The article below was taken from The Advertiser Wollongong on Wednesday March 14th 2012.
I can’t seem to find a website to give them credit for the article, so if anyone knows what their website is, let me know so that I can put it link to them from here.

Click on the article to view a larger version.

I received some stats from RunKeeper the other day and decided to share it. What I found really cool is the number of activities tracked each day

Chances are you have probably heard the opening parable before, but when paired up with the training video of an aspiring football player the message is pretty powerful. How bad do you want success and what are you willing to go through to possess it? In fitness, success could be dropping to your ideal weight range, getting that six pack, toning those muscles or completing that marathon. In working towards that, we sometimes struggle to stay motivated, stay inspired and keep working towards that goal. Reaching the point of wanting success more than the desire to breathe is probably unrealistic so let me ask this: how much sleep, time, and short term gratification are you willing to give up in order to achieve long term success?

article rephrased from Patrick Hall -fstoppers

This month’s nutrition focus. from Dietitian Anita Graham, is on you and your kid’s lunchbox. Are you providing yourself with nutrient-rich, filling food or are you swamping your lunch boxes with high calorie, poor nutrient (empty calories) food and getting hungry 15 mines later?

Interested in nutrition and not sure of the answers? You may not be the only person. You can contact Anita Graham at neat_graham@hotmail.com if you have any dietary questions.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

This is based on an Australian clinical trial in Melbourne by Body-Brain Performance Institute and Swinburne University’s Brain Sciences Institute.

Apart from increased brain function and reduced stress levels at work, the trial also found that it can add five years to your lifespan.

The full article can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/10000-steps-plus-trips-to-the-gym-itll-make-you-and-the-boss-happy-20110914-1k9oe.html

Now there’s even more reason to go for that early morning jog from North beach to the lighthouse

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Doing exercises is really fun. It is a good foundation of making us healthy; however, the problem is sometimes, we get lazy to do exercises because of different reasons. Some say that they must enjoy life to the fullest and don’t need to torture ourselves just to attain healthiness. Well, they might just say that because they don’t have interest in doing so but once they get inspiration, they will definitely do exercises.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Having someone with you in doing exercises is better than doing it by yourself. Like jogging and running, even walking, you don’t find those activities to become boring because you have someone to talk to and for that reason, you won’t notice the tiredness. Here are some benefits in doing exercises with your partner.

• You will be well motivated if you are with your partner in doing exercises.
• You will not be bored in doing exercises but you will find it cool and enjoyable because you have somebody at your side.
• You will enjoy what you are doing because you are not alone. You are with your partner and you can make your exercises habits to be colorful as you like.
• You can intensify your exercises with different things and activities because there are many things to do with a partner rather than being alone.
• Most especially, you will feel comfortable and loved all the time. It is the best motivation for you to keep doing exercises whatever it takes.

September 24th – 25th is Relay for Life in the Illawarra [details of the event can be found here]. Over 130 teams and 1000 participants will be taking part in the relay. For some, the reasons for doing so are more personal than others. Below is Shannae’s story.

Why I relay…

Cancer has touched my family in too many, my grandmother has just recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, not one caused by smoking, but one that every person aged from about 50yrs is quite common to get. Her treatment has not started yet, but it has already put a massive toll on my family as I am the only closest relative my grandparents have. Also in 2005 my father-in-law was diagnosed with throat cancer. After losing most of his teeth, his salivary glands, over 30kgs due to not being able to eat and an intense 6 month course of radio and chemotherapy. It has now been 5 years and they still cant tell him that he is cancer free. He has only put about 15kgs back on and still can’t eat properly. He has to carry around a pocket spray bottle to spray his mouth every minute as he will never get his salivary glands back and he finds it really hard to swallow food due to no lubrication. Every day is a battle for my mother-in-law to try and create new dishes that he can eat with no dramas. But the good news is that after 5 years he is still here.

Both husbands of my neighbours on either side of us have passed away from cancer in the past 13 months. Dave passed away due to a number of reasons, one of them was lymphatic cancer. He had been struggling with this for about 5 years which was continuously making him weaker and was causing more health issues. They became part of our family when he decided to take my son under his wing as an adopted-like great grandson. He loved transformers and would ask Jacob to play with his toys. Kevin was diagnosed with a very rare type of stomach cancer and within 3 months of his diagnosis he was gone. Having my 9yr old son see the horrible life surrounding cancer, I want to do everything in my power to help the Cancer Council research and find some cures.

Help me make a difference…

Cancer Council’s Relay for Life is coming to our community and I’m taking part. That’s right – I’m taking to the track and being proactive in the fight against cancer. Did you know that Cancer Council is Australia’s leading cancer charity dedicated to beating cancer through research? Cancer Council’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has saved thousands of lives. But statistics show that one in two of us will still get cancer at some point and Cancer Council’s vital work, funded entirely by the public, will help ensure that thousands more people will survive. So please help make a difference.

Find out more about Relay for Life in the Illawarra.

Shannae Correia

Shannae Correia walked just over 38kms and raised over $1,000 from last year’s relay for life. This year she has set herself a personal target of $2,000. She’ll be walking for the Berkeley West Public School. If you wish to help her achieve her target, you can donate online by going to her teams page. Every donation counts.

When is it time for  a new heart rate monitor?

I have a Polar F11 which I absolutely love. It’s my first (and so far only) heart rate monitor watch which I had since 2007.
The watch’s just great. I use it for all my runs as I like to use my heart rate as an indicator to how hard my body is working.
I also like the size of it and the dual time zone functionality, which together with the watch’s water resistant rating, makes it a great travel watch.

However I’ve sent the watch back to get the battery replaced around 2 times now and this morning the battery on the watch went dead again and once again in need of replacement. I think it is around AUD$30 for a battery replacement (with shipping and battery replacement of the transmitter as extras), so I think I will have spent around $150 in battery replacement for a watch which is around the same price.

I wonder when does it come a time (if there is one) where it’s time to replace the heart rate monitor watch with some thing newer (and with more functionality)?

With Summer and the warmer temperature, what better way to start the day than with a swim in the morning!

I’ve picked this up recently and in Wollongong, you have quite a few options.

Wollongong Continental Pool

The first option is swimming in Wollongong Continental Pool.

The pool is very well maintained and it is open early in the morning. I get there at 6:30am in the morning and there are already people in there. You can find out more at http://www.nswoceanbaths.info/pools/b075.htm There are two pools in there, with the one closer to the ocean being a deeper lap pool. The shallow pool seems to be used more for aqua running.

Wollongong Rock Pool

This is your second option and the good thing about it is that it is never closed for maintenance and there are fewer people in there than the continental pool.
The rock pool is just next to the continental pool and during high tide, the waves will get into the pool. I usually use the Wollongong rock pool for cold water immersion recovery after a run. Another added benefit is the marine life you might encounter in the pool. I once saw an octopus in there.

Ocean Swim

This last option, which is also my favourite is Ocean Swimming!!! The water is so much more refreshing and it is never boring! There is a group which does this every morning. even on weekend! I believe they’re out there at 6:30am on weekdays and 8am on Sunday! What you do is to walk along the rocks from the continental pool (next to the pipe) to the end. There you will find a ledge where you can do a shallow dive into the water. The usual route is to swim north from there to a white mooring which is near north beach. I reckon the distance is around 800 meters. It’s a great swim and always different. I tend to find that the swim out is harder and takes longer compared to the swim back. That could probably be due to the waves pushing us back to the continental pool.

Another option for ocean swimming is harbour swimming, which is to swim the aquathon route in Belmore Basin. This is a good starting point for those who are not quite comfortable to be out in the ocean yet but still like to experience ocean swimming.

Whichever of these options you pick, summer is a great time to get some swimming in and enjoy the ocean!

A Current Affair did a segment on how gyms are multi-million dollar money spinner and how they get us to part with our hard earned cash.

Some of the dodgy tactics the segment claims the gyms use are:

• Unfair contracts
• Pushy sales people
• The joining fee farce
• Dodgy Personal Trainers

Click on the image below to go to the article on A Current Affair and watch the video segment.

The original ACA article can be found at http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8002516