Rules, Ritual and Routine

The three R's to help you stick to your fitness program - Rules, Ritual and Routine

There’s no need to struggle in keeping up a new fitness program. The biggest hurdle was starting (see one of my earlier blog posts on goal setting) so here’s some tips to help you keep going:

RULES

Give yourself a rule, something you must do no matter what.  What Bevan James Eyles calls black and white rules: no excuses. For example, I have 2 rules.

Rule 1 - Drink 2 litres of water every day

Rule 2 – I can drink alcohol only after I’ve drunk 2 litres of water

One rule is enough. The rule relates to your heatlh and fitness goals. If you’re quitting smoking then the rule would be to engage in a healthy activity (like taking 10 deep breaths or going for a 10 minute walk) every time you felt like lighting up. If your goal is to manage your weight then your rule would be to record everything you eat and drink in a food diary. If your goal is to run a marathon then your rulewould be to run every day.

RITUAL

Ritual is where you exercise some self discipline.  Something you do regularly and at the same time. Something that relates to your health and fitness goals.

For example, my ritual is to stretch every morning,  what Kit Laughlin taught me as the Daily Six (many years ago).  I’m quite lazy when it comes to flexibility, which I need to improve for running, swimming and power lifts, so this ritual works great for me.

Your ritual will be something that you want to become routine.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying ‘practice makes perfect’ or even of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule? Repeating an action instils it in you; repeat something often enough it becomes routine.

ROUTINE

A routine is simply something you do, like brushing your teeth or washing your hands. Again, it should relate to your health and fitness goals.

My routine is to get up every morning at 5.30am. I had to train for this: The initial RULE was to get up out of bed at 5.30am no matter what (I could always go back to bed if I was overly tired or sick) then; I made it a RITUAL to bounce (be exuberant, like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh) out of bed at 5.30am every morning; so now it’s normal to get up at 5.30am every morning (and be in bed by 9.00pm every night).

Your routine might be to eat breakfast every morning, or go for a morning walk, or to take a half hour lunch break away from your work place, you get the idea.

Next blog post:  The half way point for your New Year’s Resolution

Exercise more, on ­your terms

I so much enjoy helping people on their fitness journey and want to share with you how easy it can be to exercise more on your own term, that is, the way you want to exercise.

Eat less, exercise more (ELEM) is the key to lose excess body fat and there are countless books, articles and web pages on the ELEM principle. It’s usually dressed up to be really complicated but it’s quite simple: Eat less, exercise more. It’s really not that hard. See my last post for Eat Less.

Exercise more than you do now.  That’s it. That’s how easy it is. Not exercise strenuously or hard or by doing something you hate doing, just do more than you do now and do it regularly.

Try this exercise on paper: Write down the exercise you do every week. Read what you’ve written. How can you do more of the type of exercising you enjoy?

To give you an example, one of my clients wanted to shed some excess body fat. She said that she wasn’t doing any exercise at all but liked cycling, so I asked her if she could cycle the 1km from her home to work and back every work day. Yep, no problems, and that was enough to get her going.

The trick to exercise more is to choose something you enjoy doing.

Next post: Three R's to help you stick to your fitness program - Rules, Ritual and Routine

Eat Less: eat what you like and never mind the food snobs

I love eating so I want to share some of my ideas about food and nutrition.

I use The Australian Dietary Guidelines to inform my food decisions so that I get the right balance and amount of nutrition. The key here is that they are guidelines.

Everyone has their own eating preferences, food dislikes and likes and habits. Some people eat for reasons other than nutrition, sometimes these reasons can be self-defeating and other times these reasons are celebratory and life-affirming. Some people choose to eat soley for nutrition.

I like to eat lots of grains and vegies and am very picky what kind of fat I eat. As a child I refused to put margarine or butter on my bread, I still don’t butter my bread or toast and can happily snack on a thick piece of black rye bread just like that, or maybe with a nice cheese.

I know a 30 something year old woman who thrives on grilled crispy bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, eats fresh fruit all day and has a small meal in the evening. She’s slim and fit.

A middle aged man I know is happy to eat a large meal mid-morning and not eat again until dinner. He trains hard to put weight on and loses weight when he stops training.

Eating well is about getting the right balance of foods that suit you; eat less of the foods you don’t want and don’t need  and more of the foods that are good for you. To do this you can employ a dietician or nutritionist (ask your GP to refer you, you may be eligible for a reduced rate) or use the Guidelines.

I ask my clients to do a 24 hour recall. We write down absolutely everything they’ve eaten and drunk in the last 24 hours and tally up how many portions of cereals, vegetables, fruit, dairy, meat and extras they’ve had. We then compare this to the Guidelines (4-6 portions of cereals, 5 veg, 2 fruit, 2 dairy, 1 meat and 0-3 extras).  This is also a handy exercise to do whenever you think your nutritional intake is lacking (or excessive!). Give it a go and tell me if you don’t find it quite the eye-opener.

It's easy to eat less as long as you're getting the right nutritional balance for you.

Next post – Exercise more, on ­your terms.

Exercise is fun!

No matter where you are or where you travel there's always opportunity to have fun exercising.


 Singapore has Fort Canning. Lots and lots of steps, nice undulating paths and a exercise station where you can do a few chin ups to break it up.



 


Kuala Lumpur has the city central park. A 1.3km running track, mostly rubberised but with some pavement (great for intervals) circles the park. The track is marked at 100m intervals and there are two drinking fountains on the run.


Running, walking and playing in cities' public places is a lot more fun than sweating it out on a treadmill gym!

What's your excuse?

I've heard quite a few excuses from my clients as why they didn't show up for a training session, why they didn't do or only did part of their program of exercises, why they're not keeping a food diary ...
I know an excuse when I hear it, but often when you're the one making the excuse you believe that it's the reason.
I tore a calf muscle several weeks ago and used that as an excuse to have a week of lay days. The reason I didn't do any exercise at all (I could have worked on upper body flexbility or strength) was because the injury put me into a funk - I had built up my barefoot running distance to 6km since the beginning of the year with no problems and then could barely walk. So the excuse 'I'm injured' was not the real reason; the real reason was that I needed some time to get to the doctor's for diagnosis and treatment and put a recovery plan in place. Three weeks later I'm running again.

Excuses are just that, excuses. Rather than come up with an excuse, come up with the reason. If you can't come up with the reason, 'the dog ate my homework' is as good  an excuse as any :)

Keeping trim over the holiday season

Yes you can enjoy great food over the holidays.
Travel, dinner parties, picnics and holiday feasts are all opportunities to try new foods, savour your favourites and indulge a little.
Fill your plate a third full of meats, nuts and cheeses; a third with bread, pasta and rice and; a third of fruit and vegetables. Choose a variety of colours as you're building up your festive plate, enjoy the visual display, the aromas, the tastes and textures of the food you've chosen. One plate will be more than enough so you don't need to have seconds!
If you're having a special drink, whether it's alcohol or a soft drink, have just one or two and sip slowly to make them last - fill a glass with ice then pour your favourite soft drink over it; indulge in a boutique beer; sip on a fancy umbrella cocktail; buy the best bottle of wine. When you get thirsty, have a glass of water.
Get outdoors and active with friends and family - backyard cricket, frisbees, go for a walk, kick a ball around, play tag or stuck in the mud or leapfrog.
Get a good night's sleep to let those fat burning hormones kick in and to recharge your body so you can do it all again the next day.
The holidays are a great time to enjoy a variety of food, be active and get plenty of rest.

Coconut Water - the new health drink?

Word has reached Cocos that coconut water is the new health drink fad.
Here on Cocos we have 5 distinct varieties of coconut, kelapa puyu being the most popular coconut for drinking (it's the orangy-yellow one). I personally like the low growing green ones because you can pick them when they're very green and the water has a fizz to it. Pictured are kelapa gading and kelapa puyu.
I drink water from one coconut a day, well most days, mostly from the palms that drop the coconuts into my front yard. It's wonderfully sweet and best of all it's free!

Another health fad we've heard about is the noni fruit. Good to help get rid of colds and flu. Great if you can cope with the texture and taste and all the seeds in them.

Probably the best foods to eat and drink for health are the ones that are grown locally and naturally - at least you know they're fresh.

Health Expo at Home Island Wednesday 30 November

There will be a Health Expo at Home Island this Wednesday 30 November from 8.30am to 2pm.

This is a community event with the Health Clinic staff, Home Island Sport and Rec, Home Island Seniors group, the Shire, Australian Federal Police, Water Corp and Category 3 Design providing information, activities and of course plenty of healthy food choices for the day.

I'll be doing Heartmoves demonstrations and be available for a chat about personal training -I have heaps of Safety in Sport and other brochures to hand out and will also have resistance bands with instructions packs for sale.

Pick up your Passport to Health at the cyclone shelter and travel the wonderful and diverse world of healthy living!

October is Health Awareness Month

For Health Awareness month Category 3 Design will be looking at breakfast for school kids at West Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands school campus. At the recent Loud Shirt and Jeans for Genes day I baked 3 dozen delicious coconut orange jam muffins (made with West Island coconut) for the students to enjoy along with fresh coconut, fruit, muesli and yoghurt.

For Health Awareness month why not make sure that you start your day right with a good breakfast. A good breakfast can be small or big - it depends on your eating preferences - make sure it has some good quality cereal like wholemeal bread or rolled oats, some fruit or vegies (juice, a piece of fruit or grilled vegies) and dairy or lean meat or nuts.

A quick on-the-go breakfast I take for an early morning commute across the lagoon is peanut butter on a thick piece of home-baked wholemeal bread and a guava.

Eating breakfast will help stop you overeating later in the day.

Healthy Lifestyles

Being fit and healthy is a lifestyle choice. It means eating good food, being active, drinking lots of water, having fun with friends and family every day and getting a good night's sleep every night.

There's lots of ways to improve your fitness level and your general well-being.

The first thing to do is to figure out if you have a good balance:

One day is 24 hours; 8 hours for sleeping; 8 hours for working and; 8 hours for playing and relaxing. Is that how you spend every day?

The second thing to do is to get that balance. This is where you work out your priorities, do some goal setting and find some time management skills.

Another thing to do is to write down, or at least think about, everything you eat for one week. At the end of the week review your food choices. Did you drink lots of water, eat plenty of cereals like brown rice, eat lots of vegetables, some fruit, a little bit of dairy or nuts, fish and a little bit of meat, a little vegetable oil and no soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, lollies (or maybe just one in the week)?

A balance in how you spend your day and eating a variety of nutritious food are foundations of a fit and healthy lifestyle.