Woodlands Fitness Centre

The Woodlands newsletter: Monday 20th April 2020

Monday 20th April 2020

Hi,

Many people benefit from mindful eating, which involves being fully aware of why, how, when, where, and what they eat.

Making more healthful food choices is a direct outcome of becoming more in tune with the body.

People who practice mindful eating also try to eat more slowly and savor their food, concentrating on the taste. Making a meal last for 20 minutes allows the body to register all of the signals for satiety.

It is important to focus on being satisfied after a meal rather than full and to bear in mind that many "all natural" or low-fat foods are not necessarily a healthful choice.

People can also consider the following questions regarding their meal choice:

Is it good "value" for the calorie cost?

Will it provide satiety?

Are the ingredients healthful?

If it has a label, how much fat and sodium does it contain?

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


We are offering online coaching, diet plans and workout plans free to all our members. Again, please message with your requirements.

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has continued with their membership payments to the club. Your amazing support is greatly appreciated.

The income we have received has allowed us to make significant changes while we have been closed, these changes have really improved the club - and you'll see these when we reopen.

We gave our members the following 4 options in regards to their direct debit:

1). Continue to pay your Direct Debit in the normal way, so that your club can retain key staff and continue to invest during this short time. If you are happy with this option, no further action is required by you.

2). Defer your DD for an initial 1 month period, if you choose this option we will respond with a separate email to confirm your next payment date. If the club continues to be closed after this 1 Month term we will contact you again before that payment is due to defer the payment for a further period of time.

3). Continue to pay your DD on the due date, but pay 50% of the monthly amount to support your club.

4). Continue to pay your DD on the due date and the money you pay can be exchanged for 1-2-1 personal training sessions. For example, if you pay £25 per month and we're closed for 2 months, you would get 2 x 45 minute PT sessions. Drop me a message and we can arrange this.

Everybody who sustains their direct debit or standing order (even at 50% of the monthly amount) during this temporary closure will be exempt from all future price increases and will retain any special offers (including our 2-4-1 offer) indefinitely.

Not everybody pays through the same direct debit company. Some people pay by standing order. Please contact me if you're not sure.

As soon as we have more information from the government regarding when we can reopen, we will pass this on to you. I am sure -like us - you are desperate to get back to training in the club.

We know that training at home is not as good as training in the club but don't forget that any member whose payments are live can still have online personal training, either 1-to-1 or in groups.

As we said, we really appreciate all the members that have been able to continue their payments. They have allowed us to invest in the club and ensure we can reopen for you and our staff in the strongest possible position.

If we all abide by the rules the Government will be able to relax these restrictions - and will be hopefully be back to normal.

Stay in touch with us on socials and we will keep you updated.

For any further information please email: woodlandsfitness@yahoo.co.uk.

Yours in fitness,

Giles


Stimulus and cue control

Many social and environmental cues might encourage unnecessary eating. For example, some people are more likely to overeat while watching television. Others have trouble passing a bowl of candy to someone else without taking a piece.

By being aware of what may trigger the desire to snack on empty calories, people can think of ways to adjust their routine to limit these triggers.


When you combine the stress of the news and the boredom of being on lockdown every day, a lot of stress eating (and boredom eating) can come out of it. Let us be clear: now is not the time to beat yourself up or be extra hard on yourself about what your day-to-day life is consisting of.

If you're using this time to try to do more fitness videos and get in the best shape of your life to distract your mind from reality, more power to you. If you're using it to give yourself time off and a much-needed break, that's great too.

If you've found yourself stress eating and are looking to stop it, we've turned to Health and Weightloss Coach Ellie Rome for her best advice. She dives into why stress eating is so common, how to curb it, and how to give your body the nutrients it's craving in return. Rule number one? Stop beating yourself up.

Tune into your triggers:

Awareness is key. Get off autopilot and start paying attention to the moments you reach for food. Get curious every time you notice an impulse to go to the fridge, and pause and ask yourself: Am I hungry? What just happened that has me reaching for food? What am I feeling?

Did an episode of Netflix just end and now looking for stimulation? Did you just finish writing an email and now want a break? Did you just finish an Instagram scrolling binge and now need another hit of something? Are you anxious about something you just saw on the news?

This isn't about shaming yourself or telling yourself "I can't have this or I shouldn't eat that." Release judgment—just get really curious about what is actually going on for you.

Choose non-edible forms of nourishment instead:

Find something else pleasurable for your brain to go to in these moments that isn't food. Drink sparkling water or tea. Go for a walk. Dance to some music. Call a friend. Read. Work on a fun side-project for 10 minutes.

Create if/then plans:

Once you can identify your common triggers, you can proactively plan for them and choose a preferred non-edible nourishment behaviour instead. Get specific on what you will choose with that specific trigger.

So if you eat bags of crisps when you get stressed from the news then do a two-minute meditation.

Don't leave this to be figured out, have the exact meditation you will do planned out. Take as much decision making and prep work out of it as possible.

Envision two pathways when changing your behaviour:

Mentally rehearse your if/then plans to make it easier to follow through with the new behavior. I always tell my clients to imagine two paths in a forest:

Path #1 is the old pattern:

I sit down on the couch for a show and eat something sweet.

You've taken this path hundreds of times, so it is super well defined. This path is clear and easy, you don't have to think about it.

Path #2 is the new path; the new behavior that you'd like to adopt.

I sit down for a show and sip on herbal tea.

This path has rarely, if ever, been taken, so it's like walking through a forest with no defined trail. You don't quite know where you're going. This new path is uncomfortable, so you've got to be ready to be met with resistance. You will initially want what you know, not something different. However, each time you take this path, the more defined it gets, and the less resistance you will have to it.

Make it difficult to snack and get rid of foods with no breaks:

Get real with yourself: What are you reaching for when you boredom eat or stress eat?

What are your foods with no breaks?

The foods you start eating and quite literally can't stop. Think cookies, chips, ice cream, etc. Get them out of the house or out of reach. In the impulsive moments when we reach for food, creating barriers will give you more time to think "not worth it." It's easier to resist a craving or choose one of the non-edible forms of nourishment when the choice isn't so instant.

Make it so insanely easy to choose healthy behaviours:

If you're wanting to do burpees instead of eating cookies, but when the craving hits, your exercise mat or interval timer is upstairs in the back of your wardrobe, and your gym leggings are in the wash, those cookies are going to be gone in a matter of seconds - it won't work. We've got to make the new behaviour so easily accessible that you don't have time to create excuses.

Set your yoga mat out with your weights ready to go
Put your workout clothes on first thing in the morning
Schedule and pre-pay for a live workout class so it's on the calendar
If you're wanting to drink tea instead of eating a brownie, have your favorite herbal tea on the counter ready to go. Consider getting an electric water kettle you can just flick it on when you're ready

Bonus: Don't work from the kitchen! If you're working from home right now, find someplace else in your home to work from so not constantly looking at the fridge throughout the day.

Hungry all the time? Make sure you are getting enough protein and healthy fat:

If you are feeling hungry all of the time, focus on getting in good protein and healthy fats, and be mindful of the amount of carbs and sugar you are eating. Build your plate with clean protein, healthy fats, and fibre from non-starchy veggies. Let that be your bare-minimum checklist as you build your plate.

If you're reaching for a snack, choose high-energy, minimally-processed, low-carb options that will satiate you, like nuts, raw veggies and guacamole, a hard-boiled egg, dark chocolate with more than 70 percent cacao, or grass-fed beef jerky.

Hydrate:

We often confuse thirst for hunger. Start measuring how much water you're drinking. If you're having trouble remembering to drink water, pair it with things you already do like before your morning coffee, before you brush your teeth, or every time you finish a Netflix episode.

Acknowledge your anxiety:

When we're in a stressed-out state, we enter survival mode. From this place, it's hard not to impulsively react to triggers. Luckily, we can use simple techniques like breathwork, mindfulness, and meditation to get out of a stress state or end a negative thought spiral. Two of my favorite tools are The 5-5-7 Breath and The Body Scan.

5-5-7 Breath:

When hit with a stress trigger or impulse to eat, connect to your breath. Inhale for five, hold for five, exhale for seven. Repeat 10 times (or even just two times to start) Practice this throughout your day when you are hit with one of your triggers or waiting in line to get into the grocery store.

Simple Body Scan:

The moment you notice yourself stressed out or hit hard with a craving, connect to your body. Bring awareness to different parts of the body and just notice them. You don't have to force anything—just feel them in this moment.

Starting at the crown of your head, scan down. In your mind, feel your forehead, your eyelids, your cheeks, your jaw, scan down your neck, feel your left shoulder, your left bicep, etc. Scan all the way down to your toes. If your mind wanders, that's OK, just return to where you left off and continue.

Plan your meals and create a routine:

Write out what your meal plan the following day or week. Get really specific based on your schedule and what's available to eat. Take the decision making out of it so you're not mindlessly standing in front of the fridge just eating random things all day.

Next, figure out approximately what time you eat. Create a routine so that you know when it is NOT time to eat. Your ideal meal timing depends on you, but generally speaking, if three meals a day works for you with one snack in the afternoon, get clear on exactly what you're planning to eat for each of those instances.

If you are going to want a snack at some point, pre-portion it out. Eat them on a plate or bowl, not out the container they came in. Slow down, minimize multi-tasking while eating, and enjoy every bite.

Move Your Body:

Right now during this isolation, movement is more important than ever. If you can do it outside in the sun, that's even better! It doesn't have to necessarily be a formal, strenuous workout. Focus more on movement and what you enjoy doing.

Schedule in activities to help you move more intentionally throughout your day

Dance breaks—put on a song you love and just get the body moving.
Garden
Vacuum the house
Do some HIIT
Live Virtual Classes (our Zoom sessions are good).
Walk up and down the street between Netflix episodes
Walk while you're in meetings or calls

It can be really easy to veg out right now and sit around all day, especially if the weather is bad, so schedule things in at specific times and make them happen.

Accountability:

It is so insanely easy right now to use this insane time as a reason to not show up for ourselves. It is a very valid excuse for staying in your pajamas and eating leftover pizza while you work from under the covers.

Having external accountability can make all of the difference in the world in you showing up for yourself.

Get a friend to virtually meal prep together, sign up for classes, or hire a coach and use this extra time to create the life and health you deserve while you've got the chance.

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Why Does High Intensity Interval Training HIIT Work so well?

The reason why high intensity interval training HIIT works has to do with the chemistry inside your body.

Using cycles of rest and high intensity allows you to spend more time at your maximum heart rate than in a traditional workout.

This triggers your body to tap use anaerobic metabolism to supply energy to the muscles, but the body quickly switches back to the aerobic system during recovery.

As your workout progresses the energy needed for your body to operate anaerobically will deplete, and you will rely more on your aerobic system.

Anaerobic exercise occurs when your oxygen demand exceeds your oxygen supply. Without oxygen, your body breaks down glucose (sugar) into ATP (energy) and lactic acid (byproduct). It is impossible to maintain this kind of exercise for more than a few minutes because lactic acid is toxic above a certain threshold.

Aerobic exercise occurs when your body has sufficient oxygen. During aerobic exercise, your body uses oxygen to break down macronutrients to create ATP without producing lactic acid.

Both anaerobic and aerobic refer to a type of metabolism— that is a set of chemical processes that maintain life. Switching between these metabolic processes allows you to improve both your aerobic and anaerobic systems

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


*Exercise of the week:












I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Cashew chicken stir-fry

Ingredients:

100g cashew nut butter
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 wholewheat egg noodles nests
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli finely chopped (deseeded if you don't like it too hot)
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1cm-thick strips
120g thin-stemmed broccoli, halved
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
20g unsalted cashew nuts, roughly chopped
4 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

Method:

In a small bowl, mix together the cashew butter with the soy sauce and 100ml water. Set aside.

Cook the noodles following pack instructions for just cooked, then drain and refresh in a bowl of cold water until needed.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic and chilli, and fry for 2 mins until softened and aromatic.


Add the chicken and broccoli to the wok. Fry, stirring frequently, for 5-6 mins until both are tender. Drain the noodles and add them to the wok along with the carrot.

Toss everything together well with a pair of tongs so that the noodles are heated through. Take the pan off the heat and stir through the cashew sauce.

Serve immediately, topped with the cashew nuts and spring onions.

Enjoy!


Useless Facts

There are 269 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand while drawing with the other

Most American car horns honk in the key of F.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.







The Woodlands Fitness Centre Ltd
A: Unit 27, Molyneux Business Park, Darley Dale, Derbyshire, DE4 2HJ
T: (01629) 733 123
E: woodlandsfitness@yahoo.co.uk
W: www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk