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Active & Healthy - Fitness Tips
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Fitness Tip #1 – Choose a Buddy If you want to make any life change, it's easier to do it with a friend or buddy. Having someone to talk to regularly will help you achieve your goals and dramatically improve your chances of success. Talk through ideas with your buddy. It will help clarify your thoughts. You're more likely to stick to your promises if someone is checking up on you. Another person can help you see things more clearly. Perhaps you are being unrealistic in your goals or too tough on yourself. Try to choose someone you know well. Your buddy needs to be positive and enthusiastic. They should already believe in you and your potential. For best results, coach each other. Set aside time every week for a chat. Use the telephone if you like. Choose a place where you won't be disturbed. And try to choose a regular time you can both stick to for at least a month. If you can keep this up for three months, you'll start to see some real change. Set a bigger goal for the whole process and then week by week take small steps towards that goal. When you are listening to your buddy, try these ideas: Encourage and believe in your buddy 100 percent. Try to keep your own agenda out of the conversation. Just be there for the other person. Be very honest and upfront. Focus on solutions rather than problems. Don't be afraid to stretch and challenge your buddy. Ask questions. Don't tell your buddy what they should do. Let them work it out for themselves. Hold your buddy to what they say - make them keep their promises. An ideal first step for you and your buddy/buddies would be to join the rail trail running/walking group (click here for details). Fitness Tip #2 Take a Hike by Scott Aurisch - Sport, Recreation and Planning Officer Esk Shire Council Go for a gentle walk. Find a friend or take your dog. Set a pace that makes talking to your partner just possible - any more and you are over-exerting yourself, any less and you won't get the full benefit of the exercise. Walking is one of the best fat-burning activities you can do. It is a cheap, safe and enjoyable form of exercise. If you have kids, get them moving as well. It is a great opportunity to talk to them. If you are a beginner, 20 minutes of walking should be enough. If you find the pace a little too easy, incorporate some small hills or stairs into the walk. But remember, only do so much that you can still walk and talk at the same time. Here are some tips to get you going: When you start out, you don't want to go `all guns blazing’. Take it slowly. We don't want any torn muscles or busted backs As we age the risk is greater. No excuses. Everyone can fit some amount of exercise into their week, particularly walking (no whinging about the heat). Don't avoid incidental exercise. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk to the shops, don't drive. Don't sit down to watch your kids play sport. Walk up and down the sideline. The most difficult thing is getting started. If you can will yourself to stick with it for at least 2 weeks, you will start to feel the benefits. At first you may feel more tired than normal, but before long you will begin to feel a rise in your energy levels. It is also likely that your focus and productivity at work will also improve in addition to the quality of your sleep. No Problem With Oranges After reading recent reports in the media and hearing talk around the community that oranges during or immediately following sport were detrimental to performance/health, I felt it necessary to set the record straight. After looking back through some old text books and some recent articles on the AIS website and also the Sports Dieticians of Australia website, I am pleased to advise that the negative suggestions about oranges are pure myth. The issue with citrus intake during or after sport is not that extra fluid must be consumed in conjunction with, but rather that oranges not be given as a substitute for fluid replacement. It is fine to provide oranges at kids sport (or any age for that matter) and fun runs etc. as long as adequate amounts of water are also provided. Parents should remember that a drink bottle is the most important piece of sporting equipment – whatever sport children play. (Sports Dieticians of Australia) For further information on this topic and the importance of citric acid to energy production in the human body, the following links may be of interest: http://www.ais.org.au/nutrition/QA.asp#8 http://www.sportsdietitians.com.au/www/html/2016-press-releases.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle Who knows, maybe these false claims were made up by a red frog manufacturer... Scott Aurisch
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