Tag Archives: healthy

Motivation

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Personal Trainer Andy KnightSeveral times throughout my training career I’ve had to look back to why I started this game as a scrawny teen. Whether I was struggling with an injury, illness, busy lifestyle, family issues, basically anything that life throws at me, I’ve always scratched around the psychological basement that inspired and motivated me to keep moving forwards when I was on the borderline of making a commitment to change my lifestyle for the better.

What actually motivated me to train in the beginning is actually quite grey and fuzzy now; there is no pinpointed, specific area that I can call upon, rather it was more of a series of life events that made me stand up one day and get on with it. I can’t recall whether it was being fed up of being useless at sports in school, living through my dad’s struggle with heart disease, having an older brother that would pick on me for anything and everything, or just the fact that growing up in the 80’s meant that the fitness boom was just taking off and the likes of Sly and Arnie were getting a lot of publicity for their image.

I remember going for that first, breathless jog down to the detail of what I was wearing that day and even breaking through the front door in a heap, running up stairs to my bedroom and feebly attempting to do as many push ups and sit ups as I could. After a while, this all became too easy and I needed to take things to the next level so I saved up my pocket money so that I had enough to buy a 50kg weights set from Argos. I remember nagging my dad to help me carry them back with me on the bus and the nerves that I faced when walking up to the counter to ask for the weights set.

After fumbling my way through the little bit of paper that came with the set, again I found that I needed the next step. I needed to join a gym or eventually crash through my bedroom ceiling! By now I was hooked. I was starting to get positive comments, my body was changing, I was no longer the weakling during PE and I started to get known for being the one that kept in shape. I’d been bitten by the bug and I was constantly looking for new methods to keep improving in one way or another. I’d find motivation by gym based goals, intrinsic motives and living up to the pressure that I’d given myself of being the young lad that was in shape and started getting respect from peers that he’d never have thought he’d ever talk to. My social circle started changing and I felt better for recreating myself and started piling pressure on myself to keep moving forwards. I changed my eating habits, training schedule and turned down the temptations that a lot of modern day teenagers faced.

From what was a gentle jog to fill up time one evening had spiraled into a lifestyle and I wholeheartedly believe that I’ll be exercising until the day I no longer can. There have been days when injuries have made me think about throwing in the towel, but even at my lowest I’ve managed to dig a little bit deeper and find things that I can do, rather than what I can’t do. Before I knew it, all of the determination and disciplined that I’ve learned from making sure that I stay on top of my lifestyle had carried over into my work and personal life, giving me the drive to keep moving forwards rather than settling for what’s comfortable.

To summarise:

  • Find what made you want to train in the first place and relive the feelings that made you exercise in the first place. Do you want to run away, or move towards something?
  • What are you trying to achieve? Have you achieved it already? Are you ever going to reach your goals? An acronym that is often used when setting goals is one called SMART.
    • Specific: What do I want to achieve? (E.g. lift more weight.)
    • Measurable: How do I know when I’ve got there? How much weight do I want to lift?
    • Achievable: Am I ever going to be able to lift 300kg, or is 160kg more realistic?
    • Relevant: Do I really need to focus your time and energy into this pursuit?
    • Time Bound: Can I reach this goal in 3 months, or will 6 months be more realistic?
  • What do you want to achieve in the short, middle and long term? What short term goals will help you achieve your middle and long term goals?
  • Find out what your limitations to exercise are and what you can do to overcome them. For example, if you’re too busy with work to find time to exercise, then perhaps you could arrange your travel or home schedule to bring your training to you, etc.
  • Who do you look up to? Do they have what you want? How did they get to where they are today?
  • Do you feel bogged down with details because of the thousands of articles that you’ve read? Take a step back, go back to basics and find what works for YOU.
  • Are you prepared to look beyond the initial burst in progress and dig deep to find that bit of grit that will eventually lead you to your goals? If not, then read the article and the summary again and ask yourself why!

If you’d like any advice setting and achieving your fitness goals just ask a member of the Club CHF fitness team.

Don’t forget to check out our fantastic offers on personal training with our in-house personal trainers. ‘Fast Track Your Fitness’  – 1 hour sessions from as little as £20!

Andy Knight, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Rome to Reading 2012

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Members at Caversham Health & Fitness constantly  inspire us with their success and achievements  whether it is weight loss, fitness or accomplishing a challenge which they have set themselves and trained hard for.

One such member is Barabara Frost, 61, who is planning a solo cycle ride from Rome to Reading next year to raise money for Buscot Babies, special care baby unit, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. In 2010 Barbara cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats and raised £6772 for Homestart Reading but this time her target is £10,000.

Barbara works with personal trainer Steve Whiteside at Caversham Health & Fitness.  At the moment they are working on Barbara’s strength and endurance but after Christmas they’ll be gearing up to what Barbara describes as ‘boot camp’ to get her to peak fitness for the gruelling 1500 mile cycle.  For building core strength to help with all the hours leaning over the bike Barabara does a weekly ‘Pilates’ class and for flexibility ‘ Stretch and Tone’.

Barbara is holding a fundraising Quiz Night on Thursday 10th November 2011. The entry fee of £10 includes a Bar Copa curry.  All funds raised go to the Buscot babies (www.justgiving.com/barbara-frost).  Please do get a team together and support this event.

Rome to Reading 2012 Fundraising Quiz Night
Bar Copa, 76 Kings Road, Reading (next to Zizzi’s)
Tickets £10 including a curry
Food from 6.30pm, Quiz 8.00pm

Contact Antony Frost to reserve your tickets:  0118 926 2858 or 07977 415201 or email a_j_frost@yahoo.com.

To find out more about the Buscot Babies Fund please download Barbara’s fundraising leaflet Barbara Frost – Buscot Babies Fund

Have you set yourself a challenge or achieved a personal goal?  We would love to hear from you if you have.

Sally Albin, Marketing

Diary of a Fitness Manager Getting Healthy – Entry 5

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Ok…Its time to call in the professional!

I have booked an appointment with our nutritional therapist Laura De Le Harpe. I am seeing her for my first consultation on Wednesday and included in this is food allergy testing.

I know I am in for very good service just from seeing her nutritional analysis paperwork. It goes into so much detail including looking at symptom  analysis and then considering how this could be linked to my nutrient requirements, lifestyle and diet analysis.

I have filled in my 3 day diet sheets and am just waiting till Wednesday to find out what sort of state I am in!

Laura De Le Harpe is a Nutritional Therapist who works out of Caversham Health and Fitness on Wednesday evenings which can be booked through reception.

What is Nutritional Therapy?

Nutritional Therapy can help you achieve optimal health, have sustained energy, mental clarity, stable moods, and be pain-free and fit for life.

Through the application of nutrition science and an understanding of how the body works, nutritional therapy aims to treat the underlying causes of poor health and not just the symptoms.

We are all unique. What is sustenance for one person may be poison to another. Our inherited genes may determine the health issues we face, but these are often only ‘switched on’ by our environment, diet and lifestyle.

What is involved in Nutritional Therapy?

The process begins with an assessment and initial consultation.

Prior to our first meeting, Laura will ask you to complete and return a questionnaire about your health, symptoms, lifestyle and eating habits as well as a signed copy of our terms of engagement.

The first consultation lasts an hour to an hour and a half. At the end of the consultation you take away a personalized plan covering diet, lifestyle and supplementation. This will address your health priorities and will be realistic and achievable for you. Laura will give you practical advice on what to do at home and may also suggest diagnostic testing depending on your situation.

Taken from Laura’s Website www.nutritionalbenefits.co.uk

Diary of a Fitness Manager Getting Healthy – Entry 4

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Week 4 & 5

Weight: Let’s no go there!

Body fat: Not good

Basically not good past two weeks, have been very run down lack of energy just feeling a bit rubbish and that is down to not having the right foods in the house and the biggest problem for me is lunch times. Going down to Waitrose or Tesco’s and seeing all the lovely looking sandwiches and not much else.

Bread and I really have a love hate relationship. I love bread and bread hates me. Just feel so energetic if I don’t have it and eat salads, meats and vegetables but that’s in a perfect world. One of the biggest problems I have is its all or nothing for me so in the beginning it was all but now it’s nothing!

Mark Willis one of our Personal Trainers here at the gym said to me about the 80/20 rule so I looked into it and here are the basics, more to follow as it is very interesting.

“The point of the 80/20 Rule is that you need to focus primarily on the critical 20% to achieve 80% satisfaction. Of course this is a general rule, not an irrefutable statistic; for some actions, the breakdown may be closer to 90/10 or 70/30. But the point is the same, and it can be eerily accurate when you measure the variables in your life.

The challenge, however, comes from identifying that critical 20%. With some areas that have measurable metrics, such as the number of clients, amount of income and time spent on each of your services, it’s a no-brainer. But it can be difficult to take the same analysis and apply it to your daily life, especially when you have a lengthy to-do list with lots of items that still need to get done.”

Taken from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/14/pareto-principle-80-20-rule/

But this is it I have to get focused as I will never achieve my goal if I do not focus some of my time on them. Say 20%?

Jason, Fitness Manager

Diary of a Fitness Manager Getting Healthy – Entry 3

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  • Weight 12st 1lb
  • Body fat levels: 18.5%

While on the subject of weight and body fat. Always try to take your body fat levels at the same time everyday. I take my weight first thing in the morning and body fat using bioimpendance scales around 4pm as this is your most stable time for your body fat as it’s always higher first thing in the morning.

Exercise wise I have managed to get in one game of squash (Which did end up being 1hr 40 min’s!) and use the gym once but have managed  to get out for 3 hour+ walks at a fast pace to the shops then loading my backpack up with groceries the walking home again (5-10kg bag!) Need to do  more resistance (weights) as I need to increase my lean muscle mass

Diet wise I have been better making a food plan is helping but I am going to have to write down everything I am eating for a week just so I can look to see spacing’s between meals, amounts and time of eating. I need to do this as I am leaving too bigger gaps between meals so when I get to my main meal I am eating a lot more than what I need to. Its having an effect on my blood sugar and it’s not helping with my energy levels.

So blood sugar (Blood Glucose is the official term) levels are mainly governed by a hormone called insulin. All carbohydrates we consume are broken down into simple sugars. But starchy foods like potatoes and bread contain long chains of simple sugars that get broken down quickly causing blood glucose to spike. Processed foods, sweets and chocolate are already simple sugars so the carbs in them do not have to get broken down so they have a more or less immediate effect on blood glucose levels. As soon as our glucose levels rise this is detected by the hypothalamus gland which monitors blood levels. Then insulin is released into the blood stream to try and stabilize the glucose levels by driving it into the muscles and the liver any left over is converted into fat and stored.

So with weight gain that is why it comes on gradually. Each time we cause blood glucose to spike insulin is storing it as body fat only a little bit a time but still it keeps adding up!

On the flip side if you miss say breakfast and don’t eat till lunch time that’s around 14 hours with no food, now your glucose levels are going to feel very low and you are a lot more likely to make some bad decisions for your lunch as your energy levels are going to be very low and you are going to want some simple carbs (Sweets, chocolate?) and then your blood sugar levels are going to leap up, hence why it’s best to eat small amounts every few hours.

http://www.annecollins.com/weight-loss/food-cravings.htm Interesting facts on cravings

http://www.naturalnews.com/001978.html on ways to keep blood sugar levels down.

Jason, Fitness Manager

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