I'VE BEEN vegetarian since I was 16 - one sausage sandwich too many sent me to a flesh-free zone from which there can be no return. Unfortunately my meat-free menu is heavily littered with chocolate, scones and chips - curry chips, cheese fries, even mayonnaise chip butties. I'd still be skipping the porridge and eating a bar of chocolate for elevenses if I wasn't getting squeamish in my old age. Age brings a certain acceptance. I have less energy to nag myself about what I've eaten or how I look. But I must have a good metabolism because, with a moderate amount of exercise, I can say I'm happy with my size, if not my shape. The catch is that even though I know right from wrong on the nutrition front, there is no incentive to eat healthily, writes
ANGELA RUTTLEDGE
With the country in lock-down, personal training sounds almost as illicit as curry chips. Is a personal trainer worth the indulgence? Can a couple of sessions with a trainer impart the motivation I need to tone up and eat right?
Kelley Walsh "can't understand how people can eat chips and chocolate if they are trying to lose weight". Walsh, a personal trainer with Slender Health Gym in Raheny, Dublin, says: "I'm not a nutritionist but it's not rocket science, either - if you want to lose weight cut out the crap." Her strategy is not to scare me into a better shape and a better diet, however - she prefers to encourage than to castigate. "With personal training it's important to have a good relationship with the client. If there is no trust it won't work. If I ask someone whether they are keeping their food diary and they say 'yeah, yeah, I am' and I know they are lying, that's never going to work. I'd rather people are honest." The idea of the food diary is to let people see what they are putting into themselves every day.
The introductory session is thorough. We discuss exactly what I want to achieve (toning and speed), I am weighed (damn, why did I drink all that water? Ignore all my earlier nonsense about being at peace with my body) and my BMI (body mass index) and body fat are measured. Then she tests my flexibility by putting my feet up against a block with a moveable ruler on top. "See how far you can move the ruler." I can't move the ruler. "Your hamstrings are very tight, aren't they?" she says. I'd better add increased flexibility to my list of objectives.
I do a bit of a warm-up on the treadmill - it doesn't matter what speed I go at as long as we try and improve on it - and then Walsh takes my blood pressure. She warns me that in the next session she'll be pushing me harder and we will do fast and slow intervals to work on my speed. After some more cardio on the bike, we move on to resistance training with some light dumb-bells. Walsh reassures me that I am not going to turn into a body builder. She explains that resistance training is key to losing fat, because muscle tissue continues to burn energy at an elevated rate long after the exercise is over.
Next we move to the floor, and she shows me some against-the-wall squats I could try at home. Then she produces a big bouncy ball that she thinks she is going to get me to roll on. I've seen people using these gym balls before, but I'd be very reluctant to use them alone. She shows me how to do push-ups with my legs on the ball. After a quick rest we do another set of push-ups, this time rolling the ball a bit farther down my legs. It's amazing how much more difficult this makes it. Another exercise involves holding the ball with my legs and moving it from side to side. Ouch. There is no way I would go through this routine after a cardio workout without someone standing over me. Walsh is so charming, you can't say no to her, and you want your thighs to look like hers - toned and tiny.
At the end of the session, Walsh does some assisted stretching to work on my hamstrings - inch by inch easing me into a harder stretch - and shows me how to get a better stretch on my own, by lying on my back, one leg straightened in the air, using a towel or belt to pull down on my foot.
Between Walsh's straightforward supply-and-demand take on diet, her firm-but-friendly approach and her low-cost training sessions (see below) I could easily see myself indulging in the odd session. Folks who haven't exercised for a while and need to get into virtuous habits will find the one-to-one sessions very encouraging.
Kelley Walsh works with Slender Health in Raheny. She charges €25 for half an hour, €45 for an hour, €200 for 10 half-hour sessions and €400 for 10 one-hour sessions
Sports support
For women especially, an important part of kick-starting the exercise habit is feeling comfortable and having a nice outfit. Grasieli Craig and Deirdre Carey are the sisters-in-law who own Brazil Body, on the second floor of Dublin's Powerscourt Shopping Centre. They decided to start a business in 2003, seeing that sports clothes in Ireland lacked femininity. Brazil Body stocks the B.body brand of sports bra, which Grasieli says can be used for activities that have less impact, such as Pilates, but if you are a C-cup or larger, you will need a sports bra with more support for a cardio work-out. They also stock Shock Absorber, a sports bra and active-wear outfit that appears to be seriously into its R&D. Shock Absorber (www.shockabsorber.co.uk) is also available from Debenhams. Also, have a look at the vast product range at www.boobydoo.co.uk, including Shock Absorber, Triumph, Champion and SportJock.