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’?

Getting stabby with the carrot!

Losing fat, not moving fat

Awesome at it’s best

Duct tape will give you the same results…so natural.

oh if only…

Ban all the spoons!

Well, since you put it that way

Make mine a water!

Nutella is off my shopping list…or is this Nut tellin a story?

Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Here is a video that will slap any excuses you might have right out of your head.

Where you are now and where you want to be with your health and fitness is totally within your control.

Don’t you dare complain if you aren’t going to do something to change it! The reality is that you have to make the decision and dedicate yourself to the changes you want for yourself.

If you want to be fit, if you want to be healthier than you are or you want to be a certain size, you have to do something to get there.

• You have to move your body
• You have to go beyond your comfort zone.
• You have to STOP with the excuses.

I can introduce you to a number of people who have it much worse than you do.

• I can show you people who are in pain but show up.
• I can point out to you people who work 80+ hours a week and still show up
• I can introduce you to people who have kids who have sports and activities and they manage to show up.

There will never be a perfect time.  If you decide that you want to try to wait for the perfect time, you will run out of time.

When are you going to show up for your health??

Think you have it bad?  You might want to re-think that!  There is always someone who has it worse.  There is always someone who has challenges that you and I can’t imagine living with.

Never underestimate what you can accomplish.

Never give up!  Never make excuses…they’re just like                   , everyone has one.

There are rules in life.  There are rules in every aspect in life.

It is just understood that you *should* follow the rules.  Rules help ensure that everyone plays on a level field and everyone ahs the same opportunity for success.  This becomes especially important if you want a particular outcome.

There are rules for a reason.

Just like there are rules for life, there are rules to fat loss and the rules are universal. If you have to lose 5lbs or 50lbs there are rules to follow and following those rules guarantees your success.

If you decide that you are only going to occasionally follow the rules you won’t get the results you are looking for.

Doing half of the work will get you less than half of the results.  The rules of fat loss work to your benefit.  The better you follow them, the results become exponential.

One healthy meal or one good choice throughout your day will not help you move forward.  They will help you maintain, or slow the negative results of your poor choices, but moving forward will not be part of your overall success.

The rules are simple.  The choices are yours.

• Yes vs no
• Good vs bad
• Right vs wrong

When you dive into a meal that you know that is not healthy and decide to wash it all down with alcohol; you have to ask yourself, “Did I break the rules?”  Your answer will be either yes or no comment.

You’ll make excuses for your behavior or you’ll make excuses for breaking the rules.

You can’t get to your weight loss goals by half-assin’ the plan.

When a meal or drink wins out over your common sense then YOUR EXCUSES ARE STRONGER THAN YOUR REASON

THIS:

 If you want fat loss results: Follow the rules!

Here are the rules (simplified)

1. MOVE: exercise is essential FYI: lolly-gagging on a treadmill is not real exercise
2. EAT: real food only-non processed food (green face)
3. DRINK: you need to drink water NOT ALCOHOL

Don’t give in to your excuses or you will never see the results that you want.

Life happens.  There are rules in life.

Follow the rules and experience the life that you actually want.

I do not totally support any Gatorade product but I say, “Well done on a great motivational commercial!!”

Look beyond the product placement and make sure you are hearing and seeing the real message.

It’s up to you…

1. How hard you work will dictate your results…truth!
2. What you put into your workouts is what you get out of them…truth!

Your results are all about you.  You DO win from within.  There are no gadgets, no technologies, no pretty clothes or any amount of Gatorade that will get you to your goal.  It is always your drive, your desire and your commitment.

You win with you.

Your April Promise:

• I will become who I should have been all along
• I will give 110% when I workout
• I will try something new
• I will put my health first
• I will remind myself that my goal is to be fit
• I will eat right-No excuses
• I will be stronger today than I was yesterday

1. Start with doing what is necessary (show up to boot camp);
2. Then do what is possible (push yourself) and;
3. Suddenly you are doing the impossible!!

I was inspired by the snow last night (not really inspired but ugly about the snow) and decided to make a treat for the family.  It’s a twist on the classic “Snowballs” recipe that we always see around Christmas…yummy and healthy!

Protein Snow Balls:

• 2 -3 scoops of vanilla boot camp protein
• 1-2 cups of natural peanut butter
• 1 cup of unsweetened coconut

Mix protein and pb together, (if it is too sticky add more protein / too dry add more pb.)
Make into little balls then roll in coconut–place in the fridge for 30 min to firm up.  You can moisten the balls with a little bit of water to help the coconut to stick.

*note* I made these with two 7 yr olds fighting over who could roll them--hence the non round shape

Mango Coconut Protein Shake

• 1 scoop vanilla boot camp protein
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or unsweetened coconut milk
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2-3/4 cup of frozen mango
• couple of drops of coconut extract

Blend and enjoy!!!!!!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!

Happy FriYAY everyone!

Balsamic Vinaigrette
Whisk together 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar – 1 1/2 tbsp of warm water – 1 tsp of Dijon mustard – 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, salt and pepper
Continue to whisk and slowly add 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Creamy Balsamic
Mix together 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp of light soy sauce -1 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard – 3 tbsp of non fat Greek yogurt – 1/2-1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Creamy Greek Yogurt  Dressing
Mix together 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt(non fat) -2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp of lemon or lime juice-1 shallot or 2 green onions minced – 1/2 clove of garlic minced – 1 tsp of paprika – 1 tsp of chilli powder -1/4 tsp salt & pepper
Whisk together or blend in a blender.

You can double these recipes but they will only stay fresh for a week.
Think about how quick it is to make your own fun salad dressing and what exactly is in the store version that allows it to sit on the shelves for a year?!
Eating healthy isn’t hard.

If you have a healthy salad dressing recipe, share it with us!

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