Run/Walk for Life

If this little flower can hold on for the spring , so can I!

Ah! Dare I say it? Spring is here at last! It is no longer pitch dark when I get up in the morning and today the temperature hovered around 20 degrees for most of the day. The bright sunshine made me feel like a dance around a Maypole or some such northern hemisphere practice.

A combination of winter, travelling, being sick, no yoga, and no walking, has left me feeling sluggish, fed up and unhealthy. So I have cut my hair (a woman always means business when she cuts her hair) and I have just been checking out Run/Walk for Life. I really need to up my cardio-vascular exercise, for my health and weight. I hate the gym, I have tried boot camp and walking by myself is not getting the desired result. So drastic situations call for drastic measures…

Actually, it looks more than manageable and not quite so drastic…the program is well-monitored and formulated to progress gradually.  So far, the people I have met seem pleasant and supportive. After two sessions I have learned to walk using my arms (felt those muscles the next day!) and have managed to get the pulse racing. I enjoy walking and being outside; I feel like I am in training for long forest walks...

Run/Walk for Life is Proudly South African and is endorsed by the Heart Foundation of South Africa. What’s more, the program is run right here in the neighbourhood. So come on summer! I am ready to go!

You may also like: Spring has Sprung and To Carbo-load or Not  and Couch Potatoes and Olympic Glory 

To Carbo-load or Not

Seems you can’t open a newspaper or magazine or turn on the TV these days without seeing Tim Noakes.  He is quite the guru of Sports Medicine in SA and is well-respected as an academic. My friend, Bridgette, a runner, swore that his book, The Lore of Running, was like her bible.

How disconcerting then for ordinary folk, that he does a complete about-turn on what he has been preaching for so many years. I may be mistaken but I think that he coined the term “carbo-loading” before a big race. You would be hard-pressed to find a table at an Italian restaurant on the eve of the Two Oceans Marathon or the Cape Argus Cycle tour, as everyone indulged in pasta.

Now he is going on national television and saying that he was wrong and that we should be eating more protein and fat. He is even going so far as to say that we should take his book and tear out the chapter he wrote on nutrition.

Because I have high cholesterol I have cut down on red meat and dairy products and I generally eat and live a healthy lifestyle. But sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what healthy is. One minute butter is in and margarine is out, the next it’s food-combining or high protein diets and then butter is out and margarine is in. Then there are the foods that cause cancer (or not) and the foods that are approved by the Heart Foundation and so on.

At the end of the day I think we should listen to our bodies, keep the balance and use common sense.