Month: March 2023
Personal trainers are often accused of focusing a little too much on the value and importance of diet and nutrition. Well the fact is any personal trainer will tell you that if you want to be in optimum health, then you need to make sure you have a balanced diet and you also need to exercise on a regular basis. This is nothing more than common sense when you think about. Weve known for centuries that fitness and nutrition are interlinked. Hippocrates recognised that fact, and famously once said let food be your medicine, and medicine be you food. A personal trainer will correctly tell that if you consume sufficient calories for you bodys needs and exercise regularly, then you will be fit and healthy. If you consume more calories than your body needs, it will be stored as fat: if you consume too few calories, then your body will suffer as a consequence. So, what sort of nutrients does the body need, and what type of diet will make lives for better and healthier?
What nutrients does your body need?
Carbohydrates
All sports and activities require energy, and carbohydrates provide the energy base that is required to perform these activities, especially in anaerobic-dominated activities like running and swimming. In aerobic activities, glucose is needed to maintain blood-sugar levels and acts as a catalyst for fat metabolism.
Proteins
Proteins are used to repair muscles and tissues, although a small amount is also contributed as fuel. If you do not consume enough carbohydrates to meet your needs, then your body will use proteins as a backup source of fuel. This can lead to muscle loss and a slower metabolism.
Antioxidants
When you exercise, you produce a lot of free radicals, which are electron-seeking compounds that damage cell membranes. A diet high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains will counteract the destructive effects of free radicals.
Portion Size
Controlling portion sizes will help to maintain a healthy body fat percentageunless, of course the body in question needs extra calories to increase stamina or bulk for a specific sport like long distance running or bodybuilding.
Anyone who trains their body to eat reasonable sized portions of the type of food their body needs to function, you will be healthier. If people can do this and work out regularly with the help of personal trainer, then they will definitely be on the road to optimal fitness, and have a healthier and happier body and mind.
The time has come. You are in need of home care services. Chances are good that this need has been preceded by some sort of crisis; a hospitalization, death of a spouse or a sudden decline in health. Likely, there are so many things to think about and arrange. There may be a variety of service groups coming in and out of your home to assist you in this transition; home health care, home care, hospice, durable medical equipment, housekeeping services and an increase in friend and family visits. The last thing on your mind may be the location and security of your valuables and financial instruments. This is why it is essential to locate and secure these items PRIOR to the need for these services.
Most service companies do their best to assure that the personnel that they are sending into your home are honest by conducting background and reference checks. Here is the problem, background checks are great for weeding out the prior offenders, however, no background check can detect if someone has never been caught or predict if they are going to steal in the future. Simply put, there is no way to guarantee that you will not be a victim of theft or financial abuse.
There are things that you can do, BEFORE a crisis (right now) to prepare yourself:
1.Locate all valuable items, i.e., jewelry, checks, credit cards, etc. Inventory what you have and identify if you are currently missing something. This will prevent confusion after the fact if you go look for something and it isnt where you thought it was. Why? We once had a client who insisted that she had left some diamond earrings in her bathroom. She accused her caregiver of stealing them. Of course, we immediately removed the caregiver and reported the worker to Adult Protective Services. Two months later, we received a call from her daughter, apologizing that her mother had found her earrings in a different spot and hadnt recalled moving them there.
2.Once you do need someone caring for you at home, secure all financial instruments and jewelry in a lock box in your home. Put the key where only you would know where it is and give a copy of the key to a trusted individual or in a safety deposit box.
3.Never give your PIN to anyone in your employ.
4.Never allow anyone to go to the bank for you to take out cash, via check, etc.
5.Report all suspicions or missing items as soon as possible to any company coming in and out of your home. If you are working with a home care agency make sure they are responsive to your concerns and act quickly to resolve the issue.
6.Do not give cash or check bonuses directly to home care workers, make sure that the agency they work for is notified and has an opportunity to copy the bonus check and document the gift to avoid any future misunderstandings or opportunities for financial exploitation.
7. If a caregiver asks you for money directly for ANYTHING, immediately report it to their agency. As benign as this may seem, it is considered abuse of position and is covered under the law as follows:
Financial Exploitations Financial exploitation means a situation in which a caretaker or any other person who is in the care or custody of, or who stands in a position of trust to, a resident, takes, secretes, or appropriates their money or property, to any use or purposes not in the due and lawful execution of his or her trust. In the simplest terms, the person who is acting as a caretaker unlawfully takes money or property of the resident. This also includes a request for transfer of property by the resident that was not carried out.
Most caregivers are good people interested in your well-being. They are also hyper-aware that they are most likely to be blamed if something goes missing in your home. If you follow the above guidelines, it should protect both you AND the people working for you.
If you find that you are a victim of financial abuse or theft, PLEASE follow through with filing a complaint with Adult Protective Services and any charges against the person suspected of committing the crime. It is up to you or your family to see that charges are filed. This may be very uncomfortable and stressful but it is VITAL. Without convictions and a subsequent record to detect on a future background check, there is nothing to prevent that same person from moving on to another agency or to hire themselves out privately and continue their predatory ways.
This can happen: after three years of long runs, races and lots of speed work, you find out that you are getting fed up with doing a session ‘because it was on the schedule’, or because everyone else was doing it. If you already have two disappointing marathons, try considering base-building. It will open up a whole new lease of life for you. Then you will know why you are doing each run, and if you’re an inquisitive type, this will give you more pleasure and motivation
Base training doesn’t actually have to mean running. You can start your training season doing pretty much any general training (swimming, cycling, rowing, aerobics) then progress to more specific training later on. Its all about building a good cardio-respiratory system which simply requires consistent, chronic exposure to activity.
For long distance running, an increase in mileage is your best bet. Say, if you are used to running 10k for thrice a week, try doing 15k runs twice a week. Then, check your progress in time in 10k after a month. To achieve that with the minimum injury risk, keep the pace slow and comfortable.
To train for base endurance, 1hr a day of running is a good base target to work up to if you are trying to run good times. This may take some time. All increases should be very gradual and if you are not used to daily running then start with less per day than you think you can manage. And always ease back as soon as you feel and discomfort at all. If your are aiming lower then adapt it to run as many days a week as you can manage and perhaps shorter runs, say, 40min 5 days a week. But 1hr a day is best. From there you can start to add long runs and faster pace efforts (stay aerobic though).
An hour of daily running is ideal assuming that a person wants to maximize his/her potential – of course if you are happy to perform less well or do not have the time to commit further down the road it can be adapted.
Daily running is ideal since injuries tend to creep up on you rather than suddenly pounce out from nowhere. Plus with this type of training, if you run at a steady pace, you won’t need a recovery day. Do take note of time over distance. An 1hr at a certain effort is the same for all of us no matter how fast or slow we may be.
It is better to forget the long run while adapting to daily running and building up to the hour. For starters, you can start at 20-25min of running per day. Avoid walking in during the timed run. Take about 1 month or so to build up to 45min a day and then the same again to get to the hour. You could probably do it in less, and will certainly feel able to, but remember that it is the muscles/body that will be under pressure not the heart and lungs.
This is what might be defined as a base for base building! It gets you into shape so that you can build a base. So then spend three months adding a long run and some faster aerobic runs.
If you have never trained this way before, take time to do the base for a base – it will prepare you for the mileage ahead. Base for a base is a preparation stage for beginners, running 3 to 4 times a week. From 6 kilometers of fat-burning pace to 15 kilometers each run. Circuit Training in gym will also be helpful as your cross-training. After which, base-building can now be applied.