Mom was right, you DO need to eat your greens!

I kind of take for granted that most people out there are, at least slightly, concerned about their health, so I am always taken aback when I meet people who have absolutely zero regard for it. Most people are more concerned with their waist size than their health but I don't mind that because it makes my life a little easier when I'm encouraging people to be healthy. People are usually willing to make compromises when it comes to health and food, if it means they can buy those skinny jeans they've been eyeing out;) So, by default, they end up being healthy even though that wasn't their aim. But what about those people who, not only couldn't care less about their health, but also couldn't care less about their waist size?

They do exist! As a real foodist and an exercise scientist, it shocks me, I admit. It doesn't happen often but, now and then I come upon a person who has absolutely no concern for their health or their waist size when it comes to food and I am stumped. I honestly don't know how to help them. I understand having one or two foods that you absolutely do not like and no compromise will be possible. For me, if I was going to pick one vegetable, it would be brusselsprouts! It's not that they're disgusting. For me it's more the association. When we were kids my mom would make us eat our veggies. What mom doesn't;) For some reason though, the one vegetable I associate with LOOOONG hours spent at the dining room table trying to choke it down, is brusselsprouts. The memory comes back when I see a brusselsprout and so I choose to just avoid them! 

So I GET that. But, when I meet people who, very proudly, tell me that they don't eat, nor have they EVER eaten, a single fruit or vegetable, I just stare at them in abject horror. I am speechless in that kind of situation. Either these are people who just really don't care how they die, or when they die, or how they feel while they live, or they are honestly completely clueless about food and nutrition. I think it may be the latter in most cases. Going back to the brusselsprout story, I GET how much you hated vegetables as a kid. I hated green beans and peas, along with brusselsprouts, but I eat them now and I enjoy them too. I COULD eat brusselsprouts if I had to, without gagging;) But I just choose not to because I eat so many other veggies that I don't actually NEED to eat brusselsprouts. But to carry that hatred over from childhood to adulthood, for ALL fruit and vegetables is just plain silly, and a bit reckless.

I'm reminded, in this kind of scenario, that people really do just see food, as something to be eaten. And, once it's been eaten, it magically disappears, doesn't do anything to your body, and doesn't affect your health. I've studied food for so long that it IS easy to forget that most people don't know anything about food. They honestly think that, eating ONLY meat, potatoes, bread, pasta and desserts, for your whole life, is fine. That's what they like, so that's what they eat. They even go as far as to remove the lettuce off their burgers because it's a vegetable!! I call them Tastebud Pleasers because that's ALL they're thinking about. They don't think about the food AFTER it leaves their tastebuds but, honestly, how can you not?

It's the same as people who randomly pop pills into their mouths for every ailment, and sometimes to prevent a POSSIBLE ailment! It is exactly the same. Why? Because food IS medication. Everything you eat is going to affect your health, be it negatively or positively. Your body struggles to digest cooked food on its own. That is why I always recommend eating some salad with your meal or, at least, having a fruit as dessert. You need to eat something that is raw, when you eat cooked food or your body is going to start taking strain. Once that food leaves your mouth, it has a long journey through your digestive system and there is a lot going on, all involving that food. 

From the time it enters your mouth until the time it leaves your body, more or less 50 hours will have passed. During that time, it can either do a lot of healing, or a lot of damage, because everything that CAN be used in that food, will be used for fuel for your body, and to rebuild and replace lost cells. That means, if you don't give it something decent to use, your body will make do with what's available. Think about that same thing happening for 30 or 40 years. The same meat, potatoes and dessert, day in, and day out. By the time you are 40, you will feel, and look, like you are 60. But honestly, you'll be lucky to MAKE it to 40 without some kind of dread disease if you continue to eat that way. Your cells are made up of everything you've consumed, be it food, or drink, or medication. If you've given it precious little to build with, and lots of dead, chemical-ridden, non-nutritional food, you are very likely walking a tightrope over a big hole filled with all sorts of chronic diseases and no safety net to catch you.

Sounds dramatic huh? How dramatic is this? Heart disease is the number one killer disease in the world today, with cancer running a close second. These diseases didn't exist a century ago. They are diseases of civilisation, created by the amount of chemicals in our diets, and the amount of non-nutritional food that people are eating. People live on junk. Read this post for my thoughts on junk food. YOU have the power to control what happens to your body. Stick with your meat and potatoes and burgers without the lettuce and you are pretty much giving the power over to heart disease and cancer. Begin to see food as a powerful medication, that will heal and fortify your body, and you are taking the power back.

This is something that starts with educating kids. Look at my brusselsprout issue;) When your kids say, "Why do I have to eat the vegetables, I don't like them!" Don't just say, "Because I said so!" or "Because they're good for you!" Tell them WHY they are good for them. Kids have such enquiring minds. They want to know and understand, and most of them will rebel against whatever you TELL them to do, simply because it's in their nature. Arm them with knowledge and let them work out for themselves why fruit and vegetables are good for them and they will probably be more inclined to eat them. Don't let them reach adulthood still being utterly clueless about their bodies and how they work. If you teach them about food, you probably won't have to worry too much about what they eat when they aren't around you, because they will think for themselves and, hopefully, make the right decision. 

Make vegetables seem like something fun for them. If they help you plant and grow your vegetables, and then they help you in the kitchen, to prepare them, they will be more intrigued about them. It's so rewarding watching them grow in the garden! They will feel so proud of themselves when they pick their first tomato;) When my 6 year old nephew came to stay for a night, I showed him my veggie garden and he was so excited to see a tomato growing in the garden, instead of just on a shelf in a store, that he picked it and ate it straight away! Then he wanted to know how it got to my garden if they're supposed to be from the shop! It was a golden opportunity to teach him that he could one day also grow his own food.

I encourage you to teach your kids about growing their own food. They will find it very exciting and fulfilling. As you work and prepare meals with them from your garden, talk to them about the vegetables and why they are good and how growing them at  home makes them better for you because they aren't sprayed with pesticides and your compost is organic.

Lead by example. If you eat junk food, your kids will eat junk food. If you don't like a certain vegetable, don't pull a face or push it away and then expect your kids to eat it. If there is something you don't like, don't tell your kids it's because you're an adult and you get to choose but they don't! That is going to seriously upset them. Wouldn't it upset you if someone told YOU that? Kids are really just smaller versions of ourselves who need to understand why rather than just taking orders. Always explain and tell them what, where, why and how. Kids are sharp. They will take these things away with them and think about them and they are more inclined to make an informed decision at a later stage. Sure, they'll push boundaries, but on the whole, I think they are like little sponges that just want to take everything in and learn wherever possible. So make sure you are teaching them all the good things.

I honestly believe that, if you educate your kids about what's good and what's bad for them, they will remember it into adulthood. Create good habits, set a good example and give them the tools they need to build a strong, healthy body. Read this post to see my thoughts on real food as opposed to processed food. No-one should be anti-fruits and vegetables. No-one should be clueless about nutrition and the power of food. You are setting yourself up for a lot of heartache and very high medical bills. 

I believe the best way to show you love someone, is by giving them the knowledge and the tools to help themselves. Only good things can come from that!

Losing body fat is easier than you think!

I guess it's a given that, no matter how important health is for all of us, weight loss is always going to be top of the list for most people in terms of goals. If you've been reading my blog daily, you'd have noticed I focus a lot on health, because that's more important to me, but I have also said that, eating clean, organic, real foods will, by default, lead to weight loss, so it's a win-win.

If you have been changing your lifestyle, cutting out chemicals and all processed foods, eating more clean fruit and vegetables, eating only free-range meat and dairy and drinking no more sugary drinks, you will likely have seen and felt a change in your energy levels, your body will have an enhanced ability to heal, your hair will be shinier and grow faster and so will your nails and you'll have lost some weight. That weight will likely keep dropping off if you have included exercise in your daily routine, but, if you haven't, there is a chance the weight loss will plateau after a while.

There is a catch to all this healthy eating, as there is with ANY eating. Your body requires a certain amount of calories to function and anything you eat over and above that is going to go into storage. I know you didn't really want to hear that but it's true!

Whenever people prescribe fad diets, 9 times out of ten they end up working for the first few weeks. Why? Because they drastically cut calorie consumption. Think about any diet you have ever been on, or heard of. No diet allows for junk food of any kind, most, if not ALL diets prescribe LOTS of salad and vegetables and less refined foods, and all diets cut the amount of calories you are allowed daily. Anyone who cuts calories, no matter WHICH calories they are, will invariably lose weight because, after their body has used what it needs to function, there are no excess calories left over to store. Your body will start using existing fat stores for energy and, before you know it, you've lost 5kgs. Exciting stuff!

Here's the rub: very few (if any) people can maintain a diet that only allows you a yoghurt for breakfast, a tuna salad for lunch and a skinless chicken breast and veggies for dinner. For starters, it's just boring. Secondly, it's bad for your body because it's totally lacking in any fat at all and thirdly, it's going to end up making you so hormonal and grumpy that your friends and family will beg you to eat again!

When you start eating your "normal" food again, those 5kgs you lost, will come back just as quickly as you lost them. That is the danger of dieting. That is why it is so important to get the word "diet" out of your vocabulary as quick as you can and replace it with "lifestyle".

I've given you most of the tools in all my blogs, to clean up your eating habits, get healthy and lose weight, so all you need to do is keep on doing what you're doing, BUT you also need to cut down on quantity. How do you know how much you need to be eating? You can calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

Your BMR is how much energy your body uses when it's at rest. Why does your body use energy while it's resting? Well, you'd be amazed by how much is going on in your body while you are sitting still. Your digestive system is busily digesting the meal you ate an hour ago, sending nutrients to wherever they are needed to build new cells, you are breathing all the time and your blood is transporting oxygen to the cells in your body and carbon dioxide away from the cells in your body. If you are cold, your body is working hard to keep you warm, if you're hot, it's trying to cool you down. Your hair is growing, your nails are growing, you may have a cut on your hand that's busy healing or stiff muscles that need repairing. Your body is in a constant state of change and it needs energy to do that. Your BMR tells you how much energy is needed to run YOUR body on a daily basis.

Every BODY is different. A man who spends his life sitting in a car or on a couch, leading a sedentary life, is going to need fewer calories than a man who spends his life being active, whether its in a gym, or with sports or with a job that involves a lot of moving and carrying. A very tall man will require more calories than a very short man. A pregnant woman will require more calories than a non-pregnant woman (you get my drift!)

The active man will need more calories than the sedentary man, because his body is more active and he has more muscle. Muscle is metabolically active, whereas fat isn't at all. If the man on the couch eats the same amount of food as the active man, he will be eating more than his body requires to function and the excess calories will likely be stored as fat. He will have a lower BMR than the active man so he will need to eat according to his own BMR.  The fact that he isn't active is also going to be a factor BUT, interestingly, even the active man will gain body fat if he eats more than his body is using. That is why I say, exercise alone won't ensure that you lose weight. Diet is 80% of it. Everyone needs to eat according to their own metabolic needs and most people don't.

You only have to look around you when you're at a restaurant to know that people eat far too much. They're also eating far too much of the wrong stuff. Most people who eat out will have a starter, mains and dessert.  Mains will come with a range of starches and a huge piece of meat of some kind. Dessert will also be loaded with sugar and a gazillion calories because health isn't top of the list in most restaurants. In that ONE meal, most people have exceeded their daily calorie requirements for the entire day. It's no wonder people are getting bigger.

You don't need to starve yourself to lose weight. You just need to work out what your body needs on a daily basis, and eat a little less than that, and you WILL lose weight. How do you work it out? Here is a handy calculator, because the formula is complicated. Once you know what your BMR is, you need to also take into account how active you are. Use this formula to calculate it. I'll use myself as an example. I require 1292 calories a day BUT I gym about 4 times a week, so, according to the formula, I need to multiply 1292 by 1.55. According to those calculations, my body needs 2002 calories to function. Now, if I wanted to lose weight slowly and in a healthy manner, I'd probably cut my calories by about 100 a day, so I'd try and consume ±1902 calories a day. My body will draw on the existing fat stores to make up for the calorie deficit and I will burn fat.

One way to immediately lower your caloric intake is to work out how much protein your body needs daily and try stick to that. As with BMR, everyone is different in terms of protein requirements. Most people eat way too much protein and, contrary to popular belief, it isn't fat that makes you fat, eating excess calories makes you fat so, if you eat too much protein, your body will store it as fat. How do you work out how much protein you need? Sedentary adults need about 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight IF they are not active. That means, if you weigh 55kgs, you need to multiply 55kgs by 0.8 and the result is 44grams of protein.

BUT, you also need to take into account how active you are, again. Check below to work out how active you are:

1. Sedentary: 0.8
2. Recreational Exerciser: 1-1.5
3. Endurance athlete moderate: 1.2-1.6
4. Endurance athlete heavy: 2.0
5. Strength/Power athlete: 1.2-1.8
6. Adolescent athlete: 2.0

If you gym 4 times a week you'd likely fall under option 3 which means you need to multiply your weight by 1.2-1.6 instead of by 0.8. You need to gauge just how active you are at gym. I gym about 4 times a week, and I work very hard when I'm there, so I'd probably multiply my weight by about 1.4. Got it?

If my protein requirements are 77grams a day, that is NOT a lot of protein at all. One chicken thigh has roughly 28grams of protein in it. I bet when you eat a chicken curry you don't only eat ONE chicken thigh, do you? You probably have a thigh and a drumstick and maybe some white meat too. One can of tuna has 39 grams of protein. If you eat one chicken thigh and one can of tuna in a day you will have almost met your protein requirements. Protein isn't only found in meat either. Vegetables, fruits and dairy also contain protein. One glass of milk has about 7grams of protein. One egg has about 6grams of protein. Do you see where I'm going with this? Before the day is through you have eaten triple your protein requirements and that is one of the reasons why you aren't losing weight.

I'm not going to tell you to sit and count calories. All you need to do is cut them down really. If you always eat two chops, or two chicken pieces for dinner, cut it down to one. If you usually scramble three eggs for breakfast, cut it down to two, if you have bacon with that, cut it down to one egg. This is a great website if you really want to count your calories and it will give you a good idea of how much you are eating daily. You can record your daily meals and work out just how far off you are from your BMR.

Another way to make sure you don't eat more than you need, is to snack rather than eat big meals. The Japanese have really got it right. They don't sit down to huge meals like we do. Their meals are about quality rather than quantity (think sushi). They "graze" all day on small meals. It's a great way to speed up your metabolism and, eating every 3 or 4 hours means you never get to that point where you are STARVING. You always maintain your appetite and so you end up eating only what you need, when you are hungry. Both me and GLM eat this way and it works really well for both of us. She has lost weight, and I have gotten my IBS more under control. My body is so accustomed to eating small meals every 3 hours that, literally on the DOT of 3 hours, my tummy grumbles for food;) If it doesn't, I know I ate more than usual in the previous meal and I wait until the hunger hits. There is no strict rule when it comes to time. We only eat when our bodies tell us to. For me, that's usually every 3 hours though!

If all of those small meals are made up of clean, organic, real foods, you can't go wrong, really. I have to be honest, I don't count calories at all. I used to be obsessed with it but now I find, if I eat only as much protein as I need, and eat clean, organic, real food, and no processed junk, I maintain my weight quite easily.

You CAN do the same... Good luck!

Why even exercise?

They say that fat loss can be attributed to 80% diet and just 20% exercise. If that's the case, surely, if we eat right, we shouldn't really need to exercise. It's such a small part of it all anyway? Well, this may come as a shock to you, but not everything in life is about losing weight...

I don't know when it was that people started worrying more about their weight than their health. It's kind of ironic actually. A person can spend years fighting against the excess fat on their body; taking diet pills and drinking diet smoothies, eating processed "health" foods, starving themselves, doing liposuction, tummy tucks and all sorts of other horrific things to their body, all in the desperate pursuit of being a size 8. Then, thanks to all the trauma they have put their body through, they get cancer or diabetes or something else equally awful, and suddenly they question why their body is letting them down!

You only get one body. If you are going to spend your entire life trying to make it thinner, it is going to be a very sad life for you, and probably a much shorter one than you had hoped. A far more productive path to follow is the pursuit of health. The beauty of doing that is that everything takes care of itself without you having to stress about it. If you eat organic, free-range, chemical-free, REAL food, your body will be getting all the nutrients it needs and none of the rubbish it doesn't need. By default, you will lose excess body fat. If you exercise on a regular basis, your body will react even MORE positively by running at its peak performance. Everything will be operating the way it should and you will burn fat while you are sitting at your desk. It's a win/win really.

If you were wondering how exercise really makes that much of a difference to your body, well, here are some of the benefits:

• Lowers your risk of heart disease: Your heart is a muscle (in case you didn't know!) What happens when you exercise a muscle? It gets stronger. Exercising on a daily basis is going to considerably strengthen your heart, lower your blood pressure, raise your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (good cholesterol), improve the flow of blood around your body, and increase your heart's working capacity which means, if you push it a little too hard, it will cope and recover nicely, as opposed to a heart that ISN'T exercised, which will probably give in to a heart attack.
• Reduces stroke risk: Because exercise strengthens your heart, it improves the flow of blood through your body which lowers the chances of you developing blot clots in your arteries thereby reducing your risk of a stroke.
• Lowers high blood pressure: Regular exercise will lower your blood pressure if you suffer from abnormally high blood pressure levels. Obesity is also associated with high blood pressure so, if you lose weight from exercising, your blood pressure will naturally lower itself as well.
• Improves oxygen and nutrient supply to your cells: Exercise helps your body to run far more efficiently. Your heart is stronger so it can pump more blood to the cells in the body. A higher volume of blood means a higher volume of oxygen, because oxygen is transported by haemoglobin in the blood. This means more oxygen AND more nutrients are reaching the cells of your body, helping it to run more efficiently.
• Reduces your risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Overweight people are far more at risk of Type 2 Diabetes. If you exercise regularly, you will not only lose body fat, but you will also lower your risk of getting it AND exercise will also prevent diabetic complications for those already suffering from Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
• Reduces body fat: Following on from the previous point, exercise helps to reduce body fat by building muscle mass, helping to improve the body's ability to burn calories. Obesity is a major risk factor for MANY diseases. If you can lower your body fat, you immediately become healthier.
• Prevents osteoporosis: Regular weight-bearing exercise promotes bone formation and increases bone density and strength and will prevent bone loss associated with ageing.
• Improves muscle strength, joint function and osteoarthritis: The more lean mass (or muscle mass) you have on your body, the more body fat you will burn. Muscle strength is also going to benefit you in your daily life. Things like walking, running, climbing stairs, carrying bags or kids, all require muscle strength. If you don't have it, chances are good you will strain a muscle far easier than you would if you worked those muscles a bit. When you work your muscles, by default, you work your joints and this is very important in helping to prevent osteoarthritis. Working your joints encourages them to be healthier and more mobile. You have cartilage in all your joints, between your bones. Cartilage doesn't have its own blood supply to carry away waste products. It relies on the synovial fluid in the joint to carry it away. Exercises encourages the release of more synovial fluid into the joint. If you already have arthritis, be it rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, exercise will help you to manage it better.
• Exercise plays a role in preventing cancer: A large amount of cancer deaths are related to obesity and inactivity. When you exercise regularly, your body just runs more efficiently which will speed the passage of food through the colon, reducing the amount of time that any toxins are in your body. Overweight people also tend to have more insulin, which promotes the growth of tumours. For women, exercise reduces the level of oestrogen, which is a hormone linked to breast cancer. Women are exposed to a LOT of oestrogen these days via chemicals in food and any way that it can be lowered, will be hugely beneficial.
• Anti-ageing: Research has found that it isn't ageing that kills many elderly people, it's inactivity. Your chronological age doesn't have to be your biological age. If you are exercising, you are improving the flow of blood to your brain, which improves your memory and slows down the degeneration of the nervous system making you younger than you actually are.
• Reduces back pain: If you increase your muscle strength and endurance and improve your flexibility and posture, it will help your back pain. If you suffer from kyphosis, which is a rounded upper back, and you strengthen your back muscles, your shoulders will naturally start to pull themselves back and you will find your shoulders aren't quite so round anymore, and your neck and back aren't quite so stiff anymore.
• Good psychological effect: Regular exercise will improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself. Your body releases feel-good endorphins when you exercise, and raises your serotonin levels (the happy drug!) Researchers have found that exercise reduces depression and anxiety and helps you to manage your stress levels.
• Prevents insomnia: Exercise will help you to ease tension and relieve headaches and insomnia by releasing endorphins into your system. It also helps you to gain a sense of emotional wellbeing and a feeling of being more in control, which relaxes you.
• Fitness promotes faster recovery: When you are unfit and you exercise now and then, or never, you will find your body struggles to recover. You breathe heavily, you sweat more, your heart beats really fast and you are limited in what you can do. The fitter you get, the less out of breath you become, the slower your heart beats, the more you can do. The reason for this is a lot of the points I've made above: exercise promotes more blood flow which helps your body to run efficiently. It gets more oxygen and nutrients and so it can recover faster. This will apply to everything in your daily life. If you have to climb several flights of stairs you won't be gasping for air at the top. A woman who is fit and exercises regularly will find childbirth FAR easier, and she will recover much faster than someone who doesn't exercise. That, alone, is a good reason for women to exercise more!

There you have it, several reasons to exercise. I know it's hard to get motivated, but come on, you NEED to if you are going to be around for a nice long time. I know your family and friends would definitely prefer that! You also owe it to your body to treat it well. As I said, it's the only one you have!

Why we need to warm up, cool down and stretch when we exercise

So you have mastered a demanding, but effective, cross-training workout! Well done YOU;) But what happens if you don't warm up and cool down and stretch before and after that workout? Why is it so important to do all of those things? Well, I speak from experience when I say, skip the warm up and you'll probably be skipping gym for the next few weeks trying to recover from a strained muscle!

A few months ago we were learning some warm up drills in class. So, in case you don't know what usually happens when you put a bunch of fitness freaks, trainers and sports fanatics together in a room, I'll tell you! They all try to outdo each other;) We ended up timing each other and trying to beat each other's times which was rather silly for a bunch of professionals, given that we hadn't warmed up beforehand! By the end of the first drill I could feel that my thigh wasn't happy. But I stretched it out and carried on. By the third drill, when we had to run a race, I was stopped short, half way through, in agony. Whatever I'd started with the first drill, I'd pretty much driven home by the third drill. I'd pulled a muscle and the only thing that would heal that, was time. That put an end to any lower body workouts for at least 4 weeks, very frustrating for an exercise fanatic...

Stefan Terblanche warming up

THAT is why you need to warm up. If you go from standing still, to doing a jump squat, or even just fast walking, your muscles will get such a shock, you will likely strain something. Even the fittest of rugby players warm up before they run onto the field. No-one is exempt from the need to warm up.

Your body is highly intelligent. When you are just going about your every day life, it is determining exactly where to send blood flow, based on your needs. If you are sitting at a computer, not moving much, it won't be sending a large portion of it to your muscles, it'll be sending more to your digestive system and to your brain. When you exercise, your body sends more blood to your muscles enabling them to exert themselves, loosen up and become more flexible and capable of working effectively. Before you start to warm up, your muscles will be cold, and tight. If you make a sudden movement during that stage, your muscle won't be prepared for it, it'll have no flexibility, and it will, at best, take strain, and at worst, tear. You definitely want to avoid the pain and inconvenience of either of those options.

Another  advantage of warming up is that it improves your reflexes. Nerve impulses travel at a faster rate, at higher temperatures which means you'll be able to move faster, the warmer your muscles get. Increased blood flow also means more oxygen is available because oxygen is transported by the haemoglobin in your blood. More oxygen means more energy and less chance of muscle failure. That means you can work harder and more efficiently.

It's important to do a gradual warm up for obvious reasons. Dive head first into warming up and you will probably injure yourself before you even get to the main event. You don't want to shock your body into sending blood to flow to your muscles too rapidly, you want to slowly encourage it away from your digestive system and into your muscles. Warming up also helps to gradually increase the heart rate and ensure that the demand made on the circulatory and metabolic systems is gradual. It helps to improve neural function and co-ordination. It also signals your body to increase the supply of lubricating synovial fluid in your joints and thickens the articular cartilage which are your body's shock absorbers, something especially useful when you are running or jumping.

So you've warmed up, you've done your exercise and now you're ready to head home? Not yet I'm afraid! You haven't finished your exercise session until you've cooled down and stretched. But what exactly does a cool down mean and why is it so important?

Well, you know all that blood that you sent rushing to your muscles during your exercise? Just because you've stopped exercising doesn't mean it suddenly all resumes whatever it was doing before. It takes a bit of time for your body to realise that the situation has changed and you don't need so much blood going to your muscles anymore. Cooling down gradually awakens your body to the fact that blood is no longer needed in such great supply, in the muscles and it can send it back to the heart to be sent to other places that need it. If you don't cool down, the excess blood is going to just pool in your muscles and you increase your risk of feeling light headed and fainting because of decreased blood flow to the brain. Also, you don't want blood pooling in your legs too often. It can cause damage to the small veins eventually and varicose veins aren't pretty.

Your cool down should be low intensity and gradual as well. If you have been running at a fast pace, you need to gradually bring it down to a nice slow pace over the course of about 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on your heart rate and your breathing intensity. Once you are breathing normally, and your heart rate is down to about 80-90 beats per minute, you are probably adequately cooled down. But it doesn't end there either. As part of your cool down, you also need to stretch.

There are varying opinions out there about the importance of stretching. In my experience, and according to the study of exercise science, stretching IS of great benefit and necessary to your workout because it reduces the risk of injuries to your muscles in the longterm. Stretching should be done AFTER your workout and not before, unless you are ONLY doing stretching on that day, obviously. Contrary to popular belief, stretching before a workout doesn't add benefit to your workout UNLESS you have an existing injury. In that case, it's a good idea to gently stretch a previously injured muscle if you know it causes problems for you when you exercise. But, the two main reasons you wouldn't stretch all your muscles before a workout is; firstly, because stretching a cold muscle increases the risk of injuring it and secondly, because it slows muscle activation. That means that it will decrease muscle strength for up to an hour after you've stretched (which would basically mean you'd have decreased strength throughout the workout following that stretch). If you want to exercise to the best of your ability, stretching beforehand will hamper your workout by making you weaker.

When you exercise, your muscles contract and shorten. That's why, when you do a bicep curl, you see the raised bump of the muscle during the concentric contraction as in the image below.

Any exercises that you do will shorten your muscles, whether you are doing jumps or bicep curls. Stretching enables you to lengthen those muscles again, after exercise. If you don't stretch, your muscles will get tighter and tighter and, the end result of that, is you lose flexibility and range of motion. The more flexible you are, the easier you will find it to exercise, the less chance there is of you injuring a muscle or joint. There is another, rather important side benefit to stretching: it can significantly reverse hardening of the arteries which decreases risk of a heart attack. Yoga is especially beneficial in this case.

The basic rules of stretching are that you never force a muscle to stretch, you do it slowly and gradually, and only as much as the muscle can handle. Over time, flexibility will improve, but it is a gradual process and shouldn't be forced. Never make any fast movements while stretching. Start it slowly, and end it slowly, easing your muscle back to its original position. I've often seen people bouncing while stretching. Don't do it. There is a good chance of hurting that muscle and you're not really stretching it properly if you bounce. Just pull your muscle gently, and hold it, then ease it back. Rule of thumb is to stretch all the muscles you have worked during a workout, and to hold each stretch for about 15-20 seconds. Stretching shouldn't be a comfortable feeling! The point of it is to stretch a muscle, which is uncomfortable! But it shouldn't be painful. You should just feel the stretch. If you can't feel much, push a little more.

Some basic stretches to get you started

All of this sounds like a mission, but, in reality, doesn't take that long if you work efficiently. Our entire workout, from warm up to stretching, takes us 45 minutes. You shouldn't need to spend hours in a gym. If you are, you're doing something wrong, especially if you aren't seeing any changes. As long as you spend 45 minutes challenging your body in ways it isn't accustomed to, it will reward you by getting fitter, slimmer, stronger and healthier. The key is to working smarter, not harder.

Here's to a fitter, slimmer, stronger, MORE flexible YOU!

Intelligent versus unintelligent exercising

We actually love to gym on weekends or while we're on holiday! Some would say we're crazy;) But, the nice thing about gymming on a public holiday is that it's so quiet. I actually love it! That's the same reason that gymming in winter is always far easier for me than in summer. Yes, it's cold. But you warm up within about 5 minutes of getting there AND it's so quiet that you can have a proper workout without having to adjust your programme because there is a queue for every cardio machine in the gym and all the free weights are being used. But what do you do if ALL the machines are being used and you are at a loss for something to actually DO; something that will make your gym visit more worthwhile than just getting a few vitality points! (I know all about those of you who do the boomerang move. Swipe your card, go through the turnstile and then straight back out of the other turnstile! The only person you are cheating is yourself there, but you know that;) But I digress... All of your favourite machines are being used and you have NO idea what to do... what then?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of the machines in a health club. They serve their purpose for those who are inexperienced, and, in that regard, they are probably a good starting point. But if you stick with those for the rest of your gymming days, you will start to see fewer results as time goes by. As I said in my previous exercise post, if you don't challenge your body, it will become accustomed to what you are doing and it will respond by plateauing. You won't see or experience any changes in your shape or size after a few weeks. What usually happens then is that you become frustrated because you feel like you are doing all this work and getting no reward. You also get bored! So you start slacking off, finding it easier to just stay home, under a blanket on the couch and you do the boomerang move twice a month to ensure your gym contract stays active.

Of course, as you've probably read in a magazine, ANY activity is better than no activity at all. So why shouldn't you just do the usual thing every time you go to the gym? At least you don't look stupid because you KNOW what you're doing, AND it's easier than having to try and figure out a new workout. You don't really know what you would do if you changed your routine because you don't know what exercise works which muscle, so it's best to just stick with what you know. But, as I said, if you have no choice BUT to change it, because the gym is busy and everything is being used, what then? I've actually figured out some of my best exercises by being forced to try something new. I go to a gym to work out and I get really frustrated if I get there and everything I planned, has gone awry because of all the people! What that makes me do, is try harder! So I find something new, and probably even MORE challenging to do;) I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say?

There is intelligent training, and there is unintelligent training:

Which would you say is which here? Personally, I think the body on the right looks far healthier than the body on the left. Granted, the woman on the right is big, but look how BALANCED everything is as opposed to the woman on the left who has almost NO thighs to speak of. Her shoulders are way bigger than her biceps and triceps and she just looks unhealthy to me. Some of you, I know, think that skinny is better. Firstly, I just think it's unappealing, and secondly, it's not healthy. How is a body supposed to maintain itself? She looks like a strong breeze would snap her! The woman on the right exercises intelligently. She will maintain her sporting career for a lot longer, and with less injury, than the woman on the left. But how does she do it? She cross trains, she does exercises that mimic natural movement, and she does compound exercises that work her whole body.

I'm a real fan of crossfit-training and compound exercises. What does that mean? Well, I don't believe that you should go to a gym and JUST do isolation exercises like bicep curls and leg extensions. I believe in doing exercises that work several muscles groups at the same time, in fact, in most cases, they work your WHOLE body at the same time, WHILE working you aerobically as well. Most of the machines at the gym are designed for isolation exercises. Isolation exercises are used when you focus only on biceps, or triceps, or stomach, or calves etc. Unless you are religious about your gym visits, you are going to end up missing days, and body parts, and it's really difficult to get the balance right and work all your muscles equally. How many times have you seen guys at the gym who have massive upper bodies, and upper legs, and TEENY TINY little calf muscles?

Erm, I don't even know WHAT to say...

This is the problem with working your muscles separately. This is not intelligent exercising! A lot of people get a bit obsessed with working certain muscles. I love to work biceps and triceps.  When I first started doing weights, that's all I did, really, because I didn't know what else to do and because it made me feel good and I thought it would give my arms a nice shape. The downside is that the rest of my body was neglected. Biceps and triceps won't look like anything special unless your shoulders are ALSO developed but I didn't know that at the time. Granted, I was never going to get huge biceps and triceps doing things the way I was doing! But what's the point of exercising only 2 muscle groups?! Don't tell me you don't do the same thing... I know some of you are guilty;)

Another point is that exercise should mimic natural movement. How natural are some of the movements you make when you're working the machines at gym? I'd say little to none of them! They aren't making your body strong, really. They might give it a bit of shape, but you'll only be stronger with THAT particular movement. If you had to defend yourself, those bicep curls you do daily, won't get you very far. You know those big, beefy guys you see at the gym? They look strong, don't they? Well, I'd love to see one of them take on a karate champ with a black belt. Have you seen the body of an elite athlete with a black belt in karate? It's pretty much perfectly formed. Every muscle is defined and everything is in perfect proportion. They may be smaller than the big guys you see at gym, but I guarantee they will be stronger, and faster. They do exercises that work their WHOLE body, they use their own body weight, and they do movements that you would make naturally, if, for example, you needed to defend yourself. Their exercising incorporates movement that takes power and power is FAR more useful in life, combined with strength, than just having strength on its own. Most of you watched Karate Kid;)

Who is going to get there faster? No question really.

So, if you go to gym and it's packed, and you need to make a plan to do a workout, what are your options? Well, there are several actually. If you have some knowledge of a few cross training exercise options, you can have a comprehensive and effective workout. We pretty much do this kind of workout every day, no matter what machines are available, simply because it's better to exercise smart, and get more bang for our buck! GLM often says, "Are we ever going to do a normal gym session again?" and my answer is, this IS a normal gym session. What we were doing before was based on my limited knowledge of exercise. Now that I've studied exercise and anatomy, I am better equipped to design effective exercise programmes and I have a better idea of what we should be doing and I don't see the point in working on certain muscles exclusively, when you can work your entire body at the same time and get better results. Crossfit is the new buzzword in the training industry but, honestly, people have been doing it in different forms for years. It just didn't have a copyrighted name to label it with;)

With the following workout, the most important thing is getting your form right. It's pointless doing an exercise if you are going to do it wrong. For one thing, it won't do what it's meant to do, for another, you will likely end up hurting yourself or pulling a muscle.

In the bicep curl above on the left, she is doing it right. She is only using her biceps to pull the weight up. On the right, she is basically using her back to pull the weight up so she is exercising the wrong muscle and could potentially hurt her back. It would be better to not do the exercise at all then to do it the way she is doing it. Spend some time watching the videos below BEFORE you try this workout. Do the moves in the privacy of your home a few times to get some confidence. Once you are ready, start with VERY light weights until you feel confident that you have got all the moves down.

All-over Cross Training Workout

(A word of advice: If you are a complete novice, I wouldn't recommend trying this just yet. You will need to start with those gym machines and build up a bit of strength and fitness first!)

You will need:

An aerobic step

A rocket bag (weight will be dependent on your abilities. Start light and work your way up as your strength increases) You can also use a barbell for this exercise.

A kettlebell (again weight will be dependent on your abilities. Start light and work your way up as your strength increases)

A heart rate monitor would be preferable but it's not essential. You need to keep track of how you are feeling though. If you are struggling, take a break. The more you do this workout, the better you will become at  it, the lower your heart rate will be.

Because you are a newbie at this workout, you will start with 6 repetitions of each exercise, all in a row. Once you've completed a round of 6 of EACH exercise, you will then do 5 of each exercise, then 4, 3, 2 and finally 1 with as little rest in between as possible.

Kettlebell swings

(This video has really loud music so turn down the volume if you are going to watch it in your office!!)

Watch the video and practice it a few times to get your form right. This exercise is FANTASTIC for an all-over body workout. You can see how it works her muscles in her arms when she removes her pullover. It works your core, it works your legs, it's overall really good for balance and stability and, provided you do it right, it will strengthen your back and probably get rid of any backache you may be experiencing when you run. (It fixed mine up!)

Once you've done 6 of those in a row, immediately go into the next exercise.

Plyometric Jumps

These you'll start with a normal height aerobic step but, over time, you will need to make them higher to keep challenging yourself. 

Once you've done 6 of those in a row, immediately go into the next exercise.

Jump Squats

These you will eventually do with the rocket bag on your shoulders, but for starters, do them without any extra weight added. Be sure to get your form right. When you squat, always focus on keeping your weight on your heels, your butt out, your chest out and your head upright and facing forward. Watch the video carefully to see the proper form for a squat.

If you watch to the end of this video you will see how his form changes as the exercise gets harder to do. At that point he could do himself some damage and that's why form is so important. It's better to use a lighter weight, or stop, if you find yourself not managing to do it right.

Once you have completed all of these exercises, go back and do 5 of each of them, then 4, then 3, all the way down to 1. The whole workout shouldn't take you longer than 20 minutes. If it is, you are resting too long. Allow yourself no more than 30 seconds rest after you complete a round of all the 3 different exercises.

All of these exercises are compound exercises. You are working several muscles at once, even though it seems like it's mostly your legs! Your legs WILL feel wobbly after this;) But you are also working pretty much every muscle in your body AND you are getting a cardio workout at the same time. They are all GREAT for your core. You will achieve a six pack far quicker with a workout like this than you will doing endless stomach crunches! The key to ALL of these exercises is to keep your stomach muscles nice and tight. No wobbling around while doing everything. Focus on keeping your body centred and balanced to make your workout more effective and to prevent injury. As you get better at this workout, increase the amount of repetitions until you can do 10 repetitions all the way down to 1, with very little rest. You must also increase the height of your aerobic step as you get better at it, and increase the kettle bell and rocket bag weight as well.

Always start any workout with a warm up. For this workout I recommend getting on a treadmill and walking at an easy pace for about 2 minutes, then up your incline to about 6 and walk at the same pace for another 2 minutes, then up your incline one more time to about 8 and do another 2 minutes. Go immediately into your workout while your heart rate is still up so you don't rest too long. It's also really important to cool down afterwards as well. I'll go a bit more into why tomorrow! A gentle 10 minute walk on the treadmill, or a cycle, or on the cross trainer will be good for that. Finally, remember to stretch. I will go into more detail tomorrow about why this is all so important.

Good luck and I'd love to hear any feedback about how things went!

Wait... weights? Really?!

Have you ever taken note of how many females there are in the cardio section of a gym, compared to the males, and, transversely, the amount of males in the free weights section of a gym compared to the females? It's like there is some unspoken rule that says women should rather use the cardio machines, but the men should rather use the weights, with very few exceptions. When I was a newbie gymmer, I used to be terrified of crossing the border into the male-dominated area that was the free weights section, even though I was itching to. When I finally did, I got more than a few sneers, and condescending offers of assistance and "friendly" warnings not to drop a weight on their heads! It's no wonder women keep their distance!

I made a decision to never take any offered help and to prove them all wrong by being able to lift heavy weights right alongside the best of them. Ok, so I was never going to bench press 120kgs! But I did eventually manage to leg press 160kgs and that shut a lot of the naysayers up;)

Hehe...

That's just me! I get rather annoyed with chauvinism and I find it hard to just ignore it. Besides which, if you tell me "I can't" then I WILL, just to prove you wrong. I'm stubborn like that;)

But seriously, I think there are three main reasons why women stick with cardio machines and avoid weights. One: It is a bit intimidating to walk into the weights section when you are not sure what you are supposed to be doing and you don't want people to realise you're actually clueless. It's safer to just stick with what you know. Two: You have been told, and you've read in many magazines, that LOTS of cardio is the best way to burn fat and so you prefer to do what "works". So your gym session consists of 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the stair climber and 20 minutes on the bike, ie. lots and lots of cardio. Three: You are a woman and you prefer to look like one. You don't want to turn big and muscular like a man.

There you have it folks!

I can relate to, and acknowledge the first reason, but two and three are complete fallacies and I'll tell you why.

As far as the second reason goes, if you do all of those cardio machines, for an hour, every day of the week, you will burn some fat, there's no question. But if you keep doing the same thing day in and day out, your body is going to get rather accustomed to that kind of movement and you will eventually hit a wall. After that, you can carry on running until the free-range cows come home, but not much is going to change except that, eventually, your joints are going to complain bitterly from all the pounding away on that treadmill. So, if you have been doing the same thing at the gym for a year, and wondered why you still look the same, that's why!

As far as the third reason goes, honey, if body builders could build muscle as easily as YOU think you can, they'd just do what you do and forget about the hectic diets, and the supplements, and the hours, upon days, upon weeks, upon months, upon years that they spend in a gym to get the bodies that they have! It's not going to happen to you, I promise. Women aren't predisposed to building loads of muscle. Believe me, I tried! I was pushing some seriously heavy weights and I still have little peas for biceps;) Unless you are an elite athlete, you can cast that worry aside right now.

Now, as far as the first reason goes, the one that I can relate to, I get it! I do. But, at some point you are going to have to bite the bullet and give it a shot. Get yourself a gym partner who has at least SOME idea of weights so you don't have to go it alone. If necessary, sign up with a personal trainer for a month just to show you the ropes and make you feel like you can survive the free weights jungle alone.

Some of you are saying, "Why should I bother? The experts say the main thing is to keep moving and I'm moving on a treadmill!" True. You are. But exercise is not about focusing on ONE component. You don't only run or walk in life, do you? Think about natural movement.  It involves carrying stuff and picking up things and sometimes there's jumping and dancing and bending over and twisting to the side while picking up stuff. It all depends on what you are doing but I bet you do most of those movements in an average week? I believe that exercise should mimic (as close as possible) the movements we make often in our daily lives and that will make us better equipped to handle things in our daily lives, for a lot longer than it would if all we did was run.

For example, a pregnant woman towards the middle and end of her pregnancy, is going to be carrying a heavy weight in front of her for several months. She should be focusing on strengthening her back, to avoid backache and strengthening her leg muscles to allow for the extra weight they will be carrying as well. And once she has had that child, pretty much the rest of her days will be spent doing everything with one hand while she holds a child in the other. That means strengthening her arms to equip her for that as well. Carrying a baby chair, with a baby in it, and trying to hold your older child's hand while you try to get somewhere, is NOT easy. Most women I know are going to be, or are already, moms. Wouldn't it be good to actually be able to carry all that stuff from the get-go, without feeling like you are going to die of exhaustion? Also, if your job involves you travelling a lot, and carrying heavy luggage, shouldn't you be working on your arm strength? Lifting that bag into the overhead compartment isn't easy and there isn't always a strong man around to help! One of my main motivations for getting stronger was that I had heavy music equipment to lug around and I point blank refused to wait for a strong man to come along and help! Those speakers way a TON. SO That is just a couple of examples, but hopefully you get where I am going with this?

There is another, very important reason, to start doing some weight-bearing exercises. One word: Osteoporosis. There is no GOOD reason why so many women should be getting osteoporosis, except that they don't do weights. Doctors will tell you to take calcium supplements. I personally believe that you should be eating a diet that gives you enough calcium through nutrient-dense food. It IS possible to do. BUT, what doctors should also be telling you is that, if you don't challenge your muscles, and your bones, by making them work hard, and often, your bones will eventually start being reabsorbed by your body until you are pretty much left with shells and that is when they become brittle and break easily. At best, you will have a terribly rounded back, at worst, a broken hip.

It's a well known fact that women suffer from osteoporosis more than men. We have our hormones to thank for that. But I believe a large part of the reason is also that women never do weight bearing exercises. In the past, they had a big strong man to carry and lift and they never had to lift a finger. Muscle, on a woman, wasn't attractive. These days women are more independent, but they are still not doing any carrying and lifting because they believe they don't need muscles, they just need to do cardio because now it's all about being skinny.

Let me explain what happens when you do weights in an easy nutshell. If you challenge your muscles by lifting weights, you actually cause microscopic tears to happen in your muscle. It sounds awful, I know. But by damaging them, you challenge them to, not only repair themselves, but to grow bigger and stronger. The same applies to your bones, because muscles are attached to bones and bones would not be able to move if it wasn't for muscles. When you lift a weight, the bone attached to your muscle, also takes strain. Your body is very intelligent. It acknowledges that more strength is going to be needed in the future to be able to do that again and handle it better. So your bones make themselves stronger to compensate. If your bones are constantly being challenged, they will keep growing strong and you will, more than likely, not end up with osteoporosis.

Here's another good reason to do weights: Have you ever noticed how men just have less body fat than women? That's largely because they have more muscle than women. Muscle is metabolic, fat isn't. If you have more muscle than fat, on your body, your body will literally burn fat while you are sitting down. So men can eat what they want, and look the same, for many years, until the beers start to catch up and the muscle starts to disappear. It doesn't stay forever if you don't maintain it. That's why men will, eventually, start to gain weight no matter how thin they were when they were younger. It just starts a bit later in life for them. For women, it starts in their 20s because, let's face it, they had almost NO muscle to start with. So they will start gaining fat as soon as their metabolism starts to slow down, which usually starts in their late 20s. You need to keep that metabolism burning by building some muscle!

When I say you need to do weights, I don't mean just do a few butt crunches and stomach crunches, also favourites of women! Doing stomach crunches won't give you a flat stomach I promise! You need to do exercises that are going to hurt a bit. Have you ever done walking lunges and then tried to walk normally the next day? Can anyone say John Wayne;) You are going to have to strain yourself a bit to feel the benefits. If you don't challenge your muscles, there isn't much point. Your body will not feel the need to improve itself in any way and will stay the same.

It all sounds complicated but it's not really that complicated. I will spend the next few days giving you some pointers. If you are stuck, you are more than welcome to come to me for some personal training and I will get you started;)

Humans beings were born to move. We weren't meant to be sedentary, and yet, so many of us are. It's all very well to say that you don't like exercise, but really, you don't have too much of a choice if you want to live a long, healthy life.

Need I say more?

I like to move it, move it!

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to exercise. Ironically, I've never been the sporty type. I was terrible at ALL sports at school. I'm not a team player, I can't run fast, I can't catch a ball and I had have very thin, weak wrists. That pretty much meant my only extracurricular choices were the choir and guitar lessons. (time well spent I think!) But can anyone say, "Nerd?!" Needless to say, I didn't move around much, aside from walking to and from school. I was fortunate enough to be blessed with my father's fast metabolism and so, despite being mostly sedentary, and having a voracious appetite, I never really gained weight.

Can anyone say, "Skinny?!"

That all changed when I hit my late 20s! All of a sudden it was like I couldn't even LOOK at food without it finding its way to my hips. (Read yesterday's post to get a better understanding of what most people incorrectly call, the ageing process.) I had actually been gymming for many years by that stage. When I was about 18, my older sister persuaded my parents to take out a family contract at the new Health and Racquet gym opening in Westville (remember those?!) I wasn't much of a gym fanatic, and I had very little clue as to what I was doing, but I went fairly regularly. Still, it was only when I suddenly had a weight gain issue that I actually started paying close attention to the exercise I was doing and the fact that it WASN'T WORKING.

I signed on with a personal trainer for a couple of months and I paid attention to what he showed me. I learnt a bit, but I found he wasn't really listening to what I actually wanted and so I decided to go my own way. I became an avid reader of fitness magazines and I made friends with fitness instructors at the gym and I watched personal trainers and gradually, I started learning the right form and the best exercises to achieve certain aims.

I became obsessed, often exercising twice a day, doing an hour of cardio and then an hour of weights but STILL the extra body fat refused to disappear. I was getting stronger and stronger, focusing a lot more on weights than cardio (I get so BORED with cardio!!) By the time I shot my music videos for my second album, Unspoken Truth, people were jokingly calling me Madonna, and it wasn't due to my music success so much as it was to the biceps and triceps I was developing;)

My gym partner thought he was pretty funny taking this pic!

It was only when I made a decision, finally, to study exercise science, that things started to change. Studying coincided with our going organic and I am 100% sure that one complimented the other. After several years of exercising, the last, stubborn bits of body fat began to melt away. Hooray! Ironically, I was back down to exercising once a day, sometimes only 3 times a week.

So why, when I was exercising less, did the body fat decide to finally shift? Well, for one thing, I was finally realising the power of food over my body shape and size, and for another, I was exercising smarter, rather than harder. 

Over the years, my fascination with food has taken me down many different roads, but I never quite GOT it until I learnt the true meaning of real, organic food. I bought everything that was labelled "health food" and "low-fat" and I mistakenly thought I was doing everything right. Yet I was still feeling unhealthy (I kept getting sick) and I wasn't losing any body fat despite exercising like a demon.

Studying exercise science finally helped me to learn the proper way to exercise. I wasn't doing too badly in some areas, but in others, I was WAY off track. I found it fascinating to learn how the body actually works, from the tiniest of cells, to the blood vessels, muscles and bones. I realised that it wasn't one thing or another that was going to change my body, it was a COMBINATION of things. 

Going organic made me take an even closer look at my body and its functions and I realised that I was almost putting in TOO much effort when it should've been so simple. I didn't need to go and hunt out the "healthiest" health foods, and I didn't need to count every calorie and weigh everything, I didn't need to avoid fat, it wasn't about my blood type and it wasn't about eating strictly every 3 hours. It was simply about eating real, organic, whole foods and nothing else.

The minute I started giving my body what it needed, the exercise I was doing started paying off. The fat literally melted off and has stayed off. My exercise routine has changed as well. Now I exercise my body as a whole, rather than isolating certain muscles. It will take years of work and MANY exercises to focus on each individual muscle and, frankly, my days of spending 2 hours in a gym are over. I have a life to live! I love to gym, but I don't love it as much as I love to spend time with my GLM. We gym together, granted, but we are usually surrounded by loud, sweaty males... Need I say more?

We have talked a fair amount about food and health in the last few weeks, so, I think it's time we talk exercise! The next couple of blogs will be focused on exercise and why it is so necessary, but also, how to do it so that it doesn't take over your life, but you STILL feel the benefits of it.

Until tomorrow!

Are all the signs of ageing inevitable?

I've lost count of how many times I've heard people around me talk about their aching joints or their gradual weight gain in the last few years or their lack of energy and their loss of muscle and the comments are always followed by a sigh and the phrase, "I'm getting old I guess. It had to happen sometime." Have you noticed how some of those people actually seem to feel almost happy that they can blame all of those afflictions on the fact that they are getting old? They always say it with a smile! I guess it probably makes things easier to have a scapegoat. Honestly, I think, the phrase, "I'm getting old," is a bit of a copout. It moves any possible blame off of your shoulders, and onto Father Time's.

There is no question that we are all getting older. We start out, as little kids, with truckloads of energy. Everything we do as kids, we do at 110%, be it playing, eating, sleeping or learning. Kids have a naturally higher metabolism than adults because they are doing some serious growing. That means they burn energy faster and they recover faster and, unless you are feeding them tons of rubbish, they don't get fat BECAUSE they are on the go, all the time. An overweight child is a child being fed too much of the wrong foods and sitting around too much. Kids should be using whatever they eat, to fuel their ever-moving, ever-growing bodies. It shouldn't be turning to fat at this stage of their lives.

As we get older, things start to change. Most people tend to think that the body shape changes we experience over the years, are inevitable. For a lot of people, it is, these days. We are usually at our thinnest, growing up, and that mostly remains when we are in our early 20s. But, as you hit the late 20s, and then the 30s, things start to change without you really realising. You kind of know something isn't quite right, but you keep saying, "It's just because I haven't been eating right. I'll eat better from Monday and things will go back to normal." That doesn't quite sort the problem out, and, all of a sudden you have gained 8kgs and they just won't shift.

Along with the weight gain comes a sudden decrease in energy and fitness. The stairs you used to be able to run up, two at a time, suddenly seem difficult when you WALK them, one at a time. You can't carry as heavy objects as you used to, your muscle definition seems to have gone down a bit. It's a gradual process, and you hardly notice at first, but, eventually, it creeps into your subconscious and the reality can be quite a blow. Suddenly,one day, you think to yourself, "I'm getting older.  That must be it! It had to happen sometime!" And then you carry on because now you have an EXCUSE and that makes it ok for most folks.

As an exercise specialist, we get given risk factors to look out for when we want to train someone. One of the main risk factors is age. If a person is over a certain age, they need a doctor's approval to train. That applies to ALL older, or elderly, people. Given how the last couple of generations have aged, I can see why age would be a risk factor. Most elderly people these days have hyperkyphosis, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure, alzheimer's and diabetes type 2, to name a FEW. We all consider most of these diseases a fairly natural part of ageing.

But why should we? A few generations ago, these things weren't NORMAL. They weren't even heard of. The weight gain, the loss of energy and muscle mass, the aching joints and the diseases are NOT an inevitability of ageing, they are an inevitability of the lifestyle that most South Africans are choosing to live.

Human beings were meant to move, but very few of us do. A by-product of civilisation is that people don't need to move much anymore. We walk a few metres to our car, we sit and drive to our destination, then we walk the few metres to the lift, catch it to the 2nd floor, and walk to a desk, where we sit for 7 or so hours and then we repeat that in reverse, to get home and sit on our couch watching TV until we lie down on a bed and sleep. Not much movement happening there at all! When we are kids, our metabolism is so fast that, even while we are sitting, we are burning fuel. But, as we get older, that metabolism slows down if we don't give it reason to keep its momentum. The problem with our metabolism slowing down is, we are still eating the same stuff, only, now there is too much of it to be used for fuel, and so it goes into storage, on our hips, thighs and stomach mostly!

Can you say, "Couch Potato?"

To make it worse, the food we are eating is all wrong. A few generations back, we not only moved around a lot more, but we also ate proper food. Not the processed, pesticide-ridden, genetically modified rubbish lining the shelves of grocery stores; we ate meat from animals that were allowed to range free and eat their natural diets. We ate fruit and vegetables grown in a garden without pesticides, in nutrient-rich soil that transferred its nutrients to the fruits and vegetables, and to our bodies. Nothing was made in a science lab, everything was wholesome and natural and real.

The POSSIBLE inevitable signs of ageing are graying hair, thinner skin and perhaps hearing and sight loss due to over-exposure to loud noises and too much computer work or television. Gaining weight, lossing fitness, aching joints, muscle loss, kyphosis, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes type 2, heart disease, alzheimer's and osteoporosis are NOT inevitabilities of ageing. They are inevitabilities of your lifestyle. If you don't exercise, if you don't eat real, organic food, if you live on processed food and chemicals, if you smoke, you WILL experience all of those inevitabilities and the only reason it happens when you're older, is because a body can only take so much abuse before it starts to give in. If you repeatedly beat on a wall with a hammer, the plaster will eventually crack. Our bodies are no different. When you look after your body, you give it the tools to repair itself, when you DON'T, it will start to give in.

Sound harsh? I guess it IS a harsh reality. But I think it's better to know the truth because you can WORK with it.

Before you allow yourself to give in to the "inevitabilities" of aging, try a lifestyle change, preferably sooner rather than later. Prevention IS really better than cure!

Why cholesterol is actually good for you

I often get asked what causes high cholesterol and high sugar and what can be done about it. Believe it or not, the two of them are actually connected in a way and, if you fix one, chances are good you're going to fix the other. Out of the two of them, the only one you really should be concerned about, is the suger. The reality is that cholesterol itself, is NOT bad for you. In fact, your body needs it in order to function normally.

Cholesterol became a popular buzz-word round about the time that saturated fats became the enemy and low-fat diets became trendy. The best thing, according to everyone and their doctors, was to have as low cholesterol as possible. Well, like the low-fat diet, we have been misinformed! Eggs, butter, red meat, full cream dairy; they've all gotten a bad rap when it comes to our health. According to "experts", they are all just so bad for you, you need to stop eating ALL of them. Instead, you need to eat more grains and carbs. In other words, more sugar?!

Well, people are doing that and, guess what? More people are dying of heart attacks then EVER before. So how's that workin' for ya? Let's take a closer look at what cholesterol is really, and perhaps we'll have a better understanding of it.

When a woman gives birth to a baby, the first milk that her body will produce, is called colostrum.  For those who didn't know, colostrum is essential to your baby's development. It is considered your baby's first vaccine because it contains so many antibodies. It is also extremely high in cholesterol...

What?!?!?!

However, if you know what cholesterol is used for, then that would make all the sense in the world because cholesterol is used to help produce cell membranes, blood vessels, vitamin D and bile acids. You have cholesterol in your body all the time because it is helping to build it up. You can see why a baby would need it, but can you also see why YOU would need it? While a baby may have slightly more specific needs than us, we are not that different. We are still human and our bodies are always regenerating, as long as they have the tools to regenerate WITH. Take away the tools, and you are going to end up with any number of problems.

If you go to a doctor, and they tell you that you have high cholesterol, that doesn't immediately suggest that there is something wrong with you. First of all, high HDL (high density lipoprotein) which is considered the good cholesterol by conventional doctors, is indeed good, and necessary, for everyone. HDL takes excess cholesterol in your body, and transports it back to the liver. LDL (low density lipoprotein) is known as the "bad" cholesterol by conventional doctors. LDL takes cholesterol from your liver and transports it to the rest of the body. So, we can deduce from that, that both HDL and LDL are not actually cholesterol so much as "transporters" of cholesterol, right? Now, there are also TWO types of LDL: the big fluffy kind, which you don't need to worry about, and the small, dense kind, which MAY be more cause for concern and I'll explain why in a bit.

The problem is, most blood tests don't distinguish between HDL and LDL, never mind the two different types of LDL so, more than likely, the reading you are getting, is not telling you the whole story. It is one of my biggest issues with Discovery Vitality's health assessment. A finger prick test gives you the total of ALL your cholesterol levels, not a breakdown of good and bad. Penalising you points-wise, based on that, is simply incorrect and it can cause unnecessary worry as well.

If you have high cholesterol, it is a symptom of some underlying problem in your body. It ISN'T the cause of the problem. Cholesterol gets sent TO the problem areas to try and alleviate said problem. If there is inflammation in the arteries, cholesterol will be sent to the artery to help heal the inflammation. If it's successful, everything will return to normal. But, when the inflammation doesn’t subside, more cholesterol is sent and it eventually starts to accumulate around the artery. This is where the small, dense LDL will pose a problem because that's when plaque starts to form and that, as we know, is going to cause all kinds of trouble.

So you can see that cholesterol is sent to treat a problem, not to cause it. The root of the problem is actually the inflammation. What is that caused by: High levels of insulin, and high levels of insulin are caused by excessive carb (sugar) consumption, as well as excessive transfats and vegetable oil consumption. Can you see the link here between high sugar and high cholesterol? If you fix one, the other will likely balance out.

Getting a pill from your doctor isn't going to fix the problem. You knew I'd say that though;) Pills don't fix problems. They just mask symptoms. While the pill may lower your cholesterol, it won't stop the inflammation around your arteries. Whether you lower your cholesterol or not, you will STILL be sick and in danger of something going horribly wrong. The great irony is that, if you lower your cholesterol by cutting it out of your diet, or by taking pills, your body will simply MAKE its own cholesterol, because it needs it to function. If you eat cholesterol, your body won't need to compensate and so it won't make more.

So how can you fix both of these issues? It's actually so easy and, if you've read all my blog posts (if you haven't, start here and work your way through) you already have the tools! As I've said before, you really ARE what you eat. The only way you are going to lower your sugar levels, is to start eating REAL food. Cut out ALL processed foods. If you aren't sure what that means, read up here. Go through your cupboards and throw out anything that you have bought from the middle shopping aisles in a grocery store. That means all this stuff.

If it has to list ingredients on the packaging, you shouldn't be eating it. It's not real food. It's food made in a science lab and it's loaded with sugar, transfats and vegetable oils; all the things that will raise your sugar levels and cause inflammation throughout your body. The only way you are going to lower your sugar and inflammation is to go back to grass roots. Start eating good, wholesome food. That means anything that was grown in a field, the natural way, without pesticides and chemicals to make it grow faster or out of season. Eat meat or eggs or dairy from an animal that has been allowed to range free and eat its natural food rather than genetically modified grains; animals that haven't been pumped full of hormones to make them grow faster; and animals that haven't been pumped full of antibiotics to try and cure the horrible diseases they get from being held in such cramped, unhealthy quarters.

Real, organic food is not only GOOD for you, it's healing and it will heal you faster than any pill, or anything labelled as "health food", ever could. If none of this is making sense to you then I urge you to read the rest of my blog posts. I have spoken about all of this ad nauseum so it's pointless repeating myself, although I probably am anyway;) There is NOTHING else that is going to lower your sugar levels and regulate your cholesterol permanently. But remember, high cholesterol isn't a bad thing unless it is being sent out to fix a bad problem. Once you fix that problem, you lower your cholesterol to acceptable levels again, and you will be good to go! If your doctor tells you your cholesterol is high, ask them for a breakdown of the types of cholesterol. That will give you the tools you need to fix the problem IF there is a problem at all.

My advice? Fix your sugar by fixing your food intake, and you will fix yourself. Give it a try for a few weeks. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!