Download anthony - Julie Meek

ANTHONY
FIELD
The Blue Wiggle
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about anthony
A handful of people in my life have embedded certain
recording artists and their music into my psyche, mostly by
stealth. Engelbert Humperdinck and Cliff Richard were the
background sounds of my childhood because my nan and
mum played their music incessantly. In recent years, I have
accompanied Nan and Mum to see them both live in concert,
and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that I knew most
of the songs and lyrics. Fast-forward a few decades, and the
same phenomenon has happened again but this time at the
hands of my young children. The star performers were quite
a bit younger than ‘Humpy’ and Cliff, but their music resides
in my brain now too. Instantly recognisable by their distinctive
colours, they are The Wiggles.
The idea of The Wiggles began when Anthony Field, a.k.a. the
Blue Wiggle, decided to record an album for children while
studying Early Childhood at university, thinking it might help
him get a job as a teacher. It wasn’t a completely random idea
as Anthony had already been a member of the 1980s charttopping group, The Cockroaches, along with his brothers Paul
and John, and the Purple Wiggle, Jeff Fatt. Previously he was an
infantry soldier in the Australian regular army from 1982-1985,
and a piper with the 5/7 Royal Australian Regiment. Music
was in his blood.
For the children’s album, Anthony enlisted the help of his old
band-mate Jeff Fatt, recruited his university mates Murray
Cook and Greg Page, and in 1991, The Wiggles were born.
In their 22-year lifespan, the group has achieved worldwide
success with their children’s albums, videos, television series,
and concert appearances. The Wiggles were named Business
Review Weekly’s top-earning Australian entertainers for four
years in a row and earned AU$45 million in 2009. They have
earned 17 gold, 12 platinum, three double platinum, and 10
multi-platinum awards and have sold over 27 million DVDs
and CDs, more than a million children’s books and millions
of educational toys. By 2002, The Wiggles had become the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) most successful
pre-school television programme. Let’s face it, there are very
few children in Australia who are not acquainted with The
Wiggles and some of them are now parents themselves.
In 2012, The Wiggles announced that three of the original
members, Murray, Greg and Jeff were retiring from the group
and standing aside for Lachlan, Emma and Simon. However,
Anthony made the decision to stay with the new lineup because, after a health transformation in recent years, he
considers that he is in the best shape of his life.
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ANTHONY’S performance tip
What you put in your
body is the most
important thing for
good health – try
vegetarianism
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what anthony has learnt
The Wiggles have always stated their mission is to deliver
the best, developmentally sound musical fun a three year old
can have. To do this, each member needs to be at peak fitness
because they are not solely musicians but entertainers who are
extremely active on stage.
Injury or ill-health has touched each member of The Wiggles
at some point in their successful careers with Greg Page leaving
the band due to illness in 2006. Such was the magnitude of
their success at this point, that his departure was front-page
news in The New York Times.
For Anthony, his on-stage public persona gave no clue to the
inner battle that he was fighting with his own life and health.
In the last few years Anthony has made his ongoing struggle
with depression public, along with a list of ailments that have
at times been life-threatening. The list includes chronic back
pain courtesy of military training, excess weight, irritable bowel
syndrome and food sensitivities, hernias, constant headaches,
circulation issues and exhaustion, all of which Anthony battled
while managing an extremely physically demanding job and
constant travel and touring. He estimates that he has spent tens
of thousands of dollars and a massive chunk of productive hours
seeking treatment, medicine and advice.
By 2011, The Wiggles were performing 350-400 shows each
year and were on the road for up to nine months annually
within Australia and internationally. Naturally this involved a
lot of time on planes, trains and automobiles, staying at hotels,
with erratic eating and exercise habits, and disturbed sleep
routines. Even back home in Sydney, Anthony usually wakes
up at 4am and still struggles to find enough time in the day to
exercise and eat well. Sleep has been elusive for many years for
Anthony as he suffers from insomnia and if he gets five solid
hours of sleep, things are going well for him.
The Blue Wiggle today is quite different to the one who
entertained children all over the world for over 20 years.
Anthony’s health breakthrough came as a result of The Wiggles’
treatment regime on the road and he credits two chiropractors
with guiding him to great health and quite possibly saving his
life. Just under a decade ago, they assisted him with his physical
and dietary rehabilitation and literally transformed his body.
The lifestyle changes, routines and exercises that Anthony
followed are detailed in his book, How I Got My Wiggle Back. He
has a special interest in gymnastics and acrobatics and describes
his training routine as roughly the same as competitive athletes.
Anthony made significant changes to his diet, first becoming a
vegetarian and now a vegan. Coupled with the other lifestyle
changes, Anthony is able to continue performing at the highest
level in one of the world’s most successful musical groups.
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vegetarianism
I was vegetarian for a couple of years while at university
by the Medical Journal of Australia was the first Australian
and I really enjoyed it, plus it made economic sense when
scientific literature review of vegetarian diets. The research
I didn’t have much money. Being a vegetarian means that
reviewed shows that a well-planned vegetarian diet can
you do not consume red meat, poultry, seafood or the flesh
meet nutritional needs for good health and may reduce the
of any other animal. Lacto-ovo vegetarians consume eggs
risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease,
and dairy, the flexitarians mix it up a bit and pescetarians
insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Vegetarian
eat fish but no other meat. The tallest rung in the vegetarian
diets can be higher in dietary fibre and antioxidants and
ladder is the vegan diet, which excludes all animal products
lower in saturated fat and cholesterol but can also be low
including eggs, dairy, beeswax and honey. It might sound
in iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc and omega-3
simple but because many packaged and processed foods
fats, all of which are essential to our well-being. In the pursuit
including cakes, biscuits and snack foods all contain animal
of vegetarianism, many people eliminate meat from their
ingredients, it is not a straightforward matter of just eliminating
diets and don’t replace the iron or protein. However, with
meat. From a sustainability viewpoint, there is much support
good planning, adequate intake of the vital nutrients can be
for a widespread reduction in meat consumption due to
addressed.
environmental concerns and greenhouse gas emissions.
When planning a strategy for maintaining a healthy
A 2010 Newspoll survey commissioned by Sanitarium Health
vegetarian or vegan diet, it may also be beneficial to consult
and Well-Being found that seven out of ten Australians are
with an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) experienced in
eating more plant-based foods than previously, but only
vegetarian nutrition.
5-6% of females and 1-3% of males claim to be vegetarian or
vegan. In June 2012, a peer reviewed supplement published
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While animal and plant foods both provide protein, they are
incomplete proteins are consumed during the course of a
not the same. Protein is an essential nutrient for our bodies
day, this will result in the same outcome.
and is made up of amino acids. They are a similar concept
to Lego® – lots of blocks form a house and lots of amino
acids strung together form proteins. Some of these amino
acids are essential and are found only in food, and others
are non-essential and manufactured by the body. Foods
Some examples of protein foods
are:
Incomplete Protein Foods
with proteins that do not contain all of the essential amino
Grains – rice, corn, bread, oats, pasta and breakfast
acids are known as incomplete protein foods and foods that
cereals
contain proteins with all the essential amino acids are called
Legumes – baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas,
complete proteins.
cannellini and borlotti beans
Generally speaking, protein from animal foods is complete
Nuts and seeds
while protein from vegetable sources is incomplete. For
vegetarians, this can present a problem. Incomplete
proteins can be complementary to each other and combine
to form complete proteins. Some years ago it was thought
that vegetarians needed to combine particular types of
incomplete proteins in the same meal for this process to
Complete Protein Foods
Meat, chicken and fish
Dairy products – milk, cheese and yoghurt
Eggs
occur. Scientists now know that as long as a number of
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