10 minute read
Citizens Advice column
say Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire
Disappointingly, during a time when most of us are feeling vulnerable, scammers are looking for every opportunity to take advantage. Action Fraud has already reported over £5.3 million lost to scammers during the present lockdown. And this is only the tip of the iceberg…. • We are worried about our health and know that face masks, sanitizer and home testing kits are all available to help protect coronavirus spreading. Scammers are offering these things at high prices but may not provide them at all, once we have paid in advance. • We are worried about having food and being able to shop if we are isolating or shielding. Scammers are offering to shop for us – at a price. Not an act of kindness but a fraud against our purse. • We are worried about money while businesses are shut and jobs uncertain. Scammers are pretending to be from the Department for Works and Pensions and asking for our personal details and bank information.
Scammers seize every opportunity. We can and should be doing something about it!
Visit the website Research and Campaigns page (www.citizensadvicesouthlincs.org.uk) and social media for regular updates. Our message is that we can all help in the fight against scammers. We can take action by being aware of the scams that are out there. We can find out how to help prevent scams happening to us. We can know how to report scams. And we can all help each other by passing on information about scams to friends, family and colleagues.
Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire is currently working on telephone, webchat and email. Clients are asked to use Adviceline on 03444 111444 or the Migrant Worker Helpline on 03448 476128. Alternatively use Webchat and Email via www.citizensadvicesouthlincs.org.uk
BOURNE Wake House, 41 North Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9AE
Opening times: Thursday 10:00am – 3:00pm
MARKET DEEPING The New Community Centre, Douglas Road, Market Deeping PE6 8PA
Opening times: Wednesday 10:00am – 3:00pm
DEEPING ST. JAMES The Institute, 38 Church Street, Deeping St James PE6 8HD
Opening times: Fortnightly by appointment, referrals after initial assessment at Market Deeping
As we venture back to some sort of
normality, are you thinking once again about weight loss, healthy eating and getting your health on track? The list of hip ways to eat has expanded rapidly.
Every week, it seems we are bombarded with a new super food, a new way to lose “seven pounds in seven days”! What works for one person, may not work for the next... so without this precise knowledge, anything else is guesswork. You end up jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon, trying to find the magic bullet!
Pioneering and ongoing research confirms that your blood type is the single most important determinant in choosing which foods are right for you and which foods cause inflammation, digestive problems or weight gain.
My concern is that many of these ‘one-size-fitsall’ eating regimes can actually be damaging people’s health. I have been a nutritionist for over twenty-five years. I have clocked up thousands of hours of helping people create lasting, lifelong health and energy, and learned that …
One size just does not fit all! The secret is your individuality!
Welcome to the world of personalization, where you can finally be you!
The diet that knows you best. Trusted worldwide by over 10 million people.
Join our community online.
by Wendy Richards Director & Trainer, Nutritional Consultant, Dip ION, Cert BTD MIFHI.
ENCOURAGING WORDS: Kerrie Owen:
“I had read about eating right for your blood type but never really understood why that was important. I had despaired when using most common diets that nothing worked for me long-term. I am now committed to changing my diet and lifestyle in line with Gene Living principles and guidance.”
Sue:
“Since eating for my blood type, I feel as if I have been internally cleansed and a fog lifted from my brain.”
Roy:
“During my recovery from chemotherapy for bone marrow cancer, I found I was struggling to regain my energy and health in general. Despite doing quite a lot of research on nutrition and healthy lifestyle, including changing my diet by cutting out all processed foods and only eating fresh food, including a lot of vegetables, I felt I had reached a plateau which it seemed I could not rise above. It was only after consulting Wendy and adopting the blood group diet, that I saw an improvement in my health. This, in conjunction with the vitamins recommended by her, specific to my condition and blood type, has returned my health to normality.”
Empire setting a ‘Gold Standard’ in being COVID-Ready
At the time of writing this article, there is an unconfirmed potential re-opening date for gyms in England of Saturday July 4th. And we are working doubly hard to ensure if and when this day comes, we are ready. COVIDReady! I write this article on the assumption that July 4th is the day we will re-open. This could change.
For me, it’s about three things. Absolute and laserlike attention to detail; clarity of communication
in both the messages and procedures we adopt; and it’s about people knowing that every possible mitigating effort has been taken to make you, the customer, as safe as possible, so promoting a feeling of confidence, trust and security. So, in order to demonstrate that attention to detail and clarity, here are the things we are doing to ensure Empire Gym sets what could be considered a gold-standard.
Booking Procedure:
There will be a booking system. 1,020 one-hour
training slots will be made available every week. Changing rooms and showers will strictly So, twelve one-hour slots each weekday and four not be used. one-hour slots on each weekend day. Sixty-eight slots per week in total. People must arrive ready to train and must then immediately go home once the training hour is People will be able to book using either the over. Toilets will be in use on the ground floor with ‘Clublink’ App which is normally used for class strict hygiene rules in place. booking or will be able to call by telephone. In each one-hour slot, there will be a maximum gym floor capacity of just fifteen people. With approximately three hundred square metres of gym floor space, this means that on average there is a person for each twenty square No gym towels will be allowed in the gym. We have decided that gym towels are potential breeding grounds for viral and bacterial spread. Cleaning of equipment and dabbing of perspiration will be done only with Changing rooms and showers will metres of space. There will be a fifteenstrictly not be the provision of blue paper towels. minute gap between each fifteen used. Equipment sanitising spray bottles will be person, one-hour slot, allowing cleaning attached to every piece of equipment time, air exchange (explained later) and and we will greatly increase the number preventing the unnecessary crossover of people of paper towel dispensers and bins. Every touch entering and leaving the gym. point should be sanitised after using a piece of Booking will begin from Sunday June 28th. People equipment. will initially be able to book six days in advance Increased hand sanitisation stations will be and book three sessions a week, increasing to installed, building on the already very strong four or five, once we are able to gauge booking Empire Gym culture of sanitising your hands, on patterns over the first two weeks. entry to and exit from the gym. Hands should also now be sanitised between using every piece of Sanitisation, Cleanliness, Safety and equipment. Social Distancing Protocols: Workstations on equipment will be two metres We have purchased temperature scanning apart wherever possible, and specially equipment and, on arrival, each person, at manufactured floor-standing, clear, toughened two-metres distance, will have their forehead safety glass ‘shields’ will be installed where scanned, and anyone whose temperature is appropriate, mainly in the cardio and class areas. shown to be above the agreed limit, will be told Wherever equipment is clustered close together to go home. Anyone exhibiting symptoms such as and shields cannot be used, a ‘cluster’ of several a cough will also be told to leave. pieces of equipment will be given a colour code, We will stick to the two-metre social distancing rule regardless of whether the government relax meaning only one piece of equipment in the cluster can be used at any given time. the guidelines to less than two metres. We always The safety glass shields, will be placed between follow the science, but we also follow our own cardio equipment in the ‘Cardio Zone’. People instincts when we think that to do so will not only will, however, be encouraged not to use cardio meet the standards but necessarily exceed them. equipment directly adjacent to each other and We aspire to set a gold standard and we think to maintain the two-metre distance. Any piece anything below two-metre distancing in a gym of cardio equipment can be used only for a environment would be irresponsible. maximum of twenty minutes, ensuring people
We will stick to the two-metre social distancing rule regardless of whether the government relax the guidelines to less than two metres.
have a fair opportunity to use equipment in their those that are lower in intensity. At this time, we booked one-hour slot. personally feel that spinning/indoor cycling classes In the specific area of wearing face coverings while exercising indoors in a gym and fitness environment, we do not at this exact juncture and high intensity classes like Metafit and HIITSTEP pose too high a risk. The same applies to HIIT circuit classes which will also be held back for now. feel that sufficient scientific and medical guidance We will, however, bring two or three spin bikes into has been given by the government to make an the gym space which can be used in accordance educated and responsible decision as to whether with the rules for all other cardio equipment. people should or should not wear a face covering while at Empire Gym. So, we will wait for that advice to become clear. When such explicit and specific expert advice emerges, we will respect and abide by it to the letter. As more information becomes available about whether the government will allow indoor group classes to take place, we will create a new, curtailed, ‘COVID Responsible’ timetable, that will initially only include There will be no cash transactions, only cards and Apple Pay. Bottles of water will be available to purchase, and we encourage people, if bringing their own water, to bring enough so not to have The only classes to be available at first will be Bodypump, Bodybalance and CoreBlast (as three relatively low intensity, low movement but very effective classes that minimise sweat, humidity and air movement and turbulence). to refill at the gym. The water coolers will not be in use and we will not allow refill from taps in the toilet sinks. those that are lower in intensity. It is likely that this new timetable will take effect in the second or third week of reopening, if rules allow. As air conditioning is not considered to be suitable, according to the science at the moment, because it causes air movement and turbulence, it will not be turned on in the gym while people are training. However, the sophistication of the system installed at Empire Gym means we can still use it to make the The first-floor class area has over one hundred square metres of working space and we will limit class booking to nine people per class maximum. Booking will be the same as before, if and when the new timetable is allowed to go ahead. environment even safer. So, it is safe to say we have our finger on the pulse. In the fifteen minutes between every one-hour gym slot, the system will be used to exchange the air, so that fresh air is present for the arrival of the next group of people. The same principle applies We have worked hard in our research. We are ready, and able to provide the safest possible, most innovative and COVID-responsible gym to the people of the Deepings. to time gaps between classes. We have always been a business based on family Wherever possible, the doors at the front and back values, attention to detail and cleanliness, and it of the gym will be left fully open to further improve so happens that now, the new global landscape is ventilation. one we are instinctively ready to navigate. Will there be Classes?: The only classes to be available at first will be And we will. See you soon. Matt x
In Support Of It is in our nature to want to keep you safe. 114 Church Street, Market Deeping, PE6 8AL Email enquiries@empiregyms.com Phone 01778 344579
