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The weight loss equation is a fairly simple one, yet we all struggle to maintain a healthy weight range. Ultimately it comes down to sensible eating and making time for regular exercise.

Unfortunately, with our busy lives time is the one commodity that is always in short supply. However, here’s some simple strategies you can adopt to help”

1. Energy intake

a. Eat a balanced diet filled with plenty of fruit and vegetables, preferably locally grown rather than imported.
b. Start the day with a healthy breakfast, unprocessed muesli, fresh fruit or toast.
c. Avoid fast food for lunch. Take your lunch to work and put it in the fridge or office esky (as friend of mine in a senior position does).
d. Try cooking at least 4-5 meals at home per week, but avoid frying your food or using oils.
e. Eat at the dinner table rather than in front of the computer or TV.
f. Eat smaller portions more often
g. Have a snacking plan. Keep nuts and fruit at close quarters in case of emergency. This will help you keep on track when the vending machine seems like the only option.
i. Change your eating patterns. Avoid associating certain activities with eating, like watching TV or working on the computer. You can consume quite a lot in a short time when you’re not fully conscious of what you’re eating.
j. Avoid drinking sugary drinks such as flavoured waters and exercise recovery drinks.

2. Energy Expenditure

a. Become less sedentary. Walk to public transport, join a sporting team, catch up with friends by going for a walk rather than a coffee.
b. Incorporate exercise into everyday life. Take the stairs (make sure you don’t trip the fire alarm doors), park your car at the furthest point at any car park.
c. Get outdoors. Less couch/chair time means more activities outside of the house.
d. Buy a bike for local commuting and travel. It’s two benefits for the price of one.

Finally, the key to any energy expenditure or intake plan begins with the commitment that this is what you really want to do. If deep down you’re really quite happy keeping the status quo, then any attempts to change will always be an up hill battle.

Written by Andrew Talati

The traditional process of picking olives burns a huge amount of calories. This is a great form of exercise compared to the current methods of harvesting.

Olive tree ripe for picking

The traditional method of picking olives from the trees is by using a stick to beat the branches. The olives are still harvested this way at Laharum Grove from early June to mid July. Unlike the neighbors of this Victorian Olive Grove at the foothills of the Grampians, they still use traditional methods of harvesting.

As the trees are very established it’s difficult to get a shaker machine around the trunk and this can damage the trees. The traditional method is harder work but just as effective according to the owner Dierdre Baum.

These trees form part of the original grove planted in 1943 by Jacob Friedman. They were part of an investment project which unfortunately left many investors high and dry. The demand didn’t align with the sales projections. Other stories speak of an Italian immigrant who hand planted the grove with the help of ex POW’s and convicts.

Harvesting olives using stick

This is very physical work with a olive picker filling 2 x 500kg bins per day. The process begins with covering the ground with a meshed sheet that collects all the fallen olives.

Placing nets on ground before harvesting olives

Great care is taken not to accidentally step on the olives and crush them as they are then worthless for oil extraction.

Traditional technique picking olives with stick

Next comes the fun part, by using a stick that may be made from bamboo, the picker faces the branch with the fruit side on. They then use a follow through action to skim the edge of the branches to ensure maximum extraction.

Collection of sticks to collect olives

Different sized sticks can be used to either reach the higher fruit or the branches drooping close to the ground.
It’s a good idea to ensure that you give your arms an even workout and change sides regularly unless you want to have a dominant arm.

Fallen Olives after harvesting

Collecting olives

The next stage is to collect the fallen olives and deposit them into the smaller baskets that hold up to 25-30kgs. These are carried over to the larger bins.

Sifting leaves from olives

The smaller branches amongst the olives need to be sifted prior to being deposited into the larger bins.

Bins full of picked olives

Well we managed to fill 2 bins in 2.5 hours, the first bin at 625kg and the second at 645kg, not a bad effort considering that this takes a whole day for a single picker.

The olive tree before harvesting by hand

The olive tree after harvesting with stick

This process is extremely efficient as the fruit is stripped bare from the tree.

Enjoying the harvested olives

Now the best part, enjoying some el fresco dining with olive oil and bread, olive oil paste and olives.

For those looking to experience the pick and press themselves, Fitstyler will be running our own event with competitions to add some more excitement. You can also contact Laharum Grove.

The last part of the process is getting the olives pressed within 12 hours, preferable 6 hours to stop deterioration and the fermentation process commencing. This is just one of the 9 prerequisites for the oil to be qualified as extra virgin olive oil.
So with a yield of 10%, that’s a lot of olive oil to be processed.
Fortunately for us, Lanarum Grove has access to the pressing facility at Toscana Olives which forms part of the original plantation dating back to the 1940′s.

If you’re looking for a challenge, then try and beat the record set last week when one of the older pickers from Toscana picked 1400kgs in a day, pretty amazing when 25 of us picked 1300kgs.
Now that’s some exercise, starting at 8.30-9.00am and finishing by 5pm as the olives must be at the press to process. Even more impressive is Diedre’s mum and dad who will pick a ton a day.

The traditional olive picking techniques uses more energy expenditure than modern tree shaking techniques using machinery.

Today olives are picked using something from either the Thunderbirds or Batman with a highly sophisticated system of clamping the tree and applying a vibrating action to dislodge ripened olives.

Traditional olive picking technique

The traditional method of picking olives was very energy intensive that required great core strength and all over fitness to swing a stick for 8 -12 hours per day.
The calorie burn would have been quite high as this is extremely physical work.

As olives hark back to Egyptian times with the migration of olives to the Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Greece and Macedonia their popularity grew.
With increasing demand and the growth of mechanised farming came some very ingenious inventions to streamline the harvesting process.

The advent of pneumatics gave rise to the ability to create the shaking/vibration action that is critical to dislodging the fruit.

Olive shaking machine

Positioning Olive tree for shaking

Lining Up olive tree for shaking

Opening canopy to catch falling olives

Loading collected olives into bins

Bins full of picked olives

The great thing about the shaking process that it doesn’t damage the trees if the trees are clamped correctly.
The risk to the tree is clamping the truck where their is a fork as this will cause a split and ultimately kill the tree.

So with the tree shaking machine able to fill to bins per hour, there is little chance for a person to hand pick more than 2 bins per day.

While our goods and rubbish are transported by motorised trucks and courier vans, some countries still utilise human labor for transportation purposes.

For thousands of years man has been transporting goods, building and construction materials, food and rubbish by using buckets, urns and other carrying devices.

In Thailand where there is motorised transport for to ferry hotel guests to and from the connecting boats, the Thai workers still transport heavy loads using a rickshaw type arrangement.

This may seem an efficient means of transporting goods while leaving zero carbon emissions, there has to be some consideration as to whether the workers are experiencing any injuries as a result of moving such heavy loads.

Fortunately most of the workers have good posture and core strength that minimises the risk of damage to the lower back. Most importantly there are 3 workers per cart to help spread the load.

Many elite sportsmen use towing a weighted sled behind them as a form of training for building up leg strength.

In today’s modern life with the advent of increasing technological advancements and the outsourcing of industry to China & India, we are slowly becoming a more sedentary society. We have motorised everything, from can openers to leaf blowers, slowly removing the need to exert any any energy.

So if you’re looking for some extra exercise on your next holiday, maybe volunteer your services but just remember to maintain good posture at all times:))

Our Fitmate had a high calorie burn at Bootcamp this morning. After 60 minutes of high intensity exercise, he managed to burn 800 calories. An awesome effort after allowing for the warm up and cool down/stretching components.

Thanks to his heart rate monitor, it gave a fair indication of the total energy burnt during the Bootcamp taking into account his age, weight, height and maximum heart rate.

If you’re looking at a way to measure your fitness, try the beep test.

The last time one of our Fitmates burnt 800 calories, they wanted to know if it was ok to eat 3 Mars Bars as they contained the equivalent amount of calories (energy).

The main thing for achieving weight loss is balancing energy intake verses energy expenditure. Once you have it skewed more towards the energy that you burn, you are well on your way to achieving your weight loss goals