New Fitness TV channel on Sky!
02/10/2009 at 08:32am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
I don't personally have Sky TV (I'm more of a Virgin I'm afraid), but there's a new TV channel which actually sounds really interesting.
Fitness TV is a free digital TV channel (available on Sky channel 282) showing a variety of workouts and dance routines delivered by qualified trainers and class instructors.
The press release we received about it stated a fact that I’ve been bleating on about recently: the largest government-backed study of obesity in the UK estimates that 90% of children will be overweight by 2050, with a cost to the taxpayer of £50bn.
Programmes range from children's classes including a mobility and balance workout for pre-schoolers, kids' yoga and street dance for teenagers, while the less mobile are treated to a show they're calling ‘Chairobics’. There are also boot camp-style workouts and dance-based exercise sessions – with the promise of ‘cheerleader’ style dancing proving especially intriguing. Make sure the curtains are closed before you give any of these a go!
The channel is also streamed live online, and has been launched in a bid to tap into the £15M a year appetite for ‘At home’ DVD exercise work outs.
One of the reasons I decided to mention this on Fat Free Fitness was that fitness TV founder Luan Underwood, a former personal trainer and mother-of-two, said the following: "We are positioning the channel as an additional workout option, not as a replacement to gyms, fitness and wellbeing classes.” It’s honestly refreshing to hear a fitness idea that doesn’t say – “whoa, stay away from the gym and rely on us”.
Instructors on the new channel include celebrity trainers such as Pierre Pozzuto, who has worked with Keira Knightley, Christian Slater and foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsey, champion kickboxer Sy Chenh and Elise Lindsay, personal trainer to Coleen Rooney.
One of the funniest points of the release for the channel was that last year, there were apparently 14,000 people treated for injuries whilst exercising at home to celebrity workout DVDs, due to the celebrities “giving poor technique advice”. Plausible, but giggle-worthy nonetheless.
Find out more and check it out live online at www.fitness.tv.
The channel is aiming to attract more than 600,000 viewers each week by the end of the year, so the question remains for you, the Fat Free Fitness Faithful – what are your thoughts? Have you seen the channel?
Let us know below!
Healthy recipes by the Prime Minister's Chef - part two!
25/09/2009 at 11:17pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
Former chef to the Prime Minister, Matthew Benson Smith, now cooking at www.thecookingschool.co.uk has again taken time out to give Fat Free Fitness another great recipe.
This time, we're going to be making Green Pea Pate, a fantastically healthy, low calorie meal that takes literally 15 minutes to prepare and cook!
Ingredients:
450g frozen peas – defrosted (or fresh
garden peas – boiled until soft and cooled)
½ small red onion – peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove – peeled and crushed
½ fresh red chilli – de-seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
10 mint leaves – finely chopped
4 tablespoons of 0% fat Greek yoghurt
freshly ground black pepper
Equipment:
- saucepan
- colander
- food processor
- vegetable knife
- chopping board
- mixing bowl
- teaspoon
- garlic crusher
- tablespoon
- serving dish
- food processor or blender
How to cook:
1. Place the defrosted peas (or cooked and cooled peas) in a food processor and purée until smooth.
2. Transfer the peas to a mixing bowl and combine with the yoghurt, chopped onion, chopped mint, crushed garlic, chopped chilli, ground cumin and pepper (to taste).
3. Transfer to a serving dish and chill.
CHEF’S TIP
If you do not have a food processor or blender, use a potato masher to crush the peas. A mashed version will be coarser in texture than the blended one.
COOKING SKILLS
Peeling, chopping, crushing, puréeing, mixing.
COOKING METHODS
Boiling.
And this is how it should look! Enjoy.
Fitness fads at their worst!
22/09/2009 at 08:28am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
The fitness industry is an enigma.
The diet industry alone is worth £1 bn a year in the UK, meaning that for every hardworking business out there trying to provide a great service, there's another trying to make a quick buck, or provide the 'next best thing'.
There have been some really faddy developments in fitness and dieting, most of which have faded into obscurity thankfully as quickly as they came into existence. Whether it's weighted hula hoops, those ridiculously ineffective ab massagers from the 90s or the latest diet wunderpill, I despair for the industry with news of every one.
With that in mind, please allow me to introduce potentially the oddest, most faddy development and desperate attempt at fitness marketing I've seen in my time:
The "Wax Workout".
'It’s an exercise routine you do while washing your car and it tones and trims problem areas', says the PR company for Turtle Wax, the car cleaning product behind this ridiculous ploy.
There's a lot of guff about it targeting all the major muscle groups, whilst 'the full body approach means it’s the ultimate fat burning, car cleaning regime'. That as it may be, you won't catch me squatting in sync with washing my car windows.
It's been developed by celebrity (well, Kerry Katona) Personal Trainer Scott Wright, who says that the Karate Kid's 'wax-on wax-off' method was the inspiration.
I commend any effort to get people to be healthier, but this effort is a shameless attempt at marketing and cross-selling Turtle Wax, rather than caring about the weight and health of the general public.
There's a 'diet' too (bet you didn't see that coming), that promotes a one size fits all weight loss approach, in conjunction with Halfords. Who of course are the perfect partners for any weight loss effort.
If this ever catches on, I'll eat my whistle. Now, please excuse me, I'm off to bicep curl my daughter, otherwise known as the last best thing (Youtube video).
See more at icemycar.com. Just bear in mind that it's all geared to one thing and one thing only - marketing Turtle Wax.
Fat Free Fitness on Gloucester's Heart FM 102.4
17/09/2009 at 06:40pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
Our press release about crash dieting (last entry) led the breakfast news this morning on Gloucestershire's premier radio station, Heart FM, formerly Severn Sound 102.4.
You can check out the news story online here, see a screengrab below and comment in the section underneath that - what do you think about crash dieting? Have you crash dieted only to put the weight on again?
4 in 5 Glos women crash diet
17/09/2009 at 07:51am by Press release
A countywide study of nearly 1000 women that live in Gloucestershire found that 82% ‘crash dieted’ last year, with over half saying that they felt pressured to lose weight in a bid to appear more attractive. The findings have prompted us to offer free online diet and fitness support sessions to help people lose weight healthily.
A recent study of 927 women conducted by the Fat Free Fitness has found that over 4 in 5 Gloucestershire women between the ages of 25-45 ‘crash dieted’ at least once in the last year, by depriving themselves of key food groups in a bid to lose weight.
The study was conducted in a bid to understand the reasons people resort to starvation diets as opposed to healthier eating and exercise.
When asked “If you have crash dieted in the past year, what was/were the reason/s?” 53% of the county female participants answered the multi-answer question by saying that they felt pressured to lose weight to appear ‘more attractive’.
When asked “If you lost weight through crash-dieting, did you put it back on after you started eating normally again?” almost every crash dieter agreed, with 95% of the females who had attempted a starvation diet agreeing that they returned back to their previous weight after resuming normal eating habits.
The average number of ‘crash diets’ per person during the last year according to the study results was three. 7% of the women asked admitted to having ‘yo-yo dieted’ up to 10 times in the last year.
Personal trainer Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness Weightloss Agency had the following to say,
“I think it’s important to tell people that you don’t have to starve yourself or spend every day in the gym to look and feel great.
“Although crash dieting seems like the easiest way to lose weight, as shown by this study, dieters tend to return to pre-diet weight shortly after resuming normal eating habits.
“There are many reasons for this, chiefly the fact that when dieting, our metabolism tends to slow down as we are not feeding our body the necessary nutrients. We would undoubtedly lose weight, although it will be mainly muscle wastage rather than fat loss. When the dieter resumes normal eating habits, they will have less muscle and as such; a lower metabolism, meaning they burn less calories throughout the day than they did prior to the diet.
“I am shocked by the results and keen to lend my expertise and that of my qualified agency trainers to free online Q&A sessions, where I hope to help members of the Gloucestershire public with their weight loss efforts by suggesting healthy ways of improving their diet and lifestyle.
“Healthy eating and better lifestyle choices are really the best and safest way to lose weight.”
For more information, dates and times of the free expert diet and exercise Q&A sessions, visit back often, or become a fan of Fat Free Fitness on Facebook for regular updates, weight loss tips and more.
Fat Free Fitness Weightloss Agency is a Gloucester-based company that partners people who wish to lose weight with qualified and experienced trainers and diet experts whilst enabling them to track their weightloss journey online through personalised updates.
The agency’s unique ‘Lbs for £s’ programme means that the more weight a client loses, the more money they save along the way. For instance, if a client loses 4lbs from training session A to training session B, they pay £4 less.
Free weightloss progress tracking tools are available on the site.
For advice and tips about alternatives to crash dieting, please get in touch!
ENDS
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Fat Free Fitness Weight Loss
Launched in 2009, fatfreefitness.co.uk is the UK's only weight loss specific personal training agency. Fat Free Fitness helps you stop dieting and counting calories, by teaching you how to improve your nutrition, increase your activity and exercise levels and lose weight. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is a great way to lose weight and save money. fatfreefitness provides you with expert diet, fitness, exercise, gym and personal training advice and support, similar to ivillage.co.uk, weightlossforall.com, thecolumn.org, weightlossforgood.co.uk, tescodiets.co.uk and weightlossresources.co.uk. Win diet, exercise and fitness products by entering fatfreefitness.co.uk competitions. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is not a weight loss support group like Weight Watchers weightwatchers.co.uk or Slimming World slimmingworld.com. Fat Free Fitness is updated regularly with new information. Fatfreefitness.co.uk and weight loss expert, personal trainer and fatfreefitness.co.uk founder Rich Leigh disagree with and discourage fat loss tablets, diet tablets and weight loss aid tablets, fad dieting and crash diets such as the Atkins diet, the Cambridge diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Beverley Hills diet, the baby food diet and all other carbohydrate and calorie restricting diets.
