Category Archives: sport

Finding A Healthier You

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Becoming a mom is one of the most physically gruelling things you can do to your body, though sadly without the end result of washboard abs or a pert booty. When you have a young family, it’s so easy to let fitness fall on your list of priorities but this only leads to low self-esteem and even lower energy levels.. You can make the decision to prioritise your fitness regime, and one that works for you by making smart choices, and working out for a small period of time, every day. Here are some ways you can do so quickly, and effectively, even with a busy lifestyle.

Image by Sangudo used under the Creative Commons license.

Power walk to victory

Walking is the best thing you can do for your body to slowly build strength and fitness without putting unnecessary stress on it. If you can’t neglect your everyday chores to make time for a stroll, then build walking into your day’s routine. Park a few blocks away from the supermarket and make up the distance on foot. Walk the kids to school if it’s in the local neighbourhood, vow to take the dog on a brisk walk every morning, and make play dates with other moms for a stroll rather than a sedentary hour in the park. At the weekend, a hike is the perfect way for your family to get healthy together. Make sure everyone is well-equipped with good quality walking socks and boots, and work together to navigate to make it engaging.

Add a Multivitamin Complex

Our body does not always get all that it needs from our diets and lifestyle, so we sometimes need to give it a helping hand. Adding a multi vitamin from Epsilon Life could be the answer if we feel we need to give our immune and digestive system a boost. Epsilon’s Multivitamin and Mineral complex is Vegan certified, and  has, among other ingredients Iron, B-complex, Ginkgo Biloba and Ginseng. It will give you all the vitamins you need in one tablet, and not only will you feel better, but you will look better too, with healthier looking hair and skin.

Resolve to eat well

Your fitness is about 30% exercise and 70% diet, so the importance of what foods you choose to put in your body cannot be overstated. If you have a busy lifestyle, aim to eat small meals, often, to sustain energy and concentration. Ditch sugary, processed food, and anything you have been using as a crutch to get you through the day, whether it’s that third cup of coffee, cans of diet soda or chocolate bars. Exercise and a positive attitude will eventually replace these. Snack on fruit, veg, boiled eggs, nuts and cottage cheese, and whatever you do, don’t skip breakfast.

Make some time for you

You can power walk and chow down on granola bars all day long, but if you’re mentally frazzled, it probably won’t help much. Allocate a set time every day (or every few days) which is just for you. This might be an hour in which you go for a massage. You may want to indulge in an evening yoga class, or spend the morning painting. It could be a creative writing class, or a book group. Whatever it is that helps you reconnect with yourself, make time for it. Your sense of personal well-being depends on it.

 

 

Enjoying The World’s No1 Sports Drink

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Gatorade is the world’s number one sports drink. It is a carbohydrate-electrolyte sports drink that comes in a range of flavours and is designed to maintain endurance performance and to enhance the absorption of water during physical exercise. It is the perfect drink to take to the gym, to the track, and to the football pitch. In fact, for any activity where you are going to be using lots of energy and building up a sweat, Gatorade will enable you to replenish your fluids and perform better.

My son Joe is extremely active. He plays for a football team and trains twice weekly with them. He also plays for the WBA foundation once a week, plays school sport 4 times weekly, and boxes on Fridays. He takes a drink with him as he builds up a sweat and uses lots of energy, but he is not a fan of water, and we found that during training he was sometimes not drinking enough, which led to a loss of energy and a drop in his performance levels.

He now takes a bottle of Gatorade with him to each training session. The 500ml sports drinks bottles are easy to open and close and are non spill. There are a range of flavours including Cool Blue (Joe’s favourite), Red Orange, Orange and Lemon. The drinks taste great, and if you are interested in trying them all, Amazon has a pack that includes 12 bottles (3 of each flavour), along with a cool towel and a Gatorade squeeze bottle. This is a great way of getting to know the brand.

The Gatorade drinks taste great and have been a real success story in my house. We reserve these for sports time only, they are sports drinks and so not just for after school, but when they are used correctly, they are a great way of putting the energy and hydration back into the body.

Get Involved in Grassroots Football In 2018

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From a very early age my boy Joe has kicked a football. It was probably in his blood. As a family we are all a bit football mad, season ticket holders at West Bromwich Albion, with my brother playing to a semi professional level at Walsall FC until illness forced him to give up the sport he loves still. So Joe was probably primed to love football, both watching and playing, from an early age. I hear many negatives about grassroots football, but I wanted to share why I think being involved with a team can be a good thing, whether you are a boy or a girl, and whatever your age.

1. You get to travel

Sport really can broaden the horizons, even from an early age. Joe has already traveled to London to play at Arsenal as part of The Albion Foundation, and this year is hoping to take part in a tournament in Somerset. As he gets older, there may be opportunities further afield, my brother played in a tournament in Cyprus as a teenager, whilst companies like Absolute Sports Travel organise football tours that take in tournaments all over the world, allowing the opportunity to combine travel and football, with tournaments against teams from all around the world in places like Spain, Holland, Belgium and Italy.

Fitness Levels

As parents, we all worry that our children spend too much time stuck in front of a computer, tablet, Nintendo Switch, Play Station and numerous other online activities that see them become the modern equivalent of the couch potato. Joining a football team certainly stops this, as well as games Joe has training with his team twice a week, and this then encourages him to practice in his garden too, with new goals and a rebound net at the top of his Christmas list this year. This is fitness that is also great fun!

It’s a great family activity

Watching Joe play is something that we do as a family, it is a great bonding experience. Sometimes nan and grandad come along too, and Joe likes to watch his cousin Renee play – she is only four but already football mad and takes part in indoor coaching as part of the Future Baggies programme.

Joe helping Renee by going in goal

It’s a great way to make friends

Joe is an only child, and we live in a semi rural area some distance from school friends, so football is a great way to make new friends and to socialise with other children after school and at the weekend, Through football, there have been invites to parties, opportunities for ground tours and trips, and a whole host of friendships with children he would not have met otherwise.

Do you have any thoughts on Grassroots football? Is your child involved? Would love to hear your thoughts.