Posts Under Health & Fitness Category
My fitness journey really began in June of last year. Oh, I’d joined gyms before, in fact, I was famous for “paying the fat tax”: when you’re paying for a gym membership and not going. I was constantly joining gyms, going thrice, and eventually (a few months, or, ahem, years later) cancelling the membership after wasting a bunch of money on good intentions.
But between 2009 and 2010, I had probably put on roughly 30 pounds. I was feeling cranky and lethargic, exhausted, unhealthy and, worst of all – I hated what I saw when I looked in the mirror. Finally fed up with feeling bad and unhappy, I decided to make a change and started looking into boot camps and ended up joining Booty Camp Fitness and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made for myself in a very long time.
My one year anniversary is fast approaching, and my lifestyle has changed in so many positive ways in the last year – largely, if not completely, thanks to my Booty Camp experience – and I wanted to share and reflect on those changes and the new, improved “me” that’s here today.
I was drawn to Booty Camp for a number of reasons: the sense of community the website exuded, the fact it was outdoors, and the all-women nature of the classes (honestly, does ANYONE enjoy big, sweaty, bulking men grunting as they lift weights and oogle you, or worse, themselves in the mirror? Ew.).
At the time, I thought joining Booty Camp would be a way to “kick start” my workout regime, or, at the very least, a month of exercise before I gave up and stopped going, which was typical for me when it came to joining your traditional big box gyms. What I wasn’t expecting was the family, the community, and the lifestyle changes that came along with joining. I joined my first four-week Booty Camp session in June of 2011, and at that point in time I had been paying for a gym membership, and, I’m ashamed to admit, not going to that gym for almost 10 months.
I was terrified of the thought of doing a fitness boot camp, but went anyway. And, truth be told, I was horrified with my results. I was not expecting the measurement numbers to be as high as they were (Almost 160 lbs and 225 inches overall), and, as a former lifeguard and swim instructor, I was most certainly not expecting to be SO out of shape. I couldn’t even do 10 girly pushups (aka on my knees), and I got dizzy and nearly was sick just from running one lap in the heat.
Although by October 2011 I was seeing results, they still weren’t the kind I wanted – and so mid-October I totally overhauled my eating habits and lifestyle, and that’s when I saw big results. The pounds started to melt off in mid-November and one session after those changes I lost 13” in just four weeks.
Pre-Booty Camp - circa 2010
Currently - late 2011 to now
I’m proud to say at my last fitness assessment (which was in February, before I moved to Toronto and switched camp locations), I did 32 consecutive pushups on my toes, and just yesterday at Booty Camp I did an intense workout that involved 10 reps of a move, running two laps, ten reps of another, running for the hour – and I felt tired, but fine, while doing all that running. Oh, and just a few weeks ago? I held my plank for a personal best of 5 minutes!
I now weigh 133 lbs (that’s ~25 lbs lost!) and measure 202 inches overall (23” overall difference). Most noticeably, I’ve lost 3.5” on my waist, 5” on my hips, and 3” on my bum. I bought new work-appropriate shorts last summer, and I went to put them on recently and when I did them up and let go, they fell to the ground. I’m fitting – comfortably – into old clothes I haven’t worn since 2008.
Most importantly, I’ve come to learn that fitness, working out, eating well, and being truly healthy is so much more than a diet, a fad, or something you “have” to do. It’s a lifestyle, and in order to see positive changes you need to really embrace fitness as such. I never enjoyed working out before Booty Camp – I dreaded the gym, and the words “run” and “sweat” were just not in my vocabulary. But going to Booty Camp is different – it’s fun, it’s engaging, and the constant changes in routine ensure we don’t get bored and don’t plateau, and we have the enthusiastic instructors, supportive peers, and energizing music to get us going. I actually look forward to my twice-weekly butt kickings, and I can’t say enough how happy I am to suddenly have a method of working out I enjoy (because lets face it, running on a treadmill for 45 minutes totally sucks). And as time went on, I found myself doing more than just going to Booty Camp twice a week – trying hot yoga, aerial yoga, Jukari, trampoline classes, swimming again, hiking, and doing all sorts of fitness related activities for fun. Not because I have to, or because I need to, but because I actually enjoy what I’m doing, and that’s really a change that has occurred thanks to my positive experiences over the last year.
I’m proud and excited (okay, and a little nervous!) to announce that I recently registered to take my Fitness Instructor Specialist (FIS) certification course with CanFitPro, which I’ll be doing over the last two weekends in May before writing the exam in late June. I dream of helping other women my age recognize the importance of health, fitness, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle… and one day, I’d LOVE to run my own Booty Camp location and, I hope, inspire other women as much as my instructor obviously inspired me.
If you’re interested in joining Booty Camp Fitness (and I can’t recommend it enough!), you can check for a location near you, or if there isn’t one, check out the amazing at-home DVD now available for public purchase – I use it at home sometimes and it’s just as awesome as the classes.
**note: this is NOT a paid, endorsed, or otherwise commissioned post. while I have included an affiliate link above, this is the 100% truth about my experiences and the opinions, views, and results I’ve expressed are entirely my own. If you know me, you know I’ve been raving about how awesome Booty Camp is for MONTHS… this blog post is no exception :)
I have to be honest. I’m not a morning person, and most my mornings go a little something like this:
Hit snooze
Hit snooze again
Hit snooze AGAIN
[continue snoozing for the next 45 minutes or so]
Finally get up, panic, rush around like crazy trying to get ready.
Make coffee in panic, spill on counter, don’t bother cleaning, slam toast in toaster, slap peanut butter and/or jam on it, rush out door and shove toast in mouth on the way out the door.
However, I’ve discovered the recipe of ALL recipes that, with a little night-before prep work and an extra 5 minutes in the morning, can be made to-go and is healthy, delicious, and contains so many good-for-you things you’ll be feeling amazing all morning.
Mmmm... so good in the morning.
And, even better, this recipe makes enough for four smaller, or two giant pancakes – so I use half the batter one morning, and it keeps an extra day in the fridge for the next morning. Score.
Pre-making the batter the night before means less work in the morning!
I know, this sounds too-good-to-be-true, but I swear it’s not.
Four Ingredient Chocolate Protein Pancake
- 2 scoops Bodylogix chocolate protein powder
- ~1/2 cup egg whites (I use 2 large eggs, which is usually a little shy of a half cup)
- 1 heaping tbsp ground flax seed
- 1 medium banana, mashed
Protein Pancake Ingredients & Extras
The night before, mash your banana in a medium to large bowl, and set it aside. Measure out your egg whites, then add to the banana bowl. Add your protein powder, and ground flax seed. Mix it up well, transfer to tupperware (or cover the bowl with saran wrap) and stick it in the fridge.
Morning Extras
- Coconut oil (or your oil of choice) – for the frying pan
- Syrup (I use E.D. Smith’s No-Sugar-Added Syrup) or Agave
- Chocolate chipits, berries, or chocolate chia goodness as a topping
Cooking the pancake
The next morning, heat up your frying pan while you mix your coffee, add 1-2 tsp coconut oil, and scoop half the batter (for a large pancake) or 1/4 (for two small) into the heated pan.
I find when I make one big one it’s harder to flip and becomes less pancake-like, but still tastes great, so I usually do this when I’m more rushed. If I have a few extra minutes I’ll do two smaller ones, one at a time. Cook until brown on one side, then flip it and cook on the other.
If you’re like me, and usually in a rush, I toss it it tupperware, put the syrup on, and bring it with me. A quick 20-second zap in the microwave at the office usually warms it up nicely.
And, if you’re so inclined – top with syrup, berries, a few chocolate chips, or whatever else you’d like and enjoy!
Yum!
I had to share this video (warning: it might make you cry, it made me tear up more than once). I’m sure many have seen it by now, and it was shared to me by a number of people, including a close friend of mine who is now (thankfully) a survivor.
Knowing someone who had to go through something so terrible is really scary. What’s even scarier is the fact she’s my age.
I’m only 25.
I used to believe Cancer was an “old person” disease – the only experience I ever had with Cancer was with “older” people, including my grandfather (he passed away in his late 60s, when I was only 12). But Cancer can affect anyone, of any age – and with my generation’s bad habits, including using tanning beds and forgetting (or just plain not wearing) sunscreen – it’s a serious issue.
I’m not perfect. I’ve been to tanning beds before (in fact, I have 200-some-odd minutes from a package kicking around at Goodlife, though I haven’t been tanning in well over two years now) and I do sometimes forget to wear sunscreen. And yeah, I love lieing out in the sun and catching some rays in the summer as much as the next girl – but now I make sure my skin is well-protected when I do that. And about the same time I stopped tanning, I started using makeup and moisturizer with an SPF built in, so at least my face is protected at all times (yup, even in winter – where the sun can be just as damaging) and I make sure to wear (or obtain) sunscreen when I go places like Wonderland, the beach, an open dome Jay’s game, or really anywhere where I’ll be exposed for a long period of time.
I got a real eye opener while I was working in Timmins, and did a story on checking & protecting yourself from the sun. The Porcupine Health unit had this nifty software called April Age. You’d get your photo taken, see it aged to 72, and then see the effects of Tobacco and Sun damage on your skin.
I’m sure glad I’m not a smoker – and this really made me realize just how badly sun can damage your skin, even if you are lucky enough to avoid something as terrible as Melanoma.
Some scary facts about Melanoma, from the American Melanoma Foundation:
- Getting just one bad sunburn before the age of 18 doubles your chances of getting melanoma
- In 2009, 5,000 people were affected by Melanoma and 940 of them died.
- It’s the most common form of cancer from those 25-29, and an increasing number of young women are being affected in recent years.
- The number of cases is increasing much faster in females 15-19 than males.
- According to the WHO, more than 65,000 people die a year from sun exposure – usually linked to skin cancer.
But there is good news in all this – Melanoma in individuals 10-39 years is considered “highly curable”, especially when caught early.
That’s why it’s SO important to be aware of your body (and your skin!) and keep track of your moles/freckles/skin and any changes… and to check your skin frequently (I do!) It’s better to go to your doctor and end up be fine and a little embarrassed about overreacting than to be too shy/embarrassed to ask about a dark, discolored, or oddly shaped mole – it could end up being too late.
Look Ma, I'm in the Circus!
Fun fact about me: I’ve had a secret dream to run away and join the circus since I was little. Something about wearing bright colours while swinging around on a trapeze, sticking my head in a lion’s mouth, and riding around on an elephant just seems so cool.
And let me tell you, it’s a good thing I never found out the Toronto School of Circus Arts existed before the age of 8 or my childhood (and teen years!) might have been much different… or just would have involved copious amounts of whining at my parents to send me there, instead of the copious amounts of whining to send me to private school. (Yeah, I whined at them for YEARS to send me to the local girls-only private school: in my defense, I was like 8 and it’s in a castle, ok? ;)
Very recently, Jukari Fit to Fly launched at Kingwest Fitness in Toronto. It hit 12 cities world-wide in 2009, but it took a few years to come to Toronto (the first Canadian city to get the program was Montreal).
Jukari is a new workout regime developed by Cirque du Soleil and Reebok that promises a tough, intense – but still fun – hour long workout. You spin, jump, dance, run, stretch, and swing your way through the class using the FlySet; which is basically ropes that swivel a 360-degrees and are suspended from the ceiling, a 4.5 lb steel bar you can hook into said ropes, and foot straps that also can clip onto the ropes. It’s like a low level trapeze that gives you a cardio, flexibility, strength, and core workout.
But simply describing it doesn’t really do it justice. So, check out this promotional video for the program to see what a Jukari workout looks like, while I try not to move in fear of making my abs hurt more than they already do:
It looks fun, right?
And easy!
Yeah, my instructor made it look easy too.
Most of the class went a little something like this:
The best part was when we put on the foot straps midway through, because we got to lie down for about 30 seconds while listening to the next move… which was a nice, easy plank.
Well, “easy” (I use that word loosely!) if it was a normal plank.
You see, in a Jukari plank your arms are fully extended; and your legs are stuck through a bungee loop attached to the ropes hanging from the ceiling.
Dear lord, my arms.
I have to admit though, despite how incredibly impossible some of the moves seemed, and how tired I was just 25 minutes in – it was an AMAZING workout, and so much fun! I got a really intense workout in just an hour, and the time flew by because of the great music, high energy instructor, and good company (I took the class with two of my girl friends). It’s no secret I loathe going to the gym, and easily get bored on the elliptical, weight machines, and bikes.
Today, my body feels like I did my normal 1.5-2 hour workout at the gym (actually, probably worse than that!) but it only felt like I was at Kingwest for a little bit of time.
I have 4 more classes left (I bought a 5 class trial pass through Teambuy last month), and even after that’s done I can see myself going back for drop in Jukari sessions from time to time.
If it’s in your area, give it a go! You won’t be disappointed… just sore.
I think, in some way or another, everyone has had their life touched by cancer – whether it’s a parent, grandparent, friend, or friend of a friend… we all know someone. My grandfather passed away from cancer when I was in grade 7 – a long time ago now (over 10 years), but I still remember everything that happened during those last few months.
I just saw (for the millionth time, but I never get sick of it) the commercial for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation’s Conquer Cancer Campaign, and I can’t get over how powerful it is.
It features real patients, doctors, nurses, and people who have been affected by cancer in some way… and tells the story of how the hospital is trying to conquer cancer in our lifetime.
I hope it can happen.
