Nutrition

Probably the biggest and yet least understood topic when it comes to health, fitness and wellbeing. To try and summarise it in a blog is a big challenge so I'm going to avoid specifics and instead, look at some common sense principes that can help.

Well, firstly, correct me if I'm wrong but the general perception of food now is luxury, comfort and taste but essentially food is fuel and should be seen as this. The problem is that we've developed as a race to now modify taste, growth, genetic make up and pretty much any aspect of food stuff for the benefit of convenience and satisying seemingly sweeter tooth.

Don't get me wrong, food should be enjoyed but also understood. Like the body of any other creature, the human body is a machine. And just like a machine, it requires the right types of fuel and nutrients to operate properly and effectively. The mystery of nutrition breaks down into not just figuring out what foods work well for you, but also when to eat and how. I'm not suggesting that we all eat like primates but looking at the eating habits of animals helps understand how the body is intended to take on fuel. With food being overly available nowadays (certainly in the western world) it can be a challenge to know when to eat. Generally, the wild habit of a creature is to hunt, eat and sleep. This just doesn't really equate to modern lifestyle as checking emails and blogging doesn't fit into this. However, we can draw from these principles. One key is that eating comes after the hunt which in modern terms is exercise and any efforts that expend considerable amounts of energy. Food is there to refuel, repair and revitalise. This in my experience is one of the biggest problems with many people's nutrition. It seems to be a common belief that doing exercise just burns calories and so eating afterwards would be crazy as that was the entire purpose for exercising. It doesn't work like this. The body can only store a very limited supply of readily available calories and with exercising essentially being damage, without replacing, refuelling and repairing, proteins and nutrients are taken from muscles and other body cells which then leave the body open to all kinds of problems.

Just like you wouldn't try and fuel your car on lemonade, you wouldn't knowingly want to try and run your body on something that just did it harm. Well, maybe this is something to think about when putting items into your trolley. Here's a few simple suggestions to help get the right foods for you:

1. Only eat things that were once living (I know Mars is a planet but that's no excuse)
2. Don't go to the super market when you're hungry
3. Eat fresh as much as possible
4. Plan your meals - bored of eating the same foods? google foods beginning with...(go through the alphabet)
5. Make you plate as colourful as wonka-land with fresh foods
6. Don't leave huge gaps between meals
7. Continually sip plenty of water
8. Sit down to enjoy your meals and try to eat in company when possible

It is a few pointers and Jenny would be happy to give you more specific support if you'd like to find out more jenny@creatingchaos.co.uk

Phill and Jenny

Drink your way to a thinner waist line

I must apologise for the constant reference to weight loss, I'm just very aware that when talking about health related things, relating it to something that people want really helps people engage in what is being said. In the world that we live in, weight loss is by far the biggest goal on a fitness level for most people. You only have to pop to your nearest newsagents to see that many front pages on tabloids and publications make direct reference to weight loss, some amazing super pills, a current celebrity who has either put weight on or been on a journey of weight loss.

So, back to the article. Well, firstly, I'm not talking about wine so put down the bottle. I'm purely talking about water. It's a remarkable mineral and no matter how much the human race evolves, it's importance will never leave us. As I have previously mentioned, the body is made up of almost 70% water. Every reaction and process that takes place in the body relies on the presence of water. This includes repair, growth, metabolism, digestion, detoxification and heaps more.

One of the problems is that nowadays, although many drinks seem to be water based, they contain so many other additives, chemicals, diuretics that can almost completely inhibit the benefit of what the water would provide. Diuretics are one of the most common problem chemicals that swarm common beverages. Coffee, tea and cola all contain the diuretic caffeine. This elevates the rate of urination and serves to attack hydration on a cellular level meaning your cells start to dry up like prunes.

Even if you eat a seemingly healthy diet or do a reommended amount of exercise, not being hydrated means that you won't benefit like you could do. Cells won't have the water levels to execute cellular repair and the break down of fat and sugars to create energy will be pretty sluggish.

How much water is recommended? As a rough guide, a daily intake of 1 fluid ounce of water for every kg of body weight will keep your body sustained. Further to this, 1 litre for every hour of exercise.

The easiest way is to have a bottle of water with you at all times. Having cups and glasses of water now and again can be difficult to monitor but if you have a litre bottle and look to drink two bottles worth through the day (depending on your bodyweight) would be easier to manage.

Regular sips and actually drinking water at room temperature will also benefit you as your stomach won't need to actually warm the water up prior to it being used throughout your body.

Headaches, tiredness, lulls in energy and even migraines can often be symptoms of dehydration.

Breathe your way to a great core

Ok, now we've looked a little at state, I'll move onto breathing. That said, I will come back to state as it is incredible how much it controls.

Working in this industry for a few years, I have had more strange looks when I tell clients we're going to get them breathing properly than anything else.

There are a number of things I'd like to go over with breathing, initially the function of it within most adults and also, ideal application of breathing within exercise.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, as babies, we all breathe from our stomachs, this is the natural habit as trends go, we unlearn through adolesence into adulthood. The problem being that as we breathe higher in the lungs, the usual recruitment of the lower abdominal area becomes completely redundant. In an area that, due to prolonged periods of sitting down is already very dysfunctional, this almost completely confirms the need not to engage within low trunk (inner core units - transverse abdominus, mulitifidus, pelvic floor, diaphragm) and subsequently, the upper stomach, thorax, chest and shoulder areas become overly involved in respiration. Again, these areas, due to postural dysfunction are highly overactive and become more and more tonic leading to further postural issues.

It's probably about time that I gave some ideas on how you can improve breathing. Well, before I mention an exercise, it is worth knowing that when embedding a new pattern of movement or habit to the body, it can take around 2,000 repetitions. However, when trying to correct a faulty pattern or habit, it can take in excess of 5,000. Needless to say, practice makes permanent and is very necessary to achieve automacy (unconscious competency).

1. Lying on your back, knees bent and feet flat, relax all shoulder, neck and back muscles.
2. Inhale through nose and simultaneously inflate the stomach.
3. Once stomach inflated, draw stomach by pulling naval back towards spine
4. Expire breath through the mouth and look to achieve a stronger abdominal contraction through expiration
5. Look to encourage the lower abdominals doing the work throughout steps and return to step 1. Repeat for 3-5 minutes

A really simple exercise that is designed to encourage this habit within function and movement and not just isolation. It is crucial initially to isolate this pattern as attempting into movement immediately involves a huge number of stressors and deomands.

Finally, what I'm going to mention is awareness of breathing. We all develop habits of breathing which are usually done at a subconscious level. One is specific to running. Many runners at some point come into contact with niggles and small injuries that can be tough to shake off. Many that are associated with impact but difficult to accurately pin down. As we have already illuded, expiration is a contraction and when breathing out whilst running, a certain amount of pressure is created. Most runners breathe out whilst stepping onto one side only during running and over time, this increased pressure can cause significant problems within the musculoskeletal system. If you want something to occupy your grey matter in your next run, try alternating the side that you breathe out on whilst running.

That's probably enough to take in for now

Phill

Getting fit and staying fit

Further to the first blog, I've decided to break down the key stages that I mentioned as the key steps to fitness.

Fitness is quite a subjective term. It's pretty vague and only has true application for the activity in question. In my short experience, I've seen how rapidly people can become very focussed on health and wellbeing and equally, how rapid can lose the desire completely. The real driver when it comes to consistency is thoughts and whether you like the notion or not, it is always a decision. We all have the choice of whether we eat fast food 5 nights a week or whether we cook from fresh. We all have the choice of whether we finish working out at the first spot of a perspiring brow or whether we push ourselves further than before.

Having personal experience of working towards a very specific event, I feel confident that I understand the level of commitment needed to start and stick to a journey of fitness. The actual doing of exercise is a pretty small part of the process. One of the greatest key points is being in control of your life! It is worth answering this question for yourself:

Are you responsible for your life, your success and your failure or do you feel that you're often a result of bad luck and suffer due to the actions and behaviour of others?

The reality is that we all have the capacity to control our own lives, it is merely deciding to do so that makes the difference. As a child, I always noticed that on one level people fall into two different brackets: they're either spectators or participants. I'm sure we can all resonate with the type of people who constantly talk about the lives of others, passing opinion and commenting on situations, sometimes positively and sometimes not. Finally, there are those that just get on and do! They're busy, organised and constantly engaging in the fruits of life and commonly it is these types of people that are successful. Deciding which side you are and which side you want to be is merely a choice.

It's all very well me writing a simple classification and effectively becoming a spectator in that but how can you improve your ability to become a do'er?

Well, in my experience, it is a science. There are certain trends that successful people tend to follow. Some of these we've all done in the past and often without really knowing that we're doing them. Hopefully this makes sense and although I'm writing it specific to getting and staying fit, it is very much a frame that can be employed against pretty much any field.

You may be aware of the SMART goal setting. Just to recap - Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Timebound. A great and simple structure for embarking on any fitness journey. It's essential to have a specific goal that is attainable, set to a date and true for you. However, there are a couple of things that aren't in this system which are possibly the most important. When making decisions, we are all tied with emotions. Emotions are the most powerful drivers in the body and knowing this allows us to employ them for positive results. What I would suggest is using a SMARTER system to embark on a journey. The additions are Emotional attachment / enjoyment and Reward.

Emotional attachment is understanding why the goal is important to you and you can do this on your own. If your goal is weight loss, ask yourself 'for what purpose'. You can repeat this question until you get to an answer which has some emotive weight within you. You are the only person who will know this and knowing this helps you understand the real intention behind your desires. As you understand the intention, you'll be able to remind yourself more frequently of the true intention. Further to this, enjoyment is crucial and again, you are the only person that knows whether or not you enjoy something. When it comes to exercise, there are so many options out there that there is never a need to drag yourself through 60 minutes of boredom or anger. Test, adjust and figure out what you enjoy. Don't give up looking until you are absolutely convinced that you truly enjoy whatever you are committing to.

The final part of the acronym is Reward. The competitive nature of modern living has somehow removed the skill of self-gratification. Acknowledging your own achievement is a crucial aspect to a balanced mentality. Make sure that when you embark on a journey, have something clear that will be the reward to mark effort and commitment...and stick to it.

When I decided to run 7 marathons in a week, my driver was 3 weeks in New Zealand. On day 2, having tripped and twisted my knee, the last thing I wanted to do was get up and run another 5 and a half marathons. However, the emotional driver that I had and the reward were so great that I actually don't remember focussing on my knee for the rest of the week.

The mind is a powerful tool, direct it towards the things you want and have an awareness of the things that you don't.

Phill