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Spring News

May 7, 2013 By

Dear Fitness Anywhere Family,

A very brief outline of things happening at the studio this Spring that you don’t want to miss out on:

1) I’m very pleased to announce that we’re giving you an opportunity to share your experience with others, and fully reap the benefits of it with our Pay it Forward Promotion! For the month of May only, we’re giving you a $100 gift card, that you can use on whatever service you’d like at the studio (Personal Training, Group Training, Corporate Group Training, Online Nutrition, Online Video Training, gift giving etc.) for getting 3 new people to sign up for ANY of our services. I’ve attached a document that you can use to forward, to print and give, or to share on Facebook. It’s easy and amazing what a little nudge will do. I’ve also copied it below. Be the reason someone changes their life. It’s a great feeling!

2) Announcing the addition of 7 am morning classes to the schedule. Yes! Taught by Mark and Andrew Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. Reserve as always.

3) Official email introductions to two great new trainers and a great new class at our studio. Mark Crossman will be leading groups of individuals looking to get fit through Eastern traditions that will whip you into shape. It’s called Muay Thai Conditioning and it’s on Tuesdays at noon and Wednesdays at 5pm. Come to get fit, or also great if you just need to hit something, HARD! Also, Jessica Magnan joins us as our Head Yoga instructor, and offers a great Power class on Fridays and Private Yoga instruction to help keep the muscles long and lean between workouts.

4) Save the date, Saturday September 21st we’ll be holding an intimate health and wellness workshop at the studio, with a variety of speakers from many different backgrounds such as alternative medicine and naturopathy, chiropractic and massage, holistic nutrition, cooking healthy, bio-signature assessments and the list goes on. Tickets will be limited for this event and on sale at the end of June.

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Healthy Eating + Sample Meal Plan

January 12, 2011 By

As a fitness expert and certified nutritionist, I get asked everyday “…how can I know that what I am eating is healthy and will support healthy natural weight loss?” Instead of meal planning for my clients, I give them a list of great healthy foods to look for at the supermarket, and tips on learning portion control and meal timing.

One of the most important things you can do with regards to nutrition is eating small meals often. To keep your body from getting hungry and then overeating, eat 4-6 small meals per day. Most people turn off right away when they hear this. This doesn’t mean that you need to “cook” yourself extraordinary meals several times per day, but simply that you need to starve off hungry so that you keep your metabolism up and active, and so that you don’t overeat later.

Each “meal” should have about 30-40% vegetables and fruits, 30-40% lean protein, 20% grains, 5-10% fats. Think small portion sizes. Never stuff yourself full. Meat portions should be the size of a deck of cards, vegetables should be 1 cup’s worth, with a tablespoon of olive or canola oil, and a half cup of grains.

Here are some examples of good forms of carbohydrates, proteins and fats to look for at the supermarket.

Proteins
fish, tuna, white fishes, salmon, crab,
beans
lentils
chickpeas
eggs
dairy such as yoghurt, milk and low fat cheese
whey protein to mix into fruit smoothies

Carbohydrates/Grains
whole grain bread
brown long grain rice (the kind that takes time to cook)
fresh baked brown whole wheat bread (no packaged foods…no added glucose-fructose)
100% whole grain plain rice cakes…not the ones with MSG (great with hummus, peanut butter or plain)
a variety of dark, leafy green vegetables
red and orange vegetables

Fats
Nuts
Avocados
Olive, coconut and canola oils
Natural peanut butter
Low fat cheeses (1-2 tablespoons per day max if trying to lose weight)

Example of a day of healthy eating

Breakfast
Full 8 oz glass of water before anything else (try this with a straw)
2 scrambled eggs (only 1 yolk)
1 piece 100% rye toast
Half a piece of fruit

Mid-Morning snack
Small whey or soy protein smoothie (mixed with water, milk, soy or almond milk) and your favourite fruit.

Lunch
Spinach salad with other colourful veggies, with half a can of tuna or chicken breast no bigger than the size of a deck of cards

Late Afternoon Snack
Half cup of hummus on celery sticks, carrots or ricecake

Dinner

Baked or steamed cod filet (deck of cards)
1-cup green beans drizzled with olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar
Half cup of brown rice spritzed with olive oil (Rice tastes great with hot dijon mustard)

If you must have a dessert or sweet, one small square of dark 70-80% chocolate should do the trick. Brush your teeth right afterward so you don’t want anymore.

Healthy eating does not have to be time consuming or expensive. You just need a little preplanning and thought so that you’re not grabbing for anything when you get hungry. The farther ahead you plan your meals and snacks, the better off you will be.

For more information on eating well, or to book a healthy eating grocery store tour with a nutritionist, contact us at Fitness Anywhere.

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Are you Starving Yourself Fat?

December 7, 2010 By


When it comes to weight loss, eating habits and proper nutrition play an enormous role in your success. You can train hard everyday, but if you’re not fueling yourself properly, it will be impossible to get the results that you’re looking for. What is the number one mistake that the average working person makes with regard to their eating habits? Nope, it’s not one too many happy meals, but rather skipping meals all together.

When it comes to weight management, cutting back your calories is certainly a good remedy for trimming the waistline, but how you eliminate those excess calories is just as important as what you eliminate. Counting calories has never been a practice that I’d condone as a personal trainer. However, being mindful of your body’s daily caloric needs is very important when it comes to having a healthy weight. Your body needs calories in small amounts regularly in order to keep your metabolism up and working to burn the calories that you consume. However, skipping meals, especially breakfast, can greatly affect how your body uses the fuel that you provide it.

Imagine that your body’s metabolism is like that of a campfire. In order to keep the fire burning without going out, you must continuously maintain it with sticks and twigs and small fire logs, keeping the flame hot by regularly adding more good fuel to it. Forgetting to add more wood to the fire would result in a weak flame, or could even put the fire out, leaving you merely with smouldering embers. Once you realize that it’s time to add more fuel to the fire, it could be rather difficult to get a hot flame back. Your tendency might even be to add a rather large log in a desperate attempt to get it going. However, you needn’t be a scout to know that an oversized fire log will take days to burn over embers.

The same principle applies to your metabolism. If you skip a meal, or let yourself go hungry for too long, your “fire” will diminish as well, since it’ll have nothing to sustain it. Once you do decide to eat again, chances are that your body will have placed itself in a starvation mode, slowing the metabolism down, storing up energy in the form of fat. This is the body’s means of survival since it doesn’t know when it will eat again, and therefore conserves whatever fuel it had last. Unfortunately, it conserves it as fat on your body.

What also happens, is that when you skip a meal, you choose to overeat at the next meal, so not only does your body store extra energy as fat as a response to being starved, but overeating at one sitting stretches your stomach so that it will need all that much more to feel full the next time you decide to eat. Your stomach is the size of a fist, keep that in mind when you’ve heaped a mountain of food on your plate.

You can avoid such detrimental eating patterns by eating small meals and snacks every 2-3 hours 4-6 times per day, with a cessation 3 hours before bedtime. After a good grocery shop, take a little time afterward to prepare snacks, cutting up vegetables and fruit, rationing portions of nuts and other snacks so that they are ready when you need them. Never let yourself go hungry! Keep your fire burning with regular, balanced meals and healthy snacks.

If you’d like more information on how to maintain a healthy weight by eating properly and regularly, contact us today.

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Fitness: Simply and Naturally

May 18, 2010 By 0

When it comes to Health and Fitness, Get Back to What’s Simple and Natural!

For many, getting fit and healthy evokes intimidating ideas of lifting weights amongst bulging bodies in a health club, or even radically changing one’s regime to conform to the latest bestselling diet book that’s hitting the stands. However, maintaining your fitness and being ‘in good shape’ really doesn’t have to be so complicated. Despite the booming production of high-tech “fat-burning” equipment, and the massive growth of the dietary supplement industry, your health and wellbeing are still best fostered the old-fashioned way, through an active and balanced lifestyle. When it comes to your health, ignore the hype and stick to common sense practices that you can live by throughout the years to come. Here are a few simple lifestyle staples, easily underestimated and often overlooked, but nevertheless fundamental in the battle to stay fit and healthy.

Eat Fresh and from the Earth
More and more processed and packaged foods such as microwave dinners, chips, cookies, pastas, and desserts are filling the isles at the supermarket. They are even finding their way into the stalls of farmer’s markets. Although tasty, packaged foods can have high amounts of preservatives, sugar and sodium. Unfortunately, they can also have harmful chemicals that seep from the plastic into the food itself during storage. Similarly, certain packaged foods labeled BIO or Organic, aren’t necessarily good for you. Despite their conformity to the bien-etre movement, many of them can be high in sugars, salt, and saturated fat.
Think Simple: Foods that come from the earth are always better than from the factory. Forget counting calories, and enjoy healthy-sized portions of a variety of food that is grown locally and is in season. Choose colourful fruits and vegetables from local farmer’s markets, and avoid the inside aisles of the grocery store. If you must do your shopping at the supermarket, remain near the outside aisles, where the fresh food can be found. Prepare lunches and snacks that travel with you in order to avoid an impulsive unhealthy food purchase, and be wary of food that has a long shelf life.

Get your H2O
Our bodies are made up of over 60% water. The average male needs to 3.7 liters of water everyday and the average female 2.5 liters. Exercise, salty foods, caffeine, and alcohol dehydrate the body. Drinking enough water is essential for maintaining good healthy skin, warding off colds, flu and other winter ailments, as well as maintaining proper organ function.
Think Simple: Try drinking a full 8 oz. glass of water first thing upon waking. It is an excellent way to rejuvenate the body and reactivates your sleeping digestive system. Carry a refillable bottle of water with you and sip it throughout the day at work. Drink 500 ml of water an hour before any physical activity, then another 200 ml 20 minutes before, and then again every 15 minutes during activity.

Get out there and Play.
Our bodies are designed to be mobile. However, the average person does not get enough exercise and spends the majority of their time on this earth in a chair or in their vehicles. Most doctors agree that in order to maintain an appropriate weight and a healthy heart, we need to do a minimum of 20 minutes of exercise 3-5 days per week. But what defines exercise, and how do you know if what you’re doing is effective for your particular body? For some, a 10 km run is child’s play, while for others, vacuuming the living room carpet can be strenuous. So how can you know if you’re fulfilling your body’s exercise needs?
Think Simple: Play a sport, walk with friends, or bike to work, but be sure that you are working at the appropriate intensity for you. To determine if you’re working too hard or not enough, perform a few self-monitoring tests. For starters, monitor your perspiration. The body will sweat at room temperature if it is working. Similarly, you can monitor your breathing. Can you carry on a conversation with someone during activity? With the appropriate intensity, you should be able to chat without gasping for breath. Finally, second to none for assuring that you’re working at the intensity that is best for you, know your Target Heart Rate (THR), there are a few ways to perform this calculation, the simplest one that has been used in the fitness industry for decades is as followed. To find your THR subtract your age from 220 and then multiply your answer by .6 to find the lower end of the range. Then do the calculation again, but multiply by .85 to find the upper end of your TRH.

For example, for a 45 year old male:
220-45=175
175 x .6= 105
175 x .85 = 149
Target Heart Rate: between105 beats per minute to 149 beats per minute

Generally speaking, a 45-year-old male should aim to have his heart beating between 105 and 149 beats per minute during physical activity. A novice exerciser should stick to the lower end of the range, while those more experienced at the upper end. To monitor your HR during exercise, place two fingers on your wrist or neck and count your heartbeats for 15 seconds. Then multiply that number by four. If the number falls within your THR, you are working at an intensity level that is appropriate for you. If it falls below, turn up the intensity and vice versa.

Achieving your optimal health can be simple. Eating fresh and healthy, exercising your heart, as well as strengthening and stretching your muscles regularly are the simple gests that count. You needn’t be a member of an expensive fitness club, restrict your diet, or buy the latest exercise equipment. Sticking to simple and natural exercises that you enjoy, eating fresh, locally grown food, with treats in moderation, and consciously making an effort to commit to a healthy lifestyle over the long term, is your best bet in achieving success that lasts a lifetime.

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