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Rate your fitness

Photos by Getty Images

Just how fit are you really? Take our quick quiz to see how your fitness stacks up!

1: How many times per week do you participate in an organized sport or set activity (i.e. Going for a jog/walk)

a) 3 or more times / week

b) 1-2 times / week

c) 0

2: How often would you accumulate 30 min or more of activity in your day (include walking upstairs, to the bus/train, shopping etc)

a) Most if not all days

b) 3-4 times / week

c) Less than 3

3: If you answered b or c for the first two questions, write down all the reasons / excuses why you are unable to exercise / be more active. How many reasons / excuses did you come up with? (If you answered a to the first two questions circle a for this question).

a) 2 or less reasons

b) 2-5 reasons

c) Greater than 5 reasons

4: When shopping at the supermarket / shopping centre, I always aim to park the car

a) As far away from the entrance as possible as it is easy to find a park

b) The first car park I see

c) As close as possible to the entrance even if this means circling the car park for minutes

5: If there are stairs close to an escalator or elevator how often would you take the stairs instead

a) More often than not

b) Occasionally

c) Never

6: When watching television…

a) I have to get up at every opportunity to “stretch my legs” or do something else OR I don’t watch much television

b) I can’t sit for long periods without doing something

c) I am able to sit for hours on end without getting up (except if I have to go to the toilet or get more food or drink)

7: If I have to go to nearby shops (approx 1km)

a) I will walk or ride my bike most of the time

b) I will occasionally walk / ride

c) I will always drive or take public transport

8: When getting dressed in the morning…

a) I am able to do it all standing up or kneeling down

b) I have to sit down when putting on my shoes

c) I struggle to put on my shoes in the morning

9: I find activities that I was able to do years ago

a) Just as easy or easier than they were

b) Getting harder but I am still able to do most of them

c) Very difficult and in a lot of cases I am unable to do them

10: My dress / pants / shirt size…

a) Has been the same since I was a teenager / early adulthood

b) Has slightly increased over time (no more than 1-2 sizes)

c) Has increased numerous sizes since my late teenage / early adulthood years

11: I find getting out of a chair

a) Easy (I am able to leap out of the chair if need be)

b) Not as easy as it once was (I prefer to use the arm rests if sitting for a long time)

c) Difficult, I have to use the arm rest to assist me to get up

12: I participate in resistance training i.e. weights or other strengthening exercises…

a) 3 or more times per week

b) Once a fortnight or more

c) Rarely

13: I suffer from feet problems

a) Never OR Occasionally – but I manage it through getting professional advice

b) Occasionally – but I put up with it OR All the time – but I get professional advice regarding its maintenance

c)All the time but I have not sought professional advice such as a podiatrist or doctor

14: Stretching is an important part of maintaining a healthy body. I stretch…

a) At least once every time I exercise and / or have a set time most if not all days to stretch

b) Occasionally with exercise / activity and / or I stretch a couple of times per week

c) Rarely

15: Whenever I find myself puffed after an exercise / activity session…

a) I always complete approx 5 minutes of slowly decreasing intensity of activity

b) I would occasionally cool down via walking around for a short period

c) I would stop and sit down or stand still to catch my breath

How to score:

**a) score 10 points

b) score 5 points

c) score 0 points

**

120 – 150 POINTS

90 – 120 POINTS

Less than 90 POINTS

Your Say: How did you score? Share your fitness levels with us below…

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A garden of peace

Photo: Getty Images

When your life is hectic it’s time to just sit and enjoy your garden — a place of serenity where the bustle of the outside world is stilled.

Or at least that’s what a garden can be like. Too often, though, the thought of ‘time in the garden’ means weeding, watering, mowing — the very opposite of peace.

So how do you turn your garden into a place where you relax instead of watering the petunias?

1. Plan a low care garden!

One of the most important ‘low care’ tips is to get rid of the lawn, and either pave or plant with shrubs and mulch well. I know this sounds like more work – and initially it is – but it’s worth it. We mulch everything in spring then basically leave the garden alone for most of the rest of the year. Okay, we have wombats and wallabies to eat our grass. But the area around the house is paved.

2. Make your garden private:

This doesn’t mean you have to build a brick wall around your garden – walls can often make the garden seem smaller and claustrophobic. Try tall trees, like malaleucas or avocadoes, around the front, back and sides instead. You don’t need to block out every glimpse of your home – most passersby aren’t peeping Tom’s, just casual glancers, and if the space around your house is broken up by trees and shrubbery they won’t crane to get a closer look.

In front of the trees plant flowing shrubs, like hardy and ever-blooming grevilleas, camellias, strelitzia, hibiscus and buddleia, or even cumquats, Tahitian limes and dwarf apples. This will give you small irregular courtyards between your house and the trees. Pave them, or used compressed granite, or pebble mulch (raking off leaves is easier than mowing, feeding and watering).

3. Add ‘white noise’

Trees don’t just give you privacy, they also create ‘white noise’, a pleasant murmuring of the branches and leaves that hides unpleasant sounds like cars and next-door’s TV. Every home needs at least three tall trees nearby for that soft background sound that relaxes you even though you don’t quite know why.

4. Curve all paths

People mostly look in straight lines and a curve will divert their glance from your front door or garage till they’re well past.

5. Add terraces or rock gardens

Terrace your garden if it’s sloping, or add a mounded rock garden if it’s flat. Both will make your garden feel bigger and create a sense of protective space around you too. Make the rocks as large as possible – even boulders if it’s possible and they don’t look ridiculous. I don’t want to go all feng shui on you, but boulders really do give a feeling of calm and solidness.

6. Find somewhere to relax

All gardens need somewhere comfy to sit. Never buy garden furniture just because it looks good! Take a book or magazine to the shop and sit there for at least an hour to see how your backside feels after being plonked there unmoving for a good length of time. If you feel sore or stiff, they’re the wrong chairs. Be wary of metal furniture too, as it might get too hot unless it’s on a cool veranda. Hanging swings can be great – as long as you are absolutely sure you don’t get seasick in them. (I was given a big swing seat a few birthdays ago. I’d always loved them… till I discovered that three minutes in one is enough to turn me as green as the shrubbery.)

Work out where you want to sit in winter and in summer, too. Then, at the start of each new season move the furniture to its new resting place. You won’t be tempted to go and lounge in your garden if you’re sweltering in sunlight in the summer, or shivering in the shade in winter. And having a new place to sit really does give you new appreciation for different vistas in your garden.

7. Think about your garden!

Most of us spend a lot more time making the living room comfortable than our garden – even though the garden is usually larger, with far more potential for relaxation and fun.

8. Don’t feel guilty when you sit and smell the roses, or just the scent of clean green leaves.

Flowers and the smells of growing things make humans happy. It’s one of our most primitive joys. A good dose of your garden is exactly what you need to help you cope with the hustle of the world outside.

P.S. If there are weeds staring at you from the petunias, or a lost jogger is underneath the chairs, learn to ignore them, at least for a while. It’s an art that all who love their gardens need to learn. The weeds are always with us… but we need to focus on the peace for a while as well.

P.S. If there are weeds staring at you from the petunias, or a lost jogger is underneath the chairs, learn to ignore them, at least for a while. It’s an art that all who love their gardens need to learn. The weeds are always with us… but we need to focus on the peace for a while as well.

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I put a fake birth notice in the paper

My twin sister and I are identical — we look the same, dress the same, laugh the same. But we don’t act the same. In fact, my sister is not the same person as me at all. My twin sister is mean and spiteful. And this is no clearer than when it comes to our children.

I got married a little earlier than Roxanne, and started having my babies almost straight away. From the very first moment, Roxanne was completely jealous of my new happy family — maybe because it didn’t include her as much as it once had. Roxanne would often drop by to see her niece and nephew, two years apart, but I don’t know why she bothered; she was never particularly nice to them. In fact, sometimes she was downright horrible:

“Look who got their daddy’s looks,” she used to coo.

“I’m sorry, Tanya,” she would then say to me, “but your children are just ugly.”

Naturally, I would get defensive, but at the end of the day I knew that Roxanne was wrong, and just being malicious, so I never banished her from my house — as I probably should have. I was sure she was just saying what she said out of jealousy, and because she knew the children were too young to understand what she was telling them. And it seemed I was right — when my eldest was four, the taunts stopped.

Then, Roxanne fell pregnant with her own baby. She was suddenly too excited to focus on my kids anymore, and I was delighted — both for her happiness and the end of her jealousy.

So you can’t imagine my outrage when, just a few weeks before she was due to give birth, she told my four year old daughter that she was “really a very ugly, naughty child,” and that her little girl would both beautiful and good. My child was crushed, and I had only one thing on my mind… Revenge.

I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. Merely telling my sister to never come near my family again just didn’t seem satisfying enough. I wanted her to suffer in the same way I had for four years of her hurting me and my children.

It wasn’t until the day her little girl was born that the perfect idea came to me: I would put a very special birth notice in the papers. It was so perfect and devious, I was sure it would never be allowed. But I was determined to give it a try!

A few days after baby Marian’s birth, a notice appeared in both the state and local papers announcing:

“Roxanne and her husband Daniel are pleased to announce the arrival of the World’s Ugliest Baby, Marian. Born at 4.56am, she is long and fat, and with a face so concaved by the forceps, it is inconceivable that she could ever be pretty. Commiserations to the whole family.”

Both papers tried to argue with me that it was too harsh, but I had Roxanne’s driver’s license. As far as they were concerned, I was the mother — and I could therefore say what I liked.

Of course, Roxanne was furious. The whole town (let alone the whole state!) had seen the notice, and assumed Roxanne and Daniel had indeed had a hideously ugly baby. They also thought Roxanne the nastiest mother alive, and Roxanne had a very difficult time enrolling in her local mothers’ group!

Marian is, of course, a beautiful child, and when I visit with my young family, I make sure I tell her so. While I delight in the fact that I viciously wounded my twin sister’s pride — and she doesn’t even realise it was me!

Picture: Getty Images. Posed by model.

Your say: Have your say about this true confession below…

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In the mag – September 1, 2008

60th birthday issue on sale Monday August 25, 2008

Gordon and Tana: How we keep our marriage sexy

Together for 15 years and with four kids, but the romance still sizzles…

Princess Mary comes home to save our children

Australia’s favourite princess interrupts a precious family holiday in her native Tasmania to champion a home-grown charity that holds a very special place in her heart.

The amazing psychic world of Ann Ann

Woman’s Day‘s spookily accurate psychic shares the ups and downs of life with ‘the gift’…

Jeanne and Barry Little: Our mad, mad life!

They said Jeanne and Barry Little wouldn’t last two months — 36 years on they’re still having a wild time together!.

60th anniversary true life special: The girl from the bush

Her rags-to-riches story captured the attention of the nation 50 years ago. Woman’s Day catches up with Joyce Blitner to find out why she turned her back on a life of wealth.

  • Portia and Ellen’s wedding album: The brides say ‘I do’

Newlywed lesbian couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi delighted friends and family by ditching their planned Hollywood wedding for an intimate ceremony. Don’t miss this week’s Woman’s Day for photos of the happy couple on their very special day.

  • Saving Matilda

Heath Ledger’s Hollywood friends are generously rallying to secure the future of his daughter Matilda, amid concerns that Heath’s outdated will — which did not mention Matilda or her mother, actress Michelle Williams — could leave Matilda high and dry. Despite Heath’s dad Kim Ledger insisting she will definitely get her fair share, some family members and friends remain uneasy about the management of the estate.

  • Star of The Strip: Aaron Jeffery

He may play a tough guy on screen, but he is a real softie when it comes to his daughter.

  • Hollywood’s new miracle diet

Eat all day and still lose weight!

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Gordon and Tana: How we keep our marriage sexy

By Angela Mollard

Pictures: Chris Terry/Contour by Getty Images

Together for 15 years and with four kids, but the romance still sizzles…

He’s the hottest thing on television and adored by women around the globe, but Gordon Ramsay is a devoted husband who loves nothing better than drinking bubbly in bed and shopping for underwear with his wife.

In an exclusive interview with Woman’s Day, Gordon’s wife Tana reveals how the sexy chef keeps their marriage alive with romantic breaks away and loving notes he leaves in her wardrobe.

The couple, who have four children and plans for a fifth, have one of the most successful marriages in show business, despite the fact that Gordon is an object of desire for millions of women worldwide.

For the full story, see this week’s 60th anniversary issue of Woman’s Day (on sale August 25).

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Princess Mary comes home to save our children

By Megan Norris

Australia’s favourite princess interrupts a precious family holiday in her native Tasmania to champion a home-grown charity that holds a very special place in her heart.

While Princess Mary’s trip back to Australia is partly a joyous occasion to introduce her 15-month-old daughter Isabella to her Australian relatives, another cause close to Mary’s heart will be top of her agenda during her time in Tasmania this week.

The princess’s unstinting commitment to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation will see her taking time out to step up her crusade to improve the lives of children everywhere and stamp out bullying. The Foundation was established 12 years ago by Australian father Walter Mikac to honour his little girls who died in the nation’s biggest mass murder.

After catching up with family, the princess will attend the only official engagement in her diary — the Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s dinner. As its Royal International Patron, Mary, along with her husband Crown Prince Frederik, will join influential Australians including the charity’s National Patron, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Victorian Patron Premier John Brumby and Founding Patron Walter Mikac.

For the full story, see this week’s 60th anniversary issue of Woman’s Day (on sale August 25).

Your say: Do you think Princess Mary is the real ‘modern day’ princess?

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The amazing world of Ann Ann

By Glen Williams

Pictures: David Hahn

Woman’s Day‘s spookily accurate psychic shares the ups and downs of life with ‘the gift’…

Woman’s Day psychic Ann Ann is the first to admit her incredible supernatural gift can leave her mentally and physically drained.

Her intuitive ability to tap into the spiritual world often means very little rest for the alarmingly accurate Ann. She is constantly besieged by a clamouring of ghostly voices all vying for her attention.

Thankfully, Ann knows when to listen to these voices, and as a result she has helped to solve some horrific crimes, assisted in locating missing persons, and allowed troubled souls to finally find peace.

Happy-go-lucky and quick with a raucous laugh, Ann looks like your normal Aussie mum as she enjoys a cuppa on the verandah of her beautiful Brisbane Queenslander. She loves her footy, her five kids and five grandkids, and she can’t keep away from Bunnings hardware stores. She’s so normal, it’s hard to imagine this is the same woman who has been flung across her bedroom by unruly spirits, who can see dead people as plain as day, and has angered the police with her no-nonsense approach to solving crimes that have left them stumped.

“I call a spade a shovel,” Ann laughs. “I don’t beat around the bush, and the police in general don’t acknowledge what I do. They don’t like to admit that they’ve used information given to them by a psychic.

“To be honest, I try not to get involved in things unless I’m asked, because it becomes too draining. I try not to watch the news, as that usually triggers a psychic happening.”

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Jeanne and Barry Little: Our mad, mad life!

By Glen Williams

They said Jeanne and Barry Little wouldn’t last two months — 36 years on they’re still having a wild time together!

We’ve loved Jeanne Little since she first burst into our consciousness back in the early 1970s with her raucous and endearing “Hello daaarling, gee you’re gorgeous!” And every step of the madcap way, Barry, her ever-supportive (he would say long-suffering) husband, has been there, believing in and shoring up Jeanne’s offbeat and amazing talent. He says he “tolerates” her insanity, but it’s obvious he absolutely adores it.

As part of our 60th birthday celebrations, we couldn’t help but stroll down memory lane with a couple who are part of the Woman’s Day family — and have one of Australia’s most enduring marriages — the Littles.

How do you describe Jeanne?

Barry: She’s mad. And she gets away with murder.

Jeanne: I am mad. I love being mad. When I go up to the shop to get some milk or something, people stop me and say, “Hello Jeanne, how are you?” And I’ll say, “You’re looking fantastic,” when they really look shocking. [Laughs]

Barry: I don’t know how she gets away with it. Jeanne is oblivious to her madness. She made a dress out of rubber gloves and she went up the street to get something. This old lady stopped her and said, “What’s that dress made of, condoms?” Jeanne said, “Daarling, if they were condoms I’d be stripped naked by now.” It’s true she has this tremendous warmth. When she goes up to the shops she’s gone for hours because she talks to everyone. And she’s the kindest person in the world. Generous to a fault. She’s just given you one of my 15th-century statues. And it’s not hers to give. But we never have really bad fights do we?

Is it true you picked Barry up at a railway station?

Jeanne: Yes that’s right, sort of. I was on my way to a party with friends and picked Barry up at North Sydney station.

Barry: That was the first time I saw Jeanne.

Was it instant attraction?

Barry: Yes. We talked all night at the party together.

Jeanne: It really was instant, wasn’t it? It was lovely.

What year was that?

Barry: It was the early ’60s. We had a 10-year relationship together before we decided to get married. We didn’t rush into it.

Jeanne: Yes, we were together a long time. Lots of cocktail parties in between and having tons of people who were wild and mad.

It sounds a very Bohemian life!

Jeanne: Yes, we love all that.

Barry: They were the days, lots of drinking and good times. We all got together on Saturday nights outside the Rex Hotel [in Sydney’s Kings Cross] at 10 o’clock, just hanging around and waiting to go to some party or other. The rest of the week we had these fairly ordinary jobs. Jeanne worked at the attorney-general’s office as a bookkeeper and I was an interior designer.

Is that how you brought your daughter Katie up, to have a strong belief in herself?

Jeanne: I think so.

Barry: It was very hard for Katie, growing up, she used to get abused at school. It must have been hell with kids screaming at her, “Hello daaaaarling.” We had problems with her when she was an adolescent. She was a bit wild.

Jeanne: You can understand that.

It’s not every day your mum’s Jeanne Little, is it?

Jeanne: That’s true! Perfectly true. Exactly.

Barry: She’s a very sensible girl, quite level-headed.

Jeanne: We sent Katie to a really good school and I used to go and pick her up after being on The Mike Walsh Show in the ’70s and I sometimes had hot pants on and a matching purple wig and make-up galore, and I’d sort of be there at the school and all these other mothers would go, “Oh, hello”. Some of the mums were real snobs. But the kids at the convent next door used to hang out the window and loved it.

Barry: I think the other kids wished their mother was as mad and fun as Jeanne.

And now you’re grandparents to Katie’s kids…

Jeanne: Oh, it’s nice, isn’t it Barry?

Barry: Yes, we like it.

Jeanne: They like to drop them in. They say they’re coming over so we run out and get chocolate and ice-cream and everything. And their mother says, “Don’t give them chocolate or ice-cream because it makes them frenetic.” But as soon as the door slams we run and get the chocolate and the ice-cream and jelly. It’s fabulous, and by the time the parents come back they’ve wrecked the house and they’re on to the next place. They are lovely.

Barry: He’s a dear little boy. Tom is three and Charlotte’s one.

Do you still read tea leaves Jeanne?

Jeanne: Yes, I do. My mother used to read them, too. One day my mother was waiting for this woman’s son from Brighton-Le-Sands to bring his mother’s tea cup to her. When he brought it, she said, “See this person with a hatchet on a woman’s head?” and by the time her son came home she’d been killed. So isn’t that terrible.

What happens when you see death in a tea cup?

Barry: She’s seen a few deaths but she doesn’t tell anyone. We saw a boot at the top of the cup last week and that means we’re moving. And that’s exactly what happened.

Yes, you’re at an amazing turning point. After all these years you’re moving house…

Jeanne: Yes, we are. It really is an end of an era.

Barry: It’s enormous. We’re getting rid of everything.

Jeanne: We are happy about it. We’ve been here a long time and there are too many stairs. I fell down them with high heels on. I was shooting down thinking, “Will it be my neck, will it be my knees? Here I go.” Another time Barry was home and I could here this crashing sound and I thought , “Oohwah, there’s an elephant in the house. It was Barry crashing headfirst into a wall.”

Barry: I was lucky I didn’t knock myself out. We’ve both had falls in the house.

For more of this interview, see this week’s 60th anniversary issue of Woman’s Day (on sale August 25).

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I put insects in the tourists’ chow mein!

In my early twenties, I took a job as a cook for a coach operator touring around Australia. Most of the time it was great work: most of my hours were spent downing beers by a camp-fire with the friendly tourists who came on board my bus tour.

I was a good cook, with a few years of experience, so cooking for 40 or so people every night was really the work of a couple of hours, and I soon had it down to a fine art. It wasn’t gourmet food, but we were travelling through the central of Australia in hot and humid weather for most of the trip; eating was rarely the tourists’ priority when there was so much to see and do.

That is, until the day the senior citizens booked themselves on board the bus. For two weeks, as we travelled from Adelaide to Darwin, all I got were complaints. My soups were too thin, there weren’t enough vegetables in my stews, hotdogs were inappropriate dining and the bread wasn’t fresh. The list of grievances went on and on — all delivered in particularly nasty tones.

A few of them, after I had done my best to scrounge up some fresh produce in a backwater outback town, went so far as to tell my boss that I wasn’t trying hard enough. Although a kind enough employer, my boss had to keep his tourists happy, and I was publicly warned that I had to up the ante from then on.

I decided then and there that I would indeed do my very best to make sure their dining experience was extra special!

The very next day we pulled into Alice Springs. With fishing being a popular pastime in the nearby rivers, I soon found what I was looking for: a bait shop. I bought two kilos of fat slugs, and spent half an hour secretively holed up in my makeshift kitchen, hammering away at them with a mallet until they were pulped. Added to minced beef, they made an undetectable addition to my extra special chow mein!

I expected to get caught out — I had no idea what slugs and bugs tasted like. So I was absolutely beside myself with glee when the compliments started rolling in that night! Several passengers came back for seconds, and two even asked me for the recipe. Needless to say, I told them it was a secret.

Although I wasn’t bold enough to keep on serving them such disgusting meals, my one night of supposed brilliance gave me a reprieve for the rest of the trip; I promised I’d make the chow mein again once we got to Darwin — as long as they accepted the food they got until then!

Once we’d arrived in the northern capital, I quit my job and found a far better position cooking lunches in an easy-going bistro.

The worst my new customers ever got was a well-done steak that wasn’t quite well done, which I happily sent back as it was ordered — wondering all the while if the customer would have complained knowing what this chef was capable of!

Picture: Getty Images. Posed by model.

Your say: Did the tourists deserve to dine on slugs, or should the cook have lifted her game? Have your say about this true confession below…

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Hypnotherapy

In the minds of many, the act of hypnosis is exactly that: a theatrical act, where people are led up onto a stage and hypnotised into clucking like a chicken or mooing like a cow.

But the reality is that hypnotherapy is a vital medical tool, used daily to help thousands of Australians overcome all sorts of emotional and physical hurdles.

Dr Julie Kidd is a Sydney-based GP who uses hypnotherapy extensively in her practice.

  • addictions

  • bad habits

  • anger management

  • irritable bowel syndrome

  • panic attacks

  • anxiety

  • depression

  • insomnia

  • abnormal blood pressure

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