What Does it take to SWIM THE NORTH POLE?

Below is a link to one of the most extreme examples of Mental Strength I have ever seen.

Those of you who have attended Rebel Boot Camp with me, or undergone my sports programmes will have heard me constantly batter on about the importance of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). Mental strength first physical strength second.

You only achieve things you believe are possible, you only believe things are possible when you constantly tell yourself "I CAN DO THIS" "ITS A CHALLENGE BUT I CAN DO THIS"

So many people what to change their lives or change the world, but never achieve their dreams because the voices in their head defeat them. These are your voices learn to control them and you will change your life; you will change the world.

Here is a fantastic short video on one mans belief in what he could do, to change himself and change the world. Some of the great take aways are the fact he didn't do it alone he had a team who believed in him when, he realized the very real possibility he might die on his challenge. But to him it was important to succeed and he pushed on.

Listen as he tells you he had achieved his goal hundreds of times in his mind before he ever attempted it. (MENTAL STRENGTH FIRST)

It took him 2 years to achieve it. This reminds me of one of my favorite sounds bites, "behind every over night success is 20 years of hard work"

Watch it enjoy it live it. http://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_pugh_swims_the_north_pole.html

What are your Habits

We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then is not an Act but a HABIT.

- Aristotle

What are your habits creating?

No Excuses

Watch it for some inspiration to get your lazy butt off the couch.

Exercise and Fasting Can Kill!!

Is it safe to attend Boot Camp while fasting ?

I still get hit with this question every year, in one form or another, whether the question is “ can I continue to train for the marathon and fast,” “is it safe to exercise in the morning during fasting month” or “can I continue with high intensity training during fasting month”.

They all boil down to the same thing DEHYDRATION, IS DANGEROUS AND CAN KILL.

Are you likely to die on a one off session without the proper amount of fluids in your body – unlikely (but not impossible).

The main risk with fasting lies in the fact that dehydration can build up slowly over days or even weeks. You only need to fall short by a small amount of fluid replenishment each day to begin creating a dangerous situation for yourself.

In my opinion it is reckless to exercise at high intensity in particular leading to high amounts of sweating and not replace the lost fluids immediately. During fasting if you work out early morning, it could be 12 hours before you replenish lost fluids. This is way too dangerous.

If you are still driven by ego to try, keep in mind that a reduction in fluid levels also leads to a reduction in performance. So no matter how hard you push you will be unable to match your previous times or gain any improvements.

Here are some of the other problems that can arise from dehydration

Kidney failure

Kidney failure is a common occurrence, although if it is due to dehydration and is treated early, it is often reversible. As dehydration progresses, the volume of fluid in the blood decreases, and blood pressure may fall. This can decrease blood flow to vital organs like the kidneys, and like any organ with a decreased blood flow; it has the potential to fail to do its job.

Coma

Decreased blood supply to the brain may cause confusion and even coma. If enough organs begin to malfunction, the body itself may fail, and death can occur.

Shock

When the fluid loss overwhelms the body's ability to compensate, blood flow and oxygen delivery to the body's vital organs become inadequate and cell and organ function can begin to fail.

Heat-related illnesses and associated complications

In heat-related illness, the body's attempt to cool itself by sweating may cause dehydration to the point that muscles may go into spasm (heat cramps). It is often the muscles that are being stressed that will spasm (for example, in people who work outside in a hot environment, arm and leg muscles may spasm from lifting and moving heavy objects or equipment; in athletes, leg muscles may cramp from running). As fluid loss increases, the patient may be so dehydrated that there is not enough water to sweat and heat exhaustion or heat stroke may occur. Heat stroke is a true medical emergency and 911 or the emergency response system should be activated immediately in this situation.

Electrolyte abnormalities

In dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities may occur since important chemicals (like sodium, potassium, and chloride) are lost from the body through sweat. For example, patients with profuse diarrhea or vomiting may lose significant amounts of potassium, causing muscle weakness and heart rhythm disturbances. The doctor is often aware of the fluid and electrolyte balance in the dehydrated patient and may decide to monitor electrolyte levels by checking blood tests. Some examples of symptoms caused by abnormal electrolyte levels include muscle weakness due to low potassium, heart rhythm disturbances due to either low or high potassium, and seizures due to low (hyponatremia) or high sodium (hypernatremia). In many patients with dehydration, the kidneys are able to compensate and regulate electrolyte levels.

It is reasonable to remember that dehydration does not occur quickly, and sometimes it may take hours to slowly correct the fluid deficit and allow the electrolytes to redistribute themselves appropriately in the different spaces in the body. If rehydration is done too slowly, the patient may remain hypotensive and in shock for too long. If done too quickly, water and electrolyte concentrations within organ cells can be negatively affected, causing cells to swell and eventually die.

I hope this has made it clear. Yes you can exercise at high intensity during fasting month, but you are not going to see improvements and your are risking your health.

Exercise and the Fasting Month

EXERCISE DURING THE FASTING MONTH

The holy month of Ramadhan is upon us. This is a time of reflection and fasting allowing us to empathize with those who suffer starvation on a continual basis.
Yet inexplicable many of us gain weight during this month. I myself have to be careful, as the amazing foods that are not often available during the rest of the year are often to tempting.

In addition many use this month as an excuse to stop their exercising programme. Easy to realize why we gain weight when you do the math, increase food eating, decrease activity that burns the calories, don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Here I will give you some guidelines if followed will allow you to enjoy the holy month, without suffering during the day while fasting and keep up your exercise routine and stop your figure from expanding.

Your diet should not differ very much from your regular diet during Ramadhan. (I am assuming here that you already have a healthy diet which avoids fat, oil and sugar).
To help you through the day you should eat slow digesting foods with high unprocessed fiber contents. Slow digesting foods last up to 8 hours, and will see you though the day, While processed foods such as white rice, pasta etc. will fill you up quickly but will very quickly burn off leaving you hungry and tired.

Slow digesting foods with a low GI include whole grains, and seeds like barley, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, unprocessed flour, unpolished rice etc.

- Keep your exercise sessions light. This is not the time to be setting any new
records.
- Warm up thoroughly, most important to start slowly.
- Keep your diet moderate in high protein.
- Keep your diet high in complex carbohydrate which has a low glycolic index (GI)
as a rough rule of thumb, these are unprocessed carbohydrates i.e. unpolished rice.
For more information on the GI visit www.glycemicindex.com I feel this is the
single most important part to successful fasting.
- When breaking fast, avoid simple sugars, (this means no Kuih and all its sugary
friends), as they will cause your insulin levels to spike, resulting in making you
feel extremely lethargic and unable to exercise. The fancy name for this is
reactive hypoglycemia.

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR AND SOME REMEDIES

AVOID

The temptation to over eat. This will not keep you from being hungry and will most likely result in an expanding waistline and a weight gain.
Too much tea or coffee at sunrise, as these are diuretic’s and result in you spending more time in the toilet wasting that precious water that your body needs to preserve.

DRINK

Lots of water and fresh juice after breaking fast and before you sleep. This will allow your body to adjust your fluid levels while you sleep.

LOW BLOOD PRESSURE

If you have excessive sweating, weakness, tiredness, lack of energy, dizziness, or feeling faint you may be suffering low blood pressure. You tend to feel this towards the afternoon.

This can be a result of too little water or fluid intake and too little salt intake. To resolve this keep cool and increase your fluid and salt intake.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

If you suffer from high blood pressure and are taking medication, you may need to adjust your levels during Ramadhan. You should discuss this with your doctor.

HEADACHES

A common problem if you normally like to hang out at Starbucks or generally drink lots of coffee you can suffer from server headaches due to caffeine withdrawal. This also applies to smokers. These are bad headaches and can cause nausea. The best way to avoid these headaches is to slowly reduce your intake a couple of weeks before the start of fasting.

I wish you all the best for the fasting month and should you have any more questions regarding the best way to fast or exercise please log on to jasonmoriarty.blogspot.com and leave me a question.

SELAMAT MENUNAIKAN IBADAH PUASA

Spirit of a Rebel

This was is a little un-usual, a little bit different from what I normally post. I felt this one captured the real essence of a REBEL and someone who was willing to stand out from the crowd and the get results they want in their life.

This is a great excerpt from a great writer, take your time to read it.

Don't let the year's thunder by!
To be truly challenging, a voyage. Like a life must rest on a firm
foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine
traverse. The kind known to yachtsman, who play with their boats at
sea - "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seaman, and to the
wanders of the world who cannot, or will not fit in. If you are
contemplating a voyage and you have means. Abandon the venture until
your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all
about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford it"
What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the
cancerous discipline of "security". And in the worship of security we
fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and some form of
working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all
- in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our
economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time
payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our
attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by.
The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the
shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where,
then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of
purse or bankruptcy of life? From Mariner's Log - by Sterling Hayden,
sailor extraordinare

You Are How You Eat

On a recent visit to Singapore a good friend set up a meeting with Dr. Edgar Tham. He thought we would get on and find some mutual interests. He was right.

First off let me introduce Edgar MS,CSC, Rpsych, he is Singapore’s pioneer sport and exercise psychologist who specializes in behavior change strategies and success coaching. A pet interest of mine, I am constantly amazed at the number of excuses people come up with not to change, despite wanting different results from their life.

Edgar was former head of sport psychology at the Singapore Sports Council and founding head and Deputy Director of the School of Sports, Health and Leisure of Republic Polytechnic. He is listed in the international Who’s Who of Professionals and a popular seminar speaker and lecturer of sport and exercise psychology and coaching courses in Asia.

In other words when he talks about getting healthy, changing your mind set or improving your sport YOU LISTEN. Besides he is a funny guy.

He has recently co-authored a new book “Scientifically Slim” with 30 proven ways to lose weight and keep it off.

What I loved about the strategies was the fact that they are easy to read and for me the best part all based on real world scientific studies.

A short example of one; Cornell University carried out a study of the way we eat at a Chinese Buffet. The short of it was it found that those who were obese compared to other diners.

Used larger plates
Served themselves immediately (instead of browsing the buffet before eating).
Sat 4.9 meters closer to the buffet.
Faced the buffet while eating.
Used forks more often than chopsticks.
Chewed less per bite.

Recognise any of these eating habits. “So not only are you what you eat, but also how you eat”.

In short a great book and well worth a read.

Looking forward to catching up with Edgar again on my next trip.