Mary's Weekly Challenge
This week we are going to focus on what might be termed our 'big engines' – our legs. We are not talking here about the look of your legs but more about what we do with them every day to keep them strong.
The muscles at the front of our thighs (our quadriceps) and the muscles in our bottom (our Gluteals) are the most powerful muscles in our body. This is why we call them our 'big engines'. If we have strong, well exercised legs they provide our insurance policy and play a crucial role in keeping the whole of the rest of our body working efficiently and enabling us to stay independent and live life to the full. On the other hand, if we lead a sedentary life where we sit down for most of the day, or if we have been ill for a prolonged period of time, or are very overweight and don’t move much, those vital large muscles inevitably become under-used and much weaker. Having weak legs means that we are unfit leaving us at much greater risk of falls and general poor health.
Tips for strong legs:
• Plenty of walking is really the very best you can do to keep legs strong. A 30 minute walk every day will have a dramatic effect.
• If you sit at a desk then get up and move around every 30 minutes to get those legs moving and help your circulation. Set a timer to remind you!
• Make the effort to use the stairs as much as you can throughout the day. The quadriceps and gluteal muscles work very hard when stair-climbing. It is a very effective form of leg exercise.
• Try balancing on each leg for 30 seconds every day (making sure you have something to hold onto if need be) to not only gain extra strength in the standing leg but your ability to balance will benefit greatly. This exercise features each week in the Immunity Plan Workout but if you want to see me demonstrate how to do it safely fast forward the Immunity Plan Workout - Week 1 video - it comes up 10 minutes and 10 seconds through the film.
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THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE
1. Three times this week go up and down stairs 5 times consecutively.
Safety tip: Go up steadily but come down slowly, holding a handrail. If you have no stairs, find a step and step up and down the step 10 times with your left leg leading and 10 times with your right leg leading then repeat the sequence five times.
2. Change your walking route to include an incline.
Going uphill works those lungs harder as well as those 'big engines'
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EMBARRASSING BODY ISSUES
 Added to the site this week are videos covering Embarrassing Medical Issues that can so joyously occur as we get older. This week I talk about Haemorrhoids, Bowel Screening and having a Colonoscopy and Urinary Tract Infections. I hope you will find it reassuring, enlightening and helpful – if not now, perhaps at some time in the future!
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Recipe of the Week
This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law, Jeanne, over 30 years ago. It is a surprisingly tasty dish that is very easy to make. I included it in my Complete Hip & Thigh Diet in 1989
Fish Curry
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 pieces frozen haddock
400g can of plum tomatoes
1 eating apple, cored and chopped small
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon tomato purée
2 generous teaspoons Branston pickle
1 tablespoon of curry powder
Place all the ingredients except the fish in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Put a lid on the saucepan and cook very slowly for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the frozen fish to the pan and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes on a low heat.
If the mixture is too thin, remove the lid and cook on a slightly higher heat until the sauce reduces and thickens toward the end of cooking time.
Serve with basmati rice.
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 This week we had another recording session in the kitchen, this time joined by my daughter, Dawn, which was great fun. In the coming weeks you will be able to see me cooking some of my recipes from the archive as well as how to boost the quantity and flavour whilst reducing the calories in some of your favourite dishes. Watch this space!
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For all of us our life’s journey will include some incredible and joyous highs and some heart-breaking and painful lows and the last year has undoubtedly challenged everyone. How we cope with these changes and challenges can help to strengthen our character and prepare us for whatever else may present itself in the future. As the lockdown is hopefully eased, we are able to enjoy and appreciate some of the things that bring us joy once more and I hope that we will all appreciate our freedom more than ever and that we will appreciate life on a whole different level.
So, here are my five ideas that I believe can make the world a happier place:
- Smile and the World Smiles With You
When we smile and are nice to people, it makes us feel better too.
- Phone A Friend
Making a phone call to someone elderly or on their own is so appreciated by them and we always feel lifted afterwards too.
- Just Putting You Through Now.
When calling a company, and the receptionist introduces themselves as they answer your call, I try to remember their name so that when they put me through, I can say, ‘Thank you Sam’. Remembering people’s names makes us all feel important.
- Who's Serving Who?
I try to learn the names of people who regularly serve me in a shop. Seeing their smile when I say ‘Hi Lorraine, how are you doing?’ is reward in itself.
- Delivering The Goods
When we have goods delivered to our home, we often receive a text telling us that ‘Your driver John/Janet will deliver your parcel…’ and for some carriers the same driver delivers every time. It must be quite a slog to be driving around delivering so many parcels all day so we always try to make the effort to call them by name and pass the time of day and check they are OK when they call. I think they appreciate it.
So, let’s appreciate life and each other and make time to be kind. After all, it’s nice to be nice.
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Coming soon….
I will be talking to you about fashion and how to dress to flatter our figure shape. Generally, we fall into one of three body shapes – Pear, Apple and Heart. I will talk you through the latest fashion trends and what style is likely to be best suited to your personal body shape.
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Have a wonderful week and enjoy the sunshine this Bank Holiday weekend!
With love and best wishes,
Rosemary Conley CBE DL
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LIVE LONGER | LIVE HEALTHIER | LIVE HAPPIER
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We are so delighted with the number of you who have subscribed to our weekly Newsletter (this week we have just hit the 500 mark!) and thank you for your kind comments. Putting this Newsletter together each week is a joint enterprise between myself, fitness expert Mary Morris (who creates your
Weekly Fitness Challenge), and Peter my PA who designs the layout and does the technical stuff so you can just click on the highlighted words and go straight to the relevant video or page of the website. Mary and I have had a joyous working relationship that has spanned 27 years and last year we wrote 
