I recently decided to teach myself Spanish! I’ll be learning from a book, and I’ve quickly realized that this won’t be easy! While reading, I focus on memorizing grammar, sentence structure, and how to properly emphasize words. As I go along, I understand the concepts I’ve read about; by the next day, I find myself forgetting a lot of what I learned.

I know I’d probably make more progress if there was a worksheet to complete or a test to evaluate what I’ve learned so far. Without any accountability being held to me, I procrastinate more often. It goes to show that sometimes just wanting something isn’t always enough motivation.

The same rule applies to working out. Working out by myself is very different than working out with a partner, or as a group; As someone with a competitive personality, I’ll push myself harder and prove my abilities when I’m around other people. If you’re goal is to get fit but you’re looking for some extra encouragement and motivation, here’s a few things you can try:

• Find a workout partner: Having someone around can motivate you to stick to your goals. Whether they’re working out beside you, waiting for you at the gym, or they’re your online personal trainer – having someone counting on you for a workout is a great motivator. Use it as inspiration to push yourself further, and maybe even impress or inspire someone else! If you’re having trouble finding a workout partner, check out kijiji.com or ask around your local gym.
• Join a class: In a class, you’re surrounded by people who are working towards the same goal as you, which means you can all support each other. The more you attend a specific class, you’ll likely develop new friends and find people who you can count on to keep you coming back. A group setting might encourage you to push yourself, and secretly compete against others around you. Since you’re spending money to join the class, you’re not going to want to see your money wasted, and an extra bonus that comes with taking classes is that you don’t have to plan your own workout.
• Get a personal trainer: The benefits of a personal trainer are kind of equivalent to having a workout partner AND joining a class. A personal trainer is someone who’s completely dedicated to helping you achieve your goal, and makes you accountable for showing up and doing your best to reach your goals. Since hiring a personal trainer isn’t cheap, you’ll likely be more motivated to make the most of your sessions.
• Have someone reward you: Find someone who will hold you accountable for reaching set goals, and create some sort of arrangement to celebrate your efforts. Whether it’s a trip or a special gift you want, find something to look forward to for your accomplishments. (Just remember: FOOD is NOT a reward)
  You can also try an unconventional motivator- take a picture of yourself in swimwear, and give the proof to someone you trust. Tell them that if you don’t reach your goal by a certain date, that they have permission to post that picture for the public to see. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Since you probably don’t want anyone to see you in mediocre shape, it’ll motivate you to work towards a picture that you will want people to see. When you reach your goal, that picture will just be what you USED to look like!

These are just a few ideas to inspire you towards your fitness goals. Try combining these ideas, or find something else that you feel really motivates you to get going! Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know what helps and keeps you motivated!

**This article was written by Steven Moore

“Sea What You’ve Been Missing” is this month’s Recipe Redux challenge. This was the premise: Unfortunately, [North] Americans don’t eat enough fish as well as some of the more obscure treasures from the sea that provide great nutrition. This month’s challenge is to create an appealing recipe using “little fishes” (sardines, anchovies, smelts, etc.) or sea vegetables (kelp, seaweed, etc.)

I was snacking as I read this month’s instructions and no joke, my snack already contained wakame seaweed! Talk abot easy inspiration.

I have a package of miso soup mix that contains seaweed and I like to mix it with sour cream (or greek yogurt) to make a dip for veggies or crackers. So I using the dip as inspiration, I created this fun meal:

Deconstructed Sushi

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa, dry (or rice to make it more traditional)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup diced cucumber, 1-2 inch pieces
• 1 avocado, diced
• any additonal veggies or sushi ingredients you like
• 1/2 cup sour cream (or greek yogurt)
• 1/2 – 1 package of miso soup mix with wakame seaweed
• (optional) additional seaweed, in small pieces
• black sesame seeds, to sprinkle

Directions

1. Place 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes (covered), until liquid is absorbed. Take of heat and let cool. Fluff before serving.

2. While quinoa is cooking, dice your veggies and prepare dip by stirring one package of miso soup mix with sour cream or greek yogurt. Add extra seaweed to taste.

3. To plate, spoon 1/4 of quinoa on each plate, top with cucumbers, and assorted sushi ingredients (I had leftover salmon from dinner the night before) and arrange avocadoes and dip on side. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

There are a plethora of fitness gadgets and pieces of equipment that we can purchase but my primary belief is that we need to keep fitness as simple as possible; all you need is a timer.  Interval training is a technique that is comprised of a short burst of intense activity followed by an even shorter period of low level activity or rest.  You can basically use this technique for any exercise you do in order to increase your heart rate, increase the amount of calories burned and also increase strength too!  Let’s give you two examples of how to use intervals:

1) Walk/Jog:

• Warm up by taking a light walk for about 5 minutes.
• Increase the intensity so that you are either jogging or walking briskly to the point where you can’t talk for 5 minutes
• Walk for 1 minute
• Repeat as many times as you would like or for a half hour.

2) Resistance Training: (we use this all the time at Blitz Conditioning!)

• Instead of counting the repetitions, set your timer to 45 seconds of exercise and a 15 second rest
• Find 4 exercises that hit different muscle groups and perform each one of them in a circuit by performing one exercise right after the other while giving a 15 second rest between each exercise
• Give yourself a full minute rest after completing the 4 exercises
• Repeat as many times as you need

Interval training is a versatile method of stepping up the intensity and ensuring that your exertion is consistently high.  Try adapting your regular workouts to this technique and tell me what you think!

I believe the moderation mantra was created originally to define an occasional intake of higher calorie ‘fun’ foods that added richness (in taste and experience) to our lives without becoming a basis of our eating plan. This works when we eat mindfully or intuitively.

Although I believe in the concept, I also think that in today’s food environment (along with our culture of immediate gratification) moderation is a slippery slope to overeating, weight gain and ill health. In our fast paced, hurried lifestyle where we are often disconnected from our body and hunger cues, the moderation message gets distorted or lost all together.

To eat moderately you have to be connected enough with yourself to eat with some attunement (recognition and respect of your hunger and satiety cues). A stressful, chaotic lifestyle or ‘all or nothing’ mentality will make enjoying foods in moderation downright impossible.

Another issue is that the term moderation is non-specific. For example a moderate chocolate intake for me might be 1 small square per day for you it might be 1 large family size bar per day.  If I hear a client use the term ‘moderate intake’ during their goal setting process, I challenge them to take the next step and define what moderation actually means to them. If you’re interested, consider your own definition of moderation for something particular in your diet.

Moderation is defined as what is acceptable to you.

As you define moderation for yourself, consider what seems reasonable, what is in line with your goals, priorities and values? It is a term that is internally derived not something that is determined by others.

What do you think of this concept?

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The weather outside is improving, and the season of outdoor fitness is upon us. Running shoe stores and outdoor fitness classes are going to get busy, as everyone has the same idea to jump start on their goals.

Lots of people set attainable goals, and even properly plan ahead to execute it successfully. But, whether they want to run 10K, start a regular exercise routine, or become more active – the biggest issue is always getting started. The task at hand seems daunting, and making it habit never happens.

At Blitz Conditioning, we advocated the strategy of “Nibble Fitness” – practicing frequent fitness activity is small, easier doses. Research has shown that our bodies adapt more towards constant physical activity throughout the day, opposed to a single hour of exercise every day. If you want to apply “Nibble Fitness” into your routine, here’s how:

Focus on incorporating small bits of exercise into portions of your day – try walking for 5 minutes, or do 1 minute of push-ups and/or squats every few hours. Maintain a small amount of exercise for a few weeks, and then start to double the time and frequency of your routine. (EG: after 2 weeks, try walking for 10 minutes twice a day) It’s pretty easy to adapt this exercise method into small breaks at work, or around the small windows of time throughout the different things we do in a day.

Practicing Nibble Fitness psychologically downplays the change we’re making in our lifestyle, making the whole transition less overwhelming. Allowing our bodies to progressively adapt to exercise on a regular basis in smaller quantities makes the whole concept more palatable.

It’s not uncommon to experience struggles with starting something new, or fitting it into your schedule. Try thinking of Nibble Fitness like a snack – try and keep up every few hours, instead of just once or twice a day. Along with proper eating habits, Nibble Fitness will increase metabolism as well!

1. It takes more than one try to change a habit. If you can change your emotional connection with food or eating without much fuss or muss, then it really wasn’t a big issue to begin with. If on the other hand, you have struggled with stress, emotional or mindless eating for a number of years, expect it to take some time and more than one attempt.

2. Expect setbacks. If in those moments of frustration and perceived failure you can learn from your mistakes and create a new, stronger action plan then you have made the most of your learning opportunity and set yourself up for future success.

3. Go to the root of the problem. Whether you are trying to kick the smoking habit or curb your late-night munchies, success will only occur if you can identify what is underneath the behavior. Intellectually most of us recognize bonding with a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s each night isn’t going to make us healthier or better manage our weight, BUT there is a reason we do over and over again. Identifying what triggers the drive and addressing the true issue will give you the lasting change you are looking for! This is where Emotional Brain Training is so effective. It helps you not only identify the root cause but also a host of tools to tackle the problem head on.

4. Arrange an intervention. If tackling your problem behavior is truly important to you and you are ready to do what it takes then arrange an intervention for yourself. This means even for a few days get out of your normal routine, change your surroundings and take the time to gain some perspective, challenge yourself to learn new skills and create a plan to follow through when you are home.

5. Get some honest support – Don’t try to be a hero and do it on your own, instead find one or more people who will tell you the truth and keep you focused on your goal. My client who kicked her smoking habit shared this made a huge difference in her success. I have blogged before on the importance of support and can attest in my life how this can make the difference between growing and staying the same.

If you are ready for an intervention, register for our 3rd Annual Emotional Brain Training Retreat June 8, 9 and 10th . This weekend will offer an introductory Wired for Joy course for those new to EBT as well as advanced sessions for current EBTers. We will run workshops on Intuitive Eating, Getting and Staying Motivated and New EBT Tools. The Retreat location is at the beautiful River Lodge Centre 45 minutes west of Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan river. I would love to see you there!

Click here for registration form (early bird price ends May 11th)

Choosing how you want to circuit train, all depends on what you’re training for. When focusing on your overall health, the freedom is yours to pick and choose your circuit style. If you’re training for timed sports, use the timed set method. Mimic your training time to the length of each sporting round you’re training for. (3 minute sporting round = 3 minute circuit set, length of rest break between sporting round = rest time between sets) Divide the round length by the number of exercises you’ve chosen, (usually 3-5) and this signifies how long you’ll do each exercise. It’s rare that you’ll want to train by rep variables for a competition, unless the competition is based on completing reps in a given time.

Exercise selection is another important aspect of circuit training. When you’re training for competition, it’s a good idea to train large muscle groups, with multi-joint movements. Incorporate exercises like squats, presses, and pulls or full body movements like a snatch or, a clean, and try to avoid single-joint movements like bicep curls and tricep extensions.(unless you can justify why it is an important movement to your sport and worth repeating for 45 seconds or longer) Use exercise movements that are relevant to your sport.
There are also many variations of executing your circuit. A circuit can work out your entire body, or you can use each round to target a specific muscle group, or certain section of your body. You can change repeat the same exercises, change them every time, and you can always change the progression of the entire circuit from start to finish.

Your workout schedule depends on how you train, and what your training goals are. Are you training to compete, and how intense are the technical aspects of your competition? Are you in a recovery phase of competing? (i.e: if you’re an MMA fighter, did you just have a fight?) Are you trying to maintain your skills, or constantly improve them?
With answers to these important questions, you can determine the fine details of your training program, and prevent over or under training yourself.

Creating a good circuit can help you advance through your chosen sport, and help you advance into it. Take the time to figure out and understand the important technicalities (prime movers or full body exercises, sets and rest time equivalent, etc.) and remember to have fun!

What I have found most interesting this week is when I slowed down, I saw the small things or moments in my day that normally I would pass over. I’m actually pausing and enjoying them. This also satisfies my need for immediate gratification!

As I posted last week, taking small breaks during the day to move the brain from stress to balance stops the stress response and engages our pre-frontal cortex. We then access eudonic rewards, which not only enhance how we feel and operate in the current moment, but also increase our physical and mental health in the long term.

Try all three methods below to see which one you like best!

Past, present, future

1. Take several deep breaths, relax your body then bring up a memory from your past where you felt joy. Bring up that memory where you felt loved, happy, content, etc and roll it around in your mind until you feel yourself relax even more or get that sensation of warmth in your body.

The great thing about the brain is that it can’t distinguish between what is currently happening or what happened the past so we can relive positive experiences over and over and increase our joy capacity and health.

2. Gather one from the present moment. Take several deep breaths, relax your body then notice something about the presence that engages your compassion for yourself or others, or bring a smile to your face and you feel yourself being more connected in the present moment.

3. You probably figured out what’s next…take a few deep body breaths, relax your body and connect with yourself and then bring up something that you are anticipating and looking forward to. Think about it enough until you feel your body relax or that release of feel good neurotransmitters.

I find I don’t let myself get as excited about things as I did when I was younger… but, it’s time to get excited!

Does thinking about the past, present or future bring you the most joy?

For more inspiration, check out our pinterest board

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to? Regardless of how we choose to pronounce the word, can we all agree that May’s featured food is one heck of a fruit! That’s right I said fruit! According to its botanical classification the tomato is actually a fruit, but is commonly referred to as a vegetable.

The tomato, known to the French as “pomme d’amour” or apple of love, is lovingly consumed worldwide; which I suspect is due to its pleasant taste, and versatility. Native to the south/central Americas, the tomato belongs to the nightshade,or Solanum lycopersicum family. Some members of the nightshades are deadly, so it was thought that tomatoes were no different. Lucky for us, after much research & investigation the tomato was acquitted from this “deadly” label.

Choose from the numerous fresh varieties (roma, cherry, beefsteak), that may have different colors (yellow, green, orange, red), or find them canned (stewed, diced, and pasted), and in many various sauces, soups, stews. Tomatoes can be found year round, but are in peak season (and best flavor) from April to October.

Nutrient Values

1 medium whole tomato, raw – 22 calories

• 5 g carbohydrate
• 1.5 g fiber
• 1 g protein
• 0 g fat
• 116g water

Health Benefits
Tomatoes pack quite the nutritional punch – They contain very little calories, are loaded with water and full of nutrients like: vitamin K, folate, potassium, manganese, and zinc (the last 2 are needed for antioxidant enzymes efficiently.) Its heavy hitters are the following:

Vitamin C

Ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C, belongs to the water soluble group of vitamins. These vitamins travel through the bloodstream and are rarely stored in our bodies, instead we use what we require and excrete the rest (a good thing to keep in mind when buying vitamins!)

Recommendations for this vitamin are 75-90mg/day. One medium sized tomato provides a decent amount of vitamin C, about 17 mg.

Vitamin C benefits:
• Helps our bodies absorb iron from plant sources (as much as four times!)
• Has a big role in our immune system, Helps keep our immune system healthy
• Antioxidant – scavenges damaging free radicals in our bodies. Since it is water soluble, it destroys free radicals in a lot of different areas of our bodies.
• Helps keep gums, bones, and muscles healthy

Vitamin A
Recommendations for this vitamin are 700 RAE ug/day for females and 900 RAE ug/day for males, 1 medium tomato has approximately 52 RAE ug.

Vitamin A benefits:
• Support healthy eyes, and aids with seeing the dark.
• Contributes to protein synthesis and cell differentiation, for normal growth and development.
• Promotes a healthy defense system (skin, stomach, intestines, and respiratory tracts)
• Supports a healthy reproduction system

Phytochemicals
Literally translated to plant (phyto) chemical, phytochemicals are naturally grown in various plants, and have biological activity (and important health benefits) in the human body. How cool is that! Most phytochemicals found in tomatoes come in the form of carotenoids. In this group you’ll find lycopene and beta carotene; both play an important role in preventing many degenerative diseases.

• Lycopene is responsible for the bright red color seen in tomatoes and other red-hued fruits & veggies. It protects our cells from oxidation (antioxidant), and in turn from various cancers (lung, prostate, esophagus and stomach).
• Another antioxidant, beta carotene, protects us from some cancers, cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.
• Saponin (belongs to its own phytochemical group) has been known to prevent cancer cells from multiplying.

These microscopic disease fighters’ work synergistically to optimize our health, and together, even enhance the effects of lycopene! This is another perfect example as to why eating “real” food is so much better than the potions, powders and pills found on the shelves. Trust me.

How to: Pick & Store
Tomatoes should be firm, vividly colored, and free of any bruises, blemishes or soft spots. You may want include tomatoes to that list of foods to smell before buying, because chances are if you can’t smell that distinct tomato aroma chances are they won’t taste all that great. If you pick from the canned varieties, check the label – food manufacturers are notorious for loading these products with unnecessary sodium. Aim for a sodium content of 140 mg or less per serving (1/2 cup).
Storage all depends on the ripeness level: unripe tomatoes can sit at room temperature for up to a week; ripe tomatoes should be placed in the refrigerator.
Preparation method:

There are just so many ways to prepare/eat tomatoes. Most are healthy, all are delicious! Here are some ideas…
Fresh
Roasted
Pureed
Pasted
Sundried
Canned
Stuffed

What is your favorite way to prepare tomatoes?

Check out our pinterest board for four delicious recipes using tomatoes. We’ll continue adding to it throughout the month, so be sure to follow along!

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Here’s the meatless meals I was loving in April:

Quinoa is one of my favorite things to eat for lunch, as it is a complete protein and high in fibre.  Not only did I upgrade my Citrus Beet Salad by using quinoa (see quinoa with beets,oranges and pistachios), I also bookmarked these 3 recipes to try:

Green beans and tricolour quinoa
Whole Living’s quinoa salad (the whole meal looks divine!)
Spinach pesto Quinoa

Maki’s leek frittata was so satisfying, even the meat-eater in my life liked this for a weekend lunch. Leeks were a hit around my house in April, as we also packed away my broccoli leek soup with a hint of coconut.

Finally, what’s a lunch post without sandwiches? I pinned this grilled tomato and brie sandwich to pinterest for our upcoming newsletter and food 101 post, then subbed in dairy-free mozzarella and ate it twice this weekend! Another pinterest inspired sandwich was this roasted beet on a baguette, a perfect way to use up the last of my beets!

Tell me, what meatless meals were you inspired by, experimenting with or even just pinning?