Hot potatoes
By Meeghan, 6 August, 2010
Here's an idea for a healthy and satisfying light meal for four on a cold winter evening.
Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes
425g can tuna in spring water - drained, 1 tbspn lemon juice, 2 tspns sweet chilli sauce, 1 tspn finely grated lemon zest, 1 tspn baby capers, 1 small red chilli and 1 spring onion - finely chopped.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180c. Wrap each potato in foil and bake for 1 hour or until tender. Scoop the filling from each potato, leaving the skin intact and roughly chop. Then mix the potato with the filling ingredients of your choice and re-fill the potato while still warm and serve with lemon juice, plain yogurt and salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe sourced from the Biggest Loser cookbook.
Separating the fat from the fiction
By Meeghan, 7 June, 2010
Lately there seems to be an abundance of information about fat loss. I only have to open the paper at the café, listen to the radio or turn on the TV at home and I’m overwhelmed with the latest research on fighting flab. And naturally, because of my profession, I read, listen and watch with interest.
Two recent studies have caught my attention and deserve some discussion. The first comes from the Journal of the American Medical Association. It looked at how much exercise women needed to do to keep the flab off as they age. The results attracted a lot of media attention as the study found at least an hour of moderate activity a day was needed. And everyone freaked out. Including me. An hour a day? Where on earth were my busy mum’s, corporate go getters and retired jet setters going to find the time?
However when I looked more closely I realised the media reporting of this study could be misleading. Firstly, moderate activity was studied not vigorous activity and secondly this study was only looking at women who weren’t cutting back on the amount of kilojoules they were eating. As we get older most of us tend to move less but we eat the same. In order to maintain a healthy weight as we age we need to move more vigorously, more often and we must eat less.
The second study appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and looked at whether exercise-induced improvements in health are actually influenced by changes in body weight. This article acknowledges losing weight is difficult and warns against measuring success only in terms of kilograms lost because this attitude can breed unrealistic expectations and set us up for failure.
The study took a group of 58 sedentary, overweight or obese men and women who participated in a 12-week supervised aerobic exercise program, consisting of five weekly sessions. They were asked to stick with their regular eating habits.
When the data was collected the participants fell into two groups: responders who lost a mean reduction of predicted body weight of 3.3kg and non-responders who failed to achieve the predicted weight loss. Almost half of the participants failed to achieve weight loss but both groups achieved significant increases in aerobic capacity, including an improvement in resting heart rate, decreased blood pressure and decreased waist circumference. And perhaps most importantly, all participants experienced an exercise induced boost in their positive mood. In other words, they all felt better.
Lost in the translation of many articles I read about fat loss is the sheer joy to be felt from moving the body. Over thousands and thousands of years the human species has had to hunt and gather, fight or - run like hell. Our bodies are designed to move. It’s only in the age of technology, that our choice of lifestyle (full of appliances, gadgets, cars and remote controls - which promised to make our lives easier) has had the unexpected result of making our lives more difficult by way of alarming rates of obesity and chronic disease.
It is not easy to maintain a healthy weight or to commit to a physical training program of self improvement as you will need to exercise and eat well most days of the week. But little by little you will get stronger and fitter, feel better for it and maybe lose some body fat along the way. There is no one final destination, a point at which you can stop or jump off. It’s a long term commitment you make to yourself to live in a better functioning body, with a healthy mind and an increased sense of well being.
Turned off by the big tick
By Meeghan, 12 May, 2010
When I was at school, some time ago now, a tick symbol was recognized as a mark for correct and a cross symbol was a mark for incorrect. I liked that system, pretty simple and fairly black and white.
But the tick of today isn’t as straight forward as it once was. Two of the most recognized logos in Australia, the Heart Foundation tick, representing healthy food choices for consumers and McDonald’s, representing burgers and fries, continue to be engaged in a dubious healthy food alliance. And now I’m confused.
Since early 2007 the Heart Foundation has given the tick of approval to a number of McDonald’s meals. Tick meal 2 currently consists of 6 Chicken McNuggets served with a garden salad and 1560 kilojoules, 21.7 grams of fat and 687 mg of salt per serve. Add fries or an orange juice to your chicken McNuggets and the tick obviously, becomes void. But does this meal, without the fries, deserve a tick when it is already so high in energy, fat and salt? And should the Heart Foundation continue to endorse a company that still sells a heart attack in a box, the Big Mac?
The Heart Foundation believed they had a responsibility to ‘shake’ up the fast food market in 2007. They argued they were dealing with the reality of the Western world and were challenging fast food companies to produce healthier not healthy food.* A challenging but necessary partnership was formed and the fast food giant they say, has had to work hard to meet the nutrition standards of the Tick Criteria Working group.
CHOICE magazine however, recently reviewed the Heart Foundation tick and expressed concern that the development and subsequent reviews of the tick criteria were not open to broad consultation and, sugar which currently isn’t included in any product criteria, should be. They also made a good point that manufacturers pay a licence fee** for the Heart Foundation tick; other products may be just as good or better but competitors have decided not to be endorsed by the tick program.
The Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization, has a mission to ‘to improve the cardiac health of Australians’ but is sending mixed messages to the consumer. On the one hand the tick implies healthy food choice but in reality it is only a healthier food choice, the best from a bad bunch. Yes, the Tick meals are lower in saturated fat and salt than they were before (when they were super high) but they are still high! Will the tick endorsement move a Big Mac eater to change to a tick meal? Hardly, I think it’s more likely to attract new customers to McDonald’s and normalize the eating of burgers and fries.
And I keep asking myself is it really possible that the junk food giant who in part created the obesity epidemic now really wants to fix the problem? Or is it all part of McDonald’s re-branding, an attempt to boost its image after the public backlash from films like Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation? Could it simply be savvy marketing spin, an ingenious move to re-position itself as a healthy and nutritious company? Either way I believe it has hurt the integrity of the tick.
McDonald’s is in the business of selling burgers and fries and being aligned with the Heart Foundation (and soon to be Weight Watchers in Australia)*** is a great promotion that will attract the health conscious mother aged 25-39 (with children) looking for healthier convenience food. Now if these women come in through the golden arches then McDonald’s also has a new generation of child customers to target. Australian nutritionist Rosemary Stanton said the sales of burgers and fries soared when McDonald’s first introduced its healthy Deli Choices menu in 2004 and I would suggest McDonald’s knew then, it was on to something. An alliance with the Heart Foundation since 2007 is an attempt to increase product sales through an unconvincing healthier line of food. And to add mockery to the Heart Foundation endorsement tick last October McDonalds profits soared another 6%, mostly because of burgers and fries sales.
More than three years down the track the Heart Foundation continues to endorse a company who’s bottom line is still burgers and fries and yet obesity is on the up and up, as are McDonald’s profits. If the heart foundation is serious about improving the cardiac heath of Australians they cannot continue to endorse a company which sells high fat and high sodium junk food. Yes where I come from it’s pretty simple and black and white. I’ll be putting a big fat cross through any food with a Heart Foundation tick and I won’t purchase in protest.
*Burgers are big business - fast food restaurants around Australia sell 2.7 million meals a day and an estimated 1.2 million Australians eat McDonalds, the king of junk food, daily.
**McDonald’s pays $330,000 to the Heart Foundation each year to earn the tick of approval. This money goes towards the cost of testing meals to make sure they meet Tick criteria working group standards and random auditing of restaurants.
**Sometime soon coming to a McDonalds near you, the Weight Watchers logo will be on McDonald’s menu boards and tray mats and the slimming company will promote McDonald’s at dieters meetings and on TV. It’s already happening in New Zealand.
Fish important all year round
By Meeghan, 1 April, 2010
The following article has been written by Hayley Dicker who is available by appointment to help you with your individual nutritional needs through one-on-one consultations at Forever Strong Studio.
The role of fish can often be underestimated in our diet. Throughout the lifespan, fish provides us with essential nutritional requirements important for our development, health and well being and reduces our risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
The benefits of fish have been attributed to its rich source of omega 3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA). These are part of a group of fats affectionately labeled ‘the good fats’ and are essential in every diet.
There is sufficient evidence to support the cardio-protective effects of omega 3 LCPUFA.
Some studies show consuming 114g of fresh fish four times per week can reduce the incidence of CVD by 14%. However, eating as little as 20-30g of fresh fish three times per week still has significant benefits and can improve your lipoprotein profile by increasing your good cholesterol as well as reducing your bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
An improved lipoprotein profile will help reduce your CVD risk by reducing the likelihood of blood clots. There is also evidence that omega 3 LCPUFA act to stabilize the contractions of the heart, therefore contributing to enhanced heart health.
And if you’re still not convinced fish is an important part of your diet, it also plays a role in brain development, especially in children. And can help with joint aches and pains in older adults, helping to increase mobility and reduce stiffness especially in the knees and shoulders.
To make sure you are benefitting from all that fish has to offer, try to incorporate an 80-120g serving of fish twice every week. Remember that fresh fish is always best. While canned tuna and fish oil tablets may be convenient no-fuss options, fresh fish will provide your body with the best nutritional value and highest absorption of omega 3 LCPUFA.
Article written by Hayley Dicker
Are we The Biggest Losers?
By Meeghan, 15 March, 2010
The title of The Biggest Loser has always annoyed me a little but recently a number of my clients have asked what my thoughts are of the show. In the process of answering this question I've had to put my thinking cap on and dig deep for some honest answers.
At the outset it's important to recognise The Biggest Loser is a reality TV show not a serious sports training program. It's all about ratings and commercial success. This is the 5th series of The Biggest Loser and on Sunday March 7th 2010, 857,000 viewers tuned in to watch. So that's plenty of bums on seats right?
The Biggest Loser has always been a target for criticism but in this series sports scientists are horrified that contestants, some of whom began the program at more than 170 kilograms, will compete in a marathon - yes that's right a 42 kilometre road race (a distance equal to Melbourne to Frankston) after only 11 weeks of training.
And, the other major criticism seems to be the weekly weigh ins, which according to former contestants who spilled the beans to the Age, actually happen every 10 to 14 days or longer. Personally I'm outraged that the show's producers would deliberately mislead viewers (like that's never happened before) and claim weight loss of up to 17kgs a week in order to put more more bums on seats! Anyway the moral of the story seems you shouldn't always believe what you read or watch – even if it is supposedly a weight loss reality TV show.
The health and fitness industry is very big business as our nation grows and expands due to an obesity epidemic. A TV show like this can inspire and motivate others but ultimately it must be viewed as it is - a reality TV game. Why else would contestants who are falling off treadmills, throwing up and losing dangerous amounts of weight keep going? Well that would perhaps have something to do with the tasty carrot of $200,000 which the 'winner' will take home.
You and I don't have the luxury of The Biggest Loser living environment. Cameras in your face, trainers like Michelle Bridges telling you "I pay respect to anyone that can puke, get up and get on with it", and a lockdown environment in which you may train for 5 or more hours a day if you like without having to work, cook or clean.
The irony is presumably some of the contestants who made it onto the show had been doing quite a bit of sedentary TV watching themselves. So are we The Biggest Loser in all of this while the TV executives laugh all the way to the bank?
The Biggest Loser entertains viewers and sometimes even has some great health and fitness advice. However in my corner of the world I’d be more inclined to encourage you to lift your bum up off the couch, switch off The Biggest Loser and head out for a walk.
And if you do watch the show, don't settle into the couch with some popcorn, do some squats, do some lunges and burn some fat in a healthy and realistic way. After all the main message really should be it’s all about balance; a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy spirit.
You don’t need to throw up or fall off a treadmill to achieve that.
Water the super nutrient
By Meeghan, 12 March, 2010
The important role water plays in our health and wellbeing is highlighted when you consider our body is made up of between 55 - 75% water.
We may be able to survive a few weeks without food but without water even for a few hours, we may experience headaches, lethargy and confusion.
Each day most adults will lose between 2.5 - 3 litres of water (more if we are living in hot weather or vigorously exercising) and we need to replace this loss.
We can obtain some of our water requirements from food (think lettuce and watermelon), even from what may appear to be dry and hard foods but the overwhelming majority must be from liquids.
Fresh water is superior to all other liquids because unlike juice and soft drink for example it does not contain kilojoules and has fluoride which is good for the teeth. However milk is important for calcium and tea can be a source of antioxidants which may protect us from heart disease and cancer.
It is recommended you drink six to eight 150ml glasses of water every day but you will need more if you are physically active, living in hot climates or if you are breastfeeding. Another suggestion is consuming 1 litre of water per 25kgs of bodyweight.
Water will maintain the health and integrity of every cell in the body, will regulate body temperature through sweating and will lubricate and cushion joints. If that wasn't enough water acts as a shock absorber inside the eyes and spinal cord and works as a moisturiser to improve the appearance of your skin.
Without water our body is not able to perform most body functions with ease and this places stress on the kidneys. If you are regularly dehydrated you may be at risk of kidney stones or urinary tract infections, and there is some evidence to suggest bladder cancer.
So the message is drink up and if you are drinking mineral water choose low sodium varieties, those that contain less than 30mg per 100ml.
Home workout plan for parents
By Meeghan, 12 March, 2010
I recently received an email from my client Scott, a father of two, with a link to the home workout plan he has been following.
As I'm always in search of new ways to motivate my clients to workout at home, I've decided to share this program with you.
Please let me know what you think!
To view the home workout plan click here.
Be sunsmart this Summer
By Meeghan, 4 December, 2009
It's a catch 22; while too much sun exposure can increase the risk of skin cancer, too little sun exposure can increase the risk of Vitamin D deficiency.
Did you know more Australians die from skin cancer every year than our combined national road toll? We have one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world with more than 1700 people dieing from skin cancer in Australia each year.
Even on a day like today with a maximum forecast of only 21 degrees, the UV levels are very high. In fact from September to late April the levels of UV radiation in Australia are enough to damage your skin and eyes.
Here's a few tips for sun protection;
Slip on sun-protective clothing.
Slop on SPF30+ broad spectrum, water resistant sunscreen. Put sunscreen on 20 minutes before you go outside and every two hours afterwards.
Slap on a hat - that protects your face, head, neck and ears.
Seek shade.
Slide on some sunglasses - but make sure they meet Australian Standards.
Vitamin D however, plays an essential role in helping the body to absorb calcium, which develops and maintains healthy bones, muscles and teeth.
The catch is the best source of vitamin D comes from ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Although there are small amounts of vitamin D in food such as eggs, fish and Vitamin D rich milk, this is usually not enough to maintain the levels our bodies need.
So from September to April – just a few minutes of UV exposure to the face, arms and hands should be enough for most people to maintain adequate vitamin D levels but from May to August – two to three hours of sunlight exposure may be necessary over the week!
If you think you may be at risk of vitamin D deficiency you should see your Doctor as a simple blood test can assess your risk.
*People with very dark skin may need three to four times more sun exposure time than people with fair skin to achieve sufficient levels of vitamin D. This is because the pigments in dark skin reduce the effects of UV radiation in the production of vitamin D.
*Solariums are not recommended as a way to treat vitamin D deficiency as they have been linked to causing skin cancer.
Moderate activity?
By Meeghan, 6 October, 2009
Both the Australian physical activity guidelines and the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines recommend 'moderate' intense physical activity on most days of the week.
A significant issue with these current physical activity recommendations (no it's not the fact that almost 50% of Australians are not following them) is use of the word 'moderate', which means different things to different people.
A study was recently published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine which attempts to translate these physical activity recommendations into a pedometer-based step goal and here's what they found.
To maintain a 'moderate' level of physical activity men and women are required to walk between 92 - 115 steps a minute; this is a brisk pace you might walk when running late for an important meeting with your personal trainer!
Aim for a brisk 3,000 step walk in 30 minutes or three 10-minute walks of 1,000 steps a day to ensure you are meeting the basic recommendations for good health and invest in an accurate pedometer; Choice recommends the Yamax Digiwalker SW-701 which is widely available in Australia.
Walktober 2009
By Meeghan, 6 October, 2009
Walktober, a community walking event was created four years ago by Kinect Australia in collaboration with VicHealth to motivate and support people to walk for fun and health. In 2008 over 90,000 people participated in Walktober in Victoria.
This year Forever Strong Fitness will be participating in Walktober by launching our very own free Heart Foundation walking group at 8.30am on Tuesday October 6th.
If you haven’t already done so now is your last chance to register for this event and receive a free “health pack” from the Heart Foundation which includes goodies such as a pedometer, socks and massage oil.
