Great Day for a Ride!

Rode almost 85km today and it was awesome!!  The sun was out and it even warmed up a bit :)

One of my favorite parts of a great ride is the coffee afterwards.  Did you know that 1-3 cups of coffee (that's regular 8 oz cups - not giant cups that are bigger than your head) can actually be good for you? 

Coffee is a great source of antioxidants!  But what about the caffeine?  Won't it dehydrate you?  Good news!  When you drink coffee you do get some water from it, and the amount of caffeine in 1-3 cups of coffee is not enough to cause you to lose more water than you're able to retain.  It's only when you go above 3 cups (or your cups are giant) that it becomes a problem.  I would still recommend drinking a glass of water for every cup of coffee you drink, but as someone who sweats A LOT,  I'm big on hydration :)

So no more feeling guilty about enjoying a quality cup of coffee!  Just don't ruin it by adding a bunch of crap to it (sugar, cream, flavoured syrups, whipping cream etc) and you'll be fine.  Also, since coffee crops are one of the heaviest sprayed crops, you should only consume organic coffee and the coffee should remain in bean form until you're ready to use it so it doesn't go rancid - you want to keep all the goodness intact until you're ready to consume it ;)

Fat Torching Workout for All Fitness Levels!

Were you just sitting there wondering what to do for your workout today?  Even if you weren't here's something to try!

Super simple and you can do this on any piece of equipment, or go out and walk, run or bike ride.  Here's what you  do:

Warm up for 5-10 minutes.

For 3 mins. do whatever activity you've chosen at an easy level (ie leisurely jog)
For 2 mins. do the same activity at a higher intensity (ie run slightly out of your comfort zone)
For 1 min. do the same activity at the highest intensity level you can handle (ie sprint)

Then repeat for however much time you want to spend working out (each set is 6 minutes long).

Finally cool down and stretch each muscle group for 30-45 seconds.  Contact me anytime at info@wholeyfit.ca if you need any good stretches to do or just need some advice ;)

Want another fun workout?  Check out my homepage: www.wholeyfit.ca

Nutrition, Health & Weight Loss

I was speaking today with a fellow passionate fitness leader about nutrition and how important it is to your success, whether you want to lose weight, get stronger or just improve your overall health.  One of the things we spoke about was how so many people don't make the connection between proper nutrition and optimal health.  When someone wants to get in shape and improve their health nine times out of ten the first thing they think about is adding exercise to their lifestyle.  A great place to start but that's not all there is to it.  You also have to think about eating proper, real foods that are nutrient dense and not processed.

I get so frustrated when I hear so called nutritionists insisting that weight loss hinges only on calories in versus calories out.  That's just too simplistic and very misleading to the average person who doesn't know enough about proper nutrition on the cellular level.  Sure - if you eat a ton of calories and don't move you will gain weight, but think about this for a moment: if you meet two people and one of them is eating a 1500 calorie diet consisting of fast foods and processed foods and the other is eating a 1500 calorie diet consisting of real foods that actually occur naturally (and will go bad if left out on the counter for a day or two) you will have two completely different bodies, not to mention brains.  Not only will the fast food person be physically unhealthy, they will also be mentally unhealthy.  They'll probably suffer from depression, lack of energy and a whole slew of other health problems.  The sad thing is they may never make the connection between healthy food and a healthy mind and body.

People have to realize the importance of what they put in their body.  I like this analogy: if you build a condo out of crappy materials what do you get?  A leaky condo of course!  If you build it out of high quality materials what do you get?  A beautiful home that you'll be able to live in for a long, long time.  So why would you think your body is any different?  Put crappy materials in and you end up with a body that's unhealthy and breaking down.  Put high quality materials in and you end up with a strong healthy body that you will live a long, happy, productive life in free of a lot of the pains/ailments that many people suffer from today!

In this age of processed and convenient everything we've managed to save some time, but we've lost our health.  That's too high of a price for a little convenience if you ask me. 

So the next time you sit down to eat something ask yourself this: if I didn't have access to any stores and had to hunt for my food would I be able to find what I'm about to eat?  If you're about to eat a twinkie, I have some bad news: there are no twinkie trees out there.  If you're about to eat a salad and a nice steak you're making a wise decision that will affect your body in a positive way.

Any questions?  Please feel free to comment below or contact me at info@wholeyfit.ca.

Free Workout & Recipe for you!

Just wanted to share a fun workout and a delicious recipe with you:

Warm-up (5 minutes)  You can jump rope for each circuit, or do jumping jacks (or low impact jacks).

Circuit 1

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Stationary Lunge with right leg in front 30 seconds, jump squats 30 seconds
• Stationary Lunge with left leg in front 30 seconds, jump squats 30 secondsCircuit 2

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Plank 30 seconds,  triceps (narrow placement of hands) push ups 30 seconds
Circuit 3Plank 30 seconds, regular push ups 30 seconds

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Pulsing low squat 30 seconds, burpees with a push-up 30 seconds
Pulsing low squat 30 seconds, burpees 30 seconds

Circuit 4

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Hip bridge left foot on floor right leg in the air, flip over and do 5 shoulder push ups (you're in a pike position with your butt up in the air and doing push ups.  Range of motion may be quite small)
Circuit 5Hip bridge right foot on floor left leg in the air, flip over and do 5 shoulder push ups (you're in a pike position with your butt up in the air and doing push ups.  Range of motion may be quite small)

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Bicycle crunch 30 seconds, reverse crunches 30 seconds
Bicycle crunch 30 seconds, regular crunches 30 seconds

Stretch!

e-mail me at info@wholeyfit.ca if you have any questions about that :)

Sweet Potatoes with Warm Black Bean Salad (makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

·    4 medium sweet potatoes

·    1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed

·    2 medium tomatoes, diced

·    1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

·    1 teaspoon ground cumin

·    1 teaspoon ground coriander

·    3/4 teaspoon salt

·    1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream (or plain yogurt 2% or less) - optional

·    1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation:

1.     Place sweet potatoes in a baking dish and bake at 425 degrees F until tender all the way to the center, about 1 hour. 

2.      Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine beans, tomatoes, oil, cumin, coriander and salt; heat in a small saucepan over medium heat until heated through.

3.     When just cool enough to handle, slash each sweet potato lengthwise, press open to make a well in the center and spoon the bean mixture into the well. Top each with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro (optional).

mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm!

Stay posted for news on my studio!  I'm going to be running indoor cycling classes, cardio boxing classes (I supply the equipment), HIIT classes and more!  So much fun!!