“Killer” Grapefruit!- Apparently
Posted by: jvellul on: April 6, 2009
The high water content of the grapefruit is its attraction for slimmers
On Friday The Sun was ranting about a killer grapefruit after a single case report. Yes, that’s right. Just one participant yielded apparently significant enough results for The Sun to claim that chemicals in the killer fruit “could trigger heart attacks, stroke or gangrene.”
After three days of being on the grapefruit diet, the 42-year-old woman developed a blood clot in her leg. She required surgery to restore her blood flow and prevent amputation.
However, the woman had several different risk factors for developing a clot, including taking the pill, having a hereditary blood clotting disorder and an abnormally positioned leg vein.
Quitting smoking in early pregnancy lowers risk
Posted by: jvellul on: April 5, 2009
Pregnant women who quit smoking before 15 weeks dramatically reduce their risk of complications, a new study by the University of Auckland, New Zealand, shows.
Women who stopped before week 15 lowered their risk of having an underweight baby or going into spontaneous premature labour to the same level as non-smokers.
Reformer Machines- the new Pilates phenomenon
Posted by: jvellul on: April 4, 2009
Beautcamp Pilates
Always in an gym class desperately trying to copy the instructor and wondering if you are doing the pose right? Are the right muscles being stretched? You think “I don’t really look like her” as you grab a glance at the person next to who is as flexible as a piece of rope.
This is what I thought the Pilates reformer machine would help me overcome after my free trial session at the Vitality show. Beautcamp Pilates the LA trend has attracted Nicole Kidman and Liz Hurley. With my feet in the straps and a keen instructor by my side, my muscles are aching more than my usual pilates minus the machine. I get my legs into angles that I don’t make during my usual pilates class. I’m not sure if I would be doing so well without the instructor’s on-hand help though.
Vibrating Power Plates- toned body with no effort?
Posted by: jvellul on: April 4, 2009
Me on Power Plates at the Vitality Show
Vibrating power plates are purportedly the key to Madonna’s muscular body. At the Vitality show, there were at least 3 stalls selling these “miracle” machines for as low as around £200 online. When they first came out a few years ago, they had 4-figure price tags, but now at a coupld of hundred quid they could make the latest edition to our home gyms.
The plates work by sending vibrations through your body, making your muscles contract and relax up to 50 times a second. Manufacturers claim that 15 minutes on the power plates is the equivalent of an hour-long gym workout.
I’m not sure if I’m convinced. It all seems a bit too easy. At the Vitality show, I’m standing on the power plates embarrassed that all my wobbly bits are vibrating away. I think this is definitely a machine I would use when the gym is quiet.
Freerunning in Southbank
Posted by: jvellul on: April 1, 2009
I interviewed freerunner James Rydell. Here is a profile of him:
Freerunning is “getting from point A to B. You use obstacles to carry on the momentum of movement. You move on impulse. There are no limits or rules. It is a sport in the sense you train for it and it’s an art of movement in terms of what move you can do.”
I was inspired by “the latest James Bond movie, Casino Royale. I went out with a couple of friends and tried jumping from one wall to another.”
“I love the adrenaline rush of freerunning. I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, and freerunning puts that excess energy into something productive. It keeps me out of trouble.”
Be a Superchick
Posted by: jvellul on: March 31, 2009
I’m at the Vitality Show and I find a glamorous, shiny “Cardio & Cocktails” flyer. I’m intrigued by this slogan and the idea of being a Superchick plays to my female ego. iamsuperchick.com was launched last year by Sky Sports presenter Georgie Thompson and personal trainer Cat Dugdale. Cardio and Cocktail nights are on at Mahiki and Kitts Nightclub. Free online training programmes that mix resistance and cardiovascular training- just for women are also on offer. I sign up after being drawn to the bright pink and the cute filofax training schedule on the website.
I chose Beach peach as my workout. I know my bum needs some work. Doesn’t everyone’s? Previewing the training programme is not as straightforward as I would have liked. Clicking on the preview link returns me to the top of the page. I can see what exercises are in the programme by clicking on a workout in the schedule. Simple exercises to do in the gym and outdoor alternatives are listed. To understand how to do an exercise you click on it and helpful diagrams and text appear. Here comes the only snag though. I’d prefer to be clicking at my own pace about how to do the exercise rather than one image being replaced quickly by another. I suppose the idea of was that as you are doing the movement, you unable to click, but I need to finish reading the text before it flicks to the next part!
GPS to track dementia sufferers
Posted by: jvellul on: March 20, 2009
GPS tracking devices will be fitted to dementia patients in a trial scheme across Britain.
20 patients from Thames Valley and Somerset will have their movements monitored on a map via a secure website.
A carer can be alerted by a phone call or text if the wearer goes outside a specific area.
Dr Rupert McShane, a consultant at the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust said the new technology could provide patients with more freedom to go out safely.
“About 30 per cent of people with dementia get lost at some point, and about 25 per cent of them are locked into their houses by worried relatives,” he said.
In April 2007, the then Science Minister Malcolm Wicks was criticised for suggesting dementia patients could be monitored with the use of GPS devices, but the Alzheimer’s Society gave the technology its backing later that year.
Source: Daily Mail- GPS tracking tags attached to dementia sufferers by NHS trust
A Podcast on people’s views on the issue:
Voices: Joanna Abeyie and Joanne Ellul
Produced by: Joanne Ellul
Pole Dancing
Posted by: jvellul on: March 12, 2009
This is a video I shot and edited of a free taster session with the London Academy of Pole Dancing, LA Fitness, Aldwych WC2B.
For more information and to book a free taster session contact the London Academy of Pole Dancing: www.laphq.co.uk
Kangoo at Gymbox
Posted by: jvellul on: March 11, 2009
Here is my experience of a Kangoo class…
I walk down metal stairs into a basement, with pipes on the ceiling and fluorescent tubes on the walls. In the studio I put on my Kangoo Jumps, low impact rebound sports shoes that are used in fitness classes for a cardio workout.
I take each step slowly in the Kangoos, as if I’m wearing ice skates. I watch the others bounding along in their Kangoos and copy them. I’m filled with exhilaration and I feel reconnected to my inner child. So do the only two men in the class who giggle as they bounce up and down. I bounce up and down to the fast, upbeat rhythm of a dance track. My bounce is so light in the Kangoos I feel like I can jump to the ceiling.
We start our dance routine. I’m not worried about falling over in the Kangoos. Instead I struggle to follow the moves and keep in time with the instructor. To bounce and kick out each of my legs to the side in time with the others is too much for my brain to cope with. This move is complicated even more by having to also sway our arms. This is clearly best for those who can multi-task.
We creep, stroll and march, raising our knees up high. We run in slow motion and bounce backwards, forwards and sideways making an L shape. Do we look like kangaroos? Not really. More like characters from a video game equipped with the strange boots to perform our stunts.
As I climb the metal stairs to leave ache in my legs and stomach sets in. The beat of the dance music is still in my head and I’m swaying from side to side like I’m still dancing in the Kangoos. I’ve had fun and the pain surely means I’m getting fit.
Learning Kangoo!
Kangoo Jumps, the international supplier and manufacturer of Kangoo boots, offer training programmes for people with different levels of fitness. The ‘power programme’ is better for those with lower levels of fitness, while the ‘boot camp’ one is for the athletic type. There is even a ‘Kangoo kick’ programme that mixes martial arts and kangoo.
Classes take place at Thirtysevendegrees and Gymbox. Check out the programmes at www.kangoojumps.com and contact jason@kangoojumps.com to book a class. Alternatively, call the gyms directly to book classes.
New fast-food jobs as demand for junk food soars
Posted by: jvellul on: March 4, 2009
More KFC restaurants will open
Fast-food jobs in new stores are created as the demand for junk food soars.
Jobs are cut in other sectors, including 850 workers made redundant at BMW’s factory making the Mini in Oxfordshire.
KFC Chief executive Martin Shuker said his chain was doing well because it “could feed a family of four for a tenner.”
The fried chicken and chips chain said it will put £150million into its business and create 9,000 new jobs. KFC will open as many as 300 new restaurants over the next three to five years.
Subway has rapidly grown in the past three years, opening 800 shops in Britain and Ireland. It now plans to open 600 new stores in the UK and the Irish Republic, creating more than 7,000 new jobs.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “Because a lot of people don’t know how to cook properly interest in fast food will inevitably be greater.
We might be hard pushed to stem the resulting rise in obesity.”
New jobs at Subway amid more cuts
KFC creating 9,000 new jobs in new outlets
A Podcast on people’s views on this issue:
Voices: Joanna Abeyie and Joanne Ellul
Produced by: Joanne Ellul
Behind the Headlines- NHS Choices
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