Melbourne Boot Camp

With an overnight temperature of 17.9°, summer has come early to our notoriously fickle Melbourne weather with more record-breaking temperatures being set.

The last 2 days have given rise to the warmest temperatures on record for the start of August. Yesterday reached a sweltering 23.1° and with a forecast top of 21° today, no doubt more records may still be broken.

It’s hard to believe that only a week ago we were seeing maximum temperatures in the low teens. Today people are down the beach in shorts and T-shirts. Funnily, a friend of mine came back from watching the Tour de France and commented how much warmer it was in Melbourne compared to the summer he had experienced in Paris.

The Mercury didn’t dip below 17.9° from midnight, smashing a previous record of 16° set on 20th August, 1885. However, it was only last Winter (2010) that we had a balmy 14° at boot camp, so I guess nothing about the weather is really surprising anymore.

But rest assured, Melbourne will still live up to its reputation for 4 seasons in one day. Maximum temperatures will be back to the usual 13 to 15° by the weekend.

Written by Andrew Talati

The child obesity rate in Australia is  disturbing. It currently stands at 25% of children being overweight or obese with a big contributing factor being the intake of too many processed foods.

According to the Australasian Society for the study of obesity conducted between 1985 and 1995, the overweight/obese rates for children almost tripled over a ten-year period.

There is overwhelming evidence to support that the latest generation will be the first generation that has a lower life expectancy than their parents. The most disturbing consequence of this alarming statistic is that this leads to psychosocial problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type II diabetes, asthma and sleep apnea. While the mechanics of this comes down to the simple equation of energy intake versus energy expenditure we can break the equation down into 4 main areas:

Energy Intake:
1.Genetic factors
2.Unhealthy eating habits
Energy Expenditure
3.lifestyle and environmental factors 4.Lack of physical activity

One overwhelming factor seems to be the high level of processed foods we are consuming as a society.

As we become more affluent and time poor we are turning to processed and take away food as an alternative to cooking at home.

While there may be a belief that it’s cheaper to buy processed/takeaway food, it’s a misconception. Buying the basics – fruit, vegetables and meat – is not only cheaper, your body will thank you for it, too.

Written by Andrew Talati

Cadel Evans Tour de France win was an amazing effort from a truly inspirational person. It’s also a great story that highlights the importance of never losing sight of your goals.

After coming overall second in the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France by tiny margins (23 seconds and 58 seconds respectively), even Cadel admits most people had written him off.

Yet his refusal to give up, no matter how extreme the situation, shows us all that we, too, can be triumphant when we focus on our goals. I like the saying:
perserverance overides resistancee.

It was a do or die moment. Cadel faced a seemingly insurmountable task that could have lost him the race. After three failed attempts at the Tour de France, and with only the narrowest of losing margins, it would have been quite easy to give up.

But this was moment that Cadel’s fighting spirit, self belief and extraordinarily strong-minded determination allowed him to overcome a very desperate situation and excel.

We all have our personal battles, small or large. However, we can climb those personal mountains if we truly believe in our abilities and the possibility of success.

Too often our limiting beliefs stop us from achieving levels of greatness, even if the challenge is as small as making simple changes to our diet to reduce the chances of diabetes or cardio vascular disease.

I really like the idea of using Cadel’s “never give up” philosophy as a tool to believing in ourselves.

Life can be as wonderful and awesome as you make it. Cadel’s win is testimony to the fact that years of heartache, anguish, frustration and anxiety can lead to a wonderful crescendo of happiness and fulfilment.

Written by Andrew Talati

This month’s Funny Fitness Story would have to go out to our very own Fitstyler Anthony McMahon! While Fitstyler Michael Bellofiore fled to the Gold Coast for a relaxing weekend, Anthony filled in for his Moonee Ponds session on Saturday 23rd of July.

It was a beautiful morning to be training and while everyone was in the single-mindedness of performing extreme leg workouts, out of nowhere, some form of yabby/prawn or whatever large species it could’ve possibly been fell out of the sky and missed a Fitmate, who was fully focused to training, by 30cms!

Everyone stopped and focused on this creature thinking, “Has it fallen from the sky or did a bird drop it?”

Fitstyler Anthony came to the conclusion that it just might’ve been raining yabbies or maybe the yabby had self-attended the session for a good workout with Fitstyler!

You hear about storys about anything falling out of the sky but a yabbie, very strange.

Written by Andrew Talati

Is freedom of choice killing us? With Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease rates rising is having a free market with no rules/limited regulation or self regulation creating an unhealthy nation.

While there is continued debate regarding the marketing of unhealthy food products, food labeling and other policies to reverse the current trends there are those who advocate that we should have the freedom to eat what we want when we want.

However if you look at the big picture is having an open, free market leading to positive long-term outcomes for the nation.
You can go to KFC and buy the double down burger which may seem fantastic but what is the real cost? Or a family meal for under $20 from McDonalds, a meal which is full of high levels of fat, sugar and salt can be freely available in an open market without restrictions or regulation?

Is the marketing of highly processed foods containing high levels of fats, sugar and salt to an unsuspecting consumer a good thing?

However have we lost our capacity to make informed decisions as to the long-term health of society.

There are many examples where having an open market and giving people freedom in certain liberties to choose what products to buy and what price.
This may seem fantastic in the short term for example the dumping of cheap fruit and vegetables on the Australian market however in the long term the true cost is becoming dependent on to 2 major retailers and destroying the local agricultural industry.
In the long term we pay higher prices and have less fresh fruit and vegetables.

Cigarette advertising is another example where regulation leads to lower consumption which in the long term reduces the incidences of lung cancer and other smoking related deaths.
People are aware of the dangers but still choose to smoke so regulation is a necessary evil.

So is having unlimited, unregulated really that great in the long term?

Written by Andrew Talati