That's Life

Life in my little household has been a bit hectic lately:  hubby has been in and out of heart hospital, he’s had insulin dependent diabetes for most of his life through unfortunate genetics, and it has not been kind to him.  Some of my friends are battling parkinsons and cancer, and my loving cat Brutus will visit the vet this week, suspected kidney failure.

There is plenty to keep me busy but is also reminds me that you should never take anything for granted.  Not ever.  Because the things you love can be taken away from you faster than you can blink.  And this includes your health.  People have lost money and homes, and recovered.  But once you lose your health you will have lost everything.
  
And this very thought takes me to something I see every day:  the main Basic Orange studio in Queens Drive is right behind McDonalds.  I drive past most mornings at 8 am, and the queue of cars waiting for a Maccas takeaway is almost spilling over on the street.  Every day.  And let me mention the “lady” who drove out of McDonalds the other day in her oversized car.  Big girl.  Almost ran over a pedestrian because she was so busy shoving hot chips into her mouth.  Then turned around and gave another handful to her toddler strapped in the back seat.  If you are reading this and know you are that person, I hope you are ashamed of yourself.  It is one thing messing up your own health, that is your choice, but to also mess up the health of your child?  Criminal.

I know this does not apply to you, you don’t visit Maccas and have a good diet and exercise plan.  Right?  But pretend for one moment this was not the case:  you DO visit fast food places on a regular basis, you are overweight, and couldn’t care less about exercising.  It will not be long before you become sick as well.  You could get diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, the list is endless.  But it will be something.

Not a big deal I hear you say.  We have medication, good hospitals, kinda-free health care.  But you forget that a condition like diabetes (or cholesterol, or high blood pressure, or obesity) accumulates over time.  Before you know it you will have lost your vision.  Maybe an arm or a leg, people with diabetes don’t have the best circulation in town.  Next to fail will be your heart, and the rest of your organs don’t want to miss out, they will not be far behind.

The point I’m trying to make here?  My husband had no choice about his diabetes, fate decided for him.  But you, you do have a choice.  Do you want to end up a sick person because you were too lazy to exercise, or do you want to live your life to the full?

I know that should you become ill you will follow a healthier diet and exercise regime.  You have no choice.  But why wait until you reach that stage?  What did you say?  Because it will never happen to you?  Yeah right, join the queue, it’s a long one.  Never, ever take your health for granted.  Take care of yourself now, for soon it will be too late.

Are you comfortable?

I have a large poster on the wall in my Queens Drive studio.  It is a photo of me getting whacked in the kickboxing ring during one of my training sessions.  The heading on this poster reads:  if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

Wise words.  If I was paid a dollar for every person in a large commercial gym that works out within their comfort zone I would be a rich girl.  You know who I’m talking about:  the people who read a book on the bike or treadmill, the people who hardly work up a sweat and hog machines while texting on their phone.

If you are one of those people who go to the gym every day and amble along comfortably you will probably know what I’m talking about.  Have you reached your goal yet.  It doesn’t matter if your goal is weight loss, or strength, or fitness.  My question is, have you reached it yet?  Chances are you have been going at it for a year or more, and you still don’t see the results you were hoping for.

You see, this is where personal trainers come in.  They are trained professionals who know how to get the best out of you.  They spent a lot of time learning how your body (and mind) works, and they want to put that knowledge to good use.
  
And I will admit something to you, just don’t tell anyone:  I have my own personal trainer as well!  Without him I will simply amble along within that comfort zone of mine.  Most of the time.  I might not even find the gym in the first place because without that initial appointment I can find a million other things to do.  I run a full-on business after all, there is always something else to do that sounds like more fun.

So imagine I gave in to that temptation.  The temptation of doing anything but exercise.  I can predict what will happen.  Within 4 weeks I will lose my overall fitness.  After 8 weeks my muscle tone.  After 12 weeks my almost half century old body will show its age, and my stomach will grow. Boom, and right there you have an unfit, fat trainer.  Naturally slim?  Me?  Don’t you believe it, I have to work on it the same way you do.

So go on, you look comfortable.  Reach outside your comfort zone, and join me in a quest to improve your health.  Don’t expect your body to change if you don’t…

The F Word

Today I would like to talk about the F word.  The F word is recognised worldwide, in every language, every culture, and needs no introduction.  It is such an emotional word that parents teach their children not to use it.  Whole wars have been created over that one little word.

You guessed right: the new dirty F word.  FOOD.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is for an overweight person to talk about their food habits?  Them telling you what they eat, how much they eat, how they eat, that stuff is personal.  Similar to stripping naked and parading in front of a large crowd.  A lot of my clients start sweating at the thought of a food talk.  So you know what?  Unless you want help with your food I will not talk about it.  It is THAT big.  When you are ready to talk about changing your food habits we will talk it through, but not before you are ready.

As most of you know, I have been overweight in the past.  And when someone asked me at the time what I ate I felt like running, punching them, pushing my head in the sand.  Anything but admit that I skipped breakfast.  Then ate the equivalent of a horse for lunch, a large chocolate muffin as a snack, a V drink to chase it down.  Have another large blueberry and chocolate muffin late afternoon, and made sure I had a large dinner.  After all, it is a very long time between dinner and breakfast, best be prepared.

My weight loss and change in body shape occurred only after I faced the truth:  I ate too much, I ate unhealthy, I was unhealthy.  And nobody likes to see that truth.  It is confronting, scary, out of your comfort zone.  But if you don’t change, nothing else will.  You will be left wishing for the rest of your life that you had a trim body, and you will continue hating those that are trim.

Do not hate the people that do have the body you are longing for.  Very few people are naturally trim and well built, there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes.  I always say people should not judge overweight people, you have no idea what their story is.  But trim people should not be judged either, you have no idea what they have gone through.  Trim people are simply people who completed their journey of healthy eating and exercising before you.  A very good reason for you to start now.

As a matter of fact, if you don’t start your journey now you will find your body quickly becomes your enemy.  There is no limit to the size of the human body.  Absolutely none.  If you continue eating too much and exercising too little you will grow.  And grow.  And grow.  Ever heard of people who had to be cut out of their own homes because they were too heavy to be moved? There is your proof right there.  Just in case you still have doubts.

Eat to live, don’t live to eat.  Sounds simple, but I know how hard it can be once you have fallen into bad habits.  My advice?  Change your habits one little step at a time.  Do not change them all at once, chances are you won’t make it.  But one small change every month, anyone can do that.  How about it?  Want to give it a go and see the rewards for yourself?

Relax in your slacks

Today my trainer said:  hey Claudia, did you write a blog this weekend?  If I didn’t know any better I’d think he actually enjoys reading them.  Or uses them as stalking material.  Either way I am happy to hear some people read my blogs, and give me a kick when I slow down a bit.  And before you ask:  what, the trainer has a personal trainer?  That’s right.  This trainer is the same as most human beings.  If I have a person waiting for me I’ll be there, raring to go to the best of my ability.  But if I don’t have anyone waiting for me I will always, always find something else to do.  That is why this world has personal trainers:  to keep you honest and motivated.

So I went home and looked at my cat.  “What should we write about”, I asked her.  She blinked, yawned and went back to sleep.  And that is when it hit me:  relaxation.  That little word everyone talks about it and very few achieve.

If we don’t relax we don’t sleep.  And if we don’t sleep we won’t get any work done, cause road accidents, develop ulcers and anxiety.  In short, if we don’t relax we are a mess.  Did you know that people who never relax actually gain weight due to the stress hormone cortisol?  As soon as your body is permanently stressed it starts piling on the pounds to ensure you have the energy to cope with this stressful situation.  You must remember that the body’s stress response was created for our greater good.  It was designed to protect you, to ensure we get enough of an adrenaline rush to get us out of trouble.

But our bodies were never designed to keep us out of trouble 24 x 7.  Adrenaline is constantly flooding our system now, and we are permanently in a fight or flight mode.  The manic pace of life and technology has ensured we never switch off, and the price we pay is anxiety, depression, illness and increased weight.

Yeah no kidding.  Increased weight.  When you are stressed you probably eat.  All.the.time.  So you rapidly gain weight.  And remember, your body does not have a weight gain limit.  It will keep growing for as long as you allow it to.  Unlimited.

Some of us don’t eat at all when we are stressed.  Now your body panics and decides to pile on weight.  After all, you are starving and it needs to protect you.  Right?  You can’t win, if you want to remain healthy and lose some weight in the process you better start managing that stress!

This is where we get to that other little word “exercise”.  You knew that was coming. Because everyone knows exercise releases stress.  A good sweat session is all you need to put you in a better mood, and any person suffering from depression will tell you exercise is a must in coping with their depression.

Then why do most people stop exercising when they are stressed or depressed?  Too hard, too much work, couldn’t be bothered they say.  I hear it daily, and I don’t understand it.  I know it can be hard to get out of bed, it can be hard to find your exercise mojo, we’ve all been there.  But if you KNOW exercise makes you feel better (and let’s face it, we all do know) why would you not do it?

Relax in your slacks.  Take a deep breath, get some sleep, and keep exercising.  When you exercise (and follow a decent diet) you can only move forward.  It is impossible to move backwards when you look after yourself, you can only continue to improve.  So why wouldn’t you huh??

Oh, how I wish to be sick

It has been a while since I wrote a blog.  Two weeks to be exact.

Part of the reason is the effort of running a business and looking after a husband with a dodgy heart, but part of it is de-motivation.  De-motivation of what you may ask.  The answer is simple:  I realised most people do not want to be healthy.  The average Joe Blog is happy to get sick and pay medical bills of thousands of dollars rather than prevent this sickness by doing a little thing called exercising.  And I built my entire business around showing people how to become healthy, it's what I do best.

The psychology fascinates me:  people will spend a lot of money on manicures, the hairdresser, massages, even a dog groomer (hopefully for their dogs) to make themselves feel better.  But when they look at me, a personal trainer, they make a big deal of telling me how expensive personal training is.  How they can’t afford it.  And oh, they don’t have time either, they are way too busy.  Too busy eating, too busy manicuring and pedicuring.  In short, exercise takes effort.  Pampering does not.  Pampering wins.

Unfortunately those are also the exact same people who will be most confused when they eventually fall ill.  Because sister, if you don’t look after your health you WILL get sick, whether you like it or not.  Your expensive hairdo and nails are not going to stop weight gain.  It will not stop diabetes.  It will definitely not stop the cold and flu.

Exercise.  That is what stops all those nasty things that will eventually bite you in the butt. Oh, I hear you say, I take the cheap road, I’ll go to the local gym and do my own thing.  Join a group class, walk on the treadmill while I read a book.  Fine with me.  But let me predict what can happen based on years of hard experience:

1. Your first month at the gym is great.  Everything is new, the instructors are cute, you are loving it.  Winter kicks in.  The days are dark and gloomy, and so is your will power.  You find one excuse after another not to hit the gym today.  Or tomorrow.  Or the day after.  In the meantime that gym is taking your money because you signed a contract, and let’s face it, they really really don’t care if you don’t show up.
2. You join a group class.  You love the vibe and energy, everyone around you is going flatout.  You don’t want to look stupid so decide to join the flatout gang.  But you forgot they have been doing it for a long time, and you have not.  You are too stiff to walk the next day, possibly injured.  You decide the pain is not worth it.
3. You don’t know how to use the machines at the gym.  They look so intimidating, you are convinced you need a degree in science to operate them.  You finally pluck up the courage and ask that cute instructor to help you.  They show you how to use the machines really quickly.  As in “let me show you how it works in 10 minutes”.  When you come back tomorrow you will have forgotten half the instructions.  So you feel stupid.  And feel everyone is watching you.  Believe me, they are.

After all that time you decide to spend money on a qualified and knowledgeable personal trainer.  Suddenly you see results (providing you listen to your trainer), and because your exercise is based on appointments you will show up.  Because bosses don’t cancel, right? You have a person who really cares waiting for you.  No more injuries, and there is variety in you exercises.  You realise McDonalds is no longer your friend, and your health improves by the day.  Imagine that…

My suggestion?  Stop imagining and spend your money on a personal trainer instead of a manicure.  Just book in for one session to see if you like the personalised attention, no contracts no fuss.

Real trainers

Thanks to “reality” shows (think Biggest Loser) a lot of people see personal trainers as yelling, oversized, intimidating bullies.  They see personal trainers as inhumane beings from outer space who are super fit and ready to conquer the world, hell bound on making you cry and suffer.  And humiliate you.  Don’t forget the humiliation.

Oh please.  These type of shows should be called “non reality” shows, or “let’s see how stupid you really are” shows.  Folks, a decent personal trainer does not go around yelling at you.  They won’t tell you how bad you are, how fat you are, or point fingers.  If they do, get rid of them.  Quickly.

The number of people who avoid me in a social environment because I’m a personal trainer can’t even be counted on the fingers of both hands.  When I eventually ask them what it is that scares them the word “Biggest Loser” pops up 98% of the time.  That oh so popular “reality” show succeeded in scaring people away from personal trainers in just a few months.  Wow, now that is what you call effective marketing…

The world “personal” says it all:  a personal trainer should be a qualified professional who is there for you, and you alone.  They are there to guide you.  To make sure you are motivated to turn up for an exercise session.  To make sure you do the best you can (all without yelling and calling you names).  To give you advice, and correct you if needed so you can exercise safely.

Did you know that qualified personal trainers spend years on their studies to ensure they are the best they can be?  They get to learn how the human body moves, how it is affected by injuries.  Yes we even learn how the mind is affected.  We spend hours and hours of our lives learning about you, often on top of full time jobs and families.  All so we can make sure you get the results you need, safely.  

The most common question I get from clients?  Hey Claudia, what did you do before you became just a trainer.  Just a trainer, I say.  It took many many hours of blood, sweat and tears to “just” become a trainer.  But thank you for asking, before I was just a trainer I was a software developer.  That little fact causes shock in most people.  You mean you gave up a lucrative career in IT to become a personal trainer?  Yes, that is exactly what I did.  It gives me far more satisfaction seeing people succeed in their individual goals than it is to hear someone complain about their computer software.

So the next time you meet a personal trainer, you know, “just” a trainer, spare a thought for the time that person spend away from their family to make sure you reach your fitness goals.  Safely and in one piece.  Then get your butt out there and exercise.  There is a reason this world needs personal trainers, and that reason is you:  you need motivation, dietary advice and safe exercising.  In a kind and supportive way of course, no yelling. Because without that exercise you will end up a weak, overweight and stressed out slob. Just saying…

Lessons from Leon

When I was at pre-school I met a boy called Leon.  We became best friends, inseparable. And when it was time to go to “the big school” we went together.  I spent my entire weekends at Leon’s place.  He lived far away from me, a good 30 kilometres, but I was a good cyclist, and always found an excuse to visit.  Leon’s mother was a single mother overflowing with kindness, and she was a great cook too.  My childhood memories are riddled with images of Leon and I playing superman, batman, wonder woman.  You name any super hero and we’ve done it.  And pancakes.  Lots of pancakes.

Slowly Leon and I moved towards our teenage years.  We cribbed homework, played pranks and still played super hero’s.  We became aware of the fact we were “different”. Awareness of boy and girl was growing, and one day I asked Leon:  what is different about you?  Leon, being the smarter of the two, had already figured this out, and said:  I’m not telling!  Wow, that was the wrong answer.  I remember shoving Leon into a corner of our school, and pulling his pants down.  Because surely any difference has to be down there! Yeah, I was right, the difference was right there.  Shock shock horror.

We turned 14.  My parents decided to emigrate to South Africa.  Leon laughed, said that in the future I will be married to a black man and have brown kids.  But will I stay in touch?  Of course.

Time went by.  Internet had not been invented yet, Bill Gates was still finishing school himself.  Leon and I wrote letters, but as time went by the letters became less.  And less. Eventually it dried up all together, and Leon and I continued our separate lives.  I missed him terribly, but mail was slow and my parents were always moving house.  When internet did make an appearance I searched for Leon but never found him.

Many years went by, and I eventually saved enough money to return to my hometown.  I went for a bicycle ride with my aunt, and with a shock realised the area I was in:  I cycled right past Leon’s house!  I stopped, told my aunt about Leon, pointing at his old house.  Oh dear, my aunt said, that was your friend?  Yes, I said, do you know him?  Yes, she said, everyone knew him….. turns out he gained a lot of weight and had a heart attack.  He died. His mother, sweet soul that she always was, found him.  And was so upset that she too died of a heart attack right beside Leon.  The town talked about it for years.

Did this influence my decision to start Basic Orange?  Deep down I believe it does, I still miss him today.  And we would have been 48 now…. It taught me at an early age that being overweight can kill you.  Does kill you.

So if someone says to you being overweight can kill you, and you laugh it off thinking that will never happen to you, well my friend think again.  Because your clogged arteries and excessive body fat can kill you any time, any day, no exceptions.  Just ask Leon.