Viva Las Vegas, capital of the large portion

Posted by Caroline Innes on May 24, 2007 9:51 PM

SO I am off to Vegas - where the hotels are huge and the people are even bigger!
Last time I was there I observed that the very fattest of these object to walking and choose to use Motability scooters to get from all you can eat buffet to all you can eat buffet.
Now that struck me as ironic as these people are the very people who need to be walking the most.
Why would you give somebody who is overweight and needs to get active something that is going to prevent them from even doing the most basic form of exercise - walking?
Surely without their scooter they may actually take to their feet, burn a few calories, get their heart pumping and their muscles working?
It was all too easy. If they want to over indulge on burgers, cookies and fries in one of the hundreds of restaurants at least make them walk to it!
Lets face it the only place that those scooters are going to take them is to an early grave.
But having stayed in Vegas once before I can understand how difficult it is to try and stay fit and healthy.
I once ordered a breakfast pancake stuffed with apple. What came was four huge, thick pancakes stacked on top of each other, covered in maple syrup, clotted cream and icing sugar with a spoonful of sugary stewed apple on the top.
Not good.
The portions are huge, everything is served with fries and massive side orders and they even have outdoor escalators and travelators to save you from having to walk anywhere.
It is hard enough to try and be healthy on any holiday - but it is even harder to try and be healthy in Vegas!
So with three weeks to go till my Bob Graham stint I am starting to think about how I am going to keep my training ticking over while I am there faced with temptation after temptation.
Yes I am packing my running kit and trainers for early morning runs (hangovers permitting) and hope to make the most of the hotel pool by mixing lying on a lilo with a strawberry daiquiri with doing a few lengths.
I will not succumb to the shiny lure of the escalators and will instead endeavour to use the stairs and walk as much as possible.
If I keep up the training I will be able to enjoy eating out without the guilt.
And anyway I do have another incentive. And it is a big one at that!
I have had to tell the tour operator how heavy I am so a pilot can work out the exact weight of passengers for a helicopter ride on the last day of my holiday.
If I go crackers everyday at the all you can eat buffet then those extra pounds could bring the helicopter down.
Now death - that is an incentive.
Maybe we would all be a bit healthier if we booked a helicopter joy ride and thought our lives were being put at risk?
Become obese and face an early death?
Oh. Haven't we been told that somewhere before?

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Dear Caroline...

Posted by Caroline Innes on May 15, 2007 7:02 PM

How exciting!
My first question from a blog reader.
I would quite like to be Dear Deirdre of the fitness world so if anyone thinks I may be able to help point them in the right direction with their own training then please do get in touch.
And if I don’t know the answer I will do my best to find somebody who does.
In the meantime Mr Edwards asked if there was anything he could do to help shift the weight he was carrying around his waist.
Like many people who go the gym he has been doing a lot of cardio vascular training - things like running, rowing, cycling etc - but has still not managed to beat the bulge.
Also like many he has shyed away from the weights section of the gym fearing that pumping iron will simply cause him to bulk up - the exact opposite result he wants.
But this is simply just not the case.
Training for strength using low repetitions of the heaviest weight you can lift can cause you to bulk up.
BUT training for endurance which involves high repetitions of a lighter weight will create much longer leaner looking muscles and will help to fight the flab.
Almost every female personal training client I have coached looked horrified when I first told them they would be doing weight training as part of their programme.
And the horror was then almost always followed by the phrase: “But I don’t want to look like a shot-putter!”
I don’t want to look like a shot putter either - especially not a Russian one - but I still do two or three weights sessions a week.
You see muscle burns calories. FACT.
If we can all carry a few extra pounds of lean muscle our ability to burn calories increases and if we continue to eat the same amount we should lose fat.
Now the bad news is that as part of the natural aging process we all lose muscle mass.
(And the really bad news is this normally starts when we are about 30).
In losing muscle mass we are losing the ability to burn calories as well as we did when we are younger - hence the phenomena of ‘middle-age spread.’
So many times people tell you how difficult it is too lose weight as they get older and don’t understand why they are putting weight on when there diet has remained unchanged for 30 years.
This is why.
If you have lost muscle through the natural aging process then you are not going to able to burn calories at the same rate.
Continue to eat the same amount of calories as before and you will put on weight. FACT
Now good the news is that this process can be reversed.
We can all increase our muscle mass through weight training and use weights to get the body shape that we want.
By starting weight training many clients have found that the stubborn few pounds that they have struggled to shift finally go. Their endurance and stamina also improve dramatically.
While it can be quite intimidating to head for the weights section in a gym, I would say brave the meat-heads as the results can be staggering.
However anybody starting using weights for the first time should get advice from a qualified gym instructor on technique and what exercises will get then the results that they want.
And if the gym is not your cup of tea then try something like a Bodypump class, where an instructor can lead you through a muscular endurance workout in a group studio environment.
If anyone else has any questions, please post them on here (but only about fitness, anything else I'll leave to Deirdre).

• add or read comments (2)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Set your goal - then go for it

Posted by Caroline Innes on May 3, 2007 11:09 PM

MY Bob Graham training partner has injured his Achilles.......
Now on hearing the news my first thoughts should have been of sympathy and of hope for his speedy recovery.
But they weren’t.
My initial reaction - and I am ashamed to admit it - was still one of hope..... hope that it wouldn’t get better for at least the next six weeks and we wouldn't have to do this god forsaken run!
There I said it. (Sorry Ian)
I felt exactly the same when in April 2004 I was about to undertake the challenge of a lifetime and run over 150miles across the Sahara Desert in the notorious Marathon des Sables. (MdS)
I spent the week before the race bursting into tears as the slightest thing, praying for some horrendous injury to prevent me from going and saying emotional farewells to family and friends who I was convinced I would never see ever again after either being stung by scorpions or buried alive in a sand storm.
The MdS actually turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.
It was also the toughest physically and emotionally (there are no plugs for hair straighteners in the Sahara). But the overriding sense of achievement at completing this gruelling event totally made up for the blood, sweat and tears - of which there were plenty.
And I know that I will feel exactly the same when - and not if - Ian and I complete the final stage of the Bob Graham together.
Now in preparation for the run I keep reminding myself of a conversation I had with fellow MdS competitors who I shared seven days of my life with in Tent 49.
We were talking about why we had decided to do the MdS and that few people understood why you would choose to put yourself through such an ordeal.
Tent mate Simon Howell said he had always been inspired by the saying: “A ship in the harbour is safe - but that is not where ships are meant to be.”
And that goes at least some way to explaining why we were all there.
I am a great believer that new experiences strengthen our characters, shape our personalities and with the success of achievement so comes inner confidence and self esteem.
After all, if we never reach we will never grow.
We all need goals to work towards, whether that be something as extreme as the MdS or taking part in this year’s Race For Life. It might even be something as simple as cycling to work instead of taking the car or using the stairs instead of the lift.
It is good to take yourself outside your comfort zone and challenge what you thought your were capable of.
Set yourself a goal - you might just surprise yourself.

Ben Hammesrley took part in the MdS the same year as me. Read his account of the race here

More information about the event can be found here or at
the MdS official site

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit