Hi and welcome to another week,
A big ‘Well Done’ to everyone who got through some classes last week. That seven-minute rounds session last Wednesday must have been in the toughest five or ten sessions we have EVER run…it was just relentless. I know for me that by the time I got to the last station (upper cut shields) I was pretty much ‘done’ and it took a lot of focus and concentration to get through to the end. Whilst I am at it, there has been a heap of positive commentary about the latest ‘block’ of five Body Work classes…one week is already down so if you (like me) like to try and make sure you give all of the sessions (A-through-E) a try, make sure you get another ‘letter’ ticked off this week.
A week ago, each of the ’28-Days Later Challenge’ participants had a ‘special’ challenge to complete – write down ONE thing (just ONE) that they had learned about their ‘regular’ diet whilst having to take their food choices a bit more seriously for the purposes of the challenge rules (No alcohol, No Bread (or bread substitutes) and No ADDED sugar or sweeteners of ANY kind). All of the photos were uploaded to InstaGram (there are a heap of them there – just search for the hashtag ‘#28dayslaterchallenge) and there is some absolutely golden advice there for all of us. I have tried to summarise all of the comments into FIVE easy to digest statements that we could all benefit from.
ONE (1). Sugar is ADDED to everything. Everything. Be Aware of what you are eating every day.
There is tonnes of reading on this out there and I am not going to rehash it all here – but in simple terms our modern diets include WAY too much sugars and it is BAD for us. It is also in pretty much everything you buy that comes in a can or jar or packet…even so called ‘healthy choice’ foods have heaps of sugars/sweeteners and other things. The message here is a simple one – if what you are eating wasn’t last seen growing, swimming or grazing, well, you need to read the label before you eat it. And if it has sugar or an artificial sweetener listed amongst the INGREDIENTS, then you probably shouldn’t eat it.
TWO (2). If the food ISNT in the cupboard/fridge, it cant go in your mouth.
This sort of goes together with point FIVE (5) – Preparation – but it is a big enough issue for a lot of us that I split it out. No-one sits on the couch watching ‘Game of Thrones’ dreaming about eating an extra serve of broccoli. Everyone sits and thinks about chocolate…or icecream…or chocolate…or cheesecake…or chocolate…or…you get the idea. If there is no chocolate in the fridge, you WONT eat it. Whatever your ‘poison’, keep it well away from you. Don’t depend on self-discipline to see you through – leave the stuff that is your ‘weakness’ on the shelf in the supermarket.
THREE (3). No point being ‘GOOD’ all weekend if Friday to Sunday is Free Eating/Drinking ‘Day’.
This is a lot of people. A lot of people. Monday until Friday night they are on their best behaviour. But from Friday night until Sunday it is all take-a-way food, beer and wine, chips and dips, beer and wine, double serves of desert and the list goes on. I want everyone to enjoy healthy social lives and have a good time, but none of us can ‘go crazy’ each and every weekend in terms of simple calorie consumption if we want to make progress with our training and drop a couple of kilos. I have said this before that when you read about the ‘wolverine diet’ and notice that Hugh Jackman has a free-eating day once a week, first off – remember that is ONCE a week. Secondly, remember that he is training twice a day every day, two hours every session and probably in caloric deficit…he can AFFORD a once a week blow-out ‘day’. A better approach is a cheat ‘MEAL’ once a week – that is a cheat MEAL, not a cheat DAY!
FOUR (4). Not EVERY meal needs to come with a side of alcohol – moderation is great (but make sure it is moderation).
Alcohol is what always causes the most controversy with challenges and I still cannot get my head around the fact that people will do everything asked of them and MORE in the gym (and without complaint or question) – bin runs, heavier weights, squats, sleds, you name it, but asking them to take a month away from beer/wine/whatever generates a reaction akin to asking for their first born child!
I agree – you should be able to enjoy alcohol in moderation…but as one person wrote, ‘I just need to re-think what moderation is’. You don’t need a glass of wine with dinner every night. You don’t need to drink alcohol every time you go out for dinner or (in fact) every time you are sitting out by the pool. Be smart. Keep alcohol consumption to TWO (2) days per week – and stick to TWO drinks per day. Save the celebrating (more than two drinks!) for REAL celebrations…moderation means moderation.
FIVE (5). Planning and Preparation are the keys to success.
This was the most common recurring theme. If you want to be successful in terms of maintaining a healthy eating regime, you just need to be organised. When things go wrong you are ‘stuck’ in a shopping centre at 2pm on a Saturday and still haven’t eaten lunch…that is a situation that will lead to a poor choice/decision being made. (You are hungry, you are in a hurry and options are limited). Get organised. Want to make sure you have a good breakfast? Well, make sure you have the ingredients of that breakfast in the house ready to go…and make sure you have TIME in the morning to prepare it before you head to work. Want to make sure you have a healthy lunch? Don’t roll the dice with the deli down the street from your office. Pack a lunch-box the night before and take it in with you. The same for dinner. If you get home and there is nothing defrosted/no veggies in the house, dialling for pizza just became a much more viable option…
Get organised. With your food. With your gym gear (get it ready the night before for morning sessions, take it with you to work for afternoon sessions)…if you get organised everything about a healthy diet and leading an active lifestyle becomes SO much easier.
See you in the gym,
Michael.
We are entering the last week of the 28-Days Later challenge and the ‘extras’ video is up on YouTube here:
The details are in the video of course, but in short this week you need to complete another 2km row – but you have a time challenge to meet: Beat your last time by more than 10%! If you do – AWESOME. If you don’t, well, you have some EXTRA work to do…One Walking Lunge (each side) for every second you fall short. The strength challenge is an EMOTM (every minute on the minute) workout consisting of 5-pullups, 10-Pushups and 15-squats – repeat the exercise sequence for 10 minutes, restarting from pull-ups (or fence pulls) every time the clock ticks over to ‘0’.
It is the last week guys – let’s all stay SUPER focussed and get the best possible result at the end of the month…if you have managed 21 days, you can SURELY manage 28-days.
Weigh-ins commence at 7am NEXT SUNDAY (March 1st). There will be no early weigh-ins this time as that is effectively giving people permission to ‘cut out’ on the challenge a day early!
We have been lucky enough to become stockists of both Rebel Coffee (http://rebelcoffeeco.com.au) and Blue Dinosaur Bars (https://www.bluedinosaur.com.au) in the last couple of weeks. Be sure to give the products a try – they are amazing tasting, high quality and (well, depending on your thoughts on caffeine!) pretty darn good for you. The Blue Dinosaur Bars are $4 each – the Rebel Coffee is $15/250g…
We have some new hand-wraps on the way…and new Quick Wraps. The wraps will be available in a couple of new colours – Lime Green and Orange – so be sure to check them out when they arrive this week.
We have also ordered some “different” backpacks for our 12-month membership packs. These are a little bigger/more expensive than the sling bags and feature the newish ‘boxer’ logo you will have seen on the back of the trainer shirts…just something different really so that people who renew their membership year after year get a little bit of variation in their ‘goodies bag’.
On top of all that, we have some new Round 1 Caps on the way…should be here around the end of the month. These will also feature the new logo!
I have started up a NEW Footy Tipping league for 2015. So whilst in past years your membership to the Round 1 competition has just ‘Rolled Over’, this year if you want to be in you will have to rejoin. The league name is Round 1 Fitness 2015 and the link to join is HERE: http://www.footytips.com.au/comps/Round_1_Fitness_2015
The password for the league is ‘speedball’.
Good luck everyone!
Every year we run an AFL Dream Team competition and this year is no different. Well – it is no different in that we are running a league…it will be different in that I will WIN! Regardless of that, the League has been created and if you are interested in joining our code is FAN9U7RV. The league (oddly enough) is called Round 1 Fitness.
‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY, Join QUICK!!!’
DreamTeam crazies might appreciate this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IenTMfgcADM
OK. I have been banging on about this for AGES and we now have 50 people registered in our team. Which is AWESOME. But I think we can do better than that. Now we have reached the magical number of 50, the Spartan Race Team have given us a 10% off code to help attract MORE registrations…if you are keen to have a go – or have registered but have a friend who is keen to be part of our team – then please send me a note (info@round1fitness.com.au) and I will send you through the discount code.
To register, go to http://spartanrace.com.au/event/perth-sprint-18-april-2015
Our team name is ‘Round 1 Fitness’ – choose the ‘Intermediate’ category. The team password is ‘speedball’.
Email info@round1fitness.com.au if you have registered so I can try and keep track of things!
Anyone who has been to Grill’d would know that each time you order they give you a ‘bottletop’ – you put the bottletop into one of three containers to indicate which community organisation you would like to support. This month one of the options is Cockburn Basketball Association – who provide a great facility for everyone in Cockburn (from the young to the elite to the old!) to get active and have some fun playing basketball. Plus they are great friends of all of us at Round 1.
If you are wondering which of the three ‘tubs’ to drop your bottletop into, please think about supporting Cockburn Basketball.
Perkville is awesome. It is a rewards scheme that gives you ‘credit’ in the gym for every time you pay for your membership/every time you scan your membership card at the front counter. You can then turn that ‘credit’ into TANKS classes, InBody Scans, Personal Training, Protein, new Boxing Gloves etc – whatever you want really!
Signing up really is simple – go to www.perkville.com , enter the same email address that you have registered at the gym and everything else is done for you.
Free stuff at the gym just for turning up? Sounds alright to me!
Great PODCAST this week from the guys at PowerAthlete – it features sleep expert Dr. Kirk Parsley! Find the PodCast from the PowerAthleteHQ site here: https://powerathletehq.com/2015/02/20/power-athlete-radio-episode-95/
There is also an amazing documentary around about the 2014 CrossFit games up on YouTube at the moment. It runs for 29minutes but is well worth your time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5pr-6LfiNk
Michael.
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