Pete’s Blog – January 2020
Welcome to the start of what promises to be an eventful and exciting year.
In July we will bear witness to the games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan, which will also host the Paralympic Games at the end of August. One of our long term clients, Matt Levy, is training hard at the moment as he continues his quest to represent Australia in his 5th Paralympics. The final Australian selection trials to choose each swimming team, will be held in Adelaide in mid-June.
While most of us do not have such a specific goal on which to focus for the first six months of this year, we can all gain some valuable insights from the many hours of training that Matt has completed since his first Paralympic Games in 2004.
Two of the key training principles that have been of paramount importance to Matt are frequency and consistency. He has been churning up and down North Sydney pool practically every week of every month for the past 18 years. He has had a few breaks here and there but if not for his continued discipline in and out of the pool during this time, he would not have enjoyed the rewards that have come his way. Every new year has presented a new challenge with new and of late younger, swimmers stepping up onto the starting blocks in a bid to keep him off the podium at his major domestic and international competitions. In order to remain competitive, Matt has not only needed to focus on ensuring he works hard every training session, he also has ensured what he eats and drinks each day of each week, of each month, of each year has allowed him to achieve optimal performance while keeping his body mass within acceptable limits. Combined, these daily habits have in large part allowed Matt to continue to be a world-class athlete.
Frequency and consistency; two very simple but very important lifestyle habits that we can all apply to our daily lives, especially to our daily exercise regime and just as importantly to our daily nutritional practice. For this year I would encourage all of you to make an effort to move more on a daily basis and to do so consistently each and every week. While it is very important to complete 2 -3 1:1 PT sessions per week, you need to make and effort to find ways to move as much as possible on each of the other days of the week. Secondly, I would also encourage you to eat a healthy, balanced diet each and every day that will allow you to be healthier and to also get the maximum benefit possible from your daily exercise program.
For 2020, rather than looking for a short term fix from the latest ‘Fad’ diet, try to work towards adopting a long term strategy to your eating habits. Focus on keeping your diet simple, fresh, try to make most of your daily meals and when you can’t do this, know what is in the foods you eat. Try to avoid eating anything out of a packet and avoid eating foods that are high in salt, MSG, hidden sugars and trans fats. If you make an effort to eat more fresh seasonal vegetables and fruits, eat more fish and chicken and limit your red meat consumption to about 2 – 3 meals per week, you will go a long way to developing healthy, sustainable eating habits that will last you a lifetime. This year, my family and I are going to introduce a “Meat-Free Monday” to our weekly eating plan. We will substitute plant-based protein such as beans and legumes, for animal protein every Monday to try to bring some more variety and balance into our diet.
Furthermore, eating like this on a consistent basis may also help each one of us to not only eat better but we may also may contribute to helping to create a healthier planet. A recent article by Professor Karen Charlton, a dietician from the School of Medicine at the University of Wollongong, suggests that encouraging people to eat more seasonal vegetables and fruit not only encourages them to buy their fresh produce from smaller, local growers but they are also waste less food. According to a recent estimate, the average Australian household throws away approx $600 of food each year, which is roughly equal to one shopping bag of food thrown out for every five purchased. Not only does this contribute to land fill but there is also a multiplier effect related to resources wasted in the production process of this food. Professor Charlton goes on to suggest that encouraging consumers to buy fresh, seasonal produce from local growers could be a simple, yet powerful step in working towards a more sustainable, equitable and healthy food supply.