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Some of you will have heard about our amazingly successful overseas bootcamp in Dubai last year.  Well to accommodate everyone’s schedules we have decided to offer something similar but based in Doha.  It will require considerable commitment to a week of training and activity and an individually planned diet but the results will amaze you.

One of the attendees at the original overseas bootcamp is trying to gather people to join her and some friends on the first camp of this kind in Doha.  It will feature, morning and evening bootcamp sessions as well as afternoon activity.  You will sleep in the comfort of your own home.

I have posted Scotia’s letter below to explain more.  Please get in touch with us as soon as possible to register your interest:

Can you both send this on to anyone who is interested in our weeks super bootcamp, which will now be in Doha and will fit around the busy lives of you mothers, from the 10^th to the 16^th Feb. Graeme has agreed to write a programme and provide a trainer (I am doing this alone if no-one else wants to) and we will try to simulate as close as possible BC Dubai – so squeezing in a mere 3-5 hours training each day. We will also supply an eating plan (based on the Zone Diet) for the week and you can each expect to loose up to 5kg in weight and more importantly 6cm+ off your stomachs and ~2cm off everywhere else. The critical factor in achieving these results is the morning pre-metabolic work out, so try to make time available first thing for at least some of the days.

Given this is only a few weeks away we need potential numbers and availability asap. As a first stage, can you simply mark when in the day you are likely to be free (in green) and when you are not (in red) – I have attached a spreadsheet. As soon as we have this and the potential numbers, Graeme will put together a suggested programme and price. I anticipate that it will be a price per person session, so if you can’t make it to some of them it will still be worth it…

Last time I did this I was amazed with the results and how long my metabolism remained on warp speed – at least 3 months – sooooo it is an amazing kick start and makes you feel great!!

Following a number of requests and a quick survey of the groups we have changed the Thursday timings for the Education City Bootcamp.

Sessions on Thursday (Sunday and Tuesday remain unchanged) will be at 1800 and 1900

The holidays are coming and with them the food. Maybe with Eid been and gone, the season is already upon you in your social/work/family circles. Beyond the actual meals themselves, there are the umpteen parties, open houses, lunches, brunches, happy hours, coffee hours, tweetups – as well as the continual conveyer belt of office/shop/home display of every sweet and savoury (mostly sweet) treat known to humankind. As fun as it all is, the holidays can be a seasonal equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle – a festively decorated abyss where good intentions get swallowed along with the latest Martha Stewart recipe.

We healthy eating types bring both common sense and the reasonableness to the holiday season (as any other occasion). We partake moderately and selectively. We use ingenuity and well cultivated healthy eating tastes to create (or adapt) our own choice holiday delicacies. In short, we have no problem enjoying the party. We’re just rarely the ones with the proverbial lampshade on our heads at the end of the buffet table, so to speak. We can enjoy our favourite dishes without chucking every goal and standard we have for our health. Nonetheless, even those of us with the most stalwart wills and number of years under our healthy eating belts wisely steer clear of a few foods out of sheer sensibility.

Most of us have at least one. I’m talking about those foods you know in your heart of hearts (and maybe hard experience) can send you down a slippery slope. Maybe it’s the taste, the plain sugar rush, or the emotional association. Whatever the source of temptation, it’s a Pandora’s Box better left undisturbed.

If you have tried avoiding all sugars and simple carbs for a while then you should avoid mose conventional cravings. and even when you do indulge and have a few bites of really good pie or bread once in a while, should be  no worse for wear. . That was delicious. Case closed. Some foods, however, are more problematic. For me, it’s chocolate cake. (Yes, there it is.)  A little too easily turns into a lot. I find it’s just better to stay away.

Is your mind wandering to any particular foods now? It seems the holidays are a common time for their appearance – or maybe omnipresence. They’re the foods that once tasted, beckon you to keep coming back. (You can just hear that apple strudel calling you….) More than just good, more than just run of the mill tempting, they’re downright precipitous.

True gateway foods can wreak havoc with more than just your intended portion size, however. Suddenly, other things start looking good that you’ve had no taste for in a long time. This particular surrender to temptation can become a catalyst for a broader descent like a gateway drug leading you to something bigger and badder. You’re one brownie away from inhaling half the dessert buffet. (Or half those leftover Halloween candies taking up space in the cupboard still?)

Histrionics aside, these are foods I suggest leaving out of the  picture because they’re just too complicated to be worth it. As much sentimental value as they might have or as good as they might be, if they can’t be a moderate end in themselves, it’s just better to bench ‘em.

All this said, it’s illuminating to see how much power we often assign to food. It’s an inanimate object.  Yet, we can feel certain foods have a hold on us. We consider them a nemesis, their presence on this earth a continual threat to our well-being like some kind of personal kryptonite. It’s a power relationship, of course, entirely constructed in our heads. By all means, avoid a specific food if it imposes more complication than it’s worth. If it’s a presence in itself even when you don’t eat it, that one likely calls for some deeper examination.

With the holidays coming, I always suggest folks think about how they’re going to enjoy it heathily – especially if this is your first holiday season since deciding to eat in a healthy manner. Think about each event and how you’ll handle it – what you’ll eat and what you won’t. Being honest about any gateway – or otherwise thorny – food items is a big part of this. It’s usually easier to control our environments at less social times of the year. What will it mean to stay healthy within a fully conscious reasonable framework this holiday season – in the midst, for example, of a big family Christmas dinner and the other upcoming celebrations? Sometimes the best strategy is knowing where, when and how you’ll graciously say “no thanks.”

Now I’ll turn it over to you. Do you have a “gateway” food that you steer clear of for the greater good of your healthy self? Share you tips and stories, and thanks for reading today.

At Bootcamp we recommend the Zone Diet. Below we have have compiled some information on the Zone Diet to make it easy for anyone to understand, complete with a thorough Zone block chart and pictures of example Zone meals. While we actually recommend first focusing on quality of food by shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, balancing your portions and carb/protein/fat intake with the Zone is an incredibly valuable tool for both elite athletes and everyday people seeking weight loss. To take your nutrition to the next level you need the hormonal balance that the Zone Diet provides. Read on to find out more, and when you’re done use this Zone block chart to find the block equivalent of most common foods. It’s even color-coded! Figuring out your perfect 4 block zone dinner couldn’t be easier.

Diet comes from the Greek language and means “way of life”. A diet is a lifestyle–not a set of draconian rules that you blindly follow. The Zone Diet controls gene expression and hormonal balance to give you the longer and better life to which we all aspire.

The Zone diet is primarily concerned with controlling your hormones. Hormonal balance affects all important components of your wellness: body composition, energy utilization, blood chemistry, and much more. Food is a drug. This may seem shocking, but think about the definition of a drug. Loosely, ingesting drugs causes physiological changes in your body. Ingesting food has the same effect. It can bring about positive or negative changes in your body. Would you take 17 Tylenol capsules for a headache? Would you consume expired, low-quality medicine? Of course not. Then why should we expect different results when we feed our bodies 17 times our necessary food intake, and comprise our diet of low-quality processed garbage with no nutritional value? You see the results of this lifestyle in Qatar today.

The Zone Diet isn’t about eating “low-carb” or “high-protein” or anything like that. It’s a diet balanced in

• Protein (lean, natural meats are preferred)

• Carbs (mostly low glycemic-load fruits and vegetables)

• Fat (one of the most important macronutrients!)

With the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats, you can control three major hormones generated by the human diet – insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids.

Insulin – A storage hormone. Excess insulin makes you fat and keeps you fat. It also accelerates silent inflammation.

Glucagon – A mobilization hormone that tells the body to release stored carbohydrates at a steady rate, leading to stabilized blood sugar levels. This is key for optimal mental and physical performance.

Eicosanoids – These are the hormones that ultimately control silent inflammation. They are also master hormones that indirectly orchestrate a vast array of other hormonal systems in your body.

Intro to Zone Living

A One Block meal consists of one choice from the Protein List (pink), one from the Carbohydrate List (blue) and one from the Fat List (green).

A Two Block meal consists of 2 choices from each list.

A Three Block meal consists of 3 choices from each list…and so on.

You can mix and match blocks as you wish. If you aren’t very hungry when you first wake up, then a 2 block meal might be just right for you, perhaps with a 3 block lunch and dinner. Or maybe you prefer to start your day with 3 blocks and have a lighter dinner or lunch.

Here is a sample menu of a possible routine (times can be adjusted 30 minutes or so either way):

0730        1000       1300       1530        1830        2100 (bedtime)

bkfst         snack      lunch      snack      dinner     snack

2 Block    1 Block    3 Block   1 Block   3 Block    1 Block = 11 total

10 to 11 blocks of balanced food is about right for a small woman. Feel free to experiment with your number of daily blocks and move them around as you see fit. Every athlete is different. The below chart will also help you determine your block requirements.

You don’t have to set alarms. The point is to develop the habit of eating at regular intervals so your hormones are balanced all day. Eat within an hour of waking up in the morning, don’t go more than 4 hours without eating something, and eat a snack before you go to sleep so you have some fuel to dream on.

Buying a digital food scale is a great idea since it makes measuring blocks fast and easy. Use “tare” to make it even easier, and you won’t have to use math at all! Put your plate on the scale and hit the tare button. It subtracts the weight of the plate and makes the scale read zero. Measure out one of the items. Hit the tare button and again it starts you at zero once more for the next item. Finally your plate will be full of all your foods, all measured individually, but all on one plate. Very easy!

After about a month you’ll be able to “eyeball” the food and you won’t need to measure precisely anymore…unless you’re having something new you’ve never measured into blocks.

Don’t worry too much about being exact; this isn’t a chemistry test! You’re never going to eat many of the items on the list anyway, and some items you like to eat may not be on the list, but you can find out how to convert anything into blocks.

One last thing: Read the label on already prepared foods you like.

7 grams of protein = 1 block. 14 grams = 2 blocks. 21 grams = 3 blocks.

9 grams of carbs = 1 block. 18 grams = 2 blocks. 27 grams = 3 blocks.

1.5 grams of fat = 1 block. 3 grams = 2 blocks. 4.5 grams = 3 blocks.

For example, if you get a snack bar that says:

8 grams of protein

29 grams of carbohydrates

6 grams of fat

You should count this as a carbohydrate and not worry about the protein and fat in the snack bar. You must be careful not to micromanage your nutrients. If you incorrectly count all of the macronutrients in this snack bar (~1 block of protein, ~3 blocks carbs, ~4 blocks fat) then you will end up underfed and driving yourself crazy. In the case of this snack bar you should just count it as 3 blocks of carbohydrates. Add 3 blocks of protein and fat for a complete 3 block meal. This takes practice and can be frustrating at times, but the results will make the effort worthwhile!

I hope you feel as good as I do living “in the Zone”. Below you can see some examples of Zone-friendly meals, including a 2, 3, and 4 block zone dinner that will perfectly complement your Bootcamp diet!

2 Block Meal

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2 eggwhites & 2 turkey links

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2 small tomatoes or one large tomato

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1 tsp cashew butter (1000mg fish oil not counted)

3 Block Meal

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6.7 oz cottage cheese

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.5oz (1/8 cup) rolled oats, 3.7 oz (1 cup) strawberries, & 2.4 oz blueberries

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9 cocoa almonds

4 Block Meal

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4 eggwhites, 2 turkey links, 1 oz cheese

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2 cups strawberries & ½ oat pita

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12 cocoa almonds

4 Block Meal

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4.5 oz chicken meat & 1 oz cheese

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1 whole oat pita

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12 cocoa almonds

4 Block Meal

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6 oz grilled fish

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36 asparagus spears and 1 cup mushrooms

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2 teaspoons of cashew butter

Finally, buying natural, paleo-friendly foods (shop the perimeter of the grocery store) and preparing for the week is a great way to ensure success:

Every month at Bootcamp we do a fitness test. It is a way of checking your progress so the test scores are just for you. However, this month a few people have asked what the records were in the various tests so I have posted them below. I won’t include names (there are a few different people who made these scores) but some of the best came from this last fitness test.

300 yd run (12 25 yard shuttles) – 59 seconds (yards are used not metres because this is a standardised US test)
Press ups in one minute (chest to cone) – 80
Sit ups in one minute (partner holding feet) – 67
Squats in one minute (bum below knees) – 66
Mountain climbers in one minute (both legs to give score of 1) – 100
Lunges in one minute (each leg counts as one) – 71
Burpees in one minute (chest must touch floor and arms must be above head with jump) – 36

Congratulations all. Remember it is just a test against yourself each month, these scores are just for your interest not as targets.

As we near the end of Ramadan a quick update on timings.

THERE WILL BE NO BOOTCAMP DURING EID.

The full Bootcamp schedule will resume after Eid. i.e. 0600 Corniche session, 1800 Ed City Session and 1930 Ed City session on Sunday and Tuesday. On the Thursday sessions are at 0600 on corniche and 1830 at Ed City only until further notice.

The last session before Eid will be tonight, Sunday 28 August, at 1900.

Have a great break.