Keeping your stomach safe

With the festive season and warmer weather here, you really need to be taking care when preparing and storing food.

Director of Environmental Health Jim Dodds says people should follow proper food handling procedures to ensure that barbecues, social functions and the traditional Christmas lunch don't become a source of illness.

"The rate of food-borne illnesses such as gastroenteritis often increases over summer because bacteria grow more quickly in foods if they are left out of the fridge," he says.

People can avoid food-borne illness by following some basic food handling principles such as:

• storing foods such as meat, dairy products and other perishable goods in the fridge until needed and not leaving leftovers out for longer than two hours
• covering food to prevent contamination by dust or insects
• throwing away higher risk foods such as those containing meats and dairy products which have been left out of the fridge for longer than four hours
• cooking all meats thoroughly, taking special care with chicken and minced meat products
• always having an esky with ice or ice bricks to keep meats and other foods cold at barbecues and picnics
• checking date marking on food before purchasing or using
• washing hands thoroughly with soap and water before handling food
• avoiding cross contamination – prepare and store raw meat separately from cooked and ready to eat foods such as salad and cooked chicken. Items such as tongs, chopping boards and knifes used on raw meats should be washed before being used to handle ready to eat foods
• placing left over food to cool in the fridge soon after cooking
• keeping leftovers for a maximum of three days and if reheating, reheat until steaming hot
• washing fruit and vegetables in clean running water before consumption

Jim says people should also be aware that most food poisoning bacteria do not produce an "off" smell or taste, so it may be hard to tell if something should not be eaten.

"In many cases food poisoning symptoms can take a few days to appear, so people should not assume it was the last meal they ate that made them sick," he says.

"If you think you have become ill from eating contaminated food and are unwell enough to seek medical care, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible and make a list of food eaten in the previous 48 hours.

"If the food was eaten at a restaurant or takeaway, you should also notify the local government's environmental health branch and any leftovers should be frozen or refrigerated for examination."

Don't Become a Statistic

In 2007, more than 80% of all premature deaths were due to chronic disease, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The report, Premature mortality from chronic disease, shows that of these premature deaths— deaths among people aged less than 75 years—more than three in five were potentially avoidable.

Karen Bishop of the Institute’s Population Health Unit says: "Among men, coronary heart disease was the most common cause of premature mortality, accounting for 16% of years of life lost from chronic disease."

According to the Australian Heart Foundation, staying fit and eating healthy can substantially reduce your risk of heart attack.

Here are the Heart Foundation’s top five tips for sticking with healthy living resolutions:

• Small changes to your eating habits can make a big difference. Try switching to reduced fat milk instead of full fat milk, ditching the cakes or biscuits for morning tea and choosing a piece of fruit or opting for wholegrain bread instead of white. 
• Look for ways to build physical activity into your day. Walk or ride a bike instead of driving. If you must drive, park further away and walk the extra distance rather than driving around for the perfect park, or take a break during the day and go for a 15 minute walk. 
• Review the changes you’ve made and note how you are feeling. Changes should be long term so it’s important to be enjoying your life and feeling good about yourself. 
• Reward yourself – when a change becomes a habit, buy yourself some new clothes, or visit a place you enjoy. 
• Keep going with your changes – it’s normal to have days when it all becomes too hard, but don’t worry about it. Just keep going with your changes the next day.

Atlas Tip: Time to Rotate

Rotation is a very important movement that is often neglected. Some trainers and coaches follow a straight line approach to their training (still good) however the body is designed for movement on all plains.

Sport in general though is not played in a straight line and requires direction change. If you ran straight up and down in rugby or AFL, you wouldn't get very far. So why not train how you play?

Pushups: Beat the Special Forces!

How many pushups can you do? Apparently 60 pushups in two minutes is a pre-requisite for the Australian Special Forces. This is pretty tame. A strong individual should be able to do this easily and not just thrash them out with a rushed technique. 

Quality pushups are better then the quantity. Period. How many good, quality pushups do you think you could knock out in two minutes? Hit comment below and let us know!

Workout of the Week: Full Body Training

While a lot of people believe targeting ‘problem areas’ is the way to go, the reality is full body training is one of the most effective ways to train.

Why? Full body training allows you to use more energy as you are engaging more of your body’s major muscle groups with each workout. An isolated exercise, like biceps curls, is only targeting a much smaller muscle group and therefore using less energy.

By engaging more of the major muscle groups you are increasing your chances of burning more body fat, it is also a great way to get the maximum result from your allocated exercise time.

No idea how to go about a full body workout? Why not have a go at our workout of the week below!

Workout of the week 

SET 1: (alternate between these two exercises until you have completed three sets of each)
Dumbbell Squat (heels elevated) - 10-12 reps
Seated Cable Pull Down – 10-12

SET 2: (alternate between these two exercises until you have completed three sets of each)
Lying Leg Curl (toes pointing inwards) - 6-8 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press (hands neutral) - 10-12 reps 

If you are having any trouble with this workout, don’t hesitate to email us for more info or videos. Good luck and enjoy!

Atlas Top Tip: Eat Breakfast!

The Atlas Top Tip for today is a really simple one - eat breakfast! Honestly, the research that is out there cannot be ignored.

For more energy, better hormonal function, increase in metabolic function and decrease chance of acquiring insulin resistance issues… eat breakfast! Keep checking out our blog in the coming weeks and we'll share what some of the Atlas Performance crew eat for a high-powered start to their day. 

WA Adults - fat but active?

If you saw The West Australian earlier this week you would have seen a new study has shown that WA adults have increased their physical activity, but a lot more of us are still gaining weight. What does that say? Clearly even if we are being more active, many WA adults still don't have the skills for correct exercise and nutrition. 

The results came from the 2009 Physical Activity Taskforce Adult Survey and showed 60% of WA adults are active enough for good health, which is a four per cent increase in 10 years. During that time, there has been an increase in the prevalence of adult overweight and obesity levels from 44 per cent to 55 per cent.

Sport and Recreation Minister and chair of the Physical Activity Taskforce, Terry Waldron, says he was pleased by the increase in activity but concerned overweight and obesity was on the increase.

“We are very pleased that West Australians are listening to the physical activity message and are getting more active,” Terry says. “Physical activity has huge benefits for health and improves physical and mental wellbeing, quality of life, social interaction and life expectancy."

The rising rate of obesity though is a concern. “The increase in adult overweight and obesity levels is alarming, and is a reminder that increasing physical activity will only curb part of this problem," Terry admits.

Terry says healthy active lifestyles and healthy eating were equally important to stabilise the increasing numbers of adults above a healthy weight. I think any of our smart customers could have told him that!

Keep checking in to our blog in the coming weeks as we share a heap of great tips and ideas of how you can stay healthy through effective exercise and good nutrition. Let's bring that obesity number down!!