning at our local cafe (part of the whole cycling culture thing) when I caught up with a few mates I haven’t seen since May this year.

The first thing they commented on before I could even say “hello” was about how they had stacked on 10-15kgs over winter.

Well there is one thing about lycra, it doesn’t hide even the smallest ounce of fat so that extra 10 – 15kgs gives you a side profile like, mmm, like Homer Simpson.

Fortunately for these guys, the 10 – 15kgs will disappear in 6 -8 weeks or less and their lean body mass will return.

I would consider these guys amateur athletes, riding 450-550kms per week, doing specific training programs and racing A grade at the cycling club level.

Well out came the reasons why these wasn’t much riding over winter, work was busy, had heaps of stuff on yet over the summer period the work commitments subside and all the other things that restrict training time disappear, very strange.

It’s all about consistency and maintaining a healthy weight range on a weekly rather than seasonal level.

While I cheekily suggested to take a profile shot so we can compare there bellies in 3 months time, there was a serious note to all of this.

Apart from maintaining consistency with any exercise program, it’s equally important to watch the size of your waist circumference as there is a direct link between cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes by having a girth over 100cm for men and 90cm for women.

While these guys will typically burn anywhere from 1000 – 1500 calories during a training session, the health risks cannot be over looked.

Victorians throw away 700,000 tonnes of food waste every year, why not try to reduce your impact on landfill while saving yourself money.
With a little bit of planning and having strategies in place, you can stretch your $ a little further while reducing your environmental footprint.

1.Turn excess fruit into jams & preserves.
Buy fruit that’s in season and quite often you can turn that pile of unwanted peaches into a yummy jam. Better still help reduce the waste from the local green grocer or fruit and vegie shop by buying all that manky fruit that looks unappealing but is great for making jams. The great thing is you can often get the fruit a lot cheaper as well.

2.Make a cake, with the recent glut of banana’s due to the favourable ripening weather conditions, why not make a banana cake with any left over bananas. As they tend to ripen extremely quickly you may suddenly have a pile of very sad looking bananas so start baking today for a yummy treat.

3.Any left over vegetables can be made into a casserole or soup just keep some legumes in the pantry for a yummy meal that only costs a few dollars per serve, why not try a beef and lentil casserole, just add all your left over vegies.

Back in the early days of submarines, there was fresh fruit and vegies that quickly deteriorated. To ensure that there was no wastage everything was cooked, even though it may have looked very unappealing.

4.Use any fruit and vegies that cannot be recovered by making soups, jams, conserves or casseroles by adding them to the compost bin.

Think about permaculture where everything is recycled back into the system. The great thing is fruit and vegies make great compost and the worms will love it:))

Current Food labelling is misleading consumers with confusing information for the average person. By using a myriad of information, the product can appear to be healthy and within acceptable limits when in fact it is giving a different perception.

Research has shown that people do not fully understand what DI or daily intake represents or what a serving size should be based on there height or body weight.

Uncle Toby’s bars appear to be healthy with low levels of sugar when compared to the daily intake but contain a whopping 28.2% sugar based 28.2gms per 100gms.

By focusing on the serving size of 31.3gms, the sugar contained can be manipulated to appear low at 8.8gms or 10% of DI, rather than the true figure of 28.2gm/100gms.

Also using percentages captivates your interest. 20% of your daily wholegrain target, which is great if you’re not worried about consuming high levels of sugar (28.2%) and fat (17.3%) or more importantly 9.4% saturated fat, the stuff we should be avoiding.

Well to me a product that contains (8.8 grams/31.3grams) or 28% sugar is confectionery, so a 53 grams Mars bar has 31 grams of sugar so 2 Uncle Toby bars has 17.6 grams of sugar, only half that of a equivalent Mars bar.

It is interesting that the lines can be blurred when it comes to the language used to sell the product, things like “Goodness for greatness’.

I’m not sure what that you would consider vegetable fat, glucose, sugar, emulsifier (Soy Lecithin) & preservative 220 as being good for you, Goodness implies healthy which sounds a bit strange given this ingredients listing.

The BIG picture of the dripping stick of honey & an image of almonds implies that “Honey” and “almonds” constitutes a significant proportion of the ingredient listing, rather than a meagre 1% each.

A better system would be using the “Traffic light” system which has been introduced by the City Of Melbourne, which would mean that the Uncle Toby bars would be given a red for sugar & saturated fats, orange for general fats and green for salt.

This new video from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) highlights the relationship between the consumption of fast foods and high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart attacks. Look at films like supersize me that are still being referenced about the effects of sustained burger, fries and coke consumption on the body.

While any discussion about McDonalds good or bad does reinforce their brands position as a takeaway food delivery system, it does slowly bring some consciousness to the effects about eating a diet high in fats, sugar and salt.

While McDonalds does have healthy meal options (whether this is healthy is another discussion), most of their in store menu real estate is devoted to fries, burgers, chicken and coke.

I know in Australia that the freeway overpasses have billboards about getting $1.95 burger, I’m still yet to see a billboard that says by an apple for breakfast and get one free.

Whether this has any effect is debatable given Jamie Oliver’s recent documentary into the diets of American children. The carcass of a chicken including bones and other parts of the chicken (apart from the flesh) were blended up and shown to kids, they quickly forgot about the blended chicken bones once it was pressed into a nugget, deep fried and served on a plate.

Like any diet it’s about moderation and the occasional consumption of fast food is ok but this has to be tempered with some guidance, substituting a cooked home meal with burgers, chicken and pizza will not be great in controlling the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

This all occurred within a short time period so given the short attention span of the children in Jamie’s doco, it will be interesting to see the effect the campaign has.