Merry Christmas everyone!

Do you think you are going to struggle with keeping fit over the holidays? Don’t worry check in here and I’ll keep you up to date with some fun and great exercises over the lazy season!! See you then :)

Merry Christmas!!!!


Yours in health and fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

Staying fit over the holiday!

Keeping fit over the holidays may seem very hard, and too difficult to manage. The wonderful food that can be hard to resist, and the lazy days with the family around make it less tempting to get out for a run or attending a class.

But with a few strategies and a helping hand you can keep your holiday fitness right on track and feel good as the New Year begins.

·         Set the goals of simply maintaining your weight; Christmas is not a time of the year when you should to have to “holdback”. Be realistic and enjoy the holiday season, but don’t overdo it.

·         Think about the meals, we don’t need to eat Christmas dinner every day over three weeks. Have same fruit and vegetables before lunch and dinner, which will help you not to be starving for the meals and be realistic about which day is actually Christmas

·         Cut down on some of the “heavy” foods, skip the potatoes and add a fresh salad. Don’t save yourself for the big lunch or dinner. Eat your normal, healthy breakfast and lunch so you don’t overeat by the time the “big” meal comes around.

·         Stay motivated to exercise by giving yourself incentives. Keep an activity chart on the refrigerator and reward yourself with some new exercise gear when you have reached your goals each week.    

So what should you do?

30-45 minutes brisk walk every day

3 times per week add some core exercises to your walk

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!!

 Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

 

Isn’t it great, the kids are playing in the mud with leaves?

I read an article the other day about Bush Kinder in Melbourne. It was great to read about how the kids are out playing in the park in all weathers, but also it made me think and feel sad about the way we live.

Newsworthy that kids’ play with sticks, logs, trees, leaves and mud, when shouldn’t that be something that kids do every day?

The kindergarten is based on evidence that children learn better if they have the opportunity to play outside. Well that’s fantastic, but how about that they might be healthier by spending time  being physical more, active and having to interact with their friends face-to-face not through a computer.

About 70% of adults played outdoors more than indoors when they were young, this compared to only 13% of their children (according to the article), obviously something has gone very wrong. Children need to play outside, they need uneven surface, they need trees and rocks to climb and they need fresh air. I was shocked when I arrived to Australia with my little kids long time ago, and kinder and school had “wet day” timetable. In Sweden we have a saying “There is no bad weather only bad clothing”, which means that if it is raining during recess you had to put your rain clothes on and go out.

I think the bush kinder idea is fantastic, and I wish we had many more of them. To get kids more active outside and make them realize that being active is not about being driven to a sport activity, but actually running around outside in the back yard and in the neighborhood too discover life. 

 

 

 Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

Our core is really our core

 

The last 10 years or so “the core”  has been on every Personal Trainers “need to include”-list. You may know that your core is somewhere in the middle of your body,and that it is pretty important for you to be able to stand up. But many of us see “the core” as the “six-pack”, and don’t realize how many muscles are part of the core and how important they all are in functional movments. The major core muscles also stabilize the thorax and the pelvis during dynamic movements and it also provides internal pressure to expel substances (vomit, feces, carbon-laden air etc.).

Major muscles included are the pelvic floor muscles, which provides support to hold the pelvis and addominal organs in place, transversus abdominis wraps around your torso like a big belt and draws the abdomen in and stabilizes the spine. Retus abdominis are your “six-pack” muscles that runs from your sternum to your pelvlic bone and assists your body in bending back and standing up. Some of your back muscles are considered as part of the core since they support your abs while sitting and bending.

Along the side of your torso you have external and internal obliques, the internal runs from your hips towards your sternum and ribs. The external obliques run from your ribs towards your hips, and they stabilize the abdomen and assist with breathing. They are also important muscles for twisting and bending side to side.

Strong core muscles makes everyday life easier, everything from bending down to tie your shoes, getting a cup from the shelf to walking up the stairs. Weak core muscles leave you more susceptible to injuries, poor posture and back problems.

I hope this gave you a bit more understanding why it is so important to include different ab exercises in your exercise routine and not only do 100 sit-up per day.

 Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

 

No one is perfect but that doesn’t mean we can’t love ourselves!

Perfect is such a strong word with too many expectations connected to it.  The dictionary definition of perfect is “without faults: without errors, flaws, or faults”, and no one will fall into that category but everyone is perfect in their own way.

Our lives are stressful enough without the pressure of having to do everything perfectly; we are suppose to have great career, be a fantastic partner, exercise, eat healthy and look like twenty forever. This need for perfection drives people to extreme measures to get there and this often causes more harm than good.

We work too many hours per week to stay on top of things, we often focus only on those around us forgetting to put ourselves first occasionally, we fall for the latest fad trends in exercising (20 sec training per week, the 30 sec “abtwister”, or even no exercise at all), we have ‘healthy’ precooked meals delivered home and we have Botox, liposuction and all kinds of implants, just to live up to what we believe is expected of ourselves.

Aiming to be perfect is not only unrealistic but also a waste of the person we are, we need to start to appreciate who we are and what we already have. So how did we get to this distorted way of looking at ourselves? A lot of it comes from media that really pushes the way we should live and look. We are the role model for our children and the younger generation and we all know that “kids don’t do what they’re told, they do what they see”. If they see us treating our bodies like something we will constantly replace parts of, instead of seeing us looking after it and treating it like a valuable entity, they will do exactly the same thing to their bodies, and we will have generation after generations harboring bad self-esteem and unhealthy bodies.

Over doing something; over-eating, over consuming alcohol, over exercising even over eating healthy is a sign that the body and mind are out of balance.

We need to bring back appreciation and self love for ourselves and our bodies before we all “hit the wall” not just from over working but from trying to be “over” prefect. It takes courage to admit that you love yourself, but in order to love and care for others we first need to love and care for ourselves. 

 I would love to live until I’m 100, but when that day comes along I would like to be able to say –This is pure me, with my wrinkles and my old look but I’m proud to be fit, healthy and look like the 100 year old lady that I am.

8 ways to become the person you truly love and are proud of (with all its wrinkles, a bit of love handles and even too big ears and too small breasts);

·         Simplify exercise; go for a run, use body weight exercises, use free weight (you don’t have to rush off to a gym or jump on the newest super trendy fitness classes)

·         Leave the car and start walking

·         Cook at home with fresh products

·         Don’t compare yourself with others

·         Say NO, think about yourself and be the one that makes your own decisions

·         Appreciate your wrinkles and your aging body as wisdom from life

·         Don’t take short cuts; fitness and health is lifestyle not a week long diet or quick nip and tuck.

·         Be proud of how YOU, yourself, can change and keep your body healthy

We shouldn’t regret growing old, its privilege a lot of people don’t get.

 Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

You have to try this, a lovely soup and so easy to make. It is getting close to my favorite soup.

Chicken soup with curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

6 dl water

1 chicken stock cube

2 breast chicken fillets

1 garlic clove

1 red capsicum

400 gr coconut milk

100gr mushrooms

2 tsp red curry paste

Juice from 1 lime

Methods

Let the water come to a boil and add the chicken stock. Sear the chicken in a frying pan with the garlic. Slice the chicken into fine slices and add to the water. Simmer for about 3-5 min. Slice the capsicum and mushrooms finely and add to the water and chicken. Add coconut milk, curry paste and lime juice and simmer for another 3-5 min.

Enjoy with a nice piece of bread!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

 

Great news, I’m so excited my first blog post at MindBodyGreen has just been published on:    http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12679/10-rules-i-live-by-for-gorgeous-skin-vibrant-health.html.

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au