Pressure!

Do you think we put to much pressure on ourselves.

Do you take time out for yourself?

In today's society we can very easily get caught up in the day to day grind of everything. In doing so we forget to take a deep breathe and just enjoy life. Humans tend to be quite time poor working longer hours plus traveling further to get to their jobs. Because of these and other factors we forget to take some time out for ourselves, it's either work, family, money ... The list goes on and this can lead to serious amounts of stress. Stress is such a powerful emotion which can be very detrimental to our health and can cause such health conditions like anxiety.

We all need some time to ourselves from time to time. We spend so much time trying to set up a good life for ourselves, we forget to enjoy it.

How do you like to enjoy yourself?

Below are a list of top 5 things I like to do which makes me enjoy life.

1. Playing or watching football - love my footy!

2. Spend a weekend away with my young family - it's good to get away from the hussle and bustle sometimes

3. Listen to Coldplay - I find I just tune out when listening to them

4. Sit down and enjoy watching a DVD with my wife - with a little one we don't get much time to ourselves but this is something we try and do a couple of times a month

5. Catching up with friends - always great to see friends

Hopefully it’s given you a few ideas but if not, when you are feeling overwhelmed and under pressure – take a deep breathe to help you relax – I guarantee when you start to relax – your mind will relax and you’ll be more productive at whatever you are doing.

Tristan Simmons
Healthy Living Director at Mill Park Leisure

What defines us?

As humans we go through all different types of emotions every single day. Some good and some bad. Now we all wish we only had good emotions but that’s not what defines us. We all go through tough times, it’s how we deal with those situations that makes us who we are.

I listened to a key note speaker recently by the name of Dr David Patchell-Evans or 'Patch' as he prefers to be called. Patch is the founder of Goodlife Fitness Centre in Canada. He started out with only 1 health club and has expanded to over 300 clubs around Canada. Patch himself has been through many crisis’s in his life but he choose to learn from those incidents and turn them into an opportunity, or CROP as he calls it. Turning a crisis into an opportunity.

Just take a minute and reflect on that.....when have you turned a crisis into an opportunity?

Do you think it has made you who you are today? 

I want to share an example with you. When I was young my parents had just recently moved to Wallan where they had built a house for their young family because they were renting a flat in Preston which was too small. In order to support his family, my Dad worked 3 jobs, 7 days a week. He would be up at 5am and head to his first job. After he finished working overtime, he would head to his second job and work till about 8-9pm at night and by the time he got home it would after 10pm, when I was in bed. He did this every Monday - Friday. On the weekends he would work his 3rd job. My dad did this for many years to support us but as a result I didn't get to spend as much time with him. It doesn’t make him a bad father, he was just doing everything he can to support us and give us the best opportunities. 

Now you might ask why is this a crisis? Well as a young child, I didn’t get to see my Dad and spend that quality time with him.  Now I'm a father with a beautiful little girl I turned my crisis into an opportunity. That opportunity was to work hard and support my family but to always make sure I have a great work/family life balance. I try to spend as much time as I possibly can with my daughter and if I go one single day without getting a hug or kiss from her (now she knows what shaking your head means so I do get rejected from time to time - except when she is going to bed, I always get my goodnight kiss), it disappoints me. 

There are always going to be tough times throughout our lives, unfortunately its apart of life, it’s how we overcome those tough times or 'crisis' that truly makes us who we are today. A crisis doesn't have to be a big issue either because sometimes the smaller things hurt the most. 

PLEASE remember, it’s never too late to become the person we want to be! 

Tristan Simmons
Healthy Living Director at Mill Park Leisure

Have you experienced back pain?

How many of you have experienced back pain? I bet 80 – 90% of you answered yes, I too have suffered back pain.

The reason I ask is because I recently read a very interesting and somewhat controversial article which featured on The Age website titled ‘The truth about back pain’ written by Aviva Lowy.

In the article Professor Chris Maher, Director of the musculoskeletal Division at the George institute for Global Health, talks about back pain. He explains that in the majority of cases when there is no specific cause for the pain, patients are misinformed from various websites and/or are over treated and over medicated. What individuals who have back pain should be making sure they are physically active and start off by only taking paracetamol for pain relief.

In late 2012, patients were administered epidural steroid injections for back pain, some of those were contaminated and caused an outbreak of fungal meningitis in the US.

This raises numerous questions in my mind but won that comes to mind is why do we suffer from back pain if there are no evident causes? In 2010 Global Burden of Disease claims back pain is the most disabling health condition in Australia, the study showed in terms of years lived with a disability, lower back pain was ranked number one.

Professor Maher states the triggers of back pain is not clear but there seems to be a strong genetic component. When different risk factors such as vibration, lifting, smoking or being overweight, the findings have been inconsistent.

Most of us have experienced back pain at some point not knowing the cause and to think there may be a genetic cause is ground breaking.

There is often this thought that if you experience back pain, don’t do any exercise, relax on the couch and rest. This isn’t the way to manage a bad back, make sure you keep active, it will help relieve any back problems you may be experiencing.

If you would like to read the article for yourself the link is attached below.

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life/the-truth-about-back-pain-20131010-2vah5.html

Tristan Simmons

Healthy Living Director - Mill Park Leisure

Are you Time Poor?

How many of you have used the excuse ‘I have no time to exercise’?

I’m putting my hand up for that because I have done it before, and if I’m being honest with myself I have used that excuse recently. Having no time is the number one reason why people don’t exercise or they start but don’t continue for very long. Those of you that have spoken to me around the centre or read my articles know my wife gave birth to our daughter 6 months ago – since then I used the ‘no time’ excuse because I just wanted to get home and see the family. There is nothing wrong with that, making family time is very important, but I was losing all the results I had built up and I just wasn’t feeling good about myself.

Now I’m back into exercise and starting to feel energised again. I made the time to train and you can do it too, it’s all about prioritising what’s important to you and making time for your health and wellbeing. Ultimately if you are healthy and feeling good you are likely to be a better parent, partner and person in general. So, stop the excuses!

One of the best ways to improve your time management is by chunking your time. Plan out your week and schedule chunks or blocks of time to exercise, but the trick is you need to make sure you stick to them. Generally we find it easy to plan our work time and work commitments, but don’t forget to add in family time, exercise and time for yourself. When you chunk your time and stick to it – you’ll find you will have a much more balanced week, you won’t feel caught up in everything and most importantly you’ll get to spend valuable time with your family and be looking after your health.

Another strategy is to schedule / chunk some “spare” time, so that in case you genuinely were not able to exercise in the scheduled time because family or work commitments got out of control during the week you can make up the missed exercise in your “spare” time. The truth is none of us have much spare time, but if you block/chunk spare time you will be able to fit in all your weekly needs without too much stress. The spare time can be used for exercise, family or even added work commitments to help you try and maintain a healthy work - life balance.

Tristan Simmons
Healthy Living Director - Mill Park Leisure

 

How many of you work for a company that promotes workplace health?

There are numerous ways workplaces can promote health. Some companies hire Personal Trainers to run lunchtime training sessions and offer staff a discounted rate. Others have regular workplace health checks, while some keep it simple and send out nutritional advice.

A few years ago I worked for a company who conducted yearly workplace health checks and skin checks which I thought was fantastic. Here at the Y, we run a free group training class for all the employees which includes nutritional advice and handouts.

According to Work Safe Victoria, absenteeism due to illness and injury costs Victoria $440 million every year. That is quite extraordinary. Research indicates that poor nutrition and physical inactivity, increase exposure to Musculoskeletal Disorders and can slow down recovery.

In our last eNews, I talked about men’s health and how Cardiovascular Disease is the number one cause of death in Australia and how changing your lifestyle can make a difference. Most chronic diseases are preventable or their onset can be delayed through regular exercise and good nutrition.

You’ll spend about 100,000 hours of your life at work, which equates to about 1/3 of your life, so workplace health is imperative.

Are you an employer of staff? How much do you think you would save on leave and how  much more productivity would your company gain if you invested in a workplace health regime?

If you don’t have anything set up and are interested in getting something started for your team please give me a call on 9404 4811.

Tristan Simmons

Healthy Living Director - Mill Park Leisure

 

 

Interview: Tristan Simmons - Healthy Living Director at Mill Park Leisure

I am a true Northern suburbs boy. I was born in Preston back in 1984 before my parents moved to Wallan. We were only there a short time before we moved to Bundoora where my parents still live now. I’m the eldest of 4 boys…poor mum, with the youngest being 10 years old.

Growing up I wasn’t one to sit down and study, I loved playing sports right throughout primary and high school. Instead of studying I was playing footy or cricket with my mates. Throughout my schooling I played a number of schools sports which included football, cricket, golf, table tennis, volleyball and hockey.

Outside of school I started playing junior football when I was 8 years old and finally hung up the boots when I was 26 , winning 3 premierships along the way with Bundoora. I had some tough times during my career after sustaining certain injuries -  the worst was being diagnosed with a bulging disc at 21 years of age. I endured months of rehab before I was able to return playing. I think overcoming these injuries have made me a stronger person. I’m still involved with the club to date, finals are about to start so hopefully we can bring home the big one.

In 2011 I was lucky enough to marry the girl of my dreams, Sharon, in Hurstbridge. I first met Sharon back in 2004 at my cousins wedding. We bought our first house together in 2009 and recently bought ¼ acre where we’ll build our new home. Earlier this year our beautiful daughter Emerson was born and words can’t describe what she means to both of us.  I also have 2 dogs which make up the rest of the family. Maddie is maltese terrier cross which we adopted because she wasn’t being treated well and Sam is a Kelpie we got from the Whittlesea show.

Both Sharon and I love to get away whenever we can. We have been lucky enough to travel overseas a few times. We’ve been to Thailand and Malaysia twice plus we went to Mauritius for our Honeymoon. If we don’t travel overseas we love to head down the coast for weekends away. We have a family beach house down Phillip Island which her grandfather built himself 50 years ago. Both Sharon and I holidayed down the island when we were kids and now Emerson will get to experience it as well.

I’ve been in the industry for over 8 years now and met so many wonderful people. Getting up in the morning knowing I’m helping individuals change their lives forever is a great feeling and that’s why I love what I do.

 1. What do you do?
I’m the Healthy Living Director for Whittlesea YMCA at Mill Park Leisure

2. What is your definition of success?
To me achieving goals you set is success. It doesn’t matter if the goal is small or large, a goal is a goal. 

3. What are your thoughts on the parallels between business and sport?
When I was playing sport, I had a hunger to improve myself to succeed on the field. The same goes for business – there are different measures for success but the principles are the same. In sport the drive was to win a premiership, in business its to lead a successful team in changing the lives of other people.

4. I think we can sometimes learn more from the mistakes we make. What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made along the way? And what did you learn from this?  I’ve made numerous mistakes over my life but the biggest one for me was not trusting my own judgement in a certain situation. I learnt a lesson that day and now I back my instincts (also one of my tips below).

5. What are the 5 top tips you’d give the average person wanting to improve business performance?
- Trust your instincts
- Set goals
- Continue to develop yourself
- Be a sponge and learn off others along the journey
- Take a risk

6. How do you consistently sustain performance in your business/career?
I always look to develop myself – whether it’s as a trainer or a leader – you never stop developing and if you choose not to develop yourself unfortunately you’ll miss out.

7. And your thoughts on how to turn a mix of different people and personalities into a world class team?
A great team has a diverse group of instructors, everyone is on the bus but to turn them into a world class team – my job is to make sure everyone is in the right seats.

8. Who has had the greatest influence on your career and what lessons did they teach you?
Two people have influenced my career:
First is my wife Sharon – she has been so supportive in everything I’ve wanted to do and helped me out where possible – she gives me the confidence to go after my dreams.
Secondly my dad – When I was young, he and my mother had just built there first house and he was working 3 jobs to support us. I know he was up 5am and didn’t get home till 10pm Monday – Friday plus he worked both Saturday and Sunday. It taught me to work hard and support my family but also find a balance between family and work life.

9. After a great result, how do you celebrate? 
A nice relaxing day out with the family.

10. What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done and why?
Helping clients achieve their goals because I walk away knowing I’ve changed their lives forever.

11. What do you do outside of work to relax and wind down?
There are a couple of things I like to do – either spending time with my beautiful wife and 5 month old daughter or I love my footy so sitting down and watching a good game of AFL footy.

12. Where do you see opportunity in the health and fitness industry in the next 5 years?
I see more opportunity in local sporting clubs, especially local football – AFL and VFL football is becoming more and more professional which is slowing filtering down to local clubs employing fitness coaches. There will be more opportunities to work with local clubs but also the possibilities of more sports training facilities opening up.

13. Now’s the time for what we call the Turbo 10. Ten quick questions…

• What is your favourite song? Mr Brightside – The killers   
• Favourite athlete? Simon Black                          
• Movie? Forgetting Sarah Marshall                                          
• Food? Thai/Mauritian Food                                                   
• Holiday destination? Grand Baie - Mauritius                             
• Most recently read book? A decade of Pride – History of the Brisbane Lions           
• What really annoys you? Election advertisements                    
• If you could do anything you wanted; what would it be? Play AFL football 
• The one thing you’d like to change in the world right now? Childhood obesity
• Where would you like to be in 5 years time? Definitely still in the fitness industry – maybe managing my own club and continuing to help young PT’s achieve their business goals.