Weekly Wrap up. Week 23. 2024. Protein!

Weekly wrap up. Week 23. 2024

Protein.

This is really the buzz word and more and more research is proving how absolutely essential protein is in our diet. I remember the days of carb loading before marathons. There used to be pre race pasta parties can you, believe whereas more recently the focus is far more on getting plenty of protein onboard.

Talking to a friend at the weekend, she told me that when her husband went to the osteopath with an arthriticky knee, the first thing he was asked was how many kilos he weighed and he was then informed that he should be having a gram of protein a day for every kilo of weight. So if you are a 65 kilo individual then you need to be consuming 65grams of protein a day. While he has seen a huge improvement in his knee, Dr Michael Mosley has just written pretty much the very same thing this last week, stating that while the standard guidelines are 45grams for the average woman, actually 65 grams is much more realistic.

Style and makeup guru Trinny was talking to her personal trainer about her batwing under arm issue last week and established that all the weight lifting in the world would not resolve this without the back up of plenty of protein and that we are not eating enough.

So why do we need protein and what is this all about?

Protein is essential for muscle growth and repair, as well as speeding up recovery from injury. It is essential for bone health and strength. Protein is filling so makes us feel fuller for longer and reduces the desire to snack and overeat so indirectly helps with weight management. It improves brain function, strengthens the immune system and helps keep skin healthy. Protein helps repair body tissues and helps make hormones.

I could add loads of scientific research and explanation here but statistics show that you have already allowed your mind to wander so I will stick with the bullet point facts and leave you to research should you wish.

So how do we find it and do we need to weigh everything now?

Fortunately we all have access to the internet and a quick google will generally give you guidelines on protein content. For example 2 large boiled eggs have around 12 grams of protein so if you start your day with eggs and soldiers or an omlette, you are already off to a fine start. A large cup (8 oz) of plain, low fat yoghurt is around 12 grams of protein so throw in some seeds and nuts (and a handful of berries and a drizzle of honey) and you have a really protein rich desert.

As a vegetarian, I have had to look a little deeper but fortunately I am a fan of beans and pulses. Lentils, quinoa and beans such as chickpea and pinto are really good sources of protein but of course fish and meat are excellent options. Don’t overlook your greens as choices such as spinach are a good source too with some greens being high in amino acids which are the building blocks of protein (learnt this at the Juicy retreats when we lived on plants and vegetables!)

Take a little time to think of what you enjoy, what you can incorporate regularly and what portion sizes you need. Remember that the more active you are, the more protein you will need for muscle repair and bone growth. I have recently introduced protein powders to weight training / long cycling days to make sure I have it covered but you will find your own way for what suits you best.

Whatever your way, remember when you have finished your class or workout to reach for a large glass of water and a source of protein within 45 mins for maximum benefit.

Members Zone.

What we have been up to.

Well, I finished my first official road bike event. A huge thank you to online member and fellow Pilates teacher Fiona who, as soon as she heard I was Sussex bound, immediately offered me bed and breakfast. I had just THE loveliest evening with Fiona and her husband Jan and am lucky to have been offered a return visit complete with bike to join Jan and his cycling club so yes please!

I was very grateful to have had the most incredible hospitality and great company and that really set me up for my day!

A quick selfie with Davina McCall and off I set just after 8am on my 47 miles. There was a shorter ride and two longer ones but I had decided not to be toooo ambitious on my first event. Just as well as, with my usual brilliance, I managed to miss some markers and all too soon found myself riding back downhill to the start. While the organisers kindly whooped and clapped, I was frantically turning round and setting off back up the hill, not nearly as exciting second time around, while they were shouting after me, but I explained I still had 20 miles to do… unfortunately as all riders had left, they had taken down the original arrows so I just trundled around to get the miles in, in order to achieve what I had set out to do and to fully earn my (cheapest, nastiest I have ever seen) medal at the end, but do it I jolly well did, albeit on my own, missing the refuelling stations, running out of water… and noting to self that a) teaching a legs strength class 2 days before was fully moronic and b) I should have paid more attention.

However, Sussex is just beautiful (if rather hilly) and the sun was out. I did smile to myself cycling into one village and seeing a “30”speed sign. I remember many moons ago, watching The Magic Roundabout with my mother and her roaring with laughter at a line from Brian the snail as he slid his way down a road and saw a “30”sign and said “30 miles an hour? THIRTY MILES AN HOUR? I can’t go that fast” and I had to agree at that point!

Several of you are away in motor homes and camper vans and other holiday sources and I have really enjoyed the pictures of you working from the library as well as jumping in to live classes when you can find wifi. I really, really appreciate that and full marks to you for being committed to your practise to keep you strong. Easier to maintain than to start again!

It's been a busy week with weights, lower body workout, power Pilates and lots of recording.

What’s new in the library.

Clare has recorded her lower body class which is now in “Clare’s classes” and I have uploaded this Tuesday and Friday's strength classes (located, funnily enough in the section called Strength) and also Tuesday’s pure mat and Thursday’s power Pilates with small weights and mini loops (both in Mixed ability). SO much new content coming!

Please note the library is moving around a little and the order of display is changing. Any questions, please let me know.

You will see a new section called “Guest teachers” where you can try a class from peers of mine who have taught classes for me. You will also see a new area “The Monthly challenge” - more of that below.

What’s coming up

You will have seen the post about our upcoming Pelvic health and menopause talk on June 18th and if not, please go to Latest News on my website. I really hope you are able to make it as I know it will be of interest to all ages.

You ask, I listen

I have had a suggestion that we have a monthly challenge and I think that is a really good idea and I am going to add this to our library. One thing to do every day for the month and although we are already a few days into June, I am starting with The Hundred. challenge. Please go to the library and find the recording to get more info! 5 mins a day, every day. Who’s in?

Please forward challenge suggestions to see us through Summer and into Autumn and there will always be levels for everyone.

Please note -

If we are recording and you join late, please don't be offended if we don't acknowledge you. Nothing personal but obviously it isn't ideal for the recorded classes. No problem if you are running late and hop in after we have started but just to point out!

Finally

A quote -

“It’s very possible to gain several pounds of weight overnight. It is almost impossible to gain several pounds of body fat overnight.

Remember that, when you step on the scales and see the number has gone up because….

All body fat has weight but not all weight is body fat’

“Only lost a pound?” Have a look at the picture below to see just what that means!!

Fitness - dont put off starting a new fitness journey until when “you have more time” as that means that as soon as you become busy, you will drop it again. Start that new habit right NOW while you are busy so that you learn how to fit it into your busy life and that way, you are far less likely to drop it again!

Have a great weekend! xx we have been up to.

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By juliet • May 1, 2025

USE IT OR LOSE IT! I saw a post on instagram that I shared today. It is a video of a large family posing for a group photo, with many of them sat on the floor. Once the photo has been taken, they try to get up and that is where chaos happens (along with a lot of laughter) as they are clinging onto eachother, trying to get to their feet and getting into a total heap. Very funny... but also not... I was involved in a workshop today at Limewood and the phrase "Use it or Lose it" came up in the presentation. We all know the saying and can use it quite flippantly but how about acknowledging that if we no longer perform that particular activity, our body thinks it is no longer required and we find we CAN'T perform that movement. We need to condition our body and therefor when we first try a new exercise for example, we can feel quite unstable or uncoordinated and lacking in proprioception but as we repeat and practise, the move becomes more familiar and we grow in confidence and ability. Think of some of the sequences we do in Pilates or some of the more complex moves in our weights work - not for the faint of heart and performed only once we have built up the skills and have the coordination and understanding of what needs to go where. However as we stop doing those (or any other)moves they quickly become harder to reach. If you haven't seen it, do please watch "Secrets of The Blue Zones" on Netflix - about communities where people not only live beyond 100 but do so with good physical and mental health. It is a superb watch but the factors are the same in each community and one of them is of course, exercise, be it walking up a practically vertical hill to church or getting onto hands and knees to tend the garden daily. Whatever you do or don't do, please don't be the one rolling around because you cant get up from the floor!! Using it beyond all reason this weekend however are Lou and Clare - please join me in wishing them the very best of luck as they set off together at 6.45am on Saturday to run 100km around the Isle of Wight. If you recall, they did 50km last year and that achievement set them up for going the full distance this year. It also did something else as I went over to watch them and had a bad case of missing out, as I can no longer run and realised how much I missed the training and camaraderie of an endurance event and it was off the back of this experience that I came home and bought a new bike. So a year (and lots of cycling and joining a club) later, I am also off to the island on Sunday to cycle 100km on the IOW Randonnee. I respect that my challenge is nowhere near the scale of what Lou and Clare are undertaking but there are some big old hills over there... good job we have a Bank Holiday Monday to recover!!

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By juliet • February 27, 2025

I very nearly missed it. I was thinking about an April challenge or similar when I suddenly realised that WE ARE 5! In March, we will have been online for a whopping 5 years and as we grow ever stronger, this needs to be celebrated! Friday 17th March 2020. I was in a totally empty Beaulieu Village hall as everyone was staying home and with legs shaking and heart racing, I leant my phone up against a speaker on the stage and started my first ever Facebook LIve class. A lot has happened in 5 years and we are all far more tech savvy now but this was ground breaking for me at least and I was terrified. Seeing little hearts and smiley faces floating up the screen as more and more people logged on was the biggest support I could have imagined. That week before what we all knew was coming, I was facing the “what’s next” along with millions of others. For me, “what next” was a 3 day non stop run of no sleep (adrenaline has many uses) and a huge learning curve. Along with fellow fitness professionals, I was learning how to use Zoom, membership platforms, booking programs, how to manage my website, multi screening, recording and editing. There were a lot of tears and coffee and I did not see my bed for 3 nights straight. BUT…. (indulge me here please) scrolling back through my old blog posts (still there for you to see!) I saw my first post about Live, free Facebook Pilates on March 20th and my first calendar of classes the same week as we went into lockdown. I went live, online for free every day, one way or another for 6 weeks right at the start. It nearly killed me and how Joe Wicks kept going, I do not know but I am so proud of that and what we achieved together. I was reaching into countries all over the world as at that time, not as many people were offering this and as everyone was at home, time zones were not as relevant. Friends and family were sharing the links so that they could do classes together and see eachother from wherever they were. To be honest, it is all a bit of a blur (as I am sure it is for many, many people) as I just fought hard to save my business and my sanity. I do vividly remember one class where we had zooms from Australia, America, Qatar, Dubai and Mallorca. I wrote it down on my office whiteboard where it stayed for years. It was just surreal and I honestly could not believe this was me! I was doing all this on my laptop mirrored to my TV, in my lounge! You saved me! I was on my own and horribly lonely and isolated and slowly going a bit mad and “having” to log on daily and be positve and upbeat and full of energy to motivate and inspire you genuinely saved me. I have removed most of the old lockdown content and anything that still triggers me into a shivver of how awful it was, but one thing that I hold in my heart with enormous pride is my online community. I am more proud of this than I can begin to descibe. You are my family. I created this, built and nurtured it and continue to be indescribably proud of what we have all acheived together. Our Christmas lunches, when I sit back and see so many friends, the care and what we share - please know that it means the world to me. We have got up to SO MUCH online over 5 years. I am not going to go back over it because a) it is all there in old blogs and social media posts and b) full disclosure, I am only truly, this last year, coming out of what the lockdown era took out of me and I do not wish to revisit it but…. True friendships have grown and we all know we really are “SO MUCH MORE THAN PILATES”. Only last week when a group of us met for a walk, I took so much from hearing you talking about how much YOU get from it - not just the exercise but the daily morning chats and check in’s, the community and support - that you cannot believe how you used to do one class a week, whizz in, whizz out and that was that until the following week whereas now you are doing multiple classes a week and what’s apping fellow members, logging in to see friends and sharing so much. I have been able to teach from Cornwall, Botswana, Croatia ,Pembrokeshire, the local beach…. and as my feet get ever more itchy, the wonders of online means have van, have wifi - you can come with me! I have never wanted to go down the commerical studio route. That was never for me. Far too restrictive - and as online works, the world awaits! So here we are. This last week we have beamed into MELBOURNE (furthest reach so far!), Singapore, Tanzania, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and never forgetting the Isle of Wight… we have more members than ever, a wonderful variety of classes and the library has had another update with more to come. Teatime talks are shaping up (new page on the website under construction), we have 2 socials in the diary and it’s still only February. This year is my 20th anniversary as a Pilates teacher and 22 years since I started out as a Personal trainer. As the wonderful Master Teacher Michael King (who I am going to for a week of Pilates in Crete in May) says - “Old Pilates teachers never retire. We just roll down one day and never roll back up” For our fifth anniversary, it seems only right to go back to where it started so bear with me and watch this space as I plan a collection of extra FREE classes available to EVERYONE, some on Zoom, some on instagram live. This will be week commencing March 24 March and PLEASE put Saturday March 29th in your diary and come to Beaulieu village hall for old time’s sake for a FREE class open to ALL starting at 9am - and coffee and pastries up the road afterwards at Steffs. I will sort the times and days and post next week and in our members’ calendar but everyone is included. Do also keep March 11th in your diary for the first of our Teatime talks - again, open to all. The wonders of being online.