Welly Commute stacks on the weight: Part 2

By Tracy Watkins

To recap: It crept up on me slowly; a kilo here, a few hundred grams there. Three years after moving to Martinborough from Petone, I was 10 kilograms heavier. What happened? The commute happened. I was time poor anyway before moving, but driving over the hill four days a week meant I suddenly lost three hours from my day – or four on a bad day.

Mish McCormack knows all about the struggles time-poor commuters face:

Mish and her husband Grieg Rightford are partners in Healthfit Wellington and Martinborough and also own a Healthfit gym in Greytown’s Five Rivers center. So Mish is regularly racing from one appointment to the next to see her clients, who are dispersed between all three gyms.

Many of her clientele are regular commuters so I asked Mish for her top tips for proiritising fitness on a busy day.

Q: I find sleep is a problem; because I get home later, I go to bed later and then I’m up earlier. And I also do all the things we know we shouldn’t do, like read my ipad before bed. What problems can too little sleep cause and what are some ways to get better sleep.

A: The million dollar question and one that so many of my own clients struggle with. Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems such as high BP, heart disease, stroke, obesity, kidney disease, depression and much more. Lack of sleep can also impair performance, alertness, judgment, memory and of course motivation. This is a problem often for commuters who are up extra early to travel and then home again late at night.

Make sure once home you have a set routine around bedtime, try to not eat within 3 hours of going to bed (avoid heavy meals at night and too much caffeine during the day as this may affect sleep at night _ as does sugar intake), limit blue light and stay off screens for at least an hour before bed as all this will do is stimulate you more and keep you awake. 

If you are hungry and must eat, try a handful of pistachio nuts as they are high in melatonin. Try some deep breathing/meditation or even box breathing 4,4,4 (breathe in for 4, hold for 4 and exhale for 4) in through nose + out through mouth, gentle stretching, take a warm shower (help relax muscles) keep your room dark and cool (black out curtains are amazing)

At the end of the day do what works for you, having a ritual is a great idea and one I try to get my own clients to do. It could be as simple as a warm shower or bath, brushing teeth, listening to some music or meditating, getting the room at the right temperature , always having a clean pillow case and then nah night! … Continue Reading

Music Festival ahead

Hundreds of Wairarapa children enjoyed this year’s Martinborough Music Festival school concerts, which were presented by a string quartet and a wind quintet in venues from Carterton to Martinborough.

This year’s formal Music Festival runs from 22 – 24 September in the Martinborough Town Hall, bringing in 10 world-class chamber music specialists for four concerts. 

More information and ticketing links are available at the Festival website: martinboroughmusicfestival.co.nz

Under The Martinborough Stars

By Chris Murphy

Ask any astronomer if they can remember a moment that inspired them to become an astronomer and there’s a good chance they’ll reply that they saw Saturn through a telescope when they were a child. There are many good reasons why this beautiful planet features so often in the childhood memories of those who love astronomy. 

There really is nothing else out there that hits the eye like Saturn. Not yet anyway. Maybe one day we’ll have some radically different technology that can give us detailed views of exoplanets that look similar, but for now, it stands alone as the quintessential ringed planet that every kid thinks of when first drawing pictures of space. And it really does look almost cartoon-like when you see it through a telescope for the first time. Yes, other planets have rings. Notably Jupiter and Uranus (sorry to disappoint the comedians, it’s pronounced Yoo-ra-niss), but they’re nowhere near as bright and dramatic as Saturn’s. 

Being composed mostly of water-ice, the rings reflect a lot of the sunlight that strikes them, making them appear pretty bright for 1.5 billion kilometres away and averaging 10 metres thick. Yes, 10 metres. One tenth of a rugby field excluding the in-goal areas. That’s crazy right? We expect big numbers in astronomy so imagining Saturn’s rings being as thick as a two-story house, is quite surprising. To be fair, they are a lot thicker in certain areas but that’s the average, spread over the roughly 300,000km they span from edge to edge.  … Continue Reading

Toy Library makes another “help” call

We would love to do a fundraising event in October using a pop-in photo studio for families to get Christmas photos done. We’re purchasing a professional background, but we would love to have the lighting set-up and skills of a professional photographer. Do you think you can help out? If so then get in touch at martytoylibrary@gmail.com.

Someone recently asked ‘what’s involved in running a Toy Library?’ and they were astonished at the amount of work that goes into us being able to open for a couple of hours a week. It therefore seems timely to explain who we are and how we are set up.

Martinborough Toy Library is a registered charity. We currently have 15 volunteers (several of whom also make up the committee), and one paid part-time librarian. This is the first year we’ve had a paid position, and it is only thanks to the generosity of Trust House that we are able to fund it. 

Nicole Chadderton started working for Toy Library in July and has duties ranging from running the library on our weekday session (Wednesday 0930-1030), to updating our stock systems, to organising committee meetings, and basically running with whichever task most urgently needs done. Welcome onboard Nicole, it’s great to have you! … Continue Reading