As you know we are going to have a windup for our BL Challengers. Rather than just meet and hand out prizes on the 12th, we thought it would be great to enlist your teams in a healthy menu potluck. Here in lies your challenge.

Each team member will revamp a recipe that they have been eating and or making in the BBL days. Select your dish. Any dish you fancy. Make it one you really like and from what you have learned about healthy nutrition these past weeks, find a way to tweak it so that it is now a healthier rendition.

Team captains will be responsible for ensuring that all macronutrients are covered. Protein, Fats, Carbohydrates and Water. Team mates will send their selections to their team captains. If a dish has already been claimed, team captains will suggest another option to balance out your fare.

Team mates, the earlier you get your requests in to your captain, the more likely you will get to keep your original selection. So get on it early!

Black Team Captain: Cathy Ogden
White Team Captain: Cheryl Gilbert

Help your captains do as little as possible: be creative, think outside the box. Choose any menu item: appetizers, main dishes, dessert and any meal of the day! This is a cook off and an exercise in mindful nutrition.

You will bring your dish to our Rap Up Awards December 12th along with an index card with your old recipe on one side and revisions on the other. Test trial your recipe on your families till you pefect it!

A few tips: healthy ingredients, caloric density, nutritional density, satiation factor along with fullness factor. Think about portion size and fibre and sodium.

Let the preparation begin! GO TEAMS GO!

I keep hearing the same line over and over…can we do more abs, I want to work on my stomach! I need to lose this fat around me waist!
Sure, we can work on the abs, but if you are looking to reduce the fat in the stomach, copious sit ups, curl ups, planks and tucks are not going to have your fat dissolving if those exercises are not preceded or followed-up by an exercise and active life that sees you using up more calories than you consume in a day.

If not….you will have some mighty strong abs under a belly of mush! Make no mistake, if you have a girth measure greater than 102cm (men) and 88cm (women) even if you are doing ab exercises there is absolutely no way…none…nada…that even though your belly is hard as a rock that the bulge in front is MUSCLE! Its fat, plain and simple, lots of it. The belly is hard because the skin is stretched so tight around the fat. This is more typical in men than women.

Excessive abdominal work with a heavy load up front places an overload risk on the spine. You are under great risk for back injury. Moreover; having a high proportion of abdominal fat is a powerful risk factor for diabetes.

If you are short for time and your goal is weight loss and you wish to maximize the burning of fat, I would encourage you to skip the ab section and replace it with cardio time. All modes of aerobic exercise use abdominal stabilizers, flexors and lateral flexors. When you are doing cardio you are functionally training the abdominals aswell. Double bang for your breath and you’ll start to see that waistline get trimmer!

One of our challengers posed a good question last week. She asked how many calories are in a lb of fat and would she burn 300 calories with an hour of brisk walking?

To see my reply CLICK HERE Read Post #7

She got it and added oh and if I work a little bit harder I’ll burn more calories too. She is so right. Do not underestimate the value of a hard workout on burning calories. It is not all about portion size and number of calories consumed!

Physical activity including interval training packs a big punch on calories burned and ultimately fat lost. Have confidence in your ability to do this type of workout. If you are in a training program and have been cleared by your physician and your trainer, it is time to ramp up one of your cardiovascular workouts every week!

Interval training burns more total calories in a short period of time than long steady state aerobic training. A greater percentage of those calories are carbohydrates however, because more total calories are burned that also results in more total fat burned! Along with this you are working directly on your cardiovascular fitness and your V02. (Fitness Level) The greater your V02, the longer you hold off disease, disfunction and death!

Now thats a reason to do interval training!

So how much harder? Well, it is an individual process. And you should consult with us, or someone skilled in coaching this component of fitness; however, general room of thumb, elevate your heart rate for short bouts of work (starting with 30secs)to an intensity of 8 to 9/10. (The less conditioned you are the lower you are on the scale of 10) If you really want to work optimally, purchase a heart rate monitor a portable coach and accountability tracker. The work effort of 30secs is followed by an active rest of walking or low activity bringing the heart rate down to at least 50% of work effort for 3 to 4 minutes. Repeat a few times to start with in the middle of an aerobic session and see how it feels. Once you are handling a few intervals, steadily build them up until you are doing a 1/2 dozen. The fitter you are the more intervals you do.

Now this isn’t a fun drill! I hear you. But, the fitness transfer reward is worth it…. really!

A few cautions: Do not add this into your workout if you are new or novice to training. Build your foundation and tolerance to exercise first. Aswell, if you have any underlying conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, are on medication that affects your heart rate and have answered yes to any question on the PAR Q form you filled out before starting exercise. If you are working with a reputable coach they will have gone over all of that with you prior to recommending this workout plan. (that would be us)

So there you go. A fitness & fat cocktail when you work harder aswell as smarter get on it next workout!

15% DISCOUNT ON ALL HEART RATE MONITORS TILL DECEMBER 24TH!

The following article is from Madeleine Magazine’s A Perfect Fit, written by yours truly.

As we head into a New Year and a new decade, The New Year resolution campaigns will be fiercely front and centre come January 1st 2010.

What is it about the first of the year that has us searching to find our motivation to make positive changes in our not so positive lifestyles? Four of Canadian’s top 10 New Years Resolutions include; Lose Weight, Stop Smoking, Exercise More and Eat Better. Do any one of these sound familiar? It is not enough to do your best at making these lifestyle changes. You’ll have greater success, purpose and direction by setting goals.

Setting lifestyle goals can be a daunting task at best. But oh how it empowers! The path becomes as clear as the words on your paper. Even more rewarding is succeeding and attaining what you set out to do.

Being good at anything requires time, frequent personal attention and passionate interest in the result. Setting and achieving lifestyle goals requires the same. Aristotle got it right when he coined the phrase “we are what we repeatedly do”.
Set goals, often, revisit them, revise them and move toward your goals all year long. January 1st brings good intentions. However, the majority of good intentions fall short with follow through and consequently this year’s resolution turns into 12 months of resolution pollution.

Why not start a system this month, before the Christmas chaos and the resolution pollution confuses and clouds your vision.

Those of you who followed Madeleine’s last issue may recall, a goal is your dreams written down. SMART goal setting principles suggest that your goals are:

1. Specifically defined with a time line. You are not going to lose weight. You are going to lose 10lbs in 45 days from a weigh in weight on November 15th of 162lbs. There is a beginning and an end.

2. Meaningful enough to motivate you. Your success at pursuing and achieving this goal is greatest when the ‘why you want it’ is clear, strong and of great importance. Motivation will give you power and you will reach your goals sooner. What’s yours? For example, losing 10lbs will allow my clothes to fit. I’ll be more comfortable, feel better about myself, have greater confidence and motivate me to go after a promotion and a raise.

3. Achievable with a challenge. The great Michelangelo believes “The Greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” It is highly possible to lose 1.25 pounds in a week. The challenge is to do it week in, week out for 6 consecutive weeks.

4. Relevant reward upon completion. Celebrate your success. The money you save living a healthier lifestyle will afford you to purchase a great fitting outfit to wear when you waltz into the office to secure a new position and raise! Or concert tickets to your favorite band. Avoid rewarding yourself with a behaviour that may tempt or challenge your weight loss objective, such as a decadent night out of overindulgence.
5. Time and attention on your goals and action steps should be ongoing. Post your goals where you will come across them randomly within the month; however, set designated time each month to help keep your efforts focused, allow time for reflection to readjust your goals with life changing events or to affirm that you are on track for completion.

Most people fail to maintain lifestyle changes because they get so focused on the outcome that they forget about the process. Setting goals is part of the process. Take the time and think about what it will take to achieve them.

When the New Year arrives and someone asks “did you make a New Year’s Resolution?” You can confidently tell them “yes” months ago, I’m half way there.”

For a goal setting worksheet CLICK HERE to get you started today!

This past weekend I attended a brillant conference hosted by The Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. I absorbed an abundance on topics about aging, osteoporosis, diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. One common treatment for disease prevention, reduction and even reversal of these health disorders: Physical Activity!

Yes, I know you’ve heard it and I know you know it’s good for you. What you may not know is this. Recreational activity just doesn’t cut it anymore. If you want to live long and independent and disability free to your ‘greatness’ years, EXERCISE. Aerobic activity needs to be individually moderate to vigorous and daily for a minimum of 30 minutes. One to two miles of vigorous walking daily can reduce your risk for Cardiovascular disease by 30%. 2-8 miles/day as much as a 60%.

Get fitter, not just healthier and you will reduce your odds of becoming disabled by 30-50% and have a longer life of independent living! That means you can spend more of your hard earned buck on doing the fun things in life, not on caregivers!

It is no coincidence that on my travels home my wing buddy was a Kelowna Psychologist. I was super excited to be able to have an intellectual exchange and sure enough our discussion turned to treatment adherence. He fully agreed when I suggested that more than half the battle of successful healthy living practises is getting started, making a plan, getting to the playing field, showing up, living in the present, you get the idea. The challenge for you and us is how do we get people to adhere to the healthy living advice and guidance and to stick with it day in day out, month after month, year after year into those ‘greatness’ years?

It is no coincidence that you are involved in this inspirational program with Team Fitness or that you are reading this blog. There is a reason that you are right now in this place of health. If you are as little as 15lbs overweight and have even just one risk factor such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, family history of disease, are over the age of 45 or a BMI greater than 25 or waist circumference higher than 35inches for women, 40 inches for men, you significantly increase your risk for disease.

Every day you intentionally make your health a priority you honour yourself, those you influence and love and ‘us’ who teach, guide and inspire you to live strong and vital into your ‘greatness’ years.

Spending time on your health to help yourself become the best you can be allows you to bring your best to those you love and care about. Fine tuning the ’shell’ allows your spirit to sing, intellect to shine and love to grow. You will be a happier person, no question.

The Psychologist and I exchanged cards upon landing. He said “I’ve heard of your outfit.” I liked how that sounded. I think we wear it well and it is no coincidence that I’m wearing it. We love what we do and we think that it matters. We hope that ‘thinking’ rubs off on all of you!

Week 6 Team Challenge

Saturday November 21st at 1pm.

Location: Team Fitness

We hope all challengers can make it out for this fun Team Event!

So call upon your team mates to attend and make this the best attendance yet for your team!

Obstacle Course will be in our underground parking lot.

Recommendations: dress in layers.

CLICK HERE to register

Go Team Go!

Click here for Saturday’s Bootcamp Pictures!

It’s all good and well to get the weight off. But how do you keep it off. Well, the stats are in and they show that those who have lost atleast 30lbs and maintained their weight loss for at least one year have a few strategies in common:

Portion Control
It’s simple take notice on how much you are consuming. This tactic alone is the most significant predictor of successful weight loss and weight management. Read your labels, be mindful of what calories are in the portion you are eating not what is suggested. Measure your food, use smaller plates and avoid going back for seconds!

Be In the Moment
Be present and conscious of what you are consuming. Are you eating because you are hungry? Or, is stress, fatigue, despair and boredom controlling your intake? Continue to log your food if not on paper atleast in your head. Be accountable to weighing in so you are aware of any pounds creeping on. This allows you to take action before the addage pounds get away on you.

Go Tubeless
Not only do you expend minimal calories, you are also tempted to snack on excess calories above and beyond what your body does not require. Take the tubeless challenge. Make it your short term goal this week to watch less than 10 hours/week. Replace the time with physical activity, sleep, family time or catching up on that list of things to do. You’ll love yourself for it!

Finally, Exercise Regularly
As little as an hour per day of activity above and beyond what your body is accustomed to will assist in your weight loss and weight management goals. Remember that the less time you have the harder you have to work to burn those calories. High intensity exercise may be too much when you are first starting out. So, make time to lessen the intensity but extend the time at an easier pace. As you become accustomed to the workload, begin to ramp it up so that however long you are working your are giving it your all. The result will be more calories burned and greater improvement in your cardiovascular fitness level.

Don’t wait till Monday to take action. Today is as good a day as any to push the action button!

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In The words of Lou Tice

“How good are you at keeping agreements - with yourself? By this, I mean all your agreements, and let me explain what I mean by that.

In their book “Life 101,” John-Roger and Peter McWilliams pointed out that the agreements we make are always with ourselves - although sometimes they include other people. In that sense, they’re like relationships. All our relationships are with ourselves, but often they include other people as well.

Now, your word is one of the most precious things you have, but many people think very little of breaking it. This is a mistake for two reasons. First and most obviously, it weakens your credibility with other people. But even more importantly, it weakens your credibility with yourself. When your innermost picture of your credibility, trustworthiness and reliability is weak, you can’t help but act in ways that reflect it. So once you make an agreement and give your word, do everything in your power not to break it. A broken word, like a broken cup, can’t hold much for very long.

When you lovingly keep your word - that is, keep it strong, keep it dependable, and keep it true - you will know the power of accountability.
And when you lend this power to a worthy cause that you believe in, its effect will be doubly powerful.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that trusting yourself is the first secret of success, but how can you trust yourself unless you honor your agreements and keep your word?”

What have you done this week that was truly accountable to you and only you!

Team Black only two of your challengers have registered for Boot Camp.

REGISTER HERE TODAY