Hi and welcome to another week,
Big shout out to everyone who attended the gym over the past week…it seemed like summer finally kicked in and it got pretty darned hot in the gym near the end of the week – somehow everyone kept showing up and slogging through it though. Really proud of everyone’s efforts and it was so impressive to watch everyone challenging themselves with the metabolic circuit/bike calorie ‘every minute on the minute’ challenges as the week progressed. We will be rolling out the metabolic circuit again in 13-weeks time so keep your eye out for it…I guess the challenge is to really push hard in your challenge between now and then so all of your weights (Barbell and Kettlebell) are heavier next time it rolls around.
I know there is probably an expectation that I would write about the challenge today – but I will be leaving that for next week when I have had a bit of a chance to look at the data. Today I am going to write about fast food.
Driving home from work the other night, I noticed a sign for both a new Hungry Jacks and a new Kentucky Fried Chicken on Armadale Rd. My first thought was ‘I wonder if Marshall might like to get a job in there somewhere’. My second was ‘Man, those restaurants are already on North Lake Rd about 3kms away…they must be doing REALLY well’. Because I am old I then started to think about the fast food options when I was growing up and just how much the world has changed in 30 years or so. You do that sort of thing when you get old.
When I was a kid – and I grew up in Kardinya so not that far away from the gym – there were ZERO fast food places in the entire area. But when I reached age 10 or so, Chicken Treat opened on the corner of Gilbertson Rd and South St. In my house though, it may as well have not opened because we would never, ever, ever go there. I still remember the playground embarrassment of being asked what my favourite thing to order from Chicken Treat was and not being able to answer…one of my friends was telling me that he always liked it when they got to have the Hawaiian Pack rather than the Family Pack…at the time I would have been happy with anything at all. It was obviously a meaningful moment in my life because even now – 30-odd years later I can tell you who asked me the question and what their facial expressions meant to me! If we ever got take-away food in our house it would have been from the Fish’n’Chips shop over in Willagee (shout out to Elie’s family restaurant – ‘Hooked and Cooked’ in Bibra Lake!). But that was a rare occurrence and most notable in my mind for the 1lt bottle of coke we used to get to share between the then 4- of us. 1-litre of coke is closer in size to the 650ml individual sizes than the 2lt family sizes on offer today.
That Chicken Treat restaurant was at least 2kms from my house as well…probably closer to 3. Within 3kms of my house now, there is Chicken Treat, Red Rooster, Fish n Chips, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Subway (actually, 2x subways!), Nandos, Eagle Boys and soon to be Hungry Jacks and KFC. And that doesn’t count places like Baskin-Robbins and Grill’d…If we expand the reach to 5kms you could add in Dominos (x2), Hungry Jacks, another Subway (yep, 3 in 5kms!) and another Kentucky Fried Chicken. It also seems that every one of these restaurants drops something in my letterbox every week effectively giving me food for free if I just head along there to eat – not to mention the never ending advertising on TV…seriously, what chance have any of us got?
I am not sure where I am going with this apart from to say that once upon a time we survived without any of this stuff and were just F-I-N-E. That there is another Hungry Jacks opening within 5kms of the one on North Lake Rd – not to mention all of the other fast food dining options – says to me that the world has gone crazy with the easy meals and cheap calories…there has to be a better way.
I am not someone who is going to protest at the opening of a fast food restaurant or complain about the prevalence of fast-food advertising on tv because ultimately we all have to make our own choices and deal with the consequences associated with them. The world today is a LOT more complicated in terms of all of the things each of us has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. The messaging/advertising we are exposed too is also a lot more DENSE than ever before…but all of that just means you need make clear decisions about the way you are going to live your life and (most importantly) THEN be prepared to follow them through.
Just like my mum and dad back in the early 1980’s, just because there is a shiny new fast food restaurant just around the corner doesn’t mean that you and the family need to eat there!
See you all in the gym!
Michael.
Next week I will do a bit of a challenge retrospective when I have had a bit more of a chance to get my head around all of the collected data. Certainly at first glance we have kicked a heap of goals in terms of weight loss BUT muscle loss has been a bit too prevalent across the board so far…so whilst we have do a great job of sticking to the rules some adjustments still need to be made.
I a trying to come up with a catch-phrase for how I am going to deal with the next month or so in order to stay on the straight and narrow path BUT allow myself a couple of ‘off-days’…’relaxed but not recalcitrant’ is sounding good right about now (+ I might be able to spell recalcitrant without depending on the spell-checker if that sticks!
Anyway – it would be wrong to sign off this section without a bit ‘well done’ to everyone who participated and a promise to provide a more in depth summary of what has been achieved next week.
So the 28-Days Later Challenge is over…and already it is time for ‘MORE’. Remember we run challenges at R1 every second month which means when April rolls around, we will be ‘ON’ again. As per the rhythm of these things, the next challenge will not include a food component – it will be the ‘ALL CLASS’ challenge.
Whilst it is of course aimed at ‘classy’ people, it has also been put together for those people out there who have felt a bit excluded from our recent challenges because they include ‘extras’ – extra weights, extra cardio, extra ‘stuff’ – and all they want to do is complete as many classes as they can at the gym! I can hear a chorus now – ‘it is all the extra stuff that MAKES it a challenge though’…well, never fear, I have a PLAN! More details over the next couple of weeks with the challenge scheduled to start on Monday, April 3rd.
Just a quick update on what is happening:
– New RockTape rolling packs will be in the gym this week…these are personal roller kits with a little massage ball and a spikey ball in them.
– Progenex order – which has been ‘lost in transit’ will be in this week which means the ‘Recovery’, ‘More Muscle’ and Cocoon varieties will all be back in stock.
…and then there is the stuff I told you about last week which was:
– New order of MMA gloves has arrived – these are now available in our latest ‘double wrap’ design in all sizes.
– New bag mitts are here and if you like the idea of some ‘electric silver’ gloves, they are in the gym as well.
– New order of QuickWraps has arrived – these are now available in all sizes again (unfortunately only in black at this time).
Been messing with some of these pendulum movements recently and this vid provides some great explanation on integrating the movements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjiFPPv4DUU
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