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Hi there,

As a follow up to my last blog on “Cancer Free” by Bill Henderson, I just want to share another really good one, it is “Knockout” by Suzanne Somers.  Yes, I’m not talking about our PUSH KP boxing session, Knockout, this book is about our health care not fitness….I’ll leave that up to Dion. Anyway I know there are several people at Viva battling this disease and we all know someone with it, so I would love you to pass this information onto them!

“YOU HAVE CANCER…possibly the three most terrifying words one can hear.  If you or someone you love has been through this ordeal, you understand the cloud of confusion, the loss of control, the fear of death and all the horrors that come with it.  Standard treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and harsh after-care drugs…and standard care offers little hope.  Is this all modern medicine has to offer?”

In Knockout, Suzanne Somers interviews doctors who are successfully using the most innovative cancer treatments.  She herself has had cancer and now over a decade later she shares both her personal choices, as well as an array of options from doctors across America who are using effective alternative treatments and protocols.

I’m not saying I am totally against conventional medicine when treating cancer but I believe the treatments we choose should build up the body’s immune system instead of tearing it down.  Anyway I think Dr Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder, Whitaker Wellness Institure Medical Clinic and editor of Health and Healing sums it up perfectly in the Foreword to Suzanne’s book.

“The underlying issue is that the entire cancer treatment industry has been following a faulty paradigm for close to a hundred years.  A paradigm is a belief system.  For instance, for centuries it was widely believed that the earth was the centre of the universe.  This paradigm was so firmly entrenched that it was part and parcel of church dogma of the time.  When Galileo proved four hundred years ago that the earth revolved around the sun, he so threatened the exising order that he was tried by the Inquisition, threatened with torture until he recanted what he knew to be the tgruth and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest.  That’s an example of the power of a paradigm, wrong though it may be.  The paradim that is the basis for cancer prevention and treatment today is equally wrong.  That paradigm of “purging the body of cancer cells was initiated back in the late 1800s by William Halsted, M.D., who performed the first radical mastectomies on women with breast cancer.  There was no significant follow-up with these patients to justify continuation of this procedure, but the presumption that cancerous cells must be cut out of the body was accepted without question.  More than a century later, this concept still holds sway and our primary treatment modalities – surgery, chemotherapy and radiation – are attempts to purge cancer from the body.  This approach does a lot of damage.”

Ask yourself the question, would you go through it?  As I have said before, there is so much more out there that we the average person never knew about.  Don’t you want to take control of your own health care?  Prevention is better than cure and information is power!

Hi again,

As October is Cancer Awareness month and here at Viva we are having “Girls Night In” this Friday 28th October 2011, thought I would share with you a truly inspirational book by Bill Henderson, “Cancer Free”.  If you have had cancer, or are going through it or know somebody who is (and I’m sure most of us do) then this book is well worth reading.

Bit of history about Bill…a background in computer software and marketing. He retired from the US Air Force as a Colonel in 1977 and founded a software publishing company, which he sold in 1995. He also has a Masters in Business Administration and he will be 80 years of age next January.  In November 1994 his wife died of cancer after a 4 year battle.  After seeing her go through this, Bill began what has become his full-time crusade, trying to reach as many people as possible with information about this aweful disease through books, newsletters, workshops, telephone coaching and a weekly radio show in America.  He is not a doctor, he is just a “reporter”, but he has helped thousands of people all over the world become cancer-free and the only thing he sells is his book.  He has extensively researched cancer and has come across a “tsunami” of information on over 300 gentle, non-toxic treatments.  He has a network of doctors, nutritionists, cancer survivors and other crusaders like himself.  I have a very open mind, do you?

One of the most important things I got out of this book is how vital it is to take charge of your own health.  Prevention is definitely better than cure!

In Chapter 5 he recommends 6 of the 300 treatments and apparently they work.  According to Bill many people have got great results in just 6 to 8 weeks.  I personally know of a few people who are practising some of these in their own battle to survive cancer. The “Bill Henderson Protocol” consists of these 6 things:

1. Immune System Boosters
2. Flaxseed Oil & Cottage Cheese – The Budwig Diet
3. Dr Matthias Rath – Vitamin C & Lysine/Proline
4. Greens and Enzymes
5. A Cancer-Fighting Diet (this includes the 5 no-noes)
6. Vitamin/Mineral Supplement

I’ll leave it up to you to make up your own mind but I will say that out of all the books on this subject I have read, I found it to be an excellent guide and easy to follow.  As I have said before, knowledge is power!  You can purchase this book via the internet (e.g. Amazon) or any good book store.  Is reading your thing?  If not, check out his web site: www.beating-cancer-gently.com.

A big thank you to all those girls supporting our “Girls Night In” this Friday at Viva.  Should be a lot of fun and all for a great cause.  Are we going to see you there?

Yours in good health

Hi All,

Today I want to talk about something very close to my heart.  Five years ago my mother died of lung cancer.  Since then, I have spent a lot of my time researching this disease, especially as many of my relatives have also died or have been diagnosed with cancer.   I have lost 3 people to cancer this year alone and they were all 60 or under.  I have read book after book, spoken to and regularly email people fighting this dreadful sickness and what I have decided, and this is my opinion only, is that it is not always the death sentence we may think.  To me it is the body crying out to make change!  What we eat and drink, drugs/medication we take and lifestyle choices in general all affect our health.  In the book G-L-O-W as per my #1 blog, genes and cell divisions also play a big part.

For all of you out there that are over 50, I want you to think back to your primary school days (and for you younger ones, I’m sure your parents or grandparents have spoken about this).  In your class, was it not “spot the fat kid”.  I don’t mean to be derogatory here, quite the contrary, but most of us were not overweight or “obese” and yes I say obese but in our day it was just plain old fat.  Today we have to be politically correct and say “obese”.  Anyway my point being is that, we didn’t really have a huge problem with overweight children.  We all had to drink a bottle of milk in the morning at school and yes it was real milk, not homogenized either; it actually had cream on the top and all the real enzymes in it!  I guess too, we were a lot more active as well and we also ate “real home cooked food” and take-away was almost non existent.  Oh and did I mention that we even ate lard (animal fat) on our bread.  So why didn’t we have a “weight” problem?  Maybe everything in moderation?   I will say most of my relatives born prior to 1920 all lived to a ripe old age.  What about your families?  Look around you, how many people do you know between the age of 50 and 70 with medical issues i.e. heart problems, high blood pressure, athritis, diabetes, cancer etc. and totally depend on medication….lots!  I personally think modern day living is making us sick….but we can do something about it.  Make the change, whether it is starting an exercise regime at Viva, or eating more healthy home cooked meals or, like me, obtaining as much information about good health and overcoming illness as I can and incorporating it into my lifestyle.  If you do nothing, nothing changes!

Anyway, in my quest for the secrets of long-lifers and combating sickness, I came across Dr Johanna Budwig (30/9/1908 to 19/5/2003).  She was a German Scientist, Physicist, Biochemist and Pharmacologist, so she definitely got my attention, not to mention that she lived into her 90’s (tripped and fell in her own home and never really recovered at the ripe old age of 94). She was also a 7 x Nobel Prize nominee.  One of her books, “Flax Oil As A True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer And Other Diseases” is well worth the read.  It is only 60 or so pages and her information on fats and healing is truly amazing.  She talks about the importance of the right fatty acids and the deleterious effect of the wrong fats on human health.

• “Find out why fats govern all aspects of the human body”.
• “Discover what flax oil will do for your body”.
• “Learn about saturated and unsaturated fats”.
• “Find out how electrons and photons work in the human body”.
• “Learn about the oil-protein diet”.
• “Discover why the living body may lack the ability to assimilate fat and how you can change it”.

You can pick this book up on Amazon for about $7.  Such a tiny price for such powerful information!  We have always been taught that fat is the enemy….not so, it just depends on the type of fat.  Knowledge is power!

Yours in good health

Hi all,

A growing amount of research shows that strength training has an anti-ageing effect, together with alot of other benefits too, for all age groups.  Our members at Viva would already know this, as I’m sure Dion and all our trainers continually drum this into you.  For those of you out there that don’t know and are looking for that special something to slow down the ageing process, listen up! 

No matter what your age, exercise is a vital factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  As we grow older, one form of exercise that gives you enormous benefits is resistance or strength training.  Resistance training is any movement that requires the use of our muscles to oppose a resisting force.  Generally it should be undertaken every couple of days and you don’t always have to use the gym, although using Viva really does help with motivation, especially at a Body Pump session or the over 50’s classes.  Strength training promotes healthy, lean muscle in our bodies and the amount of lean muscle we carry is largely affected by age and genetic factors but research shows that strength training can greatly improve it.  Studies show that people who undertake regular resistance training report better quality of life, improved circulation, lower blood pressure and greater muscle strength, as well as improved mood and everyday tasks become much easier.  What about our sleeping patterns? Strength training can increase the release of the growth hormone as we sleep, according to a recent study (“Advances in Preventative Medicine, Volume 2011”).  This hormone helps to strengthen bones and repair muscles and can even promote a more reliable and restful sleep in the process.

What about our weight?  More particulary fat loss?  Resistance training increases fat-free mass and this change in body composition enhances fat loss (Journal of Cardiac Failure Vol 10 No 1). There are many other benefits including managing chronic diseases, as well as preventing the onset of diseases like diabetes.  Resistance training is also conducive to bone health.  Our bones stop ossification (hardening) around the age of 20 to 25 and women, in particular, can experience a rapid loss of bone mineral density after menopause.  However, like the skin, bone constantly replaces itself throughout our life and to stimulate this regeneration, we must place a suitable load on our bones and joints.  Weight-bearing exercises and resistance training, along with regular walking, are considered essential components in slowing the loss of bone density and helping to prevent the onset of diseases like osteoporosis.

I know in just about every magazine or newpaper you read you will see something on exercise and examples of strength training you can do at home, at the park or in the kitchen for that matter.  We have push-ups, squats, lunges, leg raises, sit ups, step ups – the list is endless. You can also use the cans in your cupboard for weights, so there are absolutely no excuses!

Anyway, lift well and live well for life!

Yours in good healh

For many people a day at work is synonymous with a day of sitting at a desk burning little or no calories in the process.

What few people stop to realise is that if you simply burned 50 more calories each workday you would lose 2 kilos in one year.

Believe it or not, burning 50 more calories in an eight hour day is quite easy.

Consider making just a few small changes.

First, always take the stairs instead of the lift.

If you’re too high up to take the stairs all the way, get off one floor early and walk.

Add one floor every month and pretty soon you’ll look forward to the stairs.

Next, use the bathroom that is farthest away from your desk.

Consider hand delivering a message instead of calling or e-mailing a colleague.

1. To burn even more calories consider taking a short walk for part of your lunch hour or using the fitness center if one is available.

Every movement means more calories being burned and kilos being shed.

If you simply got up and stretched, moved and refocused on the hour, every hour, you would be practicing a habit that;

1. Gets your heart pumping and helps you lose weight for the long term
2. Refocuses your posture so that you can improve your posture in sitting and standing etc. (poor sitting habits often come from sitting to long and slouching)
3. Gives you a movement break which gets oxygen circulating to your brain and is likely to improve your next 45 minutes of concentration

Make the most of your day.

Hi there,

As a follow on from # 1, today I want to give you the 10 secrets of long-lifers, according to Dr John Tickell, as published in the Sunday Mail.  He has travelled all over the world and talked to lots of people and observed their lifestyles, daily habits and outlooks on life.  The ones that interested him most were those that made it healthily and happily into their 80s and 90s.  This is what they taught him:

1. Be calm – those that used to be aggessive, calmed down long ago.  Slow down and take three deep breaths every now and again.
2. Eat simply – they have always eaten simple foods and rarely fast foods (fish and chips now and again). Natural food without any additives is always best.
3. Eat your vegies – there are very few vegetarians among them but as a rule they have always eaten lots of vegies.  Lots of variety and colours is best.
4. Eat breakfast – they almost always eat breakfast. Try waking up a little earlier so that you have time to eat breakfast.
5. Get active – they have always been fairly active; even in mature age they still walk and garden.  Use stairs or buy a skipping rope or rebounder.
6. Stay in shape -there are not too many overweight people in their 80s or 90s.  Keeping fit is easier now than ever (especially here at Viva Fitness).
7. Practise moderation – there are no alcoholics and not many teetotallers either. If you enjoy the odd drink, make sure it’s social (never drown your sorrows).
8. Take notice of genetics – this helps, but you can still do fine even if your parents didn’t live to a ripe old age. This is because of the increasing awareness and control we have over our own risk factors. (discussed in # 1) Prevention is always better than cure.
9. The meaning of life – those with support in their lives, or a rapport with others, are usually around to tell the tale.  The bond could be with a special loved one, relatives, children, friends, pets or even community groups.  Have a get-together with friends or family once a week!
10. Be grateful – they’ve always stopped to smell the roses. Do your best to be thankful for what you have every day.

I absolutely love these tips (thankyou Dr Tickell).  Even in my own family I have relatives that have lived well into their 90s, one still living at 95 years of age, who practises almost all of the above.  The sad thing though, and this is my opinion only, is that it appears the generations closer to my age are dying younger, due to what I call “modern day diseases” or they are totally reliant on medication and not living the quality of life that they should.  Anyway alot of this is answered in the book G-L-O-W as per # 1.  So, get off the couch, get moving today and enjoy your life!

Yours in good health

Hi there,

Wow what a weekend.  I am a nanna for the 2nd time.  Thank you to Dion and Kristy for our grandson, Jax, we are just so proud of you!  What a great feeling it is to be a grandmother and this brings me to what I want to talk about today.

Here at Viva Fitness we are continually educating you on nutrition and fitness, through our PUSH seminars, workshops, class sessions etc.  I have always been actively involved in fitness from the age of 8, from team sports to dancing and aerobics.  I have gone through the obsessions and all the fads here at Viva for nearly 30 years and have loved them all.   During last 4 years I have been researching anything from diseases, to good health choices to the secrets of long lifers, with a special interest in longevity.  Now that I am a grandmother, I really want to be around for them and hopefully their children as well.  Don’t you?  There are just so many books and information out there it can be overwhelming but I thought I might share a good one with you.

Written by Dr Judy Ford, a well known Adelaide scientist who has specialized in the field of genetics and has done so for decades, the book is called G-L-O-W, Principals of Healthy Ageing.  “G” for Genes, “L” for Lifestyle, “O” for Omnivorousness and “W” for water.  Yes “omnivorousness” and our teeth actually dictate what we should eat, that being from a wide range of both animals and plants.  Interesting!

Anyway what really caught my attention was the section on genes, particularly cell division and changes that occur with age and disturbances of physiology, lifestyle and environment.  What we do and what happens in our life e.g. infections, injuries, tobacco, alcohol consumption, drugs, toxins, operations etc. can have an effect and damage our cells.  In our lifetime our cells are only capable of dividing for a certain number of divisions.  Say, for example, we were designed to live to 100 years, then in perfect conditions (inherited good genes, no sickness or injuries and living the best lifestyle with good food and nutrition) we would have enough cell divisions to live to this ripe old age.  The number of injuries, infections and wrong lifestyle choices can shorten our lifespan.  Haven’t you wondered why some people live well into their 90’s and are fit and agile, while others are old and incapacitated at 65?  Why “Joe Bloggs” around the corner was “fit as a fiddle” but dropped dead at 62.  There are alot of other factors that determine this other than nutrition and fitness. As Dr ford states in her book “Marathon runners and triathalon participants damage their bodies, as do those who push their bodies to the physical limits.  They usually die early.  There are a lot of fit, older people on golf courses”.  In other words you should not over-exercise, moderation is the key.  I have only lightly touched on this subject but it is food for thought!

G-L-O-W is not just for the over 50’s, it is for everyone especially the younger generation, as it all starts there.  All you young mothers with young families, I only wish I had some of this information when I was your age.

If I have wet your appetite, then this book is for you?

Don’t “cell yourself short”!

Yours in good health

Hi Guys

So a lovely young woman by the name of Casey has asked me to give you guys some info about meal replacements and their benefits…..

Well look at it this way, meal replacements are a great way to help ‘inspire’ some fat loss in the early stages, as they will help you;

1.  formulate a plan,
2. eat less,
3.  discipline yourself
4. give yourself regular nutrients,
5. Oh and of course they are convenient, but so is a drive through!

The fact is healthy, happy people work at being that way  each day, and meal replacements tend to be a part of a diet.  Although they may help in the beginning of a weight loss program, what’s going to happen when you dive back into the REAL world? That’s why they should only be used with the right intention and be understood.

• They’re fake and synthetic- this is not a wholesome and natural strategy to weight loss, its a fad. Seriously, stop looking for just today and start educating yourself about health and nutrition needs for life.
• What do you do when you forget it or when you don’t have it? Does your diet stop? Does this mean that Macca D’s is on the table again? By looking at healthy improvements you can always be assured to make healthy decisions if you choose to and thus, achieve healthy results.
• They’re associated with diets. The fittest people chip away at it day in and day out and have peace of mind rather than riding the dieting roller coaster and be faced with the many emotional lows connected with this behaviour.
• They’re boring and expensive. Think about a tasty lunch that’s healthy and colourful and then think of a meal replacement. That gritty, creamy, gunk…Yum. If you like to cook then this will not fit into your lifestyle.
• They don’t have the affect on your metabolism that real food does. Real food needs to be broken down by the body and this uses energy and is a great way to burn extra calories by adding protein and fibre to each meal. A meal replacement has already done a lot of the body’s work for you so they do not have the same affect.

Many studies are inconclusive regarding the affects, as they are normally in conjunction with strict exercise regimes and normally on participants well overweight. Finally, nutritionists recognize that most of the participants have tended to fall back into poor habits after the program due to the lack of real life education.

Protein shakes on the other hand have been studied and are conclusive that they provide your body with the building blocks to grow and repair muscle.

So instead of wasting money on fad meal replacements, buy a good quality whey protein and ensure to have this either 60 minutes before training for the weight gainer or 45 minutes after for the weight loser.

Happy healthy eating!

By far the mind is the strongest muscle in the body and luckily, has an amazing potential to what it can accomplish.

With a creative mind, a burning desire, a plan to build your body and the emphatic consistency needed to transform your dreams from thought to reality, you can achieve the impossible. Everything on this earth from the keyboard I type on and the walls we sit between was created with this an idea.

These mental aspects are critical to your success, don’t skip them or you WILL find yourself in the 90% crowd!

Quitters never win and winners never quit!

Learn to enjoy exercise

I recently read this article in a colleague’s article, which was written by Brooks D Kubik in the book Dinosaur Training;

“For a dinosaur, it is perfectly normal to enjoy training. The harder and more demanding the session, the more enjoyable it is. Dinosaur’s have a deep-rooted, almost primordial NEED to test their strength against heavy weights and do so regularly. A Dinosaur’s training session is the high point of each day. It is the time when he most feels alive. The training session allows him to express his true self-the, self he has to cover up in order to live in the everyday world and its myriad of casts, codes and conformity. During a workout, a Dinosaur is free to be as physical and animalistic as he wishes. He can be barbaric-brutal-primitive-artistic. He can challenge the iron, grapple with it, do battle and either live or die. The part of him that never finds expression in the ordinary course of everyday existence may be unleashed in full force when he attacks the iron…When you feel THAT way about your training, consistency, perseverance, and tenacity, become second nature, and at that point your ultimate success is a foregone conclusion.

Exercise is not a chore it is a time where you can express yourself and let yourself go with n o constraints, besides the limits you lay. It is not a chore and should not be viewed this way. Expect the training session and be excited that your fare ‘ABLE’ to be there at that moment…Welcome it.

Limits are only obstacles that you put in front of you and are willing to accept!

They are illusions, myths, and excuses. Yes, there are certain limits but the fact is most of us don’t know what a real limitation is. I do not mean to offend but it is true. Human beings are wonderful at delivering rationale for not meeting goals and challenges, as it makes us feel safe and there is a part of our brain that’s sole purpose is exactly that. If we didn’t have this, most of us would probably be on some form of anti- depression drug!

The satisfaction achieved from a strength session goes far beyond the immediate feeling of wellbeing as when you move, meet with people, go to work, etc you find a confidence within yourself. Those of you have experienced this feeling know what I am talking about and those who have not, are missing out.

“Knowing that I have achieved and what I have achieved is my success! No-one….NO-ONE can take my achievement away from me… It’s mine… It’s precious and I EARNED it! Kristy Kovacs 2008 Miss Australia

Make it happen