Season’s Greetings

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic new year

Thank you to everyone who has  supported Zitapersonaltraining in 2009

I look forward to seeing you all soon to burn off those mince pies. Don’t go overboard over the  Christmas break though as you can still enjoy yourself but exercise some portion control and make sure you keep exercising, even if it’s just a brisk 30 minute walk before dinner every day  – although some squats & press ups might be better:). Just remember that all those bodyweight exercises will be so much harder if you let go completely over the holidays, so be mindful when the chocolates get passed around after your huge Christmas meal!

NATAL FELIZ E UM BOM ANO as we say in Portugal

Zita x

Acid or Alkaline?

We often tend to think about acid in the stomach when we get “acid indigestion” at which time many people will pop an antacid tablet. The problem with this is two fold as we are masking the digestive problem, and also the tablets often contain compounds that are bad for our health such as aluminium, that has been connected to alzheimers. As we age we naturally produce less stomach acid, however we can manage our digestion easily by following a BALANCED diet. The balance in this instance is acid and alkaline foods.

The western diet tends to be heavily biased towards acid forming foods such as meats, fish, grains, legumes, dairy products and salt, and low in alkaline forming foods such as fruits and vegetables. Alcohol is also acid forming in the body. This imbalance can contribute to several health complaints so ensuring our diets contain fruit and or vegetables at EVERY meal is essential. This will also ensure we are getting enough fibre, anti-oxidant vitamins, enzymes and loads more benefits.

If you have been following your suggested nutritional plan you should be focusing on a good balance by eliminating some of the acid forming foods anyway.

So over the holiday season, rather than constantly worrying about we should be avoiding, take a moment to make sure you are not missing out on your fruit and vegetables in place of the rich foods that are offered at Christmas. This will also have the benefit or reducing your overall calorie intake as a plate of crudites and some ham or salmon will be much lower in calories and fat a plate of sausage rolls, sandwiches and cheese. The final benefit must surely be not having to reach for that antacid before you go to bed, so plenty of brussel sprouts and not too many mince pies!

Pumpkins raise money for Stroke charity

As Halloween this year fell on a Saturday many of you might have been out with children trick or treating, or perhaps you were dressed up as witches or ghouls at a party. No doubt you all bought a pumpkin to carve out and put a candle in, whether you have children or not – it’s part of the tradition right? But how many of you thought about using your pumpkin to workout?

Why would you? Well, most of them are at least 2 or 3kg in weight with the very big ones normally about 5 or 6kg so what a perfect substitute to a medicine ball.

That’s what we did at our special CHARITY PUMPKIN BOOTCAMP yesterday. Everyone bought a pumpkin and we did a full body workout using either the pumpkin or our own bodyweight. I’ve already heard that a few people are aching from the exercises we did such as;

Squats, Deadlift, Pullover, Overhead Press, Press ups, Burpees, Lunges, Glute lifts, Jacks, High Knees, Ab rotations, Bent over row plus some other killer moves

Everyone had a great workout, especially as the sun was shining and we raised over £100 for The ARNI Trust who work with Stroke Survivors -www.arni.uk.com. Also we had the local newspaper there photographing us so look out for The Bath Chronicle this Thursday to see our shiny pumpkins. Everyone who came also got a delicious recipe for pumpkin soup which you can get a copy of if you email: fitness@bathbootcamps.co.uk

NO MORE EXCUSES – you don’t always need fancy equipment to get a great workout. On the other hand, if you like exercising with other people then come along to one of our Bath Bootcamp classes www.bathbootcamp.co.uk

Bionic Burger

After a recent night out with Bootcampers in Bath I noticed how after a night of drinking so many people head for the burger van and undo all the good they have done during the week. Watch the following WARNING about what exactly is in the JUNK FOOD that people eat (including me many years ago). You may think twice when you give your children a “treat” and take them to a fast food chain next time.

Belief

Motivation, determination, consistence, persistence, hard work and most of all belief – it’s all here…

Time for some magic?

Today was the start of another 4 week bootcamp for some people in Bath, but whatever the reason, why not use today as an opportunity to set some goals ready for the summer.

Dax Moy has just released a programme I would definitely recommend you take a look at, especially as he is offering a moneyback guarantee.  Here is his message below:

I’ve just finished a MAJOR re-write of the already very successful MAGIC Hundred Goal Achievement Program and I highly recommend you get it right away at:

http://www.themagichundred.com/click.htm

It’s more than a little different than the usual goal setting and
success stuff that you may have read before but I promise you
(even if it sounds immodest) it’s really good and it’s
(in my opinion) WAY UNDERPRICED… until tomorrow at midnight when
the price goes up forever.

The program is good. Real good, which is why I haven’t padded it
out with a thousand bonuses to make it seem more value for money
than it really is.

You’ll get the 135 page manual, the audios, the worksheets, access
to my goal-getting community and also the hundred days of
’feet to the fire’ email messages I put together to keep you on
track

And yes. There IS a guarantee.

It’s a no hassle, unconditional guarantee that puts all the risk
on me.

You’ve got 60 days to download it, read it, listen to all the
materials and put what I’m telling you into action. If you don’t
like it for ANY, even just the colour of the fonts I use, then
you can ask for a refund before day 60 and its yours.

You could even abuse the guarantee by downloading it and asking
for a refund TODAY and the guarantee with still be honoured. That’s
what I mean by unconditional.

Anyway, I totally vouch for this. I know that if you’re looking to
achieve better health, greater wealth and a bunch more happiness in
your life than you have right now, then this is for you.

All YOU have to do is check it out and decide for yourself…

http://www.themagichundred.com/click.htm

Truth, joy and love

Dax Moy

P.S. The price will rise at midnight tomorrow.
Even if you don’t want the program, you should check out
what it’s all about over at:

http://www.themagichundred.com/click.htm

I have ordered my copy so let’s see what I can achieve!

Zita

Energy makes energy

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t logged my progress on the Storm Force Fitness 12 week challenge for a while. That’s because I had a bad stomach bug that stopped me training for a week and then a chesty cough which made cardio tricky.

I found it really frustrating to have missed a chunk of the programme but we all have set backs that we have to get over.

The other day I knew I had to restart the programme and had been on the computer or sitting down working most of the day and by 6pm I felt tired sluggish and NOT in the mood to go and exercise.

However, because I was ACCOUNTABLE to someone, including the other people doing the workouts, I had an extra incentive to go move by body. Eating too many carbohydrates that day, all be them healthy ones, had also made me feel tired and lazy and I really struggled to get the “energy” to go workout but I did, and I worked hard doing 1 minute sprint intervals on the treadmill, just for 30 minutes, followed by a couple of core exercises with the ball. I had a lovely shower at the gym and came home feeling FULL OF ENERGY and in a much more positive mood.

It made me realise how easy it is for people to say they are too tired or have no energy to exercise, and then go on a downward spiral of feeling rubbish and mentally low. We have to work hard to snap ourselves out of this negative behaviour sometimes so next time you feel like skipping a workout – remember you will ALWAYS FEEL BETTER for doing it (unless you are not doing the right programme).

Just do it!

Healthy Chocolate

So Easter is over and everyone has probably eaten FAR too much chocolate but did you know that chocolate can be GOOD FOR YOU?

Everyone at a Special Easter Egg hunt Bootcamp had the chance to try some of my homemade sugar and dairy free chocolate – yes that’s right, raw healthy chocolate sweetened with dried fruit, containing essential oil of orange and nuts and seeds can taste good and give you minerals such as magnesium. It’s rarely the chocolate people are addicted to, but the sugar, which is why you only want to eat a couple before you feel satisfied, rather than raiding the children’s supply of Easter Chocolate just to get your sugar fix.

So why not give healthy raw chocolate a go (for a special treat rather than guzzling it for breakfast, lunch and dinner obviously) – you can’t say you won’t like it until you try it. Ask at your local health food store or order on line.

Let me know what you think of it?

ps – If you DID eat loads of sugar laden chocolate over Easter then maybe you should think about increasing your exercise levels for a week just to get you back to where you were before the easter bunny appeared!

Dance is a great way to keep fit

As many of you know I have performed in my first STREETDANCE show (well 4 actually) at the weekend and it was great fun.  Some of the dancers were in more than one dance, some in about 5 or 6, so at the end the sweat was dripping off them and they had big smiles on their faces. Most of them also had very flat stomachs and toned bodies!

When was the last time you had a workout with a big smile on your face at the end as well as lots of sweat (or a healthy glow if you are a lady!). If you are missing either of these then you are either not working hard enough, or you need to choose something you enjoy doing.

Streetdance is only 1 type of dancing you could try. How about Salsa, Ballroom, Jive, Belly dancing, Flamenco and many more. Just check  out a search engine to see what is on offer in your area. It’s a great way to make friends too. Check out www.freshvibesdance.com to see if there is something in your area.

Zita

ps Don’t use the excuse of being too old as it doesn’t matter – I am older than most of the Streetdancers but can still have fun!

Are fruit & vegetables dangerous?

It’s not the fruit & veg – it’s what goes onto them that can be damaging.

Although, some argue that the pesticide contamination on crops is so minimal as for it to be of no concern to our health,  increasing numbers of health and medical experts are now suggesting that even small doses of pesticide exposure (which are, after all, poison) can have a negative impact on health. Especially if consumed over longer periods of time… like in our foods every day.

And alarmingly, the more diligent you are at feeding yourself and your family their 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, the more likely you are to see the negative effects of toxicity. In fact, an Environmental Working Group study recently showed that if you consume the daily average non-organic fruit and vegetable intake, you would in fact be consuming a cocktail of no less than 15 different pesticides PER DAY!

And the main culprits for this toxic insult to our bodies?

Here they are, ranked in order of worst first:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green Beans
15. Hot Peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Grapes (Domestic)
20. Oranges

Quite a list, right?

That’s practically every fruit and vegetable that the average family would eat over the course of a week, meaning that in EVERY MEAL or snack, they are adding to the overall toxic load of the body and making more susceptible to these medically linked conditions:

• Cancer
• Fertility problems
• Brain tumors
• Childhood leukemia
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Birth defects
• Irritation to skin and eyes
• Hormone or endocrine system problems including weight gain
• Nervous system damage

And that’s not to mention conditions that haven’t yet been proven to link to pesticide ingestion, though new studies are coming in all the time.

So, what can you do about this?

Well, contrary to popular belief, simply washing or soaking your fruits and veggies isn’t enough to remove the build-up of pesticides. After all, these crops have been sprayed throughout every single phase of their growth. Washing and peeling will remove some of the build-up, but nowhere near enough.

The only way to be 100% sure is to eat organically grown produce.

Yes, it’s more expensive, there’s no getting away from that, but that’s because growing crops without pesticides is harder, longer and more labour intensive. However, the end result of organic farming is healthier, more nutritious and more likely to contribute to the long term health of you and your family, which cannot be said about non-organic.

Food for thought isn’t it?