Lifestyle Focus November 1 2006

A JOURNAL OF HOLISTIC FITNESS & HEALTH FRUIT AND GRANOLA KABABS WORKOUT OF THE MONTH NEW THIS MONTH! WELLNESS CALANDER & INTERVIEW WITH SHARON CAMPBELL

YOUR BODY IS YOUR TEMPLE POETRY

INSPIRED BY A NEW LIFE

GLYCEMIC FOODS

ANOTHER NUTRITIONAL ARTICLE BY DONNA WOODHOUSE

LUNGING FOR DAILY ACTIVITIES LOOKING

AT THE VALUE OF LUNGING

THE

ISSUE 10 NOVEMBER 2006

LIFESTYLE FOCUS To unsubscribe to this newsletter, please click here

Publishers

Introduction 3

An overview of this month’s issue.

Features 5

Your Body is Your Temple Linda Crawford

6

Lunging for Daily Activities Karl MacPhee

8

How can low glycemic eating help You? Donna Woodhouse

10 Fitting it In Jennifer MacPhee

Linda Crawford Karl MacPhee Jennifer MacPhee Donna Woodhouse Design Karl MacPhee KMP Training Solutions Cover Karl MacPhee Photo by Karl MacPhee Archives Archives can be sent upon Request at :

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[email protected]

Recipe of the Month 8 Fruit and Granola Kebabs

Or viewed at http://www.esnips.com/web/TheLifestyle-Focus

Workout of the Month

The Lifestyle Focus

9 Snowfall Workout

Is published monthly and is distributed exclusively to our clients and colleagues with the intention of holistic health and fitness education.

Welcome Welcome readers, Change. We can welcome change or we can fight it, however we all know what the outcome will be when we fight the changes in our lives. Life is so much easier when we go with the flow and welcome the differences in our lives. Change is happening each and every day as the days get shorter and the temperature gets colder. I tend to enjoy the winter months because it allows us to focus on other activities such as shoveling snow, skiing and skating.

Linda, Donna and I which you will be able to incorporate into your daily practice. On behalf on all of us who work towards sending you our free newsletter, I want to thank all of you who have given us your feedback, we appreciate your honesty and enjoy the learning process. Yours in Fitness, Karl MacPhee PFT, CFC, AFLCA

This month has a few new features. We have a monthly interview feature which will profile members of the Holistic Health and Fitness Community as they share their stories of working with Karl or Linda. In this month’s issue, my wife Jennifer interviews Sharon Campbell who is one of Linda’s clients and has great success in the past 6 months.

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Also, we have added a new challenge for you, the Monthly Wellness Calendar which features coaching tips from

Events

Saturday Morning Workout Saturday Mornings at the Edmonton River Valley Parks Contact Karl or Linda for more information Karl 469-5502 [email protected]

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Holistic Health and Fitness Community Introducing the new KMP Training Solutions Vessel. I believe that I made a SMART choice when I chose this car. In 4 weeks I have only spent $13 dollars in fuel! This little guy gets lots of looks, laughs and keeps money in my pocket!

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Saturday Morning Workouts have returned! A few weeks ago Duey, Marlow, Caper and I made it out to Mill Creek Ravine for some fun in the snow. Coming up, tobogganing, bowling and squash!

Who says you need a fancy health club to get a good workout? At Saturday Morning Workouts, we laugh and we work hard...

The Ross Sheppard High School Senior Football team clinched the City Championships last week in what turned out to be a chilly day. Canadian Football players don’t mind a little bit of winter in their season.

Can anyone guess what our football players are doing here? And why? Linda’s Living Fitt course is into it’s 8th week and things are going well, for all who signed up and for Linda. Learning comes from teaching and Linda has learned lots this go around! Issue 10 November 2006 4

Send in your answers to Karl at [email protected]

Your Body is Your Temple... Linda Crawford

Have you received one of those “get to know me” emails lately where you answer a bunch of questions and send it off hoping to learn more about your friends and family? Well one thing you may not know is that I really enjoy poetry and have written many pieces for family, friends, and special occasions. This month I thought I would share one with you. It is surprisingly very much in alignment with what we discuss and share in our Holistic Lifestyle Newsletters. Grab a cup of herbal tea, sit back and enjoy the read! YOUR BODY IS YOUR TEMPLE Linda Crawford

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Our bodies are a true miracle which require nurturing and care The day you were born you came in with a beauti- The simplicity of this is inspiring, do you dare? ful wrapping To move it, to nourish it and to love it completely We call it the body which houses your spiritual Make this commitment; the results inspire faith essence while breathing! and total clarity The mystery of this vessel made up of trillions of Once again, move it, nourish it and love it if you cells so choose Each cell capturing your unique DNA, how brilYour body awaits your answer; you truly have liant and swell! nothing to lose Step into your greatness, to discover what is so Your body is wondrous, a mystery and magnificent simple and true From the inside out always shining a light so You are a child of God and your body is perfect bright and radiant for you! It allows you to blink, breathe, move, walk and talk Best of Health, To sing, dance, laugh, giggle, share and even create Linda Crawford with chalk! FIT 4 YOU Your body is your individual expression of who you are There is not a single other one out there close or afar Your body allows you to live your life with purpose and joy The freedom of expressing like a child with a new toy! Our bodies give us so much each and every single day It really doesn’t ask for much in return wouldn’t you say? The ability to love, to give, to grow and have fun Our bodies allow this and much more under the sun… Issue 10 November 2006 5

Visit Linda at: www.fitfouryou.com www.linds-crawford.blogspot.com [email protected]

Lunging for Daily Activities... Karl MacPhee In a previous newsletter I talked about the 7 human movements which were

necessary to train, one of them being the lunge. Whether we know it or not, we

perform hundreds of lunges each day, all ranging in difficulty and each having its own purpose.

Each time you complete this sequence, you complete a lunge, which makes

sense of why you do hundreds of lunges

per day, preferably thousands. Remember when walking was hard? Probably not because you were too young!

So if we are already doing hundreds of

lunges each day, why is it important to

train the various lunging patterns in the gym setting? The answer to such a

question is simple yet complicated. Let’s focus on the simple answer;

because most of your day is spent in a seated/supported position, your body

adapts to the position, resulting in shortening of muscle tissue and a loss of

strength throughout the body. This is not a great combination for getting in

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and out of your car, climbing stairs, or lunging to pick up and object.

Walking stairs increases the difficulty of our walking lunges resulting in

increased strength in our quads, hamstrings and glutes; not to mention

increased aerobic fitness, making it an exercise of choice for many.

The body learns movements and be-

comes “stronger” the more it performs

the specific movement. Therefore, the more you perform the various lunges

available, the nervous system learns the pattern, you become stronger, and you have less injuries.

Let’s look at a number of lunges that

occur in daily activity ranging from the

The first two examples occur in what is

start off we can begin with walking. Each

means that the body is moving forward

difficulty in it, however it still counts as a

difficulty, as far as daily movement is

foot plants, unweights and steps forward.

as when stepping in and out of a car.

least difficult to the most difficult. To

called the sagittal plane which simply

step we take is a lunge. Yes there is little

as it usually does. To increase the

lunge. Notice when you walk how your

concerned, we move laterally and rotate

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Lunging for Daily Activities... Karl MacPhee Do you participate in sports, have children or do you have a job which requires you to perform physical tasks? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to incorporate the following lunges into your fitness routine...

Aside from walking, climbing stairs and getting in and out of a car, chair or our beds, there are many other ways in which we would perform a lunge in our daily activities. To say that daily life is predictable we would be kidding ourselves.

The lunge with rotation allows us to train the body to lunge, twist and

recover from the position. Most

injuries occur because we are not able to properly brake, and return to our normal

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positions.

From one moment to the next, we do not know what will happen, and for such a reason, we must prepare our bodies to be able to react to situations which we do not expect. Have you ever slipped on ice, stepped off a curb the wrong way?

The transverse lunge with a reach (above left) trains our body to accept moving in and out of the car or reaching to pick up an object, while the lunge with overhead reach (above right) stretches the hip flexor so that we decrease the tension on the pelvis, thus lessoning the chances for back pain. Lunging can be uncomfortable, however it often feels better than the pain you can create from a lack of lunging... Happy Lunging! Karl MacPhee

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How Can Low Glycemic Eating Help You? Donna Woodhouse Hello again! I hope you all had a healthy summer and took advantage of all the produce and foods available to us from your garden and the gardens all around our city. I love this time of year when I have seemingly endless ripening of tomatoes, garden potatoes and many other “treats”. In response to a few questions regarding last months article on PH, I would like to make a few clarifications. Most of you hopefully noticed that many of the foods on the acidic side of the chart and even in the “most acidic” column are foods that you would have deemed “good” or “healthy foods and you are not wrong in your thoughts.

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Many of these foods are very healthy and have some very unique and specific positive qualities for us. For instance, blueberries are an excellent antioxidant. The article suggested that there are many signs and symptoms associated with a body that is “too acidic” which is much more common that one that is too “alkaline”. Take a look at your diet, your symptoms and signs to help determine where you are. Remember that the chart suggests you focus on an 80% alkaline and 20% acidic balance on average. Note that a meat and potatoes diet is generally very acidic, hard to digest and as you will see today contains some foods that are also high glycemic which can have their own negative effects. Following a diet high in vegetables will never steer you wrong. Balance and moderation.

Low fat, low carbohydrate and low calorie…..all “dieting” or eating lingo we have been hearing for years. Yet people continue to have weight problems and health problems. One problem with low fat dieting is that many foods that are low in fat can still be high glycemic. What does this mean? The glycemic index rates food from 0-100 with foods in the 0-54 range considered low, 55-70 range = moderate and 70+ = high glycemic. You will find attached a list of foods and their ratings at the end of this article. One example of a low fat food that is a 100 on the glycemic index is white potatoes. This high starch food is easily converted to sugar and causes a surge in blood sugar. BUT sweet potatoes are higher in fiber which increases digestion time and decreases the conversion of carbohydrates to sugar. Their GI (glycemic index) = 54. As you can see, low GI foods does not always mean low carbohydrates. “Many scientists now believe the healthiest way to nourish your body is by eating a low glycemic diet.” USA Today has published an article in March 2005 declaring low glycemic as one of the best ways to eat.

Hopefully the articles past are starting to give you indications of some healthy and easy food choices on a regular basis, for all meals and with relative ease. Now, onto the topic of the month…

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How can low glycemic eating help you? Donna Woodhouse What happens when we eat high glycemic foods? 1. Eating this food drives blood sugar up above normal and causes you to secrete insulin in order to normalize blood sugar. When the insulin spikes the food conversion to energy is halted and most or all of what you ate becomes fat. 2) High glycemic foods can cause the body to produce excess triglycerides, a blood fat that makes up the majority of each cholesterol molecule. Therefore, a food that contains no fat can actually contribute to obesity as well as promote diabetes, heart disease and stroke for starters.

7) Drink lots of water (remember the rule…1/2 your body weight in ounces and more for exercise, hot climate, and caffeine intake). By now you are probably starting to see a pattern in the eating do’s and do nots that are associated with optimal health and the avoidance of various health problems. Mother nature really did know what she was doing! Listening to her will take you a long way in the prevention of many “common” illnesses and diseases. Moderation in everything! Until next month, best of health!! Donna

7 Steps for Low Glycemic Index eating

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1) Eat foods in their natural state whenever possible (ie. A raw carrot has a GI = 35. A cooked carrot becomes easier to digest and has a GI = 65) 2) Eat foods that are comparatively difficult to digest. 3) Eat foods high in fiber 4) Time food intake for every few hours. This helps keep blood sugar at a consistent level and decreases spikes in insulin. 5) Don’t eat white foods (bread, potatoes, sugar…) 6) Do not use artificial sweeteners.

Donna Woodhouse is a feature columnist in The Lifestyle Focus, presenting our view on whole foods and holistic nutrition. For more information regarding nutrition, e-mail Donna at: [email protected]

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Finding Time... Jennifer MacPhee

It was approximately 10 months ago when Linda Crawford and I made the decision to create The Lifestyle Focus. We had great ideas, shared a passion for our work and agreed that an electronic newsletter would better serve our clients, family and friends.

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In fact we were so excited, we didn’t even take the time to give the newsletter a name! Eventually, through countless hours of formatting the initial newsletter, “The Lifestyle Focus” appeared on my computer screen. There it was, we had a format, a new title and a few e-mail addresses to send out our first edition of The Lifestyle Focus. Since then, we have changed the original format, have added many new e-mail addresses and had plenty of amazing ideas! Through practicing what we preach, Linda and I “put it out there” and we Trusted that it will succeed. And succeed it did! To add to the success, Donna Woodhouse, who is a colleague of mine at Ross Sheppard high school, has added plenty of punch to our newsletter with her Nutrition section which has been featured on a number of occasions. In this edition, I am pleased to introduce you to our newest “columnist”, who also happens to be my wonderful wife, Jennifer. Each month, Jen will be talking to one of our members who has found success in fitness, lifestyle, nutrition or a combination of the three. This month, Jen talked with Linda’s client, Sharon Campbell about her personal journey over the past 6 months.

Most of us claim there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all we want, including getting regular exercise. Sharon Campbell is no stranger to busy days. A devoted agent in an explosive Edmonton real-estate market, Sharon has grown accustomed to long hours nearly every day of the week. She’s the first to admit that “it’s a struggle to fit it all in sometimes, the work just keeps coming at me”. Sharon’s strategy? Scheduled, weekly appointments with her personal fitness trainer, Linda Crawford. Sharon says that she treats her training appointments like she would any other in her hectic work life; that way she’s sure to make time. Able to chose times that work best for her, Sharon says that her personal training schedule affords her the flexibility she needs. For Sharon it’s about much more than convenience; however, “Linda is able to keep me challenged; she offers more than just a physical workout”. She currently finds herself incorporating yoga and meditation in her weekly routine as a result. According to Sharon, “Linda has helped me to recognize that I can be better – that I can make changes to my lifestyle – and she gives me the encouragement to do it”. Jennifer MacPhee is a new feature columnist in The Lifestyle Focus, exploring the ‘real-life’ stories of everyday fitness warriors. To share your story, please contact Jen at:

Thank you and enjoy the article, Karl MacPhee

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Quote of the Month “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” Diane Akerman

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Fruit and Granola Kebabs We live in a busy world, and many people Place granola in a shallow often skip out on the important morning bowl and toss fruit with a ritual known as breakfast in order to feed small amount of lemon juice the kids, get ready for work and speed to the to deter browning. Insert nearest drive through to wait for 10 minutes toothpicks into each piece of in the line. fruit to eat individually or Rather than racing to Tim Horton’s for the place fruit onto barbeque morning blast of caffeine, why not prepare a skewers to have a wholesome breakfast which you can have kebab. finished in less than 10 minutes. To serve, dip fruit into yogurt, This month we profile a simple meal of fruit, coating all sides and roll in granola and yogurt with a bit of a twist. The granola! Once again, creativfruit and granola kebabs are a great way for ity will allow you to have fun the whole family to be involved and still with this recipe and the whole have enough time to get to work without family can help! worrying about being late. This recipe yields 4 servings... 2 cups of granola 2 medium apples (chunked) 2 bananas (chunked) 1 cup of fresh fruit of choice (chunked) 1 cup of flavored yogurt

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Workout of the Month “Snowfall” This workout was designed to develop full body functional strength. Training session should take between 40-45 minutes from warm-up to cool down.

Phase 1(Warm-up): 5 minutes cardio of choice

Phase 2(Dynamic Preparation): Dynamic Warm-up (page 11)

Phase 3(Strength): This workout is in circuit format. Complete prescribed repetitions of the first exercise and then move on to exercise 2, and 3. Rest at the end of the circuit and complete 2 more rounds.

Dumbbell Lunge with Press Sets

2-3

Repetitions

Rest

12

30 sec

Fit Ball Supine Chest Press

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Sets

2-3

Repetitions

Rest

12

30 sec

Barbell Dead Lift with Bicep Curl Sets

2-3

Repetitions

Rest

12

30 sec

Phase 4(Intervals): Bike: 10 x 20 seconds fast with 40 seconds easy spin for recovery

Phase 5(Flexibility): Find 5 stretches... Hold each one for 10 seconds and repeat circuit 2 more

times.

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Workout of the Month “Dynamic Warm-up” This workout was designed to warm-up the body by moving through each exercise dynamically for a prescribed period of time.

Complete 3 rounds of the following exercises x 30 seconds each. Only move through your range of motion, and abilities.

Single Leg Cone to Cone touch x 30 seconds

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Alternating Lunge with overhead reach x 30 seconds

Jumping jacks x 30 seconds

Alternating Triangle x 30 seconds Issue 10 November 2006 13