The Fitness Journal

It has been an “interesting” year and a half since my last post. In that time I have been through major surgery, was diagnosed with cancer and went through a very aggressive chemotherapy treatment protocol. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? The good news is that I am in remission, have a wonderful wife, an absolutely amazing daughter, very supportive family, great friends and I am feeling great.

There are a number of things that have helped me get through this trying time as well as I have. The support of family and friends (especially my wife,) the presence of my daughter and the fact that I have made my health and fitness a focus throughout my life. The fact that I went into treatment being fit and strong played an important role in my recovery. I am not saying it was easy for anybody but being it did help in a number of ways.

I am now slowly increasing my strength and fitness levels, eating well and looking at enjoying life with the people I care about.

Nobody knows what the future entails but putting some effort into your health and fitness is an insurance policy that is definitely worth taking out.

If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

Athletes and fitness buffs have one thing in common: they encounter injuries every once in a while. Some may be minor ones, while others can be serious. For professional athletes, it could mean the end their career or their once-in-a-lifetime chance for fame and glory. Although sports injuries are not inevitable, you should ensure that you do everything you can to reduce the chance of occurrence. One way of achieving this is by maintaining balance in training.

In this situation balance has a few meanings, the first is balance in relation your life and to the training that you do – the balance between your sports training and the strength and conditioning work you do for your sport, and balance between your training and recuperation from your training.

The second type of balance is the balance between one side of the body and the other, or of one muscle and it’s opposing partner (antagonist.) If you have imbalances from side to side or other muscle imbalances, you increase your risk of injury, postural problems and muscular pain.

The third type of balance is your physical sense of balance, the ability to maintain appropriate stability when stationary or moving. Kinesthetic awareness, or the ability to know where your body is in space is needed for every movement of the human body. Some people use various activities such as standing on one leg, or walking on narrow boards to improve their balance. It is important to note that these activitites are very specific and generally don’t have a great crossover to a particular sport.

I will discuss all three types of balance in future posts. Overall keeping balanced across the board is essential in improving overall health and well-being and reducing your chances of injury and pain.

If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

By now everyone knows the blueberry contains very high levels of antioxidants.  But, don’t ignore all the other colorful foods out there loaded with antioxidants.

Antioxidants are all the rage today.  And, justifiably so.  Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals which cause cell damage, which ultimately can lead to diseases of the heart and cancer.  It seems everywhere you go its blueberry this and blueberry that.  You have your choice of wild blueberry juice, blueberry-pomegranate juice, blueberry-cranberry juice and so on and so on.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love blueberries.  But, in our rush to embrace the latest antioxidant food craze (blueberries, cranberries, pomegranates) we’re ignoring some very high-antioxidant foods that are probably sitting ignored in our cupboards.

“What?”  You ask, “What could possibly be higher in antioxidants than my beloved wild blueberry?”  Well, how about the small red bean?  That’s right, I said “bean.”  The small red bean actually has more antioxidants per serving size than the wild blueberry.  And the red kidney bean and pinto bean have more antioxidants per serving size than a serving of cultivated blueberries.

What other foods are high in antioxidants?  For starters, there are artichoke hearts, blackberries, prunes, pecans, spinach, kale, russet potatoes and plums.  And, no, that’s not a mistake.  Russet potatoes are on the list of foods high in antioxidants.

The truth is, there are many common foods high in antioxidants and you should not just restrict yourself to one particular food source.  Why?  Well, have you ever heard the expression, “eat your colors?”  That refers to the fact that foods are in different color “families” containing different types of antioxidants which have different benefits.  For example, the yellow-orange color family of peaches and nectarines help our immune systems.  The purple-red color family of foods (pomegranates, plums, berries) helps reduce inflammation.  It’s important to eat foods from all color groups to reap the full benefits of antioxidants.

The good news is that you can eat healthy foods high in antioxidants (by eating them raw, cooking them, or juicing them yourself) without having to pay a high price for the “flavor of the month” antioxidant juices being peddled in the supermarkets.

So, give your blueberries some company at the dinner table.  Invite some beans, spinach, potatoes and artichoke hearts and enjoy your antioxidants!

If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne