Today we turned up at 5:30am, full of optimism that, after a day of sitting around waiting for the skies to allow us to set foot in the Khumbu Valley yesterday, we’d be able to get to work today despite the overcast skies. There would be a way into Lukla!

Our flight was booked for 6:15am, and we duly boarded the tiny Twin Otter in the usual frenetic rush – not a full 3 minutes between the boarding announcement and the bus shuttling us to the aircraft, being strapped in and the propellers being pushed into action!

Not  minute after that, we were at the end of the runway, the pilot’s hand firmly grasping the throttle, ready for take-off. Babs, not enjoying the prospect of another roller-coaster of a flight, had Dire Straits pumping into her ears, her eyes clenched shut, and a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks in sheer fear of what was to come. Her only request was that I wake her up on our final approach into Lukla so that she could be awake at her moment of reckoning.

In the event, Kathmandu Airport closed there and then due to a drop in visability, we turned around and ended up back in the terminal building. An hour later I heard the word ‘Lukla’ vaguely over the tannoy, rushed to the information desk, the whether visibility had improved and we were ready to go again! This time we were sure to make it! I frenetically waved my arms at the team to get them to the gate (time, we have learned, is of the essence in taking advantage of any window of opportunity). We boarded the bus to the plane, but this time it was Lukla that had closed due to deteriorating whether, so we didn’t even make it off the bus. It was back to the terminal for us for some cold toast and boiled eggs, and a lot of pacing up and down.

And we didn’t manage to talk the Nepali Armed Forces into giving us a lift up to Lukla today, either. All rotary blade aircraft were also grounded the whole day.

Tough choices

Tomorrow we’ll be back at the airport at 5:15am, as there’s a rumoured window of opportunity between 6 and 8am (any crumb of optimism is fiercely seized upon in these circumstances, so we’ll be up bright eyed an bushy tailed!). Hopefully we’ll get out by plane, and if not by chopper.

If the weather closes in, this is the last day we can start the EBC trek, as time and altitude will not allow us to leave any later. Our alternative is to have a bus on standby at the airport to take us the 6 hours to the start of the Annapurna Circuit trek, which will be much harder with an extra 2000 vertical metres of ascent to cover in a day less than the Everest Base Camp trek, while reaching an altitude 100 metres higher at the Thorung La pass than EBC.

I’ll let you know how we get on!

Lots of love from the Everest Base Camp trek team,

Matt Brereton-Patel

Or to to put it another way, you can plan a charity trek to Everest Base Camp for a year, and Mother Nature steps in at the last minute to stir things up a little.

As I write to you from an internet cafe in the middle of Kathmandu, Mother Nature and I are a little peeved with one another.

But let’s rewind for a second and cover how we got to Kathmandu in the first place, what happened on the way, and why we’re here.

Plans for departure

For the past year we at three sixty° have been meticulously planning a trek to Everest Base Camp to support The Break Out Project, who work with street and slum children in Mumbai, India. You can find more about the trek and us here.

Over the past 4 months everything has been planned meticulously, kit bought and packed, so on the evening of Weds 9th Nov the team met at Manchester Airport to begin our journey, each of us aiming to raise 2000 pounds for The Break Out Project.

Dave had a business class ticket which he had selflessly put aside in order to join us in economy, only for the airline to tell him he had to take it (or so he says ;o)), so we didn’t see him until Dubai.

Mumbai

The flight went uneventfully enough, and upon landing in Mumbai, the team visited some of the children The Break Out Project is supporting. Photos and video will follow, but we played some volleyball, watched a fab cooking display and got to understand why the money we’re raining by trekking to Everest Base Camp matters so much.

Then we headed to Colaba and to one of my favorite restaurants for food, and a couple of team drinks which ended in a high speed, beats pumping taxi ride through Mumbai, and dragging most of the by now high spirited team out of an Irish bar at 1am so that they were functional for the next day and the flight to Kathmandu. A stern talking to ensued!

Kathmandu

Now I’ve spent some time in Kathmandu, and this city never disappoints, but on this occasion Mother Nature has let us down. Our intended route is to fly into Lukla to begin our trek, the only being that Lukla was closed for most of the week preceding our trek, and was again today when we took off at 6am, flew around in the cloud for 2 hours, before returning to Kathmandu. Babs was petrified but stoic, Nick threw up, and we were all disappointed. We spent the rest of the day in the airport waiting for Lukla to open, but it was not to be.

As it stands we’re trying again tomorrow at 5am, and if Lukla airport is closed to planes, we’re hoping to talk the Nepali Airforce into giving us a lift in one of their massive helicopters. I’ll keep you posted on how goes, but rest assured we will get there in the end whatever is thrown at us!

Lots of love from everyone, and if you want to sponsor one of the team, just go here.

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Everest Base Camp Team

Orange juice is often perceived as one of those universal ‘good things’, a bit like Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and sunny afternoons in the park.

Of course, orange juice is very big business, and the specialist ad agencies behind advertisements for orange juice are very clever at subliminally reinforcing that message. Orange juice has come to be seen as a natural, wholesome part of our daily life.

If that’s true though, why do women who drink a glass of fruit juice daily become 18% more likely to develop type II diabetes?(1)

What’s orange juice made of?

Most brands listing their ingredients as ‘pure orange juice’ have a natural sugar content of between 18g and 22g per 200ml. There’s also a negligible amount of protein and fibre, plus vitamin c, potassium and folic acid. A litre of orange juice contains between 12 and 16 oranges.

From tree to table…

We all know that orange juice starts life as an orange on a sun-bathed tree, an image which represents the embodiment of a healthy lifestyle for many of us. So what happens to it between being picked and ending up in your refrigerator?

Well first it gets squeezed, and that’s the point at which things start to go wrong. The juice contains almost no fibre, without which the huge amount of sugar (fructose) in oranges is released into your bloodstream very quickly indeed.

That sends your body into crisis (especially if not consumed with food) and provokes an insulin response, which in turn stores the sugar as fat. So not only can orange juice make you fat, it can also help to fatigue your pancreas (which secretes insulin) to the point where you get type II diabetes.

High blood sugar levels are also directly and indirectly linked to health issues such as fungal infections, tooth decay, osteoporosis, ADHD, heart disease and chronic inflammation.

How juice is processed

After it’s been squeezed, the juice is pasteurised (cooked) to increase its shelf life, and ‘from concentrate’ juice then has the water evaporated from it under vacuum and heat processing techniques before it’s frozen and shipped. On the other side it gets reconstituted through the addition of water.

This pasteurisation process destroys most of the vitamins and minerals, and denatures all of the vital enzymes, making your juice nutritionally degraded, leaving you with just the sugar and water.

‘Not from concentrate’ juice is also commonly pasteurised, as is organic juice. Freshly squeezed, unpasteurised juice is nutritionally richer, but still lacks the fibre needed to control your blood sugar levels appropriately.

Orange juice and your teeth

Most people know about acid erosion and tooth enamel, but the hidden cost to your teeth from uncontrolled sugar levels is paid with the amount of calcium and other minerals required to help control blood glucose levels. When these minerals are controlling your blood glucose they aren’t helping your teeth, leading to decay from the inside out.

But is orange juice really so bad?

You’ll find some people who say that fruit juice is still a good way of getting vitamins and fluids into your body, but to us this is just absolute nonsense.

Those people are just patronising you, assuming in advance that if you don’t drink juice you won’t have the brains to figure out how else to get your vitamins and fluids. Because of this they end up giving out half-baked and confusing advice.

If you want fluid, drink water (your own body weight in kg x 0.033 to get the amount in litres per day). If you want vitamins eat lots of varied and raw vegetables, or vegetable juice (red peppers, for instance are much higher in vitamin c than oranges).

It’s not just orange juice…

Apple juice, grape juice, and many commercial smoothies and fruit juices are also guilty of the same crimes, despite the advertising urging you to believe they’re healthy (another trick is to include, say, 3% acai or acerola cherry juice and then brand it in large, colourful letters as a ‘super-juice’ or ‘high in anti-oxidants’ because they’re high in vitamin c).

So be aware that just because the ad shows a healthy, fit, happy young couple drinking juice in a stylish kitchen, morning sun pouring through the window, it doesn’t mean the juice is responsible for it.

In fact, to discover exactly what orange juice is responsible for, the evidence suggests you’d be better off spending time in your local dental surgery or diabetic clinic.

Yours in health,

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Team

References:

1. Intake of Fruit, Vegetables, and Fruit Juices and Risk of Diabetes in Women Bazzano et al. Diabetes Care.2008; 31: 1311-1317

Your Mum spent half her adult life worrying about helping you grow up big and strong. Do her proud and check out our Top 10 Superfoods that are going to keep you that way…

1. Coconut Fat: One of the most misunderstood fats known to man. We think it’s awesome; it’s highly anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, fantastic for weight loss (regulating metabolism through optimising thyroid function) and is a great source of usable energy. We use it in smoothies, cook with it, or eat it right off the spoon

2. Avocado: High in great mono-saturated fats and beta-sitosterol, which has been shown to lower cholesterol. It’s also high in anti-oxidants, fibre, and lutein (great for your eyes), and is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes and cancer

3. Spinach: It’s not only Popeye that loves spinach. Calorie for calorie, it’s the king of nutrients, delivering vitamin K (good for your bones), vitamins C and A, folic acid, quercetin (a powerful anti-inflammatory) and as though all that wasn’t enough, it’s an excellent source of calcium too

4. Blueberries: A low GI anti-oxidant powerhouse with anti-inflammatory properties, great for those looking to lose weight

5. Almonds: Gives you a good amount of protein, great fats, fibre, calcium, magnesium and vitamin E, and is highly alkalising. A great snack especially when combined with an apple

6. Free Range Eggs: A great source of very high quality protein, omega 3 fats, vitamin B12 and choline – which is essential for cardio-vascular and brain function. It’s also high in sulphur which amongst other things promotes healthy skin and nails

7. Broccoli: Jam packed full of anti-oxidants and detoxifying enzymes, fibre, and with cancer fighting properties. It belongs to the cruciferous family along with bok choi (pak choi), cabbage and kale

8. Quinoa: A gluten free grain high in protein, calcium, magnesium, iron and fibre, according to the ancient Inca’s, it’s the ‘Mother of Grains’. They loved it, so do we!

9. Kefir: A traditional cultured milk drink rich in enzymes, healthy micro-organisms, complete protein, B vitamins and minerals, aiding digestion and absorption. That’s one cool drink, we think you’ll agree

10. Wild or Game Meat: Compare wild meat to commercially reared meat and there’s no competition. A great source of protein, it’s also a vitamin B, iron and zinc powerhouse, high in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), which is not only cancer fighting but is also great for reducing abdominal fat

Runners up: olives, sauerkraut, barley grass, sea vegetables, flax seeds, sprouted beans & lentils

What do you think? Do you disagree? Would you have included something else?

Yours in health,

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Team

There’s plenty of talk these days about stress, its effects on the human body, and the way we think, feel and behave. If you want to learn more about stress, its effects, and what to do about it, read on. In this article we’re going to take a closer look at stress and find out what actually happens both short and long term when we’re subjected to it.

So what is stress?

Stress can be either positive or negative. Positive stress is a product of activities and situations we choose to become involved in because we enjoy them, and find them challenging in a rewarding way. Positive stress strengthens us and drives us forward in life.

Negative stresses are those which are imposed upon us and which we feel powerless to control. These kinds of stresses weaken us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

The history of negative stress

The term ‘stress’ was first used in the 1930’s by a Canadian endocrinologist called Hans Selye, who is widely regarded to have been the first person to demonstrate the existence of biological stress. Dr Selye concluded that various stressors produced a common biochemical response in the human body, and called the symptoms of this response General Adaptive Syndrome.

Stress summates…

The various negative stressors we refer to above are diverse: poor diet and nutrition, poor posture, lack of exercise, toxic overload, emotional stress, relationships, physical injury and overexertion, lack of sleep, overuse of stimulants, recreational and pharmaceutical drugs, being too hot or too cold, noise, too much or too little food and sunshine, and hormone imbalances, plus many more. They all ‘summate’, producing a single biochemical response in your body.

The sympathetic nervous system response

When these stimuli activate our sympathetic nervous system (SNS – our ‘fight or flight’ mechanism) a number of important hormones are released which have a huge number of effects in your body.

An active SNS stimulates the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters such as adrenalin and noradrenalin. These serve to dilate your pupils (enhancing vision), inhibit secretions from the lachrymal and salivary glands, accelerate your heart rate and force of cardiac contraction, increases glucose release in the liver, inhibits gastric, pancreatic and digestive tract activity, and dilates the bronchi of the lungs in addition to diverting blood flow to the muscles.

Sympathetic nervous system dominance and physiological effects

This is all part of what nature intended, so that in times of danger our dilated pupils would enhance our vision, muscles supplied with blood are ready for physical exertion – fight or flight, the bronchial tubes of the lungs are dilated ready for increased respiration and your heart is working harder to make all of these things happen. At the same time your digestive tract and a number of other processes are being re-prioritised and switched off.

That’s pretty cool then you have to run for a bus (or get out the way of one!), or defend yourself.

But what happens when your SNS is always switched on? Well, many of our hormone producing glands, like our adrenals, get tired, our immune system becomes severely weakened, our ability to digest and assimilate food is compromised, chronic inflammation and high cholesterol take hold, insomnia sets in and your body begins to store fat as a defence mechanism.

If you’re trying to lose weight, feel full of energy and perform better at home and work, a constantly switched on SNS is your worst nightmare. And that’s the good news. The premature onset of degenerative disease, chronic fatigue and a host of other health issues are also likely to result. Here’s a snippet from a study we came across a few years ago:

‘Blood tests showed that a chemical called Interleukin-6 sharply increased in the blood of the stressed caregivers compared with blood of the others in the test. Previous studies have associated IL-6 with several diseases, including heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, type-2 diabetes and certain cancers.’(1,2)

The parasympathetic nervous system

The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is your best friend if you’re SNS dominant, but you have to make sure you get dedicated ‘down time’ so that its ‘rest, digest and relax’ processes can return your body to a state of balance, or homeostasis. That’s why we’re such big fans of meditation and plenty of ‘me’ time at three sixty° Personal Training.

The PNS opposes the processes of the SNS, reversing many of the physiological processes, such as increased heart rate, we mentioned above. A balanced nervous system will mean you feel, look and perform better, and live longer.

We recommend eating whole foods like those on our free three sixty° Elimination Diet, and taking at least 10 minutes out of each day, plus one day each week, just to do the things you like, spend some time alone, maybe even meditate or take a yoga class, and generally recharge your batteries.

Re-learning to breathe properly (and deeply) will also go a long way to helping you, as will making time to move your body, get a massage, and sort out any relationships and money problems that are causing you stress.

Yours in health,

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Team

References:

1. http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Study-reveals-how-stress-can-make-you-sick-2093-1/

2. Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., Preacher, K.J, MacCulom, R.C., Atkinson, C. Malarkey, W.B., & Glaser, R. (2003). Chronic stress and age-related increases in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online, 100, 9090-9095.

Daily we see people giving their all on cardio equipment in an effort to lose a few kilos, or heaving weights back and forth in an effort to ‘get big’. These are the same people who, a year later, have nothing to show for their three-one-hour-per-week-sessions except perhaps a sore back, an injured knee and a good deal of disillusionment, not to mention a wasted gym membership.

There’s got to be more effective ways to get where you’re going, and there are!

Here’s a list of seven things people should not be doing in the gym and some exercise alternatives:

1. Avoid fixed resistance machines. Do you decide every move you’ll make and every word you’ll say during the day before you even get out of bed in the morning?! No! So why decide every movement your muscles will make before you even get into the gym? Machine weights allow no freedom for the muscles, literally boring them senseless with the same movement pattern while decreasing neuromuscular awareness.

They also take away the role of the important stabilising (core) muscles which is where all real-life movements begin and is where our power comes from. So choose free-weights or cables instead and try incorporating Swiss Balls (those inflatable balls you see in the gym) to increase the neuromuscular demands on your body. Most qualified fitness instructors or personal trainers will be able to show you how to get the most out of such equipment.

2. Don’t overdo cardio. Many people still believe you just need to do lots of cardio to reduce body fat. This is false. Too much cardio can actually result in your body producing hormones that encourage fat storage in the body. You are also possibly sacrificing vital calorie-burning muscle tissue if you do more aerobic exercise than your ingested fuel allows for. Aerobic or ‘cardio’ exercise is important as it allows nutrients to be transported to cells via the bloodstream when fat is released from the adipose (fat) cells. The bloodstream is the vehicle that transports it to be burned. Do your cardio after a resistance training session to promote fat loss, or try circuits which are excellent vehicles for reducing body fat and increasing cardiovascular fitness.

3. Think laterally (literally!). Muscles work as force couples – they play together like teams. Training in isolation can cause an imbalance, leading to injury and an unsymmetrical looking body. Also don’t overemphasise movements in one plane of motion (particularly front to back movements) as our bodies naturally twist and move from side to side as well. Think training “movements” not “muscles”; pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, bending, twisting are the basic movements of day-to-day life. Finally if you train slowly you will play slowly, so vary the speed.

4. Posture is key, so stretch for at least 5 minutes before you work out! It’s not just an aesthetic thing, bad posture can also lead to injuries and regular bouts of associated pain. The details can be complex but it’s important to know that there are muscles in your body that naturally become short and tight and others that get long and weak by nature. The required response to correct this is to stretch the shorter, tighter muscles and strengthen the longer, weaker muscles. For example when someone has a posture that makes them look like the Pink Panther – protruding head and rounded shoulders – the chest is one muscle that needs a good stretch. Only stretch what is tight, as stretching the long and weak muscles will lead to further imbalances.

5. Crunch after crunch. There is no such thing as a spot reduction. 100 sit-ups a day will not flatten that tummy and it will only lead to poor posture by over-strengthening the upper abdominals and the powerful and greedy hip flexor muscles. The energy to do the crunch may actually come from fat stored somewhere else in the body. So choose exercises that engage lots of muscles. A squat, for example involves over 14 major muscles (and with enough weight will use almost every muscle in the body!).

6. Too many people wander around the gym half-heartedly doing this or that exercise. Have a goal and a defined plan to reach it. Decide what you’re going to do before you get to the gym and write it down. Having no plan will decrease your chances of success. You need to clarify your goals and determine the best way to achieve them or you may be wasting a lot of time (not to mention money).

7. Leave the books at home. Don’t take books or other distracters into the gym. Do exercises that require you to focus on each task as though it’s a meditation and treat every session as a chance to increase your awareness of how your body moves.

So, there we have it. 7 things you just shouldn’t be doing in the gym. A few simple changes can have a huge beneficial impact on how effective you are both in and outside of the gym, and how quickly you can get the results you want!

Yours in health,

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Team

1. Chill out! Stress of any kind – emotional, physical, nutritional or mental – results in high stress hormone (cortisol) levels. Cortisol stores fat around your middle, ruining any chances of seeing a toned tummy anytime soon.

The remedy: aim to be asleep by 10:30pm, and make sure you get some regular quiet time – yoga and meditation are both great, the herb Rhodiola Rosea can also help

2. Keep exercise regular, short, and hard. Long duration exercise isn’t just ineffective, it also releases more stress hormones into your blood. Keep your workouts short, high intensity, and resistance exercise based

3. To crunch or not to crunch? You’ve probably already got a six pack, it’s just hiding. Pumping 100 sit ups out every day is only going to give you bad posture and back pain later in life, but won’t burn fat around your middle. Leave them out, or see our FREE Sexy Stomach Workout on how to incorporate them properly

4. Great Abs Are Made In The Kitchen: Hidden intolerances and yeast (candida) overgrowth can cause abdominal inflammation and bloating. Following our three sixty° Elimination Diet, killing the sugar and starchy carbs, taking prebiotics, a high strength probiotic, and some kyolic garlic extract, can all work wonders

5.Get our FREE Sexy Stomach Workout now!

Here’s to your new, lovely lookin’ flat stomach!

Yours in health,

Matt Brereton-Patel & the three sixty° Team