We all deserve to feel powerful and fit...

This week I've been meditating on the power of our attitudes and belief systems to make things happen in our lives. I truly believe if you move forward in life with the attitude you deserve things you will act in such a way to make your dreams or aspirations come true.
This has been said time and time again. But somehow this idea doesn't always seem to take and I really wonder why. I'm sure most of you reading this have watched the movie "The Secret". What we put out into the universe is often what we get back. If we believe we can be fit, powerful, loved, wealthy, and generally live in abundance, we will generally make these things come true. Is it some magicial spell we cast or is it simply the fact that when we believe something will happen, we start acting like it will. We take the steps to make these things happen. We don't sit back on our heels waiting because we wait expectantly, not passively.
It always makes my heart heavy when I see people unable to choose to believe they are deserving of everything beautiful and good. Sometimes we get opportunities to change our lives thrown into our laps. It's like a little gift that we can open or ignore. And what stops people from taking advantage of these little gifts is a core belief of being undeserving.
I've seen the spark come back into people's eyes when they start to believe they deserve good things in their lives and believe they have the power to change their circumstances. Real change happens when people believe in their own worthiness. A magic alchemy unfolds. It's not just about joining a gym or hiring a trainer. It's really about what you believe you deserve.
Look deep into yourself and see if you're blocking the opportunities that are given to you to shift your internal belief system about your self worth.
We have the power to make so many things in our lives happen. We all have the power to change ourselves internally and externally.
And we all deserve to feel powerful and fit.

Should exercise feel like crap when you're doing it?

Some people believe that in order to make strides in their fitness that it has to feel like crap while you're doing it. I, on the other hand, believe that there's a natural flow that we all should strive to achieve while working out or 'training'. I am not of the persuasion that you should feel like you're going to puke in order to have had a good work out. Some people come to see me and are a little surprised that they walk away from a training session with the energy and vigor they might've experienced from a blissful yoga class. Their skepticism about the effectiveness of our training session is hard for them to mask. Then I see them again and I hear about how sore they were in so many parts of their bodies. And I chuckle. And I know that what I'm doing is finding their weak spots and killing them. Maybe part of the bliss arrives from working in an environment relatively free of distraction apart from the laughs and good times I generally share with all my clients.
The disclaimer here is that some people have a very low pain tolerance and are new to exercise and haven't discovered what good pain feels like. They get scared when their muscles burn and they sweat. God forbid they exert themselves. For these few and far between clients there can be a breaking in period when I'm not so nice and when they walk away a little dishevelled.
But it's old school to think a workout should feel like a grand ass kicking. You should feel worked and you should feel like you stretched beyond your limits but your joints shouldn't hurt and you should feel victorious.
You know you're on the right track with your workouts or training sessions if:
1) You feel like your time or money was well spent.
2) You tried new things your body wasn't used to.
3) You pushed yourself past your comfort level and fatigued your muscles but didn't strain your joints and use inappropriate muscles to "muscle' your way through a set. (i.e. get out of the target muscle to complete more reps).
4) You don't fall back on the same damn routine and get mentally bored.
5) You feel a little soreness one or two days after a workout. It shouldn't consistently be debilitating or crippling.
6) You are excited about going back and doing more.

So the answer is no!!!! Exercise shouldn't feel like crap when you're doing it. There's a delicate balance between forcing and flowing in a workout, between stretching past your limits and trying to knock down walls all at once.
Ask yourself these questions and see what you come up with. Or call me and we'll chat. It's summertime and I've got the time. Urbanfitt Studio is located at 559 College Street, #204 (w) 416-964-3309 (c) 416-712-4740.
BTW- I'm not saying to take it easy if you're already a little lazy with your training. This blog need not apply to people who 'dog' it while they train.
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If she can do it...then anyone can

As I write this post I can feel myself getting a little choked up. Last December, one of my clients came to a class at my studio. She was having a very hard time with balance and coordination which is totally out of character for her. Julie (not her name but to respect her and her family's privacy, I'll call her Julie) is one of the most fit and coordinated people I know. After class she decided that she should investigate what was going on. After a battery of tests the next day, she was having invasive surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Her treatment was arduous, mentally and emotionally taxing and has been successful thank goodness. Seven and a half months later her prognosis is excellent. She's in the rehab phase of treatment learning how to walk and move and balance again. Julie had to start from scratch in terms of motor skills and after just a few months and a heavy dose of determination, she is becoming more and more physically independent.
The kicker is that her and her husband were planning to go pick up their adoptive daugther from China roughly a week after her diagnosis. She stayed in Canada and luckily the Chinese government released their daugther into her husband's care eventhough she couldn't be there.
So last week she contacted me to book a personal training session. In a way, it didn't surprise me one bit that she wanted to tackle her fitness and strength so early after ending treatment. When she arrived for her session last week, it was clear that she was still struggling with balance and coordination. What amazed me the most was that she made her way to my studio via cab with her daugther in tow.
As I try to stay composed whle she showed me her scar, told me stories about being unable to hold food down for ages, having almost all of her bone marrow depleted, and described her days of sleeping for 20 hours, I was taken aback when she ended her story by saying, "I feel very fortunate."
We worked for as long as her energy level could handle. She was amazing all of her muscle memory coming back in a flood. And yesterday, I received an email thanking me and telling me we're on the right track. She felt her core muscles again.
I can't end this story with the grace it deserves. All I can say is, if Julie can do it then what about the rest of us. It shouldn't take a health crisis to motivate us to tackle our fitness. Life is too short.

Water - without it we shrivel up and die. DRINK UP!

Yesterday, I had a client who came for a training session at 2PM. I poured her a glass of water and asked if she'd like some. She said she was 'fine' and wasn't thirsty. My next question was, 'How much water did you drink today?". She said "None but I had a coffee this morning". I adore this woman and believe she is one of the most intelligent women I know. I've been nagging her for a couple months now to get her water intake up. She suffers from muscle and joint pain, headaches and muscle cramps on almost a daily basis. But yet she still resists my advice to up her water intake. This blog goes out to all those similarly stubborn people who aren't convinced drinking more water will change your life. We all should be getting around 8 cups per day. Here's why:

1) Water is absolutely essential to our survival. We can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
2) Water helps us lose weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite. If you think you have the munchies drink a glass of water first and see if it was really hunger or just thirst.
3) Drinking enough water leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is actually mild dehydration.
4) Drinking adequate amounts of water will decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer.
5) Drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or back pain.
6) Water leads to overall greater health by flushing out wastes and bacteria that can cause disease.
7) Water can prevent and alleviate headaches.
8) Water naturally moisturizes skin and ensures proper cellular formation underneath layers of skin to give it a healthy, glowing appearance.
9) Water aids in the digestion process and prevents constipation.
10) Water is the primary mode of transportation for all nutrients in the body and is essential for proper circulation.

So we all know that information doesn't necessarily empower us to make changes so I'm double daring anyone not drinking enough water to try it for a few days and see how different you will feel. In fact, I triple dare you. Go on. Don't be stubborn. Just give it a go.
BTW- tune into CFRB 640AM Sunday July 15th at 3PM. I'll be a guest on Arlene Bynon's afternoon talk show. Good times.

Snacks are a must...how to buy them

One of my mantras is "Three small meals, two small snacks". Most people don't know how to snack appropriately between meals and say that the major impediments to snacking is either not knowing what to eat as a snack or not finding the time to buy the right snacks.
Well, it's really not that hard if you just open your eyes to the possibilities around you. This blog ought to help you all remove the excuses to good snacking and start fueling your bod' every three hours. If you want a robust metabolism then it's an absolute must that you don't let your body think it's not getting more food for a while. If you go longer than three hours without food, next time you eat your bod' is afraid it won't get more food again for a while and will grab onto the calories you provide it and store it for a rainy day (i.e. fat, yum).
So let's say the only place you have to go is a corner store for a snack. Here's what you could find there that would suffice:

Yogurt
Unsalted nuts (just a handful)
Protein or energy bar (only eat half if it's a snack)
Piece of fruit
Nut or seed bar
Oatmeal bar
Trail mix

Now let's say the only place you have to go is Starbucks. What can you find there.

Yogurt
Fruit
One of those somewhat healthy looking cereal bars (not ideal but better than nothing)

Ideally you would plan ahead and you would bring a perishable snack to work with you. But let's face it. There's the ideal and then there's reality. When you don't have time to plan ahead, then the above is a good fall back.

Ideal plan ahead snacks would include:

Hard boiled egg
Sliced veggies
Fresh fruit
Small protein shake
Lettuce wraps with tuna or low fat, low salt meat slices
Small bean salad
Humous and veggies
2 slices of rivita and organic almond or peanut butter


If anyone else has ideal snacks that work for them, pass them along or post them. Just remember. Don't treat your snack as another meal. If you're adding snacks to your life, make sure you cut back on your meal size otherwise you could pack on the pounds.

Remember, three small meals, two small snacks.

Get off your rear end and JUST DO IT!!!!

Today I put a potential client in touch with one of my trainers. For months she's been entertaining the idea of starting a fitness program. Humming and haaing for months now, she seemed a step closer to hiring a trainer to finally get her going. However, she hates exercise and clearly doesn't want to have to do the work required to get fit. After exchanging numerous emails with her and a couple phone calls, I thought I almost had her ready to take the big step. The courting process had been long and arduous. I passed along her contact info to one of my fab trainers and lo' and behold, she was back to the humming and haaing.
Arggh!!!
However, after having many years of experience in the fitness industry I know better than to assume it was because I didn't say the perfect thing to close the deal with her. Instead, I can search my memory for all the consultations I've performed with people in a similar state of indecision. I can smell them a mile away. And I know that deciding to get fit is really a decision one must make in isolation. Despite this knowledge, I am still imploring people reading this blog to listen to me.
This is what kills me though. People spend more freakin' time thinking about exercising and stressing about the fact they don't exercise than the amount of real time it would have actually taken to get fit. All I can say to anyone reading this blog is, JUST DO IT. There's a lot to the Nike slogan. Just stop thinking about it. Get off your rear end and just do it, whether it's joining a class you've been thinking about or hiring a trainer or joining a running club. It's almost like sedentary people think that if they talk about it, think about it, interview trainers, research gyms, yadda yadda yadda, then by osmosis, they will get fit.
Well we all know that getting fit requires a hell of a lot more than thinking and procrastinating. There are many steps in the decision making process that some people must go through in order to finally tackle their health and fitness. But I hope this blog has inspired at least one person to fast forward through all the pondering and worry to just doing it.

Golden Rules

In this blog I'm giving away all my secrets to weight loss and lifestyle renovation. Funny thing is it's really just common sense stuff that most people find hard to actually implement. Normally when I work with clients we try to implement one or two of these Golden Rules each week and gradually overhaul lifestyle habits. It's next to impossible to do it all at once and if you try you might find you get completely overwhelmed. Slow and steady wins the race.
The most important thing I do for people is build in accountability. If someone knows they have to report back to me each week, then chances are they're going to do their homework. We all need a coach at different times of our lives.

So here's all my secrets. Give me a call if you need some accountability.

The Golden Rules

1) Fuel your body every 3 hours with a balanced meal or snack that includes a protein and complex carbohydrate.
2) Sleep a minimum of 7 hours per night
3) Drink 8 glasses of water each day
4) Limit alcohol intake to two drinks per week if you are engaging in weight-loss and max one per day otherwise.
5) Avoid refined and processed foods limiting intake of the white stuff including sugar, white flour, white rice. Choose complex carbohydrates as much as possible.
6) Eat a balanced breakfast within one hour of waking up that includes a complete source of protein.
7) Eat 5-8 servings of fruit or vegetables every day.
8) Limit caffeine intake to 2 cups per day. Avoid all caffeine after noon.
9) Choose one day per week that you can treat yourself with one of your favourite naughty foods within reason.
10) Do not jump on the scale more than once per week.
11) Honor your energy levels by limiting obligations or ‘shoulds’ on days you experience high stress levels.