Happy Monday Everyone.
Hope you are loving the long weekend! As we write this we have just returned from the beach where we collected shells and stones with the kids and took Oakey for a walk. Paul and I went to watch James Bond on Saturday night and then went to Black Bettys BBQ for a burger! (Sometimes you have to break the rules – and it was a pretty good burger btw).
Walks, bike rides, chilling has all been on the cards.
On to today’s post – a follow on from last Monday’s post – Your A-Z Guide for Nailing Life. If you missed the first half, here is the link
And we continue:
N is for Nutrition
There’s an old saying, “If you give a man a fish, you have fed him for today, but if you teach a man how to fish, you have fed him and his family for a lifetime.”
There is an abundance of nutritional advice, gimmicks and diets out there. Here are some essential tips we at Results like to focus on.
Eat organic or chemical free foods, wild or pasture raised meats, shop and support local (farmers markets are great for this). Eat lots of vegetables, especially green leafy ones, use traditional fats and oils. Soak grains overnight, make broths from your pasture raised bones, add a good quality sea salt to your meals and just eat real food (stay away from packets and processed).
O is for Oakey
For no other reason than he is sat by my feet as I write this
P is for Primal Patterning
Primal is survival. If we don’t move we perish. Primal patterning is innate and every human being has it working subconsciously all the time. This movement system we have is reflexive (it engages without thought). We learn our primal pattering as a baby. We roll, rock and crawl around the floor mastering fundamental movements and adapting to our surrounding environment.
Q is for Quality not Quantity
As I always say… More is not better, better is better. The world of fitness is so focused on trying to do more. Workouts are based around how tired and sweaty you can make people. You can do 100 push ups but if you’re doing them wrong what’s the point. Poor movement in the gym will only reinforce poor patterns in life.
First move well, then move often
R Is for Rest
Or recovery, rejuvenation, revitalization, recuperation, repose, relax, respite.
Rest is probably our most undervalued pillar of health. We often underestimate its importance, but actually, improved rest/sleep can reduce our blood pressure, our stress levels, our risk of a heart attack & much more. In fact, whatever ailment we are facing, it is more than likely that rest/sleep has a tool to help us fight it.
S Is for Superhero abilities
I love a good superhero and think they are the epitome of fitness. Those guys and girls are strong, agile and quick. They can run, jump, climb, swing and do all sorts of crazy s**t. Now if I put someone who moved well on a crossfit style program I could turn them into a superhero but if I took that same program and gave it to the majority of people in society that move poorly they wouldn’t become superheroes they would become patients
T is for take your shoes off
Yes, take those foot coffins off your feet. Our feet are sensory machines. We have 200 thousand nerve endings in our feet and when we remove our shoes those nerve endings light up allowing our body to feel and sense. These nerves send rich information to our brains which in turn sends rich information to our body.
Shoes do nothing but dull down the information and lessen the input, killing your reactive response. That’s when injuries occur
U is for Unicorn
You see, contrary to popular belief unicorns don’t just fly around the sky farting clouds. Nope! When you’re fast asleep, Unicorns train. They lift heavy s**t.
V Is for Vivobarefoot
I love Vivobarefoot as both a shoe and a company. Vivo’s as a company will tell you to take your shoes off.. But if you have to wear shoes then they are your people
I could probably waffle all day at how good the shoes are and the mechanics of great shoe design but I’m not going too.
Instead I’m going to briefly touch on the other side of why I’m such a Vivo fan boy. Vivobarefoot is not in the business of shoes. They are in the business of Feet, People and the Planet.
These guys genuinely care for all the people they employ (there’s no dirty sweatshops) they do what they can for the planet with many of their shoes made from recycled materials. They support diversity, equity and inclusion and they set goals to help restore and regenerate the environment.
Unlike many other companies that jump on the bandwagon off “helping the environment,’’ Vivobarefoot have been making better choices from day one.
If you want to read more about Vivobarefoots purpose then click the link https://www.vivobarefoot.com/nz/regeneration
If you’re on instagram https://www.instagram.com/vivobarefoot/
And if you want to purchase some at a really amazing price. Then email us at fitnesscamp@hotmail.com and we can give you sizings and price
W is for Weightloss
We have many clients come to us wanting to lose weight. The number on the scale is an outcome. Focusing on an outcome is less than optimal. The key is to focus on the process, essentially what you can control rather than what you can not control.
Focus on what you put in your mouth (fresh, nutrient dense food), movement (move well and move often), sleep (get to bed early), stress (see ‘Z’ note).
Get healthy from the inside out.
X is for Xenoestrogens
Xenoestrogens are man-made chemicals that can enter your body and mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen. These little hormone disruptors can cause havoc on your hormonal system. Your hormonal system is like a beautiful orchestra. All those hormones are playing in perfect pitch, timing and harmony. But too many of these little disruptors, and it’s like listening to Motzart while a 5 year old scratches a chalkboard.
These little nasties are everywhere, especially plastic. Just by holding plastic these xenoestrogens can leach their way into your body via your skin. But heating them is a real killer.
Yes, if you drink coffee from a plastic lid or heat plastic in the microwave then please stop. Pretty please
Y is for YOUR hamstrings are tight for a reason
If you have tight hamstrings, you may have found that stretching them has very little effect on relieving tightness. I know guys that stretch their hamstrings everyday and still can’t touch their toes.
Why, you may ask? … Because something is causing them to be tight. Something other than the hamstrings are driving the tightness.
There are many possible reasons. For example if you have a weak core then your hamstrings may well be picking up the slack to hold you tight (if you have not tightness/control then you’re a fish)
If you have weak glutes, any activity from walking to picking stuff up from the floor will require your hamstrings to work overtime. This will cause those hammies to shorten and remain flexed
A tight muscle is tight for a reason. Getting to the root cause of it’s tightness it’s what’s going to unglue it
Z is for Zebras or more specifically ‘Why Zebras don’t get ulcers’
This is one of my favourite books on stress. We live in a very stressful world and chronic stress is at the forefront of our poor health and dis-ease. Robert Sapolshy dives into “cutting edge research with a healthy dose of good humour and practical advice” with this book and explains “how prolonged stress causes or intensifies a range of physical and mental afflictions, including depression, ulcers, colitis, heart disease and more” and provides guidance on what we can actually do to manage stress.
There you have it, Your A-Z Guide for Nailing Life.
Paul “training with the unicorn” and Krystie “superhero” Miller
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