Health & Wellbeing

28 New Stour & Avon, September 24, 2021 Health & Wellbeing Hospice hero Jen set for fitness fundraiser

A 44-year-old mother of one will attempt 24 gruelling CrossFit workouts in 24 hours to raise money for the new Mac Unit hospice in Christchurch. Jen Rotchell, from Bournemouth is senior trust and corporate fundraiser for Macmillan Caring Locally, which supports the Unit. Jen will tackle a 15-minute CrossFit session every hour for 24 hours on October 16, at Complete Active gym on Mudeford Quay. Weightlifting, pull-ups, handstand push-ups, box jumps, assault bike sessions and burpees are just some of the tough exercises she will be facing, with limited recovery time in between and absolutely no sleep. Jen explained: “Macmillan Caring Locally is an amazing specialist palliative care charity that I feel incredibly honoured to work for. “The Mac Unit provides care and support for more than 1,600 people and their families every year and we’re fundraising to build a new modern hospice through our Brick by Brick appeal. “I am attempting this challenge to help fund the rehabilitation gym in the new hospice building. “My training for the event started in May and I am doing five or six sessions a week before work. “I know I am going to find it immensely hard, physically and mentally, so I hope people will spur me on by sponsoring me.” Jen hopes to raise £10,000 through sponsorship. She said: “People are already being very generous. “But I have a long way to go. “The coaches and members at Complete Active gym have been very supportive and will be keeping me company by taking part in a 24-hour rowathon to boost my fundraising.” Lin Sharp of Macmillan Caring Locally said: “We are all totally in awe of Jen. “What she is doing is incredible. “Please support her. This will carry her through and will help us get another step closer to building a wonderful new hospice.” Jen can be sponsored via: justgiving.com/fundraising/ plantgirl

IN THE ZONE: Jen Rotchell training for her 24-hour fundraiser

Wave of enthusiasm for surf park plan

by Faith Eckersall Plans to build a ‘world class’ inland surf lagoon with twometre waves next to the Avon Heath Country Park have been revealed by a Dorset developer. W H White is seeking views on what it calls an ‘exciting and unique opportunity’ on land either side of Brocks Pine, just off the A31 at St Leonards. It says the proposed surf lagoon is supported by the sport’s governing body, Surf England, and represents a ‘once in a generation opportunity for Dorset to cement its reputation as a surf destination and natural playground. “An inland surfing lagoon is a world-class sports, leisure and surf destination where the whole family can surf on consistent, safe waves,” said W H White. “The proposed cove-shaped lagoon will produce whitewater waves for beginners, up to 1.8-metre barrelling waves for elite surfers and a family orientated environment for all to enjoy.” The developer also claims the facility could provide up to 40 jobs for local people. An artist’s impression of the site shows the lagoon, with a green-roofed visitor building, a Forest School, cafe, wild play area, skate park, cycle park, car-park for 380 cars with space for an additional 60, plus green spaces and a seasonal campsite. A proportion of the site would be restored to green space, the developer said. W H White claims the facility would help Dorset ‘hold its own’ against cities like Bristol and Birmingham which, it says, have developed inland surf lagoons that are already drawing visitors, tourism and expenditure from Dorset. The company controls the land either side of Brocks Pine and Dorset Council controls Avon Heath Country Park. The developer said it would afford an opportunity to work collaboratively to create a “much-improved country park, alongside a significant area of natural greenspace to preserve and protect the Dorset Heaths at no cost to the tax payer.” The wider Avon Heath Country Park would continue to be owned and operated by Dorset Council. The company has opened its website for comments before making a formal application to Dorset Council. Many commentators have taken to social media enthusiastically supporting the idea although others expressed concerns about traffic in the area.

SURF’S UP: An artist’s impression of the Brocks Pine scheme

The marshmallow test

“But is it Fattening?” No foods are fattening. This is often difficult for people to get their head around. No food causes us to gain body fat. Sadly, this isn’t well understood and nor is it a green light to eat whatever we like as food quality and nutrients are vitally important. It’s just that some foods are more energy-dense than others and different foods have different levels of nutrients in them. If you like marshmallows, a balanced, healthy diet should contain some. They might not be in the ‘health food’ aisles, but a little of what you fancy is a balanced diet. Besides, those health food aisles can be confusing; for example, when you see ‘low fat’ on a food, it just means the product is low in the macronutrient fat. Don’t confuse this with low energy (in food measured as a calorie). ‘Low fat’ (low in that macronutrient) and ‘Low Calorie’ (low in overall energy) might overlap, but they are not the same thing. A great example of this is a bag of marshmallows, labelled as ‘Low Fat’ as there was barely a smidge of dietary fat in them. Don’t let the fact that there’s practically no fat in them detract from the fact they’re energy/calorie-dense. If I eat too many of them (which I am inclined to do), or too much any other food; I’d start to store excess, unspent energy as body fat, regardless of what type of food I’d consumed – even from the health food aisle. This doesn’t make marshmallows fattening; it makes them high energy, high pleasure, low nutrient, low fat, easy to eat and in my opinion, delicious. If weight management is your thing, of course nutrients are vitally important for health, but it’s your overall energy intake that will tip the balance to lose, gain or maintain weight. The message is; don’t confuse low fat and low calorie... they’re not the same thing. No food is fattening; it’s our overall dose that counts. n Katrina Keeling is a Wimborne based Personal Trainer. kkeelingfitness@gmail.com kkfitness.co.uk

A walk around...

HORTON

Park at the roadside in the village and make your way westwards along the road, past the pump to the church, dedicated to St Wolfrida,on your left. After visiting the church, which has an unusual layout, head south along a windy lane for half a mile. This takes you to the start of a bridleway on your left that heads east along high ground with excellent wide views. Soon you’ll come to Horton Tower, a folly built for Humphrey Sturt, the local landowner in 1750 either as a vanity project or as an observatory to watch the local hunt in comfort. After circling the tower, continue along the bridleway for half a mile. It then enters the woodland of Ferndown Forest, pleasant but without the views. It’s Access Land so you’re allowed to go offline and explore if you wish. After about half a mile, as the ground is starting to slope downhill, look out for a wild colony of bees about 10 feet up in a tree on your left. They’ve been there a year or two. Continue down the track which curves round to the north and soon joins the road. Turn right and head east along the road and, after a mile, take a footpath on your left, heading north, which weaves its way uphill to the site of Monmouth’s Ash on the parish boundary. Here you join a bridleway heading west then south which takes you back to the road. Join the road and head west north west along it for a mile where you might want to pause at the pub, Drusilla’s Inn. After slaking your thirst, continue for another half mile westwards and you’ll see a familiar looking car. You’ll have walked a little over six miles.

with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade

By Susie Carver, consulting hypnotist with Sea Change Hypnotherapy in Wimborne

I’m a hypnotherapist, but in reality, hypnosis is only one small part of the work I do to help people with their emotional (mental) health. The rest of the time I might be actively listening, assisting a client to reframe unhelpful thoughts, teaching them selfhypnosis or breathwork techniques for anxiety, or empowering strategies to boost their confidence. There are a whole heap of misconceptions attached to hypnosis, which means that unfortunately a lot of people may never even consider it as a therapy for personal change. So what actually IS hypnotherapy and why might it be useful to you? Hypnotherapy is a collaboration between therapist and client and a commitment to change is required on the part of the client. We drift in and out of hypnotic trances several times a day without even realising; it’s natural, and therefore we can all be hypnotised. My role is to help a person remove the negative trances that have begun to affect their life and replace them with new, more positive ones. There is much debate over the best way to describe hypnosis. My definition is – a highlyfocused attention which uses the power of the imagination to bring about change in a person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours or perceptions. Therapeutic hypnosis is a process that most people find really enjoyable and relaxing. It can feel a little like daydreaming; your conscious awareness drifts in and out of the experience, and this provides an opportunity to speak directly to the unconscious mind, the place where all our deep-seated beliefs and memories live. This is the point at which we can offer new, more appropriate suggestions and bring about the desired change. There’s absolutely NO mind control involved – despite this drifting of your conscious mind you’ll always be awake and aware. The people you see in hypnosis stage shows are doing those crazy things because they have willingly agreed to be part of the show and have been chosen for their high level of hypnotisability. Hypnotherapy is effective for a range of conditions – amongst other things, I work with anxiety and stress, fears and phobias, weight management and relationships with food, stopping smoking and other unwanted habits, building motivation and confidence, pain management and trauma release. The covid pandemic has been a major trigger for a lot of people. Old traumas and buried emotions are reemerging and causing unexpected anxiety and fear. The number of sessions required depends very much on the individual and what their goal is. Very occasionally one session is all that’s needed – but between three and five sessions is usually the average. Hypnotherapy can be incredibly fast and effective, so I never lock people into long programmes – I want them to fly free and fly high as soon as they are able, knowing they will have my support every step of the way. The truth of the matter is that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis –my role is simply to guide my clients into a place where it becomes easy for them to make these changes themselves. And that is a really magical moment!

The misconceptions attached to hypnosis

Making the most of ‘lightbulb’ moments

“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain,” Rumi. I love this quote. It reminds me of those bizarre, unplanned moments when I find myself in full creativity mode or when the answer to a tricky problem suddenly springs into my mind. It might seem that there is no rhyme or reason to these moments because I can’t conjure them up at the drop of a hat. If I could, I would be making magic most of the day and probably earning millions! I’ve begun to recognise patterns as to when my creative mind is at its best. For me, it can be when I’ve woken in the early hours of the morning or bizarrely when I’m in the shower. I keep a notepad and pen in my bedside drawer so that I can jot down my ideas as they come to me in the darkest hours. I’ve even managed to master the art of doing this without needing to put a light on! I have tried going back to sleep and recalling my inspirational thoughts in the morning, but alas this doesn’t work for me, because the creative flow has evaporated by the time the alarm goes off. Therefore, I have learnt to seize the moment. With regards to the shower, I will suddenly find I have the answer to a tricky problem that’s been vexing me for some time. It’s literally as if a lightbulb has been switched on. The only problem I have then is remembering the solution for long enough so that I can write it down when I get out. Research shows that we are more likely to have creative epiphanies whilst doing something monotonous (in other words, those things that don’t require much thought), as it allows our minds to wander. This monotony relaxes your prefrontal cortex (the brain’s command centre for decisions and behaviour) and clears neural pathways that connect different parts of your brain. This in turn can make new creative connections. Ideas that we have in the workplace are often harder to come by as we tend to be more focused and close-minded, which can place us in creative ruts. But when taking a shower we are typically more relaxed, comfortable, alone and distracted from everyday stresses, which allows our brain to defocus and roam free. Where do you have your lightbulb moments? Do you find that inspiration flows when your mind is relaxed? Perhaps we should all seek silence, solitude and a clear mind without pressure or noise, to allow our creativity and inspiration to flow?