Melbourne Boot Camp

While chatting to Yelena the Barista this morning, she mentioned that she was going to fly using hand gestures.

“Where?” I asked.

“I’m off to Berlin, I’ve got no plans” she responded, adding, “live life.”

This was very inspirational. Yelena was dedicated to living life and making the most of every day. And it got me thinking that, while most of us can’t literally pack ours bags and create a new life, we can try breaking our routine or creating new and interesting activities.

Sometimes we lose perspective.  We focus on the things that ultimately don’t bring us happiness. A good friend’s wife passed away this week after a ferocious battle with cancer. She spent her 40th birthday in agonizing pain in the intensive care unit. Her last words were not focused on her career, house or her possessions, but her family.

Ultimately, we don’t know when or whether we’ll be removed from our physical being on this planet. So, as Yelena already knows, we really need to make the most out of every day. Creating stressful, unhappy situations can have negative effects on our well being.

There are studies that indicate that engaging in activities that bring you happiness leads to overall wellbeing and improved health. You receive a flood of feel-good hormones.

Like they say, laughter really is the best medicine. And there’s a recent US study that’s produced evidence to suggest that when we laugh we release certain chemicals in our bodies that boost our immune system, relax our muscles, and benefit our hearts.

So a key ingredient to living a healthier life is to engage in activities that bring us happiness and laughter while also nurturing and developing our relationships with friends and family.

Written by Andrew Talati

While the secret to a long, healthy life may be theorised, a Greek study highlights the relationship between longevity, eating a healthy diet and getting sufficient sleep.

The study of Ikariathat island residents in the Aegean was conducted between June to October 2009.

Amazingly 1.1% of the population were over 90 years old, compared to 0.1% for the rest of Europe.

On Ikariathat, the main diet consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes and fish mixed in with the regular consumption of olive oil. Unlike many westerners,  sleeping habits included an afternoon siesta which gave the residents’ bodies time to rebuild and replenish from the day’s activities.

Like most things in life, taking a common sense approach to living a healthier lifestyle is challenging, particularly given the rigors of everyday life. When you add up too many commitments, too little time and all too consuming activities, it’s clear we’re neglecting the basic principles of optimum living.

With so many processed food manufacturers and restaurants happy to fill this void, we need to find the time to get back to the basics of eating less processed foods and more fresh fruit and vegetables.

Set a target of cooking one additional meal using fresh ingredients and forget the processed additives that can make the procedure a lot faster or more convenient. Try making your lunch for 2 -3 days per week. Not only will it save you thousands of dollars every year, your heart will thank you for it.

Written by Andrew Talati

Channel 7 was reprimanded by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) after using a McDonalds’ playground as the backdrop to its logo during a children’s television program.

The ACMA made the decision that the station identifier was really an advertisement for McDonalds and breached the Children’s Television Standards 2009.

It’s strange that a company like McDonalds wasn’t consulted on such a material breach of the code by Channel 7 when it was creating the station identifier.

According to McDonalds’ own statement (from the THE RESPONSIBLE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS TO CHILDREN INITIATIVE), the fast food giant has: “voluntarily reduced our advertising during children’s television programs by 60 per cent.”

This is yet another example of why self-regulation doesn’t work. Only last November there was another breach by Nestle. The whole premise of stopping advertising during children’s programming is that kids can be easily influenced and lack the maturity to make informed decisions about their diet.

The Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children, formulated by the advertising and broadcasting industry and key stakeholders in the food industry, aimed to preempt the possibility of legislation being introduced as recommended by the Preventative Health Taskforce.

Written by Andrew Talati

At Fitstyler, we encourage clients to bring their dogs to boot camp, on the proviso that the dog doesn’t interfere with other Fitmates, or pose a risk to the safety of Fitmates or other park users.

Well, during our 6am boot camp session at Edinburgh Garden we have 3 regular four-legged friends who join their owners for some exercise.

As our trainer, Anthony, was explaining the next exercise for the session, however, James & Jess’s pet Kelpie Chariot decided to literally fly into Anthony’s leg and knock him down!

Ironically, Anthony fell flat into a sit-up position.

At first everyone was a little shocked as he fell on top of Chariot (totally unavoidable and unexpected). Nevertheless, both dog and Anthony were fine and it was all laughs and giggles after that.

It’s great that dog owners are happy to participate in exercise classes with their dogs.

Written by Andrew Talati

It was a very funny sight this morning along Beach Road in Melbourne. Regular riding group – “The King’s Men” – decided to take on an unusual form of exercise by riding 20kg rental bikes from Melbourne’s Bike Share network.

Starting at MSAC (the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre) in Albert Park, it was a cruise (or rather a sustained effort) to get these steel monsters to Black Rock. The route along  popular Beach Ride and back to MSAC covered a respectable 40kms.

But if they’d made the ride just 2 days later they would have been battling for space among the sea of over 10,000 other cyclists who travel along Beach Road on any given Saturday or Sunday.

Among The King’s Men are many riders who compete at the amateur racing level. They can ride anywhere from 500 to 600 km per week but today they met their match.

These blue bicycles are strategically designed to limit top-end speed. They’re more for short trips around major cities than covering longer distances. Even with a lot of horsepower behind them, they could only manage a top speed of 27 km/h – achieved while going flat out during one of many sprints (Mind you these are the same guys who can accelerate up to 65 – 70km/h during a regular racing sprint).

The ride coincides with the release of the 2011 National Cycling Participation Survey, which revealed that 1.1 million people in Victoria ride their bikes every week. Even more amazing is that 40% of the population has ridden a bike in the past year.  That’s massively higher than expected. What we’re seeing is a cycling revolution.  And, in Victoria,  up to 20,000 more cyclists per week are taking to the streets compared to their New South Wales cousins.

The King’s Men rented bikes are part of the Melbourne bike share network that sprawls across the inner city and takes in many landmarks, including the Melbourne Arts Centre and the State Library of Victoria.

Unfortunately the bike scheme has come perilously close to extinction.

Why? The  requirement to wear helmets has caused a degree of complication not originally envisaged. While these schemes have been  successful in European cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Paris where they have more relaxed helmet requirements, Australia’s compulsory helmet laws undermine the true spirit of the bike scheme. The essence of bike share  is about using other forms of transport for short or unplanned trips – precisely the kinds of occasions when one isn’t necessarily carrying a bicycle helmet.

It just goes to prove that, with plenty of energy and commitment, getting around Melbourne is quite easy on a bicycle regardless of whether it’s your own road racer or a bike rented by the hour.

Written by Andrew Talati