Nick Swettenham > Quotes

“Buy Smaller Plates The diameter of the average dinner plate sold over the past 60 years has expanded right along with people’s waistlines. In the 1950’s that diameter was 9 inches, while today it is 13.5 inches. Most of us have been conditioned to cleaning up everything on our plate, even if we feel we’ve had enough. This leads to overeating and a daily caloric surplus, which leads to fat storage. The simple remedy is to buy smaller dinner plates. Reduce down to 9 inches and your waistline will also come down.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“Beginner exercisers should not train in Zone 4 until they have built up their aerobic fitness level with around six months of training.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“You need to be training each of the following body parts as equally as possible: Pectorals Latissimus Dorsi Deltoids Trapezius Rhomboids Rotator Cuff Biceps Triceps Forearms Abdominals and Obliques Erector Spinae Quadriceps Glutes Hamstrings Calves”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“When it comes to cues there are four main types – location, time, the actions of others and the action that you took immediately prior to starting the habit. Let’s take a quick look at each of them.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Control What Comes into the House Mindful eating begins at the supermarket. That is the source of most of the food that comes into your house. Start at the vegetable section and spend time exploring. Choose a wide range of vegetable types and colors. Look for veggies that are new to you and give them a try.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“Most of us aren’t very good at setting goals. Fortunately, an excellent template has been devised to help us get it right. It is summed up in the acronym SMART, which stands for: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time Bound”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“The 7 foundations of total fitness are strength, mobility, flexibility, stability, agility, endurance and nutrition”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Binge eating disorder is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), a standard classification used by health professionals, as a mental disorder.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“Mobility is strength through the full range of motion of an exercise. Unlike flexibility, it relies on the muscle alone to produce the range of movement. So, a flexible person may be able to raise his straightened leg quite high with the assistance of their arm. A mobile person, however, will be able to manipulate their leg or other muscle without any help at all.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Strength training workouts will usually last between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on whether you are training designated body parts or your whole body.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Red and orange bell peppers are especially high in antioxidants. Red bell peppers have the highest vitamin C content, which helps to build collagen to keep your skin looking healthy. The bright colors of bell peppers are due to what are known as carotenoids. These contain powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Bell peppers make a satisfying snack on their own, especially if dipped in hummus.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“The more muscle you carry on your body, the less likely you will be to carry excess body fat. That’s because muscle is very energy dependent. It takes about five times more energy to preserve an ounce of muscle than it does an ounce of fat. So, putting on muscle will speed up your metabolism, countering yet another of the natural effects of aging.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Improving your stability is perhaps the most important thing you can to reduce the likelihood that you will become another fall victim. And the great news is, doing so doesn’t require a lot of effort. Performing some of these home exercises a couple of times a week can make a huge difference. It can also just take a few minutes - in fact, you can even do them during the ads on TV, or as a quick morning/ before bed routine. Adding the more gym-based exercises into your routine will also play a huge role in your increased stability and strength.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Zone heart rate training is based on exercise intensity and heart rate zones. There are five heart rate zones that are each based upon a person’s maximum heart rate. While it is impossible to precisely work out your maximum heart rate, there are a number of formulas to provide you with a close estimate. The most common formula for working out your maximum heart rate is to subtract your heart rate from 220. So, if you are 40 years of age, your max heart rate is . . . 220 - 40 = 180”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“When you know, understand and apply the 7 foundations you will have the solution to the problems that plague many people in their 40s and beyond… Lost muscle and strength Decreased mobility and flexibility Lost confidence in their ability to train intensely Your body does change when you age, and in this book, you will discover exactly how it does so. More importantly, though, you will find out precisely how you need to adjust your training to compensate for those changes.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Step 1 – Identifying habits throughout our lives and understanding why these have manifested. Step 2 – Change our mindset and learn how to break those habits through self-reflection, honesty and mindful eating techniques. Step 3 – Implement practical knowledge solutions to provide you with a detailed basic education in nutrition., along with practical tips and meal ideas.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“Stretching Recommendations The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends flexibility exercises for all of the major muscle-tendon groups - neck, shoulders, trunk, lower back, hips, legs, ankles - 2-3 times per week. Spend up to 60 seconds on each stretch; if you can only hold the stretch for 20 seconds, repeat the stretch three times. Never bounce into a stretch. Perform dynamic stretches before your workout. Perform static stretching after your workout. If you are doing a separate stretching session, do a 5 minute warm up of cardio and dynamic stretches.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“The natural loss of muscle tissue that occurs with aging is accompanied by most people with an increase in levels of body fat. A person’s metabolism will naturally slow down as they age. This means that, even if they maintain the same caloric intake in their 50s as they did in their 30s, they burn fewer of them for energy and store more of them as body fat. In tandem with this is a general slowing down of activity as we age, meaning that we are burning off fewer calories.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Sugar ages the body faster than any of the natural age declines we’ve discussed previously. Regularly eating it in the form of ice cream, candy and cake result in those sugars binding with protein. This has a negative impact on skin collagen, with the result that your skin loses its elasticity and youthfulness. Sugar also results in tooth discoloration and tooth decay.  Sugar, of course, is also the main culprit when it comes to unhealthy weight gain. Using natural sugar substitutes such as stevia and experimenting with natural fruit alternatives to sweet desserts will help you control your sweet urges.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“No matter your age or ability now, you NEED to take up strength training and perform it consistently over the course of the rest of your life. It is never too late to start and, as soon as you do, your body and your mind will start to reap immediate benefits.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Obesity is a major risk factor for the loss of mobility. An obese person puts far greater demands on his skeletal muscles than a healthy weight person does. High levels of adipose tissue (fat) have also been associated with reduced functional muscle ability and strength. Lack of flexibility and control over muscles is also more readily seen among overweight individuals.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Let’s say that you are doing the dumbbell curl with a weight that allows you to do 8 repetitions with good form. Each succeeding workout push yourself to perform an extra repetition without losing your good technique. When, after a period of weeks, you are able to do 12 reps with the weight that you started out doing 8 reps with, increase the weight slightly and drop back to 8 reps. You can continue progressing in this manner without limit.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“The strength that is developed in your muscles is underpinned by the other 6 foundations of total fitness: Flexibility Mobility Stability Agility Endurance Nutrition”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“A trap that people often fall into is to put barriers in front of their ability to exercise. They do this by telling themselves that they must buy something before they can begin. It could be new shoes, gym clothes or a stopwatch that they have told themselves they need before they can start training. These are really just ways to procrastinate. The reality is that you don’t need any special equipment in order to get started on an exercise routine. Put the excuses aside, save your money, and just get started.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“When we’re upset, we rush to the pantry for sugar-loaded comfort food. Then, when we’re happy we celebrate with party food.”
― Nick Swettenham, Breaking Bad Eating Habits: 3 Crucial Steps to Help you Stop Dieting, Increase Mindfulness and Change Your Life - at Any Age

“Tuesday Workout – Lower Body and Core Quadriceps, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves, Abdominals, Obliques, Erector Spinae Summary Strength training will form the main foundation of your total fitness program. Make it your goal to perfect your exercise form, really feeling the working muscles and concentrating on moving through a full range of motion. Challenge yourself to progressively increase the resistance you are working with so as to make consistent improvement in your strength and muscle mass. Do these things week in and week out, and you will be amazed at how much stronger, more muscular, energetic and vibrant you will look and feel.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“Over time, as you train more, your exercise intensity may have to change for each of the zones. For example, beginner exercisers who go for a light jog may be in Zone 3. But, as they continue to work out, their body will adapt and their fitness improves, so that in three to five weeks that same jog will only put them in Zone 2. That means that you have significantly improved your aerobic fitness level. Using a heart rate monitor is an easy way to track the heart rate zone you are working in, and your improvements in aerobic fitness over time.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“When you first start working out, don’t go full out straight away. If you exhaust yourself straight off the bat, you’ll be adding fuel to the idea that you don’t like exercising. Take it steady and build up gradually, enjoying the training along the way. Exercise is movement. It’s not confined to the gym or a set block of workout time. It could be walking, swimming, playing basketball or any other activity that you enjoy that will get your heart rate up for 30 minutes.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“When you move beyond your 40th birthday, there are a number of lifestyle factors that should underpin your fitness lifestyle. Consider the following 7 factors and think about how you stack up in regard to them. Do you: Get regular (at least 6 monthly) medical checkups? Not smoke? Get regular exercise? Eat sensibly and in moderation? Strive to maintain a balanced weight? Know how to relax? Drink alcohol in moderation?”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond

“The American Council of Aging have identified the following 10 biomarkers of health: Muscle Mass Strength Bone Density Bone Composition Blood Lipids Hemodynamics Glucose Control Aerobic Capacity Gene Expression Brain Factors How many of those essential biomarkers of health do you think strength training benefits? Even if regular strength training improved 2 or 3 of these areas, wouldn’t you agree that it would be a worthwhile activity to engage in? Well, the fact is that strength training will produce marked improvement in ALL of these areas. That is not only remarkable, but also unequalled by any other activity. And that is why strength training needs to form the foundation of your health and wellness lifestyle.”
― Nick Swettenham, Total Fitness After 40: The 7 Life Changing Foundations You Need for Strength, Health and Motivation in your 40s, 50s, 60s and Beyond