Cultured Views

Launch me off to Planet Fat Loss!

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How appropriate that I should be writing about this whilst cramming my second slice of pizza down my gullet - and you can be sure that the third is due to follow pretty soon.

Ahh well, I allow myself treats such as pizza as I balance my food intake with my energy output; this means I move around more than I sit and eat. But there are a lot of folk who have yet to discover that this is the key to losing weight; not starvation, not diet pills and nothing too extreme.

Even so, as we are just coming out of winter it is usually a very confronting sight when you try on that skirt or pair of shorts that you haven’t worn for months and stand in front of the mirror - yep, that little spare tyre did not just come out of nowhere did it - and please, who has taken the plunge and braved the fitting room in a bikini yet…yep, I thought I heard screams.

Come on girls, lets all join hands and worship at the shrine of Planet Fat Loss where we will learn the basics of eating sensibly and losing weight. It is all in a supportive atmosphere with plenty of advice and even meal plan suggestions. This looks like a fun way to get rid of those excess winter pounds and make some friends as well.

No excuses girls, now follow me!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Get ready for OAP Muskateers!

This is an elderly folks home with a difference! these residents who live at Melbourne’s Catholic Homes Corpus Christi in Australia are all retired Nuns and Priests. Not for them the boredom of sitting in a chair all day with nodding heads and doing crosswords.

These ex-people of the cloth spend their leisure time learning to dip, lunge and jab just like Zorro!  they should be good at it too as I well remember the days of corporal punishment at the schools I went to. Those Nuns were fast !!

Their instructor is a ripe 73 years old himself and over 80 of the residents take part in the weekly lessons designed to keep them fit, active and safe at the same time. They are loving it and several are showing themselves to be quite talented at the sport.

Maybe it is the time to declare the geriatric olympics a reality…?

I have to admit I could imagine my old heamistress, Sister Mary Philomena, under that mask - she was always great at brandishing the ruler and had a very good aim - which I experienced on a few occasions…

Go Sister go !!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Get those kids taught to swim!

One thing I am very passionate about is the importance of having children taught to swim as early as possible. You can start them taking lessons in the water as early as eight weeks of age and one British Mum recently thanked the gods she did just that.

Her little girl, aged two, recently fell into the pool - the gate was left unlocked so Mum deserves a severe dressing down for that - but because the child had been having water lessons since she was eight weeks of age she was able to paddle to the side of the pool and hang on until Mum found her.

Children much older than this little girl have drowned in the same circumstances simply because they could not even dog paddle or tread water.  As an Australian I have read of too many tragedies where children drown in backyard pools, in the UK the problem is endemic and there is no excuse for it.

We teach our kids to talk, to walk, not to talk to strangers and hold a spoon - swimming is just as vital a survival instinct and one that is literally life saving.  Not having your child taught to swim, in my opinion, is criminal negligence - swimming lessons should be mandatory for all children.

Popularity: 7% [?]