Category Archives: Exercise

The secret of success is you!

Posted on May 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

Remember that girl who gave up… yeah, no one else does either.

We have had a lot of people come through our boot camp program over the last few years.  I can now spot almost immediately who will be able to tough it out and who will give up.  I firmly believe that like attracts like.

Your everyday, overall attitude and also the attitude you show how you view specific things is what will determine your success. It’s like people who play poker poorly…they often have a “tell” that gives away their odds on success.   Poker players don’t want to give away what their holding.  You’re can’t be a poker player with your health.  You should be giving away your positive attitude in everything you do! Let other’s see it.

Exercise is a reward not a punishment.  One hour a day for your overall health is a very small investment.

You might spend hours and hours AND hours in your garden/yard for the few short months of nice weather we have here in Canada, but you won’t invest an hour into your life long health.  Crazy right?  You’ll do everything you can to beautify your property which only a few people will see, but you won’t make that same investment of time in yourself which everyone will see.

The difference of fit vs fat, strong vs weak, longevity vs shorter life span is as simple as the difference between being able to tend to your garden in your 80′s or sitting in a wheelchair watching others do what you used to take for granted.

Is our boot camp program hard?  Hells yes it’s hard, but it works.
It is fun and always changing.  You can’t get that from a bunch of machines.
The support I see everyday from your fellow boot campers encouraging each other is something that I am in awe of.

Think it’s not for you or it’s too tough?  You do what you can and you get stronger! Are you going to get stronger, healthier, fitter, faster doing what you’re doing now?

You need to start, set daily goals and not quit even when “life” gets in the way.

Stop settling for status quo. Stop beating yourself up in your mind. You have been through a lot harder in your life and there is no doubt you can tough out an hour of exercise.

Be stronger than your excuses.

There will always be an excuse or “reason” why you can’t.  Make your reasons why you can stronger than your excuses.

Limitations only exist when you let them.

When you are tired and I have you heading up that hill or stairs or I say 10 more burpees, dig deep, push through.  Show yourself, me and the world that you can do it. I know you can do it.  You just have to know you can do it. I have said it, well, yelled it 100x – you don’t walk to the finish line. You summon up that strength and you fight on!!

I refuse to give up on you!

Boot Campers are too busy getting better to have time for excuses!

Who loves ya’?

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Why be responsible when you can just have weight loss surgery…twice!

Posted on April 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

I had to take my daughter to the dentist today and while we were waiting I picked up the latest copy of People magazine.

There was a big feature on Carnie Wilson, the singer who had gastric bypass surgery and lost a whack of weight.  Good for her! Oh, hold on…she gained it back!!  How do you have a huge chunk of your stomach removed and you gain back 2/3 of your weight!!

The story was about her going under the knife AGAIN for another type of surgery.  This time, lap band surgery.

Shaking my head while reading this story was an understatement.  Even my daughter asked what I was reading about, likely because of the disgusted look on my face.

Really? A second surgery? COME ON??????????  She wrecked her stomach and stretched it SO much that she gained back the weight she lost, so she decided to fix her over eating problem by making her “tiny” stomach even smaller.

So what is gastric bypass?  First and foremost, it is a major surgery first and that in itself is a huge risk to your health. Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and causes food to bypass part the small intestine. You are “supposed” to feel full quickly. It is supposed to reduce the amount of food you can eat at one time. Bypassing part of the intestine reduces how much food and nutrients are absorbed.  This all sounds really healthy and such a simple way to lose weight?? NO

So what happened to Carnie and many others just like her??  They never changed their behaviors. They looked for the easy way out. They didn’t want to do the work to be healthy. They wanted a quick fix, just like the Jenny Craig’ers, Herbal Magic junkies, and every other fad of the week.

Carnie lost weight with the surgery and she likely kept eating crappy food.  Day by day stretching her stomach. Stuffing in more and more food.  She didn’t learn a thing. She didn’t learn to eat better.  She didn’t understand the reason for exercise and tadaaaaa…she is once again morbidly obese.  Repeat; AGAIN.
Her answer to “fix” this and to get healthy?  Well, I’ll just try a DIFFERENT surgery. She decided lap band surgery was the answer.  Oh and the surgeon who agreed to do this?  I’ll say what he is…a money grabbing quack that doesn’t deserve a medical license.  He should have turned her out the door and directed her to someone who would actually help her to understand what she is doing to herself and why!

So she goes under the surgical knife again and has a silicone band – (because that is a natural foreign object that should be in your body; NOT) placed around the top portion of her stomach so again she’ll feel full quickly and limit the amount of food that can be consumed.

I bet, and this is a shot in the dark, that the exact same thing will happen to Carnie. She will lose weight and then stretch the “tiny” pouch of a stomach AGAIN.

The only thing that Carnie has learned is that she can eat and eat and eat and then get some kind of surgery to fix it.

In the article she said she is doing this for her health–WOW, now that is total BS.  She is doing this because she is lazy and doesn’t want to do the work.  She wants a quick fix for the last couple of years of binge eating.  If she cared about her health she wouldn’t eat so recklessly.

She has been on the diet roller coaster for years.  She knows what to eat and what to avoid.

Here is a fact.  We’re not born loving ice cream.  It is a learned behavior. We mentally condition ourselves to find some kind of reward in eating certain foods.
I have been open and said that red velvet cake makes me start to drool.  But I wasn’t born loving red velvet cake.   I learned it.

We condition ourselves to what we eat and the habits we have.  I didn’t want to ruin the surprise, but, YOU ARE IN TOTAL CONTROL of your weight.
You are in control of the excuses you make or the reasons you make.

OK, before I get hate mail from people who are pro-weight loss surgery. Yes, there are some cases that they do require surgery. Those people are the ones featured on TLC that can’t leave their homes.  Most people and yes most people can eat healthy and exercise to stay healthy.  They choose not to because its too hard.  Or it’s work or requires commitment.  There’s no instant gratification in responsible methods of weight loss.

Carnie Wilson, where does this end?? You have PROVEN that you can cheat your way out of surgical alteration of your body.  Once you lose weight with this next surgery and then regain it again, what’s next?? Full removal of your stomach along with lipo suction or permanently wiring your jaw shut?
Madness….

Yes, this fires me up because people read her story and think they are in the same boat as her and then turn to these ridiculous measures.

If you are struggling with your weight,  you’ve done it to yourself. There is no fat fairy that is punishing you, you are punishing yourself.  When I weighed over 225lbs -I DID THAT TO MYSELF.  Eating was my sport and I suffered.  But I actually wanted to be healthy and I lost the weight the right way and I am never going back.

Do the opposite of Carnie Wilson.  Choose health not quick fixes.

Gregg McBride also wrote a great post on this subject.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregg-mcbride/weight-loss-surgery_b_1375800.html

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If nothing changes……nothing changes.

Posted on March 8, 2012 | 2 Comments

Everyone knows what they “should” be doing but only very few actually do it, and by “it” I mean exercise and eat properly.

It’s time to make changes.

  • Time to plan your meals and COOK THEM
  • Time to schedule in your workouts

Things will come up that will derail your from your plan, but you need to dial into your ninja stealth moves and be able to recover and stay on track.
(Oh yes, I just said ninja stealth moves! LOL)

Meetings come up, kids get sick, traffic happens, you forgot your lunch.  The list of “didn’t plan on this happening goes and on and on…

Bumps in the road are bumps in the road.  They do not give you a  licence to eat whatever is quick or easy.  It’s not permission for you to skip exercise.  You really need to be stronger than your excuses.

Being healthy is not a punishment…it is a reward!

Exercise and eat smart.  That’s all I’m asking for.  It’s prevention.  It is going to help you live a longer, happier and healthier life.

Think about this for a sec.  How many people do you know that have health issues and for them, it’s now too late.  TOO LATE.  Don’t become that person or statistic.  Not when you have the ability and wherewithal to take control.

You get through one day at a time. You set goals, real goals (specifics please!), not fluffy, obscure goals (i.e. I will lose weight).  You say, “I will lose 10 pounds by April 1st, be able to do 10 more pushups”…etc.

Those days you just aren’t feeling up for a workout.  Show up to boot camp.  I guarantee that you will leave feeling happy and proud of yourself that you did it!

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Even Disney suffers the effects of bullying

Posted on March 5, 2012 | 11 Comments

Imagine if you will, a child is on the street running back and forth between moving cars.  He is jumping in front of cyclists, buses, cars and people just walking.  There, on the sidewalk is his mother; ignoring the obvious danger her son is putting himself in.  In fact, a driver stopped his car and told the mother that if she didn’t stop the boy, he was going to die.  The mother was incensed!  How dare this man tell her how to raise her child?  How dare this obvious “do-gooder” point out the shortcomings of her parenting abilities?

It went so far that the mother sued the man claiming that she embarrassed her and caused her to suffer depression.  There were other mothers that joined the lawsuit creating a class-action lawsuit against the man, claiming that no one has any right to try to protect any child from their parents.  A parent has a right to allow their own child to kill itself and no one can stop their bad parenting.

Seems completely impossible for this to happen doesn’t it.  This is political correctness run a muck.  This is ultimate in stupidity.  This is what is happening all around us.  No, not this exact situation, but this premise that we can’t tell the truth because we are so afraid of offending someone.  We can’t tell it like it is because some ‘expert’ has said little Johnny will suffer low self-esteem for the rest of his life.

Well, this week, I was floored when I read that my favourite place on earth had also fallen victim to political correctness.  The greatest company on earth gave into the outcry of a few at the cost of many.

Disney threw in the towel on a great program, “Habit Heroes”.  The attraction hadn’t even received full-blown release yet, and it has been closed. The program was a direct hit at child obesity using exercise, healthy choices and the always popular good versus bad as Will Power and Callie Stenics would have battled such evil beings as “The Snacker”, “The Glutton” and “Lead Bottom”.

"If you're smart, I'm broke. Don't educate yourself about fat loss."

So who complained? Weight loss surgeons and fat-acceptance groups! So, who has the most to lose by children learning proper nutrition, exercise and healthy choices…that’s right weight loss surgeons.   And if everyone learns how to be healthy and control their weight through exercise and nutrition, who will be left on the outside looking in? Fat-acceptance groups…what the hell are “fat-acceptance groups”?

Fat-acceptance?  I accepted that I was fat when I was a teenager.  I would look at myself in the mirror and make excuses about why I was the way I was.  I would lie to myself.  I would tell people around me I was happy and ok with myself.  The reason I did that was because who in the world wants to admit, they are happy being fat!!??  Hold on, I know…people who are too friggin’ lazy to do what it takes to lose weight.  People who are too lazy to make a real meal because its easier to go buy fast food and chips than it is to cook a meal and cut up veggies.

“The attraction is currently closed as we work to further refine the experience,” Kathleen Prihoda, Disney’s media relations manager, told Yahoo on Wednesday. “Our goal with Habit Heroes is to make sure it conveys a positive message about healthy lifestyles in a fun way.”

Well, in my humble opinion Kathleen, that is exactly what Disney had in it’s new Epcot exhibit.  So bring it back, unchanged and ready to teach with the truth.

Fat is expensive to all of us.  Fat is not healthy.  Fat impacts quality of life.  Offended by fat education?  Then move right past the exhibit, keep waddling right on over to find a funnel cake with ice-cream, syrup and sugar and all the finest fixins’.…they are incredible and will satisfy any binge needed.  No need to stop at any of those silly healthy restaurants that serve salads and vegetables.  Fresh produce…oh the horror if your children saw you doing something that was good for them.  In fact…why don’t you threaten to sue restaurants that have healthy choices because a skinny smiling child seated next to you and your “fat-acceptance” family could be disturbing to you and your precious “little” herd.

Was that harsh? You bet it was harsh but this crap has me fired up.  This is political crapness.  Where do I get to complain that my rights and feelings are being hurt?  Oh yeah, and I have the right to voice my opinion on this subject.  I’ve been on the obeses (not fat) OBESE side of the fence and NEVER would I tell skinny, healthy, fit people to conform to accepting fat.  I wanted to be able to conform to the world of healthy!!

Disney did it’s homework.  Disney had a solid partner on the program.  Disney doesn’t go into any thing without doing it’s due diligence, research and testing.  So what happened this time?

I just don’t get it! What’s next…a new Disney Princess to appease the massive?  I can see her now, Princess Porker in the Land of Lard.

On a side note…I’ve read lots articles all with polls on the subject.  I’ve cast my vote on everyone and guess what?  100% of the polls show that Disney has made a mistake and should put the exhibit back AS IS!

Here are lots of articles about the cancellation that was to have opened today!

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/disney-shutters-childhood-obesity-exhibit-habit-heroes-complaints-article-1.1031939

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/03/how-helpful-was-disneys-childhood-obesity-exhibit.html?cmp=rss

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108811/Disneys-tool-shame-Florida-resorts-Habit-Heroes-attraction-closed-accused-stigmatizing-fat-kids.html

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/disneys-habit-heroes-accused-fat-shaming-232300194.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/199919/disney-closes-habit-heroes-exhibit-over-obesity-outrage/

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/03/01/disney-closes-new-habit-heroes-exhibit/

http://news.taaza.com/source/889008-disney-cancels-plan-to-open-fitness-park-after-obesity-bullying-claims.html

 

 

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6 Fitness Fails…and the fixes

Posted on February 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

We have made it over a month into the New year.  Did you make resolutions? Are you staying on track?

Losing weight and keeping it off has become a bit of a rarity. We all know people who lose weight and keep it off for a little while and then go back to their old ways and regain the weight. If you’re lucky you only gain it back…many go beyond!

Understanding the problem better helps lead you to real solutions. Time to get off the weight loss / weight gain roller coaster.

Instead of you trying the latest diet fad, I’ve put together a few things that will help you stay on track.

6 reasons why you fall off the wagon

1. No focus: you didn’t set goals, you didn’t put your goals
in writing, and or you didn’t keep your goals in mind daily

2. No priorities:  you may have set a goal, but you didn’t
put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For
example, your goal is six-pack abs, but drinking wine and
eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities
list than having a flat/fit stomach.

3. No support system: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy
system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors
or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support
when the going got tough.

4. No Accountability: you didn’t keep score for your own
accountability – with a progress chart, weight record,
measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn’t
set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else
or show your results to someone else)

5. No patience: you were only thinking short-term and had
unrealistic expectations.  You expected 10 pounds a week or
5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you
lost “only” 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.

6. No planning: you winged it.  You got the idea that you need to exercise and get healthy so you hit the gym. No plan, no schedule, no direction.  How do you get somewhere when you don’t know where you going? So then, you lose interest and excuses become easier than reasons.

6 mistakes that cause most people to fall off the wagon. Are you guilty of any of these?  If so, the solutions are clear and simple:

  • Focus
  • Prioritize
  • Get support
  • Be accountable
  • Be patient
  • Plan.

 

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Super Bowl Belly Hangover

Posted on February 6, 2012 | 3 Comments

If you’re like a lot of people, you may have over-indulged last night while watching the Super Bowl.

This morning you might even have a food hangover. Part of the food hangover is the actual hangover of pudge. Your pants are tighter, you feel icky, you have LOTS of regret.  Thoughts like, “Why you ate that 4th piece of pizza?” might even come to mind.

If you are one of those scale jumpers, you know who you are, you might even be cursing yourself this morning!!  The ones that get on the scale a few times a day may be having a fit today trying to figure out where the extra weight came from this weekend.  You will notice that your weight is up after the weekend festivities if you decided to indulge, (over-indulge).  For those of you professional dieters, you are likely trying to do some kind of math to figure out how in the world you are up 3 -5 lbs in one day. Pizza x beer + nachos – water / chicken wings + chips (insert a lot of math lingo here) = WEIGHT GAIN!!

For those that have been at this weight loss game for a while you will know that a pound of fat is about 3500 calories and with your rough estimate there was no way that you scarfed down that many calories this weekend.  (Oh, for you points people, just hush….I will deal with you and your points in another blog post.)

Maybe you didn’t and I really hope you didn’t eat over 3500 calories yesterday. So, why the weight gain???

Drum roll please…………

SODIUM

All of that party food tends to be loaded with sodium.
Women have a terrible time with hormones and water weight.
Men will be feeling the super bowl belly this morning as well!

Don’t stress, I have your post super bowl binge recover plan.

How to overcome this….well, boot camp of course.  You need to move your body! Oh and don’t use excuses like super events to sacrifice sound nutrition in the first place!

I am not a fan of Madonna but I will give her props for looking great at 53yrs old and poppin’ and lockin’ like a 25 year old.  Who doesn’t want to be in fab shape at 53??  I can guarantee you that she doesn’t take her fitness lightly and she sure doesn’t eat like a lumberjack, “just because”.

Don’t just talk about how you want to be fit.  Become fit.  Show up and do what has to be done!

Here are some other steps to take to get back to your pre-super-bowl weight:

Action Step #1:  Water, water and more water.  That is your drink of choice. You need at least 3-4 litres to flush that sodium out.

Action Step #2:  Add 2-3 cups of dark leafy greens to your food intake today (spinach, kale, etc)

Action Step #3: Show up to boot camp and we will do the super bowl shuffle and sweat out the bloat!!

Action Step #4: Have a post boot camp recovery protein shake (add in some spinach).  Feed your muscles the nutrition they need.

Action Step #5: REPEAT tomorrow and the next day!!

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Boot Camp is BETTER!

Posted on February 2, 2012 | 8 Comments

Boot Camp IS better!!

A bold statement.  A true statement.  Don’t worry I can back up those statements too.   For those of you know that know me, I am not the wishy-washy type. So, when I say boot camp is better, I mean it, I believe it and I can prove it.  Here’s why.

At boot camp we move from our feet to fingers.  By move, I mean we MOVE our ENTIRE bodies, every single muscle. We push, we pull, we lift, we get up, we bend/stretch, we run stairs.

What kind of moves are those? ALL FUNCTIONAL REAL LIFE MOVEMENTS.  They are the moves that mimic real life activities.  Things you actually do!  We make those movements more challenging with the use of body weight and resistance.

Boot camp better because we have accountability.  You don’t show up, you get an email from yours truly!  You have group support.  Other boot campers support and encourage you…we’re a team, a kind of family.
(The gym knows and actually hopes you don’t show up.  I want you to show up.  We want you to show up.  I make sure that you do! )

Simmer down all of you yogi’s and gym goers.   Sitting on a bike peddling away, going nowhere fast doesn’t do it for me.  To each their own.

An ABC news report revealed that standard cardio equipment caloric readings are not accurate.  “Liar, liar elliptical on fire” was the biggest offender with a false reading of 42%.  42% over-estimate of calories burned!  Yikes!! You just got burned! Your calories, not so much.

So you think that you just burned 500 calories pushing away on that elliptical, bike or treadmill and you really didn’t #fail.

We burn 800-1000 calories at boot camp.  We move feet to fingers!

I am proud of you boot campers.  I am proud of how hard you work.  This blog post is to give you a virtual hi-5!!!  I am proud of your dedication, commitment and energy!

Here is a shout out to some of our 7 Day Slim *stars*.  These are INCREDIBLE 7 DAY results! 7 DAYS people.  Who else wants results like this?

  • Kelly  8 3/4 inches lost
  • Rhoda 5 inches lost
  • Lori 9 inches lost
  • Bridie 5.5 inches lost
  • Sara 10 inches lost
  • Maureen 9 inches lost
  • Lisa 4.5 inches lost
  • Diane 7 inches lost
  • Jess 5.5 inches lost

So proud of everyone that shows up to boot camp each and every night!!!  You are awesome!

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Cut the Waist

Posted on January 19, 2012 | 2 Comments

I remember watching an interview with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford when he was running for office and thinking to myself, “He’s going to explode!”

His face was flushed, he was sweating and he was breathing very heavy.  For those of you who don’t know him, he had called himself 300 pounds of fun.  I thought to myself the first time I heard that, 350 maybe.

On Monday, Mayor Ford and his brother Doug kicked off a weight loss program and a very special challenge.  “Cut The Waist Toronto”.  This cut has nothing to do with the budget, over spending or the gravy train.  It has to do with challenging themselves, the Ford Brothers and Toronto, to lose weight and promote a healthier lifestyle.

The Mayor weighed in at 330 pounds and his Councillor brother tipped the Toledo at 275 pounds.  Between them, they account for more than a quarter tonne of fun!  Not to mention several thousands of dollars of future medical expenses.

What was even better about the announcement was that the Mayor during the press conference issued a challenge to all of Canada by throwing down the gauntlet and saying Toronto would lose more weight than anywhere else!

Congratulations to Mayor and Councilor Ford for your commitment.

Besides the fact they have committed to losing weight, I applaud them for how they are intending to do it:

  • They set their goals
  • They put a date on that goals
  • They have a support buddy
  • They announced their plans public
  • They have established accountability to their goals

All Carrie approved.

Both men have indicated that healthy eating and increased physical activity are in their plans.  Did you hear that?

Healthy eating

Physical Activity

No fad diets.  No gimmicky programs.  No diet centres.  No surgery, potions pills or lotions.

They are right in issuing the challenge to get Toronto healthy and to encourage everyone, everywhere else to do the same.  Obesity is an epidemic.  It is costing this country millions of dollars in related medical expenses.  It is shortening the lives of people in an age when we can live longer, healthier and more vibrant than ever before!

Diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, chronic pain and many other problems are preventable and treatable through proper diet and exercise.

But here is my caution…remember losing the weight is one challenge.   Keeping it off is a completely different challenge.  You need to educate yourself through the process to learn how to keep weight off.  You need to understand how and why you gained the weight in the first place.

I can’t wait to find out who will be the biggest loser. (No pun intended).

I wonder if we can get them to come out to Georgetown to get their butts kicked by Boot Camp?

 

 

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Challenge creates change

Posted on January 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Results ALWAYS happen 1 step / 1 lap / 1 lunge past where most people give up so they never get to see the results they are looking for as fast as they want them.

I know how it feels when you just want to give up. When you are too tired to try.  When you are too busy to make the time.

BUT, I also know how amazing it feels to pull it together and push past those feelings.  To give it your all with exercise and proper nutrition.

You know what I’m talking about.  When you come to boot camp and you push beyond the tired and give me, “Three more, two more, one more. You did it!!”

You feel strong and proud!!

How do you feel when you stop halfway thru an exercise?  When you walk when you know you can run?  When you give into those cravings when you think you are hungry?

We all need to be reminded that the MAGIC doesn’t happen on the 1st mile, it happens when you go the EXTRA mile for yourself and for others.

Anybody who knows anything about weight training or dieting will tell you that you get most of your results from those last 2-3 reps you don’t want to do, or from those last few weeks that you really don’t want to diet.

But here’s the catch.

Most people quit on themselves and their goals and dreams, right when it gets tough.

Unfortunately, they then never get to experience the MAGIC that would have taken place for them. That same magic that could have transformed them from ordinary to extraordinary.

I’ve said it over and over again, but I’ll repeat it here one more time…you don’t have to be 50% or 100% better than everyone else when you diet or exercise.

You only need to be 5% better.  5% is it. 5% is all it takes to be extraordinary.  To be better than the average.  To accomplish more than the norm.

That’s it.

  • Push past your desire to stop.  Do a little bit more today.
  • Do one more rep. Run a bit faster on that lap.
  • Drink one more glass of water.
  • Eat that salad
  • Show up to boot camp even on those days you are tired (I promise you will leave feeling more energetic).
  • Motivate one more person to exercise with you.

Are YOU ready to give 5% more today?

I saw this the other day:

I exercise because I can. When I get tired, I remember those that can’t exercise and what they would give to have this simple gift that I take for granted, and I work harder for them.

Powerful.

Focus on that when you think you can’t do one more rep or go the distance.

I know you can tough it out; CHALLENGE CREATES CHANGE.  Make that your mantra when you want to give up.

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8 Reasons Why You Should Just Do It!

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 2 Comments

You hear it alot….find your “why”   Find your passion, your reason for doing things.

I see so many people who start strong on the road to their improved health and fitness journey and then fizzle out.

Why bother exercising?? 

The first answer of course you will say, is for your health.  Newsflash; Sitting on a bike while surfing Facebook is not really exercise. Neither is walking at a snail’s pace on a treadmill.  It is ok but you know you can do better. So why do you do it? Why not give it your all and be effective?

We all have our own reasons for sweating it out.  I never want to be 225lbs again–NEVER.  Some people do it to lose weight, some do it to fit into their Christmas party dress, some do it because they have had a medical scare and decide to take control (diabetes, high blood pressure).  These are great whys.

Everyone can come up with reasons on why to be fit and just as many excuses on why they can’t.

Here is what I don’t get.  I see so many of you that work so hard at boot camp and then blow it with crappy food.  You sweat your guts out with me and then tell me you had wings, beer, cake, etc.  WHY??

  • Why are you sabotaging yourself?
  • Why don’t you want to see the results?
  • Why are you letting junk food win?
  • Why do you want to look bad?
  • Why do you want to feel lousy?

Many of you will be saying “I know, I have to pull it together”
If you want to see the results and changes in your body you have to do the work, all of the work.  Just showing up doesn’t do it.

You know you need to eat 5x a day.  You know that you must have healthy snacks.  You know that you NEED to drink water.  So why aren’t you?

Boring, lazy, busy, forgot, my back hurts, I don’t like to get sweaty.  The list of excuses can go on and on.

Be a finisher.  Not a ‘half-asser’ (Sorry, not a word but I’m trying to stress a point and maybe my creative word use might get you fired up!)

So why do this?  All of this proper eating and exercise. We all have our own “why’s” but here are a few you might not have thought about:
Do it for the stares.  Yes, we all like to be noticed (in a good way).

  1. Do it for the compliments.  It is nice to be acknowledged for hard, noticeable achievements.
  2. Do it for the shape and definition in your muscles (hello tank tops!)
  3. Do it for the ability to fit into the clothes you want
  4. Do it for the swimsuit.  We all want to be able to rock the swimsuit
  5. Do it so you can be off the gaining weight / losing weight roller coaster!!
  6. Do it so you can be proud of your effort and how you look.
  7. Do it for your health
  8. Do it for your family

Nike has made billions off of the saying “Just do it”.  It really is that simple; Just do it….already

Find you WHY.  Set your goal, focus on it and don’t do anything that isn’t in line with your goal.

Here are some healthy snacks to incorporate into your day:

- hard boiled egg with cubed cantaloupe
- snow peas or sugar snap peas with humus
- greek yogurt with blueberries
- turkey pepperettes with an apple
- lettuce leaf with avocado and chicken or turkey-roll it up

Bonus snack!!
- greek yogurt, pb or almond butter and boot camp chocolate protein

Have a great day…Why? Because you deserve it.

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Posted in Exercise, Inspiration, Nutrition

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